Sting Factor: Jordan Oladokun's decommitment from Iowa
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
COVERAGE: Rivals Transfer Tracker | Rivals Camp Series
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THE SITUATION
Jordan Oladokun has now committed and decommitted from the Hawkeyes twice in the recruiting cycle and his latest decommitment might be for good.
In recent days, the three-star cornerback from Tampa (Fla.) Gaither announced on social media that he was again backing off his pledge to Iowa and cited societal racism as one of the reasons why he would once again consider all schools. He ended his message with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag.
Recent reports of racial discrimination allegations have been levied against the Iowa program and a group of former Black players for the Hawkeyes are asking for $20 million in compensation along with the firings of coach Kirk Ferentz and others involved with the program or administration.
However, Iowa has not seen much recruiting turnover at all in this recruiting class and the Hawkeyes have the seventh-best class in the Big Ten team rankings. The top-three players in the state have committed elsewhere, though.
Numerous schools have already reached out to Oladokun and it’s hard to fathom a third commitment to Iowa would be coming.
LOCAL REACTION
“Losing Jordan Oladokun again hurts Iowa from a recruiting perspective because not only is he a pretty highly sought after prospect from Florida, but he was also the only cornerback in the class for the Hawkeyes. Plus, he had already decommitted once, but the coaches were able to get him back in the fold in June and it seemed like a done deal with plans to enroll early in January already in place.” - Blair Sanderson, HawkeyeReport.com
Sting factor: 7
NATIONAL REACTION
“This is a big one not only because of his talent level but also because of his reasoning and that will hurt the reputation of Iowa with other recruits. He’s a Florida kid as well and everyone in the Big Ten wants to get into Florida more and he was their top guy at corner. All around this hurts.”
Sting factor: 9