Iowa players don’t see, anticipate locker room divide amid QB race

IOWA CITY — Quarterback competitions certainly are not rare to college football teams, and not really all that rare to the Iowa football team, either.

Quarterback competitions dividing locker rooms isn't all that rare, either. No matter the level of football, it's happened. A locker room without solid leadership or maturity can split in a hurry.

The Hawkeyes currently are in a situation where Nathan Stanley and Tyler Wiegers are vying for the starting role at quarterback, and based on spring, there's not a clear front-runner. Their teammates are saying the right things — that they both have strengths and things to work on, and that they don't have a preference.

If guys like running back Akrum Wadley, tight end Peter Pekar and offensive lineman Boone Myers are to be believed, it's because their coaches put it on the leadership group and the players themselves to make sure the locker room doesn't divide, rather than policing it themselves.

'They can't do that,' Wadley said. 'That's up to the teammates to figure it out. We get together in meetings and talk about the culture. You win in the locker room first. It's all about the teammates coming together. We all know that the big goal is the Big Ten championship.

'We don't choose sides because we're all a team at the end of the day. We're all grinding. We're running out there conditioning, running 60s, 55s; you've got your brothers right there.'

That Kirk Ferentz and his assistants give them that freedom says something about what the coaching staff thinks of its players.

Ferentz certainly is particular about many things, and treating his players like adults and professionals is one of them, according to those players. Where some of them might have seen a coach in high school be more controlling about how players treat each other, the belief among players now is they're able to understand the situation they're in.

Myers pointed out from an offensive line perspective that they still have to block guys regardless of who's under center. If winning really is the bottom line, he said, then policing themselves becomes pretty easy.

'When they say, 'We trust you guys to handle yourselves,' that's big (and) that says a lot about the guys in the locker room,' Myers said. 'It's going to be great for whoever starts, and for whoever doesn't, it's going to be sucky. We just want to win. Everyone knows the coaches are going to put the best players out on the field. Whoever isn't out on the field, that's just a chip on your shoulder to get better.'

When players do pick sides, it can get toxic.

Center James Daniels, a junior this fall, said he watched his high school team implode his senior year because selfishness superseded the desire to win.

While it's not been like that at Iowa in his experience, Daniels knowing what it's like when it does happen makes him an authority on assessing the culture now.

'People (can) get selfish, when it comes down to it,' Daniels said. 'In high school, a teammate of mine, he needed to make a certain play but would have to throw his body — he would look bad, and that teammate never made that play. We actually went 2-8 that season, too. That's why we were so bad, because we had selfish people. Here at Iowa, nobody's like that.'

It would be something of a shock if, in July, a football team's players picked sides in a quarterback battle, so it's not revelatory or unique for the Hawkeyes to say what they did Tuesday at the Hansen Performance Center.

All they can do is share their experience now. For those who were around when C.J. Beathard and Jake Rudock competed for time in the 2014 season, that experience is pretty similar to Stanley vs Wiegers.

Believe them or not, the Iowa players consistently said as much — and with conviction — on Tuesday.

'Everyone's trying to get better,' Pekar said. 'I don't see a significant difference. I've never been around a guy that thinks he's way better than everyone else. That's what I love about Iowa and the guys here. Whether you're the starting quarterback who's going to be drafted or a walk-on trying to earn your spot, there's nothing really different. I couldn't tell a difference between this year and my freshman, year, honestly.'

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