Last weekend's Iowa-Penn State football game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City will obviously go down as one of the biggest victories in program history. However, it may also be one of the most important recruiting days in Iowa history, and not just for the football program.


In Tuesday's weekly press conference, Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz was asked about having nearly 80 recruits on campus for Saturday's game. In press conference notes released by the Iowa Sports Information Department, Ferentz said,

It couldn't have gone much better. Just a great atmosphere and really pleased that they were here to experience that and because it's so different than looking on the internet, so different than talking to people or taking somebody's word for it to really feel it. It's pretty special.

I'm sure Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery would agree with that statement. The basketball team also had recruits in the stadium, including an Illinois big man that more than half the schools in the Big Ten had offered a scholarship to. After his visit to Iowa City over the weekend, Owen Freeman announced he was gonna be a Hawkeye.

Freeman, a junior from Bradley, Illinois who is already 6'10" and 220 pounds, had scholarship offers from eight Big Ten schools: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.

A power forward, Freeman's offer from Iowa came on Tuesday, June 1. He told Hawkeye Nation at the time,

I love the way they play; the high pace and having freedom to play how you personally know how to... They say the way I get my teammates involved and my ability to be able to guard guys bigger and smaller than me is what they like.

Clearly, Freeman's love of the Hawkeyes didn't wane from early June until now, and last weekend's visit to Iowa City convinced him being a Hawkeye in Iowa City, Iowa was the right place for him.

An Owen Freeman highlight video is below.

Iowans Show Off Their Hawkeye Spirit

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