IOWA CITY — James Barnett’s original plan was to take his time with the recruiting process.
The Iowa City West offensive lineman’s recruitment was just starting to take off. In the span of a few weeks, he picked up offers from Miami (Ohio), South Dakota and Iowa. This was all before he even played a snap of football in his junior season.
With his class’s early signing period still way in the distance, Barnett had plenty of time to figure out his college decision. His initial plan was to explore his options and let things fall into place further down the road.
But on a recent morning, Barnett woke up and decided he wasn’t going to drag it on any longer.
“I always knew where I wanted to go was Iowa,” Barnett said. “I knew that throughout the recruiting process, but I think I just wanted to get it over with. I want to be a Hawkeye as soon as possible.”
Barnett announced his commitment to the Hawkeyes on July 31, marking just the second pledge in the Hawkeyes’ 2028 high school class. The 6-foot-2, 270-pound offensive lineman is a 3-star prospect and the fifth-ranked player in the state’s 2028 class, according to the 247 Sports Composite.
After getting varsity snaps on defense as a freshman, Barnett was the starting center on an Iowa City West team that went 8-3 in 2025. He also placed 2nd in shot put at the 4A state track and field meet as a sophomore.
His name may be familiar to Hawkeye fans. Barnett is the son of Iowa offensive line coach George Barnett, who successfully orchestrated a multi-year rebuild of that unit. Yes, that means that James Barnett will have his father as his position coach at Iowa.
But the appeal to play for the Hawkeyes was more than just his father. The track record of Iowa’s offensive line also played a factor. Over the last two years, the Hawkeyes have produced five NFL draft picks on the offensive line, each of whom was coached by George Barnett. That group doesn’t even include Tyler Linderbaum, a first-round pick in 2022.
“I know the guys that come out of Iowa and I know the offensive line tradition there,” Barnett said. “… To be able to play for my dad is a great honor. To play at Iowa, you see the guys in the NFL that come out of there — tough, physical and smart people that come out of there.”
When Barnett gets to Iowa, it will be a new dynamic with his father. George Barnett has mostly just been a dad, not a coach, to his son. George Barnett has helped James with throws (track and field) in an informal setting. That experience was positive for the younger Barnett.
“It’s pretty cool because he’s very calm,” Barnett said. “He’s more of a teacher. You get like a class teacher (in school). He’s more of a teacher. He doesn’t yell a lot. He’s kind of just all about rhythm and feel. He doesn’t speak a lot. Because some people overthink too much, and as a coach, he’s all about rhythm and feel and kind of keeps me in a good mind.”
Being coached by his father did not keep Barnett from wanting to play for the Hawkeyes.
“I know how he is as a coach and how his former players talk about him,” Barnett said. “I want to be coached hard and physical and be taught the right way.”
George Barnett’s involvement in his son’s recruiting process was as a father, not a recruiter. James Barnett’s main points of contact on the Iowa staff were assistant defensive line coach Jay Niemann, whom Barnett had already known for several years, and recently hired analyst Mac McLeran.
“Technically, no,” Barnett said of whether his father recruited him to Iowa. “He tried to stay out of that. He tried to let the recruiting guys do that. But he gave me a few pointers about what I need to do and what I shouldn’t do throughout the recruiting process and not be an idiot.”
Barnett is not the only son of an Iowa staff member to be recruited from Iowa City West. Mason Woods, a rising redshirt freshman for the Hawkeyes, committed to Iowa when his father, LeVar, was the program’s special teams coordinator (LeVar has since moved on to Michigan State). Julian Manson, whose father Jason is on staff, is entering his freshman season with the Hawkeyes.
Barnett was also Iowa City West teammates with offensive lineman Colin Whitters, who is entering his freshman season at Iowa, alongside Manson.
Barnett will continue the Iowa City West to Iowa pipeline.
So, what does Barnett bring to the table at center?
“If you don’t understand football, you don’t know how good he is,” Iowa City West coach Garrett Hartwig said of Barnett. “If you translated him to a position of flash, so to speak, a receiver, running back, he’d be all over X (formerly Twitter) and all over social media for the numbers and the catches. But because he’s a lineman, and it’s not the glamorous part of the game, that gets overlooked.
“But he is a four-star, five-star talent, in my opinion, type of lineman, because he’s so quick with his feet, he’s so explosive, he’s never out of position and he’s strong. And at the end of the day, he’s just tough. You don’t see that, per se, in a 25-yard catch or a tackle or an interception, but if you understand football, you see how good he is.”
What makes it even more exciting is that Barnett still has so much time to continue developing before officially joining the program.
Barnett went to Bluebird Diner with his parents to celebrate the commitment. With his announcement now behind him, Barnett can turn his full focus to what he wants to accomplish with the Trojans.
“A lot of growth,” Barnett said of how much he can grow before getting to college. “And I think that comes with team growth, too. I want to win a state championship before I leave here. I don’t really care about personal goals. I want a team goal.”
Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at TTachman@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Hawk Central: Why 3-star offensive lineman James Barnett committed to Iowa football
Reporting by Tyler Tachman, Des Moines Register / Hawk Central
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tyler Tachman, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
