Iowa football seeks 2 new recruiting assistants

IOWA CITY - Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz hinted in June that he planned to make changes to his recruiting department. Nearly a month later, the football program is actively seeking a pair of new recruiting assistants.

The school posted the full-time jobs on July 1 - the first date of the new fiscal year. Both positions will assist new recruiting coordinator/assistant coach Seth Wallace.

According to the advertisement, the positions will be 'responsible for creating effective communication methods used in recruiting via electronic social, print, and video media, assisting with electronic recruiting database, and collaborate with Recruiting Coordinator regarding all permissible on-campus recruiting events.”

The starting dates and salaries are negotiable and candidates are required to have at least two years of on-campus recruiting experience, as well as knowledge of rules and databases.

In April, The Gazette reported that Iowa was the only Big Ten school without a formal player personal director. When asked in June about any possible changes to the recruiting department, Ferentz said he'd have more to say about the topic in late July or early August.

'Clearly you have to dedicate a little bit more time to (recruiting),” Ferentz said on June 18. 'When we lost (former recruiting assistant) Tyler Barnes to Vanderbilt, we hired Max Allen and he's doing a great job. He's doing a little bit more of the promotions and creative thinking-type things. So we lost a little bit of ground on some of the football stuff. So I think there's some room for growth right now.”

Recruiting costs have soared for Iowa and its Big Ten brethren since 2011, when the league's public schools combined to spend a more than $4.1 million on recruiting. In 2013, that number grew to more than $6.4 million, according to numbers provided by the schools to The Gazette via state open-records laws. Iowa's recruiting expenses rose by more than 55 percent over the same period, yet ranked third-lowest among Big Ten public schools.

Along with adding new positions, Iowa will expand Wallace's recruiting duties. Wallace, who replaced longtime recruiting coordinator Eric Johnson, will have 'the flexibility to get out on the road a little bit in-season,” Ferentz said.

'We haven't utilized all of our NCAA dates in the fall,” Ferentz said. 'We've come close, but not all. I think that's one area where maybe we can improve a little bit and just get a little bit more exposure.

'I think we've got a structure where he'll have that freedom, if he has to get off campus. If it's early in the week or late in the week, he can do that.”

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