Stay Here but only IF you want to Stay Here

It's all so nerve-wrecking for college kids, whether they are coming to the University of Iowa or to another college. Thousands of high school seniors - most with only 18 years under their belt - have to pack up their belongings and move in with a roommate in a new city and learn a new culture. Add, on top of that, if you are being recruited to be a college athlete. That's being 18 and having those normal pressures as well as the pressure to become a contributor to a team.

I was thinking about that in light of the news that the recruitment of Iowa City West's Oliver Martin continues. According to this article, there are 14 scholarship offers, including the Iowa Hawkeyes, on the table. Only if all things are equal between those 13 other schools and the University of Iowa would I lobby for him to become an Iowa Hawkeye.

Personally, I don't envy Martin's situation. There are too many variables. On one hand, I'm guessing he thinks it would be great to be an Iowa Hawkeye. On the other, he may want to look to what has happened so far with another Iowa City area football player - Drew Cook - who led a talented football team at Iowa City Regina. Cook's father, Marv, played football at the University of Iowa and now Drew Cook is an Iowa Hawkeye. To this point in his football career, he has not played. In the 4th quarter of the Iowa v. Iowa State football game on 9/10, the Iowa coaching staff took out starter C.J. Beathard and Cook was not his replacement. If Drew Cook had decided to go to a college that is not the University of Iowa, would he have been placed into the rotation, either as the #2 or as a starter?

We'll never know.

My thought is that a college athlete has 4 years to make an impression significant enough to get to the next level. I would never want Martin to decide to go to the University of Iowa, only to end up riding the bench. No high school athlete goes to college with the hopes and dreams of being a role player and riding the bench, as Drew Cook is doing. I'm not being negative about Drew Cook - he was fun to watch on the football field from what I saw on KCRG's Friday Night Lights show on Friday night. For Oliver Martin, I think he really has to hope that the college he chooses will put him in the player rotation immediately.

And, frankly, when I read that the University of Oregon is interested in him, my heart beats a little faster. They are a good football team and if he would be a significant recruit for the team, then obviously I want what is best for him as a person as well as a player. The fact that Oregon is a long way from Cedar Rapids doesn't bother me a lot. After all, at least one Iowan did very well. The name Marcus Paige comes to mind. For whatever reason, he chose to attend the University of North Carolina even after getting a scholarship offer from the University of Iowa. While some Iowans do not do well and their success is plagued by homesickness and not fitting in when they go to other states, Paige was not like that - he's on a NBA roster.

I hope wherever Oliver Martin goes to college is the right place for hm - I sincerely wish him the best. I have never met him.