Signing Day One Piece of the Player Puzzle

Iowa Football Keeping Up with Ever-Changing landscape of College Football

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz walks the sideline before a game against Illinois on Nov. 20, 2021 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

Iowa signed 17 players on Wednesday’s football national signing day, but if the Hawkeyes are looking for immediate help, it may come from the NCAA’s transfer portal.

“As all of us know, at least everybody on this call knows, the world of college football is changing really rapidly,” coach Kirk Ferentz said on a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “Players are going to depart, and they are departing right now at a record pace. They may be joining at a record pace too. I think our approach to the portal is going to be the same as it's been with prospects. We're going to try to be thorough and make sure we're identifying the right things.

“Ultimately, it's like a prospect — you want to get somebody who's going to come to our campus and really maximize their experience and be here to run the entire race. That's the goal. It doesn't always work out that way.”

The Hawkeyes have already lost wide receiver Tyrone Tracy Jr., to the transfer portal — Tracy announced on Wednesday he would be heading to Purdue. They have plenty of depth at that position, but there could be other positions where they have an immediate need.

The Hawkeyes have used the transfer portal before, getting defensive line help with Zach Van Valkenburg and Jack Heflin. Running back Mekhi Sargent was a junior-college transfer.

“All three of those guys ended up being great players in our program,” Ferentz said. “Both Mekhi and Jack made NFL rosters. Mekhi was a captain for us. Both of them made NFL rosters this past year. So that's probably more the prospect we're looking at, but we'll entertain any possibilities. If we feel like they're going to help our roster, we'll consider anything.”

Iowa director of recruiting Tyler Barnes said the Hawkeyes keep a board of top transfer prospects in the portal.

“It's interesting because a lot of Power-5 guys, the top-tier Power-5 guys, when they hit the portal, it's already done for the most part,” Barnes said. “They already know where they're going. And tampering, I heard (Ferentz) say that today, it's 100 percent true. Most of these deals are done. It is college free agency, but it's not free agency because there are tampering rules in the NFL and punishments for those.”

Barnes said Iowa looks at players from other conferences and the Football Championship Subdivision level.

“Like I said before, we try and really pay attention, those FCS schools, maybe some MAC schools, some of those schools where kids are hitting the portal because they know they can play at a higher level,” Barnes said. “We evaluate those guys on film first and foremost to see if they can contribute at this level. If we want to recruit those guys, we do the same as we would with high school recruits. We contact the coaches on the staff and see why they're leaving, make sure they're getting glowing remarks. We'll dig into the high school coach and really get to know the kid.”

Barnes said the Hawkeyes won’t go deep into the portal.

“Some schools are really going to live in the portal. It's fine,” Barnes said. “We're not going to live there. We're not going to sign 10 guys out of the portal. If we have definitive needs or immediate needs, absolutely we'll look in there and identify those guys and help out those needs.

“I still go back to, and I think Coach Ferentz agrees, it's pretty dangerous to build and sustain a team when you're taking 10 to 15 transfers a year because you have to keep replacing those guys. At some point there has to be development of your young guys and your high school kids.”

Barnes said four players in the 2022 class — safety Xavier Nwankpa, defensive end Brian Allen, defensive lineman Caden Crawford, and walk-on kicker Drew Stevens — will join the Hawkeyes in the spring.

If there is more experienced help available, though, the Hawkeyes will look to the portal.

“We'll continue to evaluate our roster. We'll continue to evaluate what is available,” Ferentz said. “If there are players out there that we think can help our program either immediately or maybe long term, we'll consider that.”