The Iowa football org chart

IOWA CITY - I admit to catching up on the news with this, but I did want to add one element that I thought it needed.

Here's the UI release on the hiring of Broderick Binns and Tyler Barnes.

On April 29, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz announced the appointment of Broderick Binns as Director of Player Development and Tyler Barnes as director of recruiting.

'Broderick and Tyler bring important strengths to complement our coaching staff,” Ferentz said in a statement. 'A comprehensive recruiting program and a proactive player development program are critical to our continued success.”

Binns, a four-year letterman for the Hawkeyes during his playing career, has served as a graduate assistant coach with the Hawkeyes the past two seasons, assisting with the Hawkeye special teams.

Binns, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, enjoyed a very successful playing career as a defensive end for the Hawkeyes from 2008-11. He earned second team All-Big Ten honors as a senior and earned the Roy J. Carver Most Valuable Player Award for defense. He was a three-year member of the Iowa Leadership Group during his career.

Binns earned his bachelor's degree in psychology from Iowa in 2012. He was employed as a teacher and coach at Cretin-Derham High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, before joining the Iowa staff as a graduate assistant, coaching football, basketball and track. He is pursuing a master's degree in sports management.

'Broderick has been a valuable contributor to our success the past two years,” said Ferentz. 'With his experience in the program as both a player, and graduate assistant coach, Broderick has a full understanding of the program and what it takes for us to have success. We are excited to have Broderick as a fulltime member of our support staff.”

Barnes previously served on the Iowa staff in student assistant (2009-10), graduate assistant (2011), and administrative assistant (2012) capacities. As director of recruiting, Barnes will have a lead role in all aspects of prospect identification, assist the coaching staff in off-campus recruiting efforts, and coordinate all aspects of on-campus recruiting activities.

Barnes rejoins the Iowa staff after serving on the Vanderbilt University football staff the past three years. He held the position of director of player personnel the past two seasons after serving as co-recruiting coordinator in 2013.

'Tyler also returns with several years of experience within our program,” said Ferentz. 'His added experience from another high-quality college football program allows him to bring valuable input and insights to our program.”

Barnes earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa in 2009, with a double major in Finance and Sports Studies. He earned his master's degree from Iowa in Recreation and Sports Management in 2011.

Barnes is married to Joanne Ferentz, Coach Ferentz's daughter. The hiring of Barnes followed all University of Iowa nepotism policy requirements. Barnes is a native of Decatur, Illinois and a graduate of MacArthur HS.

The last part might grab your attention. Barnes is Ferentz's son-in-law. Yes, this once was a thing. Here's the link from The Gazette in 2013.

At worst, this was careless. But a certain portion of the constituency at the UI would bristle and, thus, there are protocols now in place. (This is important. Every decision will come with a set of questions across a spectrum of different constituencies. You have to do your best to be transparent.)

My colleague Scott Dochterman talked to Kirk Ferentz about this at a recent I-Club extravaganza.

In my however many years around Ferentz (going on 18 now), I've never known him to hire (or, really, tolerate) someone sitting in the boat without an oar. Ferentz is keenly aware Iowa is a program that needs every oar motoring in unison if the thing is going anywhere.

'It would be really counterproductive for him to not be all in,” Ferentz said. 'I know they went through all the nepotism stuff - which I appreciate that - but what we do is really competitive. It would really be counterintuitive to hire people that aren't going to try and benefit and enhance our program. That would not be smart on any of our part to do that any time we hire a coach, support personnel. We're trying to get the guys best qualified for work at our place. I don't care where else they can work, but I want to get guys who can work at our place.”

Barnes is well aware of the scrutiny - forget from the outside and think about it on the inside - and knows that going in.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

This is a post to get a picture of Hawkeye football-playing Broderick Binns on the blog (they used to call him Inspector Gadget, and he did lead Iowa in passes broken up with nine in 2009) and to post Iowa's organizational chart for football and show the reporting structure.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com