Iowa
Kirk Ferentz: Iowa football’s offense ‘starting to click a little bit’ as season nears
Video: Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Beth Goetz address recruiting violations
Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz and athletic director Beth Goetz address recruiting violations.
IOWA CITY — Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz didn’t definitively announce a starting quarterback Thursday for the Aug. 31 season opener against Illinois State. He did, however, offer what the current pecking order would look like if Iowa were playing this week:
- Cade McNamara
- Brendan Sullivan
- Marco Lainez
That’s on par with what has largely been expected.
The quarterbacks’ performance during the Aug. 10 Kids Day at Kinnick open practice stirred some concern externally, particularly about McNamara, who struggled mightily. But Ferentz sounded optimistic about what he has seen recently.
“There’s been some back and forth, some ups and downs, those types of things,” Ferentz said Thursday. “But both guys this week have just looked more comfortable and they’ve done a lot of good things. Cade’s done a really nice job. I think he’s had a really good week. And I think Brendan’s done the same thing.”
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The last two years have been tumultuous for McNamara, who suffered consecutive season-ending knee injuries. He has appeared in just eight games combined over the last two seasons, so there are bound to be bumps on the road as he gets set for the 2024 season. The hope is that leads to results in the end.
“It’s just good to see him the last couple days look more relaxed,” Ferentz said. “He wasn’t pressing, trying to force things and things like that. And I’m no expert on quarterback play but I know you can’t do that stuff. And it’s the first time I’ve seen him, stand there on the field with him, where he looked like he’s more comfortable. And just maybe a little bit more feeling better about his whole world, if you will.”
Ferentz said both McNamara and Sullivan have been getting reps with the first-team offense, indicating there isn’t a wide gap between the two. Ferentz was asked on Thursday if Iowa would consider going into a game with a plan of using both.
“We’ll consider anything,” Ferentz said. “The game plan would probably look a little different for either guy … Our preference is to have a 1, 2, 3. We’ll see how that shakes out. But we’re gonna keep an open mind all season long about our entire football team.”
Around this time last year, Iowa’s quarterback room was not in a great place, something that became brutally clear as the season went on. But now with the health of McNamara, the addition of Sullivan and the development of Lainez, it seems to be trending upward.
“The big takeaway is we’re much healthier at that position in terms of game experience, depth, those types of things,” Ferentz said. “And Marco’s doing a good job, too.”
Seeing growth on offense
Despite the fact that Thursday was marred with talk about recruiting violations and suspensions, Ferentz shared a fair amount of promising updates. Ferentz seemed encouraged by what he’s seen as the Aug. 31 season opener rapidly approaches, notably pertaining to development on offense under new coordinator Tim Lester.
“I actually think things are maybe starting to click a little bit,” Ferentz said. “We’ve pushed past the ‘We’re in camp’ mode and seeing some cleaner execution. Defensively, we’ve got a lot of veteran presence there. Offensively this is all new. And I think it’s starting to click a little bit for them.
“We’re gonna have some ups and downs when we start playing competitively. But I think we’re making progress and the guys have been nothing but willing and anxious to learn. Most importantly, they’re demonstrating that it’s starting to resonate a little bit with them.”
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Beyond the quarterback position, wide receiver is another question mark on offense. On top of that, Kaleb Brown will miss the season opener against Illinois State as punishment for a June arrest on charges of OWI and possession of a fictitious license, ID card or form. Wide receivers coach Jon Budmayr is also suspended for the game, along with Ferentz, due to a potential recruiting violation.
Still, Ferentz has continued to talk up the wide receiver unit. It’s somewhat surprising given the struggles of that group over the past few seasons, coupled with the fact that they are young and unproven entering this campaign.
“I’m really optimistic about that group,” Ferentz said. “I don’t know what it’s gonna look like here the first couple of weeks, literally like who’s gonna be playing or how much, that type of stuff. But I think the potential right now for growth in that room and the potential for that becoming a really productive unit, I think it’s there for us.”
One name Ferentz spoke at length about was receiver Jacob Gill. The Northwestern transfer didn’t come in with eye-popping numbers, but apparently he has carved out a niche on the offense leading up to the season.
“He’s been really just a great addition,” Ferentz said of Gill. “The (transfer) portal’s an interesting place. We don’t live there full-speed. But we thought he’d be a guy that could maybe help our football team, and he’s just been a great addition. Really focused, really mature. He’s got a veteran presence and really workmanlike the way he goes about what he does, how he practices, how he prepares, everything about him in this building. Really exemplary and not a loud demeanor, but just shows up every day and really performs. So he’s been a really good influence on a very young group.”
A couple other areas of note are depth on the offensive and defensive lines. On the O-line, Ferentz mentioned Tyler Elsbury and Nick DeJong as players not expected to start who could add quality depth. On the defensive line, which arguably has bigger holes to fill, Ferentz pointed to Max Llewellyn, Brian Allen and Jeremiah Pittman as reserves who could play key roles.
