Ferentz on Trinca-Pasat

Louis Trinca-Pasat is the recruit with perhaps the most interesting background in the 2010 class.

Trinca-Pasat is of Romanian descent. His parents are from Romania and have been in the country for 20 years. Of the family's five children, Louis is the only one who was born in the United States.

His accent is kind of a cross between Chicago and Eastern European.

“People say I have an accent, so I guess I do,” he laughed.

That's from a story I wrote when he committed. He committed so long ago the story is on the old blog.

As you already know, Trinca-Pasat is enrolled and will participate in spring practice.

Links -- Here's the link to the story I wrote last fall. Right now, coaches and Trinca-Pasat agree on D-end. . . . Here's a link to a story that appeared in the Lane Tech student newspaper. Nicely done. Nice photo, too. . . . Here's a story from the Chicago Sun-Times, when LTP committed. . . . And, you should probably know that Illinois seemed to want LTP, too.

Bio -- From UI sports info: Hawk-Item - - Enrolled at Iowa for spring semester and will participate in spring practice.

High school honors - - Honorable mention all-state as a junior . . . named all-conference as a sophomore and first team all-city as a junior and senior . . . team MVP and Defensive Player of the Year as a senior . . . Career - - earned three varsity letters . . . team captain as a senior . . . led high school team to an 11-3 record and Chicago city championship as a junior . . . also lettered in basketball and track.

Personal - - Born 9/7/91 . . . Health and Sports Studies major . . . graduated with a 4.2 GPA . . . parents are Estera and Vasile Trinca-Pasat . . . high school coach was Rich Rio.

Ferentz on -- As you know, Ferentz isn't big on players enrolling early. I think LTP will be fine, though. He graduated early from high school with a 4.2 GPA (Iowa did lose TE Anthony Schiavonne after he did this last spring): "Was that about A.J.? We have two guys that chose to enter school this past January. It was their choice strictly. A.J. Derby obviously and Louis Trinca-Pasat.

"And with A.J.'s deal, he lives in town here. He's got a pretty good familiarity with the program, the campus and the university. You could tell he was a little bit itchy, and I think ready and eager to make the next move. And I think it's going to work out beautifully. I think Louis is probably going through a little bit of a transition. He's away from home, growing up in Chicago.

"But it was strictly their ideas, both cases, and I think it will help them get a jump on things and get their feet on the ground. They're already training with Chris Doyle and his staff. And they'll be involved in spring ball. So that's a good thing. I'll also go on record, I'm still a firm believer, I really think, in football, I don't think players should be allowed to start school until fall term.

"I know that's kind of a foreign concept to throw out there. But I'm just not convinced there's a great reason. Again, if it's a player's idea, that's great. But so many programs right now are making it mandatory for players to go in the summer. I just don't think that's necessarily a good thing for college football or good thing for young people.

"So I'm in the minority there. And we'll run that up the flagpole maybe this spring and have it get shot down. But anyway, a little commentary."

Ferentz sees LTP growing into the position: "Donavan Johnson, Mike Hardy are guys I think that are going to grow, they have great growth potential. We're excited about that. Good movement.

"And then Louis is the same kind of guy. He's played linebacker. Outside-in, that type of thing. So, we think he'll grow into a down guy as well."

Projection is fun -- Trinca-Pasat comes in at 6-3, 250. I see growth potential here, maybe 270? But where does that put him, end or tackle? He was athletic enough to line up at wide receiver "80 to 90" percent of his time on offense last season. That's interesting.

I didn't think 6-3 was rangy -- I have 6-4 stuck in my head because of Aaron Kampman -- enough for a D-end. Then, I met Broderick Binns. Clayborn is also in that range.

I see a redshirt. Iowa doesn't need DLs next season. But when LTP comes active in '11, I think he begins as a DE and goes from there.