Hawkeyes land grayshirt commit
The Iowa Hawkeyes added to their recruiting class today, although the latest commit will wait to join the football team until January 2009. After receiving a grayshirt offer this evening, Des Moines Lincoln prospect Adam Robinson did not waste any time making his decision.
"Coach Morgan from Iowa called about an hour ago and offered me a scholarship as a grayshirt and I committed," said Robinson. "Iowa has always been my number one choice and I was just waiting for an offer from them. After it came today, I just told Coach Morgan thank you for the opportunity to play for him and accepted."
As a grayshirt, Robinson will pay his own way as a part-time student this fall and then go on scholarship second semester and join the football team at that time. It is somewhat of a sacrifice, but well worth it, according to the two-star prospect.
"It's no big deal," Robinson said. "I've been waiting for this for four years now, so I can wait until next January. I was getting kind of nervous because it was getting so late in the recruiting process and signing day is only about two weeks away. But Coach Morgan told me to be patient with them, so I just did that and things worked out for the best."
As a senior, the 5-foot-9, 185-pound Robinson had 123 carries for 1,064 yards and 13 touchdowns as a running back. He also caught 18 passes for 215 yards and four receiving touchdowns. On the defensive side of the ball, the all-state performer collected 33 tackles and three interceptions. The only question that seems to remain is which side of the ball he will play at Iowa.
"They told me either running back or d-back," said Robinson. "Running back is more natural to me, so if I had a choice I'd choose running back, but I'll play wherever they put me."
The Hawkeyes have remained in touch with Robinson throughout the recruiting process going back to last year really when they landed Lincoln teammate Jordan Bernstine. After the coaching staff attended his basketball game last week, they just decided he was too good of an athlete to pass up, according to his coach.
"Phil Parker and Reese Morgan were in Friday to watch Adam at his basketball game," said Lincoln head coach Tom Mihalovich. "Coach Morgan really liked him and obviously, Coach Ferentz did too, so they just wanted to get everybody's opinion on him and Phil really liked what he saw on the court."
One of the first calls Robinson made after his commitment was to Bernstine to tell him he would be joining him in Iowa City. According to their coach, the Hawkeyes have a couple of good ones in his star players the last two years.
"When I was talking to Coach Parker, he said the one thing about Jordan is you don't have to worry about his work ethic because he always works hard, and Adam is the same way," Mihalovich said. "They've got a couple good kids there."