Other notes
- Leshon Williams has returned to practice, though he is being limited in terms of volume. Coming off the best season of his college career, the running back has missed time leading up to the 2024 campaign with an injury but now seems to be trending in the right direction. “He made a really nice blitz pick-up coincidentally (Thursday) morning, which allowed us to have a good completion on a play,” Ferentz said of Williams. “So he’s been paying attention, he’s been doing a good job. Hopefully he’ll be good to go.”
- Koen Entringer, expected to be one of Iowa’s top reserves at safety, has been back at practice after missing a significant amount of time due to injury (defensive coordinator Phil Parker already confirmed such earlier in the week): “He looks like he’s fully healthy out there and he is,” Ferentz said of Entringer.
- Redshirt freshman running back Kamari Moulton suffered what seems to be a minor leg injury. Ferentz is hopeful that Moulton will return soon.
Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com
SOLDIER, Iowa (KTIV) – After the riders rode off from Turin, they made their way down Highway 37 onto their second stop of the morning in Soldier Iowa.
The Soldier Volunteer Fire Department hosted a breakfast for riders and community members to enjoy on Sunday, July 19. Riders rolled into town so early, and the fire department opened their doors an hour early.
“We’re a town of less than 200 and to serve this amount of people and this great of people, it’s fantastic,” said Warren Jensen, the department’s fire chief.
There is no specific plan for the money raised for the department, but the Jensen says that it will help keep them running and serving those in their community.
“We try to stop at all the fire departments or local legion calls for sure because they definitely have the best breakfasts for sure,” said Andy Bernholtz, a RAGBRAI rider from Ankeny, Iowa.
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What is an indictment? Here’s what you should know
In American courts, an indictment is a formal notification that an individual has been charged with a crime.
A shortfall in funding is endangering one of the last lifelines for imprisoned Iowans seeking to challenge their criminal convictions.
Affiliated with the national Innocence Project, the Midwest Innocence Project investigates and litigates wrongful conviction claims across five states, including Iowa. That work is at risk after recent federal funding cuts have forced the organization, founded in 2001, to slash staff, and raise the possibility it may have to close altogether.
Ken Nixon ― a board member who was himself exonerated and freed from a life term because of the work of innocence advocates ― said the recent federal cuts have affected close to half the Midwest Innocence Project’s annual budget. The loss of funding has crippled the group’s ability to pursue the time- and resource-intensive work of proving a jury got it wrong.
“We’re accumulating documents that are sometimes decades old, tracking down people that have moved and may be in different states, having to travel sometimes. That requires a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of manpower for cases that can be extremely old sometimes,” Nixon said. “So, when you factor in that the Midwest Innocence Project lost close to $1 million in funding just from the federal government alone, that’s a problem.”
The project already has had to cut a quarter of its 12-person staff. It has enough money to continue operating through the end of the year, Nixon said, and is actively fundraising online, but if its finances don’t improve it faces further cuts or even closure.
“If the Midwest Innocence Project eventually has to close its doors, which I don’t think it will, just to be clear, that would affect lots of people,” he said. “We are the only organization in the region fighting for this cause, and the last resort for a lot of innocent people. It would be a travesty if that were the end result.”
Currently, the organization is serving 21 clients, Nixon said, with 10 cases under investigation and 11 in active litigation. Some of those cases are in Iowa, where the project has teamed up with the Iowa Public Defender’s Office to represent clients like James Mayberry, who is challenging his conviction in a 1985 Iowa City murder.
Erica Nichols Cook, who leads the public defender’s wrongful conviction unit, said the Midwest Innocence Project has been an important partner not just in litigating cases, but in research and advocacy to prevent future false guilty verdicts.
“They’ve just played such an integral role that losing their experience and knowledge and advocacy will set Iowa back even further in our efforts to ensure we have a more just system,” she said, noting she faces certain constraints as a public employee. “Midwest Innocence Project has been really important to advocate without being part of the Iowa legal system and figure out what’s working and what’s not.”
Midwest Innocence Project also provides post-exoneration support
The Midwest Innocence Project also supports people after their exonerations, both with short-term needs such as housing and a longer-term sense of community.
Teresa Engberg of Council Bluffs was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her infant in 1997, but her conviction was reversed the following year. More than 20 years later, she met a Midwest Innocence Project staffer at an event organized by Nichols Cook, which resulted in an invitation for her to attend a national conference.
“Let me tell you, that was something else, to go to an Innocence Network conference where there’s all these other exonerees who understand what you’ve been through,” she said. “It was extremely emotional, but it’s also been very healing.”
Today she continues participating in a biweekly support group for exonerees that the project organizes, and said she’s deeply concerned by the organization’s financial woes.
“It would be just devastating to think about all the people that, for starters, aren’t going to have somebody working on their case,” she said. “And then for all of those that have gotten out already, they’re losing that connection and that support locally.”
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
A proposed data center in Clinton, Iowa, is dividing residents
Recently, a split City Council in Clinton chose not to place a moratorium on any new data center projects.
A recent item on DesMoinesRegister.com invited Iowans to share their thoughts about data center construction and how their elected leaders are handling to push to build more of the facilities. Below is a selection of the responses we received.
