Four-star OL has Iowa moving up his list
Four-star offensive lineman Connor McLaughlin was back in Iowa City for his official visit this weekend, which gave him a better look at the academics at the University of Iowa and the player and coach relationships inside the Hawkeye football program. After he returned home to Tampa Sunday, we caught up with the 6-foot-7, 260-pound McLaughlin to discuss the trip, what comes next in his recruiting, and much more.
Q: How did your official visit to Iowa go this weekend?
McLaughlin: Overall, it was a great visit. As soon as I got there, Tyler Barnes picked us up and it was phenomenal. You can really tell how professional they are and they always really make me feel wanted there. For example, when I got home today, they had written letters to all of my extended family. It’s just the little things like that they do so well.
It was good to talk about football with them, but also be able to switch gears and be with the players and the coaches more and talk about things outside of football. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot. They definitely jumped up a lot higher on my list. I feel like they just keep going up and up and up.
Q: What was the biggest difference on your official visit versus your unofficial earlier this year?
McLaughlin: Being with the players was huge. You don’t really get to do that on your unofficial visits. Talking to them and being around them, you really get to see who they are, which is the best reflection of a school and a football program is the players.
Also, meeting with Coach Polasek, it was good to talk football and I think I can pick up the offense really well, but also it was good to get to know him as a person and meet his wife and get to know all of the coaches and their families. That’s huge.
Q: Who was your host and what did you hear from them?
McLaughlin: My host was Jack Plumb. He likes it a lot there. He said he was down to Iowa and Wisconsin, and that’s a really big rivalry, so for him to pick Iowa really says something. He said he’s grown a lot since he’s been there and gotten a lot bigger and loves the program.
Q: Your high school teammate just arrived in Iowa City too right?
McLaughlin: Yeah, Dane Belton just enrolled, so he’s still getting his room setup and everything this week.
Q: Did you get to meet the other recruits in town this weekend?
McLaughlin: Yeah. There was Theo Johnson, who is a tight end from Canada, which is like a world away from my school, but it was cool to talk to him. He’s kind of reserved, kind of a shy kid, but a really good football player.
Then I talked a bit more to Mason Richman because we have a lot of the same interests. I think he’ll end up playing offensive tackle too, so it was nice having another offensive lineman there going through everything with me.
Q: Does Iowa want both of you or only have room for one?
McLaughlin: They want us both really bad. Mason has a similar body to me, but he’s probably just a little bit bigger than I am right now. They obviously like athletic tackles and they are really low on the depth chart, so I think between us, if they got both of us, they’d be in a good situation.
Q: Overall, what was the biggest thing you learned about Iowa on this visit?
McLaughlin: Before coming on the official visit, Iowa being a state public school, I wanted to really look at the academics because it’s not a Stanford or a Duke or a Vanderbilt necessarily. But then I talked to the academic advisors at Iowa and if I can go the Hawkinson route and get into that program, I can study finance and go into investment banking or something along those lines and that would be huge. You can’t really parallel that to any other school. That’s Stanford level or Harvard level to be able to go out and work on Wall Street or in Chicago or California. Having an opportunity to compete with the bigger academic schools, I was not expecting, so Iowa definitely rates high on my list.
Q: How does that work with the Hawkinson program?
McLaughlin: They choose 15 people out of the whole freshmen class every year. It’s part of the finance program, but it’s basically training to be an investment banker, which would be great, and as soon as you get out, there’s a lot of connections so they’ll set you up with someone that works in either California, Chicago, New York, or Dallas.
Q: What's next for you recruiting wise?
McLaughlin: I have Georgia Tech (official visit) next weekend and then I’ll unofficially visit Stanford the week after I think.
Q: Are you still looking at a July deadline or when do you hope to decide?
McLaughlin: I mean I’d like to decide, but there are a lot of things going on right now. I want to commit before my senior season, so it would be nice to have the July dead period to kind of mull things over, but it’s a lot to think about. I want to commit as soon as possible, but I want to make sure to take my time too. As long as I can do it before my senior season, I’ll be happy.
Q: What are the biggest factors for you when you go to decide?
McLaughlin: Academics are huge, how I fit into the program is huge, how good the team is because I want to play for a winning team with good teammates, how I fit in the offense and somewhere I can play, and the strength coach too because I need to get to that next level. Right now, I’m more of a down the road type of player. Someone like Coach Doyle would help me get to that next level as soon as possible.
A four-star prospect, McLaughlin currently holds a total of 29 scholarship offers with a list that includes Iowa, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan State, Miami, Florida State, Duke, Nebraska, North Carolina, USC, UCLA, Vanderbilt, and Virginia, among others.
See highlights from McLaughlin's junior year at Jesuit High School in Tampa, FL in the video below.