Ethan Tuftee, an offensive guard out of Davenport Assumption joins linebacker Russell Ellington of Illinois as part of Iowa State's elite 2008 recruiting class.
Tuftee is 6-4, 285 pounds. He sports a 5.08 forty time, a 300 bench max and a 480 squat max. He had a good showing at ISU's camp and committed to ISU over UI and Kansas. He doesn't really appear in any rankings, and he has no stars from Rivals, so it's fairly safe to assume that he's more of a project that liked the idea of staying in state and jumped at the schollie offer from the Cyclones. IowaPreps has him ranked as a Top 50 football prospect for 08 in the state of Iowa. I'd get excited, but my grandmother also made the list.
A quick Googling of Tuftee shows a guy that is more renowned as a track athlete for that juggernaut known as Assumption. He was second in the state of Iowa in the shotput.
In my research of Tuftee, I found this interesting link to the blog of Jim Stefant, who gives Tuftee a special mention as an underrated lineman prospsect. I've never heard of Jim Stefani, but his blog seems to think he's a big deal.
I feel it's important to keep signing up players in the state as both Iowa and ISU are always going to be built around talented players from the state. However, 2008 seems to be remarkably weak as far as talent goes in the state of Iowa, so it's not going to bother me too much if we don't get a whole lot of in-state committments. Either way, lineman that come from the state of Iowa can often be big farm boys who work hard. It's hard to get real excited about an offensive line committment, with so little that fans can go off of in the way of stats and what not, but here's hoping Tuftee becomes a Ben Bruns or an Aaron Brant.
2008 class:
Russell Ellington - LB - 2 stars
Ethan Tuftee - OL - 0 stars