Don’t give public benefits to data centers few people want
Anyone remember the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008? The Chrysler Motor Co. bailout in 1979? How about the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s? These all involved large, for-profit companies owned primarily by shareholders.
Big companies have come to expect preferential tax treatment, subsidies and bailouts. They expect taxpayers to pick up the tab if they fail.
If Big Tech falters with its intention to impose data centers on our society, the same thing will happen.
Data centers and the CO2 “Pipeline to Nowhere” present some similar threats: water resource exploitation, decreased property values, higher utility rates, health and safety risks, and dismal prospects for human employment. Taxpayers will be expected to carry the load despite the fact that hardly anyone wants the data centers or the pipeline.
The top seven Big Tech oligarchs increased their wealth by $1.7 trillion since 2024. They are likely to come crying if things don’t work out. Let’s collectively decide that data centers are a problem and show resistance. Pay attention to what is going on with decision makers. Especially at the local and county level.
Jeff Milks, Oelwein
How long will data centers’ consumption be sustainable?
The mayor of Council Bluffs got it right. Mayor Jill Shudak proposed a moratorium on new data centers to the Council Bluffs City Council. The council voted it down, citing a possible loss of economic growth.
Council Bluffs is home to two of Google’s hyperscale data centers, which are massive computing facilities, typically spanning over 10,000 square feet and housing 5,000 or more servers. These facilities consume massive amounts of water and electricity.
A third hyperscale center is under construction. Given the massive consumption of our natural resources, a pause or moratorium makes sense, we need to figure out what is sustainable in the long run.
Patricia Fuller, Council Bluffs
Companies shouldn’t need our help to build data centers
Why are our elected officials in such a hurry to give our resources to big tech, especially by moving forward with or without the approval of the communities they serve, such as Palo?
The officials who believe these data centers will be such a benefit to their communities should be talking to the people who are already affected by these centers. The U.S. Department of Energy has directed grid operators to order some large data centers to switch to on-site backup generators so there will be enough power for regular citizens. It does not require an extensive search to find information as to why so many people who live where data centers already exist are opposed to them; higher energy costs, massive water consumption, noise, just to name a few.
The data centers should cover their own costs rather than receiving billions of dollars in financial incentives from state and local governments and not be built in communities where the community members oppose them.
Lori Amos, Center Point
Each data center forever changes Iowa’s landscape
“Take your medicine, it will be good for you. And here is a little something extra to make it taste better,” said every developer coming into Iowa who wants to gobble up more precious land for a project with questionable merit.
Iowa soils have a structure that once disturbed may take years to recover from, if they ever return to past productivity.
Hog confinement buildings represent thousands of acres of disturbed soil covered with concrete. Housing and urban sprawl continue to eat up fertile land. Wind turbines cover their development tracks by leveling and seeding disturbed soils at the project’s conclusion, but during development each turbine build causes a shocking amount of soil destruction.
And now we have data centers creating a huge footprint over the soils of our state. As energy needs rise with the growth of data centers comes expansive new power plant builds. Any of these endeavors alone might be causing minimal loss of acres, but this is all happening together. We need to stop and seriously assess what this means for our future as an agricultural state. Who is benefiting by exploiting our land?
Every developer has a well-thought-out strategy to convince us this is all good for us. We don’t need manipulative strategy. We need transparent and honest information and an Iowa-first strategy going forward. This is for us to decide. not them.
Berleen Wobeter, Toledo
Data centers are OK if resources are available
If the water resources are readily available to handle the needs of these centers, I think they are something local governments should consider.
John Torbert, Clive
For data centers, the product doesn’t at all justify the cost
I am worried that data centers are a significant drain on our resources, contribute to increased energy bills for residents, and are primarily used to gather data that is sold online.
Furthermore, if people are against traffic cameras and government surveillance, it follows that they should also be against the data centers that collect and store this information.
John Moore, Newton
Don’t invest to enable government surveillance
They are called data centers. What they really are is mass surveillance centers. They will be leveraged for government and corporations to track individuals and much more. Building them and disrupting wildlife and Iowa’s beautiful landscape is just sinful.
Mary Crist, West Des Moines
No new data centers in Iowa
Data centers are a huge concern for thousands of Iowans. That’s what Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement learned from a statewide survey we did in May.
They gobble up our water, energy and farmland, among other things. And they also gobble up our tax dollars to the tune of billions each year through property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions and other subsidies.
The technology that data centers use may be new, but the underlying story has been around a long time: big corporations profit by extracting and over-using our finite resources, while offloading the costs onto taxpayers and our communities.
People are turning out in large numbers to tell their elected officials: No new data centers in Iowa! So far, nearly 20 Iowa counties have passed data center moratoriums. More are needed.
Analysts say the current AI data center expansion far exceeds what we need for our normal, day-to-day lives, which makes me wonder: Is this mostly about putting a lot more money in the pockets of Big Tech’s wealthy tycoons?
Let’s use some common sense and put a long pause on this too-fast, too-much expansion. Prudence will serve us well.
Hugh Espey, Des Moines
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