Iowa recruiting notebook: No ‘tough conversations’ after Brian Ferentz’s firing

Iowa assembled 2024 recruiting class quickly, and ‘none of these guys have wavered’ since committing

IOWA CITY — Iowa football enjoyed an unusually uneventful last four months of the 2024 recruiting cycle.

Twenty of Iowa’s eventual 21 scholarship players who signed with the Hawkeyes on Wednesday verbally committed by the end of July. Rhys Dakin, the punter from Australia, announced his commitment earlier this week, but that did not go down to the wire either.

“I know everybody thinks that Rhys Dakin committed just a few days ago, but we’ve known about Rhys now for about four months,” Iowa football recruiting director Tyler Barnes told reporters via Zoom on Wednesday.

A highly successful month of official visits in June helped with the relatively quick assembly of the 2024 class. Iowa hosted 22 prospects for official visits, and 21 of them chose the Hawkeyes. (Defensive back Xavier Lucas was the one exception when he picked Wisconsin.)

“More impressive than that is none of these guys have wavered the entire time since they’ve committed to us,” Barnes said.

Recruiting with uncertainty at offensive coordinator

The stability of Iowa’s 2024 recruiting class was despite some instability on Iowa’s staff.

When interim athletics director Beth Goetz informed Brian Ferentz that 2023 would be his last season at Iowa amid another year of dismal offensive results, it was fewer than two months before 2024 recruits’ first opportunity to sign the dotted line with a prospective school.

Iowa’s staff worked to notify offensive recruits before the news broke, starting with quarterback James Resar.

“Honestly I don’t think any of the conversations were tough conversations,” Barnes said. “We were just being open and honest before anything became public with the commits. We wanted to let them know. … Don’t sugarcoat anything and certainly don’t lie to them about anything.”

Head coach Kirk Ferentz earlier this week indicated he plans to decide on an offensive coordinator “sometime in January for sure.” (He also clarified on Wednesday that he made three phone calls about the search, but not necessarily calls to three candidates.)

While the recruits have not known who will be their offensive coordinator, they have known who will be their head coach. With the exception of Resar, offensive commits also have known who their position coach will be.

“Really the whole way through these guys understood they’re committing to the University of Iowa and committing to Coach (Kirk) Ferentz, too,” Barnes said. “That’s a big part of who they’re committing.”

LeShun Daniels 2.0?

Barnes compared running back signee Xavier Williams to former Hawkeye standout LeShun Daniels. Williams is listed at 6-foot-0 and 230 pounds, and that’s before he begins work with Iowa’s strength and conditioning coaches.

“He is built like LeShun,” Barnes said. “His lowers, he looks like an NFL running back in his lowers. He is a thick kid. He’s built well up top too, but you can tell he is going to fill out up top, and he has some room to grow.”

Dual-threat QB trends

Iowa has trended toward signing athletic quarterbacks in recent high school recruiting classes.

Marco Lainez, now a true freshman, has the ability to move in the pocket.

Class of 2024 quarterback James Resar takes that to another level. Resar ran a 10.67-second 100-meter dash, and Iowa’s coaches “fully expect him to go sub-10.5 this spring.”

“James has a role as a passer, but you can’t deny the athletic ability that he has,” Barnes said. “That’s something that intrigued us.”

Iowa already has its 2025 quarterback commitment — three-star prospect Jimmy Sullivan from Fort Wayne, Ind. — and Sullivan has shown the ability on film to make plays on his feet as well.

Iowa’s recent run of athletic quarterbacks is a product of who is available rather than any intentional efforts to specifically recruit mobile quarterbacks. Barnes said Iowa does not “sit down and say we have to find a dual-threat quarterback.”

“I think you’re starting to see more and more kids these days that are just better athletes, honestly, even at the quarterback position,” Barnes said. “We’re not going to recruit only dual-threat gets from here on out, but if we can find a guy that is smart and can sling it and move around a little bit, obviously that’s a net positive for everybody.”

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