Iowa Football Benefitting from Good Leadership

Experienced Players Helping Form Strong Hawkeye Bond

Photo - Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa - While much of the buzz around Iowa’s football team centers on the quarterback race heading into the 2023 season, there’s another thing you should keep an eye on. Something that’s just as important as who takes the snaps from center.

It’s team unity. That bond has been an under-appreciated strength of recent Iowa teams, and Coach Kirk Ferentz hopes that’s a trend that continues.

“I think for us to have a good team, if you look historically, that’s really been the case,” Ferentz said at the conclusion of spring drills Saturday. “If our leadership base grows - our togetherness, if you will - as a football team, at least you have a chance to be competitive. That’s where it all starts.”

From Ferentz’s perspective, the unity and leadership on the Iowa football team has been a strength for the past four seasons.

“For the most part we’ve finished up pretty strongly in all four of those seasons,” Ferentz said.

Iowa’s record over those four seasons was 35-13. That includes 10-win seasons in 2019 and 2021 and a nine-win season in 2018.

Inside that four-year stretch of success, a series of events have challenged team unity to the core. It was in June of 2020 when James Daniels went to Twitter and wrote, “There are too many racial disparities in the Iowa football program. Black players have been treated unfairly for far too long.”

The program was put under a microscope. From the public eye, changes have been made to improve those racial disparities, and Ferentz has tackled those issues head on. A lawsuit still hangs over the program, but the true test of whether those changes have gained any traction is in the locker room.

And that locker room, players will tell you, is unified.

“We take care of one another on and off the field, no matter what your position is,” senior defensive back Terry Roberts said. “We’re together as one. This bond can’t be broken.”

Asked if the issue of racial disharmony and lawsuits have made the team bond stronger, Roberts said, “Really all adversity makes us stronger. When we go through adversity we try to get a positive out of it, and learn from it. We look at how we can become stronger.”

Senior linebacker Seth Benson said unity has and will continue to be a strength of this team and the Iowa program.

“We’re a brotherhood,” Benson said. “Black, white, everyone. We come from different walks of life. It’s just knowing people’s stories and how to relate to them. When you have that trust and relationship, you can get on guys and they know it’s out of love. It’s connecting and loving your teammates.”

Senior defensive lineman John Waggoner agrees that togetherness is an underrated piece of a team's success.

“Everyone has respect for each other, and it’s a great group to be around,” Waggoner said. “It’s just how people treat everyone, no matter if it’s the biggest star on the team or a scout team guy. One of our mantras is tough, smart, physical, together. Together is really important, just to be able to trust every single person to do their job and play their role.”

Senior tight end Sam LaPorta said the locker room is a strength, just like it was on the other Hawkeye teams he’s played on.

“We support each other through the ups and downs,” he said. “Through the best of times and worst of times. It’s just great to put the work in with these guys.”

Ferentz said it’s too early to tell if this team has the same esprit de corps that the last four have.

“We’re going to find out,” he said. “I hope we do.”

But the coach hinted that this team looks to have the right stuff.

“We’ve probably got a little bit more personality than most teams at this point,” he said. “That’s because we have some really good older players, experienced players.”

When Ferentz thinks of guys like Riley Moss, Charlie Jones and LaPorta, he considers this team “a little bit ahead of the curve.”

Ferentz also mentioned sophomore running back Gavin Williams.

“He’s only been our lead back one game in his career,” Ferentz said. “He carries himself like he’s an older guy, a senior almost. There’s something about him, a maturity, a focus. He’s really respected by everybody. I think we have a good mix that way. We’re hardly there yet, but at least that’s a big part of the next couple of months here, continuing to build on that and develop those stronger personalities as we go.”

Benson has no question that the unity that was on previous teams will be matched.

“And maybe be better,” Benson said. “I think it’s because we have a whole bunch of guys who want to come into the building and be with each other. Things may go bad and things may go good, but the only people we’ve really got are the people in the building. You know they’ve got your back whatever the situation is. If you have love for your teammates, love for your brothers, that will take you places.”

That unity, and single-minded focus, can pay dividends at crunch time.

“When it’s the fourth quarter, things are tight and you can trust each other, that’s going to let a lot of people play loose and play for each other,” Benson said.

A team is ultimately judged by wins and losses. And Roberts is ready.

“We’re definitely going to be a helluva football team this year,” he said.