The highly-recruited offensive lineman from Whitehouse, Ohio, has made a verbal commitment to sign next February with Iowa, turning down offers from more than two dozen other Division I programs from across the country but none from home state power Ohio State.
The 6-foot-7, 285-pound offensive tackle from Anthony Wayne High School was recruited by the Buckeyes but never was offered a scholarship by OSU and the longtime fan of the Ohio State program said it’s too late for that now.
“I am done. I won’t change my decision,” Donnal told Web site scout.com. “I factored a lot of things into this decision and that was one of them.”
Donnal, who indicated late last month that he was learning toward selecting the Hawkeyes, had plenty of schools to choose from.
His collection of scholarship offers included a number from Big Ten schools, including Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin in addition to Iowa. He had received offers from Maryland, Southern California, Stanford, North Carolina State, Virginia and Wake Forest among others.
Also a basketball and track standout at his high school located in community of 2,500 in the Toledo area, Donnal indicated he had a comfort level with Iowa coaches and the campus before reaching his decision.
Donnal is the 10th player to announce his decision to be part of the Hawkeyes’ 2010 recruiting class, which is expected to number 16-18 players.
He is Iowa’s highest-rated recruit to date, ranked as a four-star prospect on a five-star scale by Rivals.com, which also ranks him as the 16th-best offensive tackle prospect in the 2010 senior class. Scout.com ranks him as the 33rd-best offensive tackle prospect nationally.
