Iowa football secures commitment from 3-star edge Kenneth Merrieweather

Iowa's summer football recruiting momentum continued on Thursday. Three-star edge Kenneth Merrieweather committed to the Hawkeyes via his Instagram account. The 6-3, 235-pound recruit out of Martin Luther King (Michigan) is the No. 16 player in Michigan and No. 75 edge in the country in the 2023 class, according to 247Sports Composite.

In addition to the Hawkeyes, he held offers from Purdue, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, Howard, Illinois, Indiana, Kent State, Kentucky, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Toledo and Western Michigan.

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Merrieweather was part of the large group of recruits who took official visits to Iowa during the June 24 weekend. Iowa was Merrieweather's official visit. That weekend's proving to be a successful one, Merrieweather is the fourth new commit from that weekend joining five-star offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor, four-star offensive lineman Trevor Lauck and three-star tight end Zach Orthwerth. 

"It was a huge undertaking," Iowa assistant defensive line coach and defensive recruiting coordinator Jay Niemann said of the weekend. "It started out about mid afternoon on Friday and wound up somewhere around noon or so on Sunday. So we had those families with us for a pretty good chunk of time but it was all very well organized. And went very, very efficiently. It gave us a great opportunity to connect with a lot of the families and things and more of a social setting." 

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This marks Iowa's seventh commitment in June-July. Prior to Merrieweather, Iowa’s 2023 class was ranked No. 18 in the country with 15 commitments.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.