It is a good thing that Faith Ekakitie chose to chronicle his recruiting journey on his own website. This is the son of Nigerian immigrants who left his home in Canada two years ago to enroll at Lake Forest Academy in suburban Chicago. He wanted to be a basketball player. But on Wednesday night he announced he has committed to play football at Iowa.
The 6'3, 275-pound defensive tackle is one of the last uncommitted standouts in the class of 2012. He was rated as one of the top five seniors in Illinois. He chose Iowa over Boston College, Oregon, Northwestern and Georgia Tech.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz now has 13 commitments and looks to close strong on national signing day in February, particularly in Illinois. The Hawkeyes already have Ekakitie, offensive lineman Ryan Ward of Providence, defensive lineman Jaleel Johnson of Montini and defensive back Maurice Fleming of Curie.
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Ferentz has a shot at offensive lineman Jordan Diamond of Simeon, who beings his final visits this weekend with a trip to Ohio State, and there are reports that Glenbard West defensive lineman Tommy Schutt, who originally committed to Penn State, might be reconsidering his decision.
Ekakitie took his time, weighing over 30 scholarship offers. And he was brutally honest and candid while assessing his recruiting experience on his website, Faithflex.com. It was a refreshing look into the world of recruiting from an elite athlete who refused to be pressured into making an early decision.
In the end, he dropped Georgia Tech because of his mother's concerns over living in Atlanta. He fell short (by .2 of a grade point) of meeting Northwestern's admittance standard. And Oregon pulled his scholarship offer because he didn't commit soon enough.
That left Iowa and Boston College. His family pushed for BC because of its Jesuit values. But Ekakitie was turned off by what was described as "the divisive nature of BC's locker room after a loss to Florida State." Iowa boasted the largest teaching college in the nation for kinesiology, an area of study that interested Ekakitie.
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"At this point, you can see where this decision would become extremely difficult for me to make," he said. "Here we have two schools that both have tremendous things to offer me. What would be the deciding factor between BC and Iowa? A gut feeling. That's all. Not the coaches, players, degrees or even football. It all really came down to where I truly felt at home. And I'm proud and extremely happy to announce that the gut feeling has led me to continue my career at the University of Iowa."