Iowa football 'looking at’ wide receiver, cornerback in second transfer portal window

IOWA CITY — Iowa football is “absolutely” looking to add as spring practices conclude and the second transfer portal remains open, head coach Kirk Ferentz said.

“I had a really interesting conversation with a young guy last night actually,” Ferentz said after Saturday’s 15th and final spring practice. “So, yeah, we're always going to be looking to help our football team.”

Wide receiver is “definitely an area that we'll look at if we can help ourselves,” Ferentz said.

“We're not deep at corner, either,” Ferentz said. “Probably the two areas we're kind of looking at.”

The Hawkeyes will be cautious about who exactly they add, though.

“We'll be protective of making sure we bring guys that aren't going to set us back, just take away from the group, that type of thing,” Ferentz said. “You want to get a good player, but you want to get somebody that is going to add to your team.”

The scholarship math is an obvious limitation to how much the Hawkeyes can add via the portal.

Assuming Iowa puts kicker Drew Stevens and long snapper Luke Elkin on scholarship in May, it would have 84 out of 85 scholarships filled.

That excludes quarterback Spencer Petras, who is recovering from shoulder surgery, although he is on the spring roster and has not publicly ruled out competing in the fall.

Petras, who has expressed interest in coaching, has been “kind of helping everybody” in spring practices, Ferentz said.

He was seen helping the offensive line in Saturday’s open practice and also has helped the quarterbacks with “getting the nomenclature down.”

“It's like a whole brave new world for him,” Ferentz said. “We'll see where he's at. He still has a health issue. Good to have him out there, he's a football guy.”

Of course, Iowa would have more scholarships if any Hawkeyes enter the portal this week. With the exception of graduate transfers, they have until April 30 to enter the portal.

Leaving a scholarship situation at Iowa would be risky, though, considering the musical-chairs nature of the portal.

On3’s Nebraska scholarship distribution chart, last updated on April 15, shows the Huskers with 98 scholarship players.

As teams like Nebraska find ways to trim that number to the 85-person limit, players available in the portal who were on scholarship will surely outnumber scholarships available.

Opportunities for athletes to earn income from name, image and likeness continue to play a factor in the transfer portal. Ferentz said NIL is “great in concept,” but he has concerns about it.

“The NIL, it's a mess,” Ferentz said. "When you think about someone like Caitlin Clark, that's the original intent in this whole thing. There's some good things about it. But my biggest fear on this, there's no structure at all.”

Ferentz contrasted it to the NFL “where there's a salary cap, clear rules of demarcation when a player can go into a portal or free agency.”

“All those things are spelled out,” Ferentz said. “All 32 teams operate by the same rules. There's enforcement that's consistent.”

The challenges aside, Iowa has benefited from the transfer portal since the end of the 2022 season.

Quarterback Cade McNamara, tight end Erick All and linebacker Nick Jackson highlight a long list of players the Hawkeyes added via the portal during or after the first window.

“We're going to do the best to operate in the world that fits with what we think is best for our program,” Ferentz said. “So far, so good.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com