Hawkeyes Avoid Signing Day Drama

As soon as it was announced that Brian Ferentz would not be returning as Iowa’s offensive coordinator next season, director of recruiting Tyler Barnes knew he had to reach out to all of the offensive commitments in the Hawkeyes’ 2024 recruiting class.

The Hawkeyes didn’t lose a commitment because of the change.

“You try and get in front of it and try to be honest,” Barnes said on Wednesday on National Signing Day. “Don't sugarcoat anything and certainly don't lie to them about anything. You hope that they stick with you, and thankfully all those guys did.”

Barnes said he went to Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz about contacting all of the players who had committed.

“The biggest thing is we were honest with them,” Barnes said. “We don't know who it's going to be. Brian is going to finish the year, and we're going to focus on the season. That's our main goal is the players in the building and trying to win more football games.

“But at the end of the day you have to trust and have faith in Coach Ferentz and this program and this culture that we're going to replace it with somebody that fits who we are and the values of Coach Ferentz and what he is looking for.”

Barnes said the first player he reached out to was quarterback commitment James Resar.

“Telling him, hey, stick with us, we're going to have a plan in place,” Barnes said. “Told him fully, nothing is going to happen until postseason.”

Barnes said the conversations with the commitments weren’t difficult.

“We were just being open and honest before anything became public with the commits,” he said. “We wanted to let them know.”

CLARIFICATION: Kirk Ferentz clarified some of his comments about the offensive coordinator job on Monday.

Ferentz said he had made “three phone calls” about the position, but said reporting that he had talked to three prospective candidates was inaccurate.

“For the record, I said I made three phone calls. I never said I talked to three candidates,” Ferentz said. “Three phone calls regarding this whole process.”

NO DRAMA: Everyone who was expected to sign with the Hawkeyes on Wednesday followed through, and Barnes said he appreciated the ease of the day.

“One thing that I think is pretty impressive, we brought in 22 official visitors this June, and 21 committed to us,” Barnes said. “We've really been done since the end of June. A few guys put out their commitments a little later in July, but basically the Monday following our big weekend we had secured commitments from 20 of those guys from that big weekend, which I think is pretty impressive. More impressive than that is none of these guys have wavered the entire time since they've committed to us.”

The lack of drama, Barnes said, is something the staff always appreciates.

“I think that's something we're celebrating for sure,” Barnes said. “I'm proud of these guys and this class. It's something you just don't see a whole lot of. This is probably realistically the most uneventful signing day I've had in my 15 years in college football. I slept extremely well last night. I have the last few weeks.

“There's nobody I've been worried about or concerned about. No hat games, any of that. Like Coach said, there's nothing wrong with that. We just prefer not to deal with that if we don't have to.”