Hawkeye Football Recruiting: A Look at Iowa’s Early Signing Period Class of 2026

In today’s world of transfer portals, NIL and all the coaching carousels spinning at the same time, it’s easy to forget what once was the biggest day of the year in the world of roster building: National Signing Day. Nobody would blame you if you managed to miss it. Heck, some teams seem like they’ve just completely given up on recruiting high school prospects altogether and are instead focused on the transfer portal every offseason.

But TODAY is National Signing Day, or more accurately, today is day one of the three day window in the early signing period for college football. The early window runs from December 3rd to December 5th, 2025 with the final signing day coming on February 4th. If this feels a bit early, it’s because the early window was moved up to start just before the major conference championship games this weekend and after the conclusion of the regular season for the rest of us.

Maybe more importantly, it sets up a nice month-by-month pace with the opening of the NCAA transfer portal window for all players not impacted by a coaching change coming January 2nd-16th. So December early high school signing period, January portal window, February late signing period and then we’re into spring ball.

For the Hawkeyes, this is a big couple of months. Iowa has had the 30th, 39th, 29th and 33rd ranked recruiting classes nationally over the last four years and has become increasingly active in the transfer portal at key positions of need.

This cycle, Iowa is set to graduate 24 seniors, pending any positive news on players like Kaden Wetjen (Wetjen, as a former JUCO player, may have additional eligibility pending existing litigation with the NCAA). There are some big time losses in that group, including starters across several position groups.

Perhaps most notably, the offensive line is poised to lose Logan Jones, Beau Stephens and Gennings Dunker to graduation. That comes in addition to the obvious departure of starting QB Mark Gronowski, as well as three of his receiving weapons in Jacob Gill, Sam Phillips and Seth Anderson (in addition to the aforementioned Wetjen, potentially). We’ll wait to see what TE Addison Ostrenga opts to do after missing most of this season due to injury.

On the other side of the ball, Iowa will have to replace five key defensive linemen in Max Llewellyn, Ethan Hurkett, grad transfer Jonah Pace, Aaron Graves and Jeremiah Pittman. Behind them, Phil Parker loses four linebackers, starting CB TJ Hall and safety Xavier Nwankpa.

Oh, and kicker Drew Stevens is out of eligibility.

So… plenty of holes to fill this offseason for the Hawkeyes. Fortunately, Iowa is hard at work filling them. In addition to the youth already in the program, the Hawkeyes are poised to sign the #22 ranked recruiting class nationally today. That’s good for 6th in the Big Ten and the highest ranking since Iowa landed the #20 ranked class in 2021, a class that featured several of those 5th year seniors now headed out the door.

The Class

In terms of the class itself, this is not a particularly big group of commitments. Iowa comes into the day with 18 verbal commits, all of whom are expected to sign today. That includes a whopping seven 4-star prospects with all remaining 11 classified as 3-stars according to the On3 industry consensus. Notably, Iowa was at 17 commits until yesterday afternoon, when former Wisconsin DL commit Jack Janda announced he was flipping to the good guys.

The class is headlined by recent QB commit Tradon Bessinger, a 4-star prospect from Kaysville, Utah who was originally committed to Boise State but flipped to Iowa in the last month. He’s your prototypical pocket passer with a big frame at 6’4” and 200 pounds with a solid arm, great accuracy and enough mobility to escape the pocket without being the type of running threat the Hawkeyes enjoyed with Gronowski. As a senior, Bessinger completed 76% of his passes for 4,313 yards with 53 TD and 4 INTs in Utah’s class 6A. As a junior, he completed 65% of his passes for 3,670 yards with 42 TD and 5 INTs.

Bessinger is not alone as a highly-touted prospect in this class, however. Iowa brought in five offensive linemen in this class to help protect the QB. That includes three 4-star prospects in OT Carson Neilsen of Waterloo, Gene Riordan of Hinsdale, Illinois and G/C Hudson Parliament of Brandon, South Dakota. All three are at least 6’4” and 275 pounds and all are potential studs up front.

On the outside, Iowa also got Bessinger some weapons. TE Luke Brewer of Norwalk is perhaps the highest profile as a high 3-star, but Iowa also is expected to sign a trio of WRs in the early period. That group is headlined by 6’2” Xavier Stinson of Port Saint Lucie, Florida. He’s joined by fellow Floridian Diondre Smith of Neptune Beach and Brody Schaffer, a 6’ Wisconsinite.

While the offense brings the flash, we all know the defense is the heart and soul of any Iowa team. That’s no different with this recruiting class, where the Hawkeyes are bringing in perhaps the best group of linebackers of any class in the nation. It helps when you have a 4-star in your own back yard with 6’3” 215 pound Julian Manson of Iowa City West. Toss in Sioux City Heelan’s Kasen Thomas, another 4-star, and you have a very good start. But for good measure, Parker and company also added Billy Weivoda, a 6’3” 205 pound monster from Milton, Georgia.

Behind them, Phil adds some new toys with 3-star safety Ronnie Hill of Sterling Heights, Michigan and 4-star CB Darion Jones of Omaha. Grabbing 4-stars out of Nebraska is always reason to celebrate.

Here’s a look at the full class heading into signing day.

What’s Next?

They say money never sleeps and in the world today where these college kids are making big money, recruiting also never sleeps. Look for the Hawkeyes to continue being active despite the early signing period already being open.

As noted above, Iowa is losing as many as 24 seniors to graduation. With only 18 players expected to sign in the early period, the Hawkeyes will roll into the portal window with six scholarships already open. That’s before accounting for one that is already vacant and any that may become available as Iowa loses players to the portal. As mentioned, the portal will open for Iowa players on January 2nd, though there’s nothing preventing a player from indicating their intention to enter beforehand.

The Hawkeyes are sure to be looking to add depth across the board, but also likely looking to add key contributors at a few positions via the portal. That’s likely to include the defensive line and wide receiver room. Once we have a clear picture of the scholarship situation post-portal window, we’ll have an idea of where Iowa will focus their final scholarships heading into the February signing period.

Until then, the Hawkeyes are looking to get a massive number of these early signees enrolled and into the program ahead of spring practice. Here’s a look at who is expected to enroll early from this first group:

Xavier Stinson
Diondre Smith
Carson Nielsen
Owen Linder
Hudson Parliament
Gene Riordan
Sawyer Jezierski
Billy Weivoda
Darion Jones
Marcello Vitti
Ronnie Hill
Jack Janda

Notably absent from that list is QB Tradon Bessinger. As we’ve seen for some time, getting those spring reps are invaluable for players looking to make an early impact. Look for Bessinger to redshirt his first year on campus and learn behind Hank Brown or Jeremy Hecklinski, whoever wins the job this spring. It remains likely that whoever loses that battle will hit the portal with Iowa likely looking to add more depth and balance classes in the QB room.

It also remains likely that the Hawkeyes will lose a player or two that will make us all raise an eyebrow, miss out on several portal prospects the fanbase is very high one, and at the end of the day, put together another very solid roster for 2026 that has Iowa ready to compete for eight or nine wins in the regular season.