Some signing day notes

Iowa safeties Tyler Sash and Brett Greenwood had shoulder surgeries for the second consecutives offseasons, coach Kirk Ferentz said Wednesday.

They also missed spring practice last March after having shoulder surgeries. Ferentz said they will be held out of spring practice, which begins March 24 and ends April 17 with an open practice in Kinnick Stadium.

The topic came up when Ferentz was asked if any of the three safeties signed Wednesday might see the field next season.

"I think it's possible because we don't have a lot of depth right now," Ferentz said. "We feel great about our experience at both starting positions and they won't be out there again this spring. They both had offseason surgery. Like they did a year ago.

"So, when you guys come out to the scrimmage, April 17th, it's going to be the same old thing. Geez, don't look very good. Hopefully we'll look better when fall rolls around."

Wednesday, Iowa signed Don Shumpert (6-3, 185), Anthony Hitchens (6-1, 200) and Tanner Miller (6-2, 195).

"The guys who are healthy are going to have a great opportunity to get some quality work and show what they can do (this spring)," Ferentz said. "And then we'll see what the young guys can do when they get here. But that's something that we're hoping, maybe we can get a little bit of help there."

New recruiting areas -- Iowa visited some new recruiting areas for the 2010 class.

From the Washington D.C./Baltimore area, Iowa found linebacker Jim Poggi, defensive tackle Anthony Ferguson Jr. and running back Marcus Coker.

Poggi and Ferguson are from Baltimore's Gilman School, an place that Ferentz's staff has recruited intermittently during his 11-plus seasons as Iowa's head coach.

"We've tried unsuccessfully to recruit Gilman," Ferentz said. "We've tried over the years to get a guy out of there. And we were finally able to get Coach (Biff) Poggi's son, Jim, to come. Thrilled about that. And Anthony chose to come also.

"Tremendous school and tremendous program. They've had great tradition of success."

Ferentz was surprised to get Coker, who's out of DeMatha High School in the D.C. area. Coker and his mom, Tammy Money, made the 18-hour drive from Maryland during recruiting. Coker also visited Minnesota on the trip. Not long after, he picked Iowa.

"Marcus drove out. His mother doesn't drive," Ferentz said. "We thought it killed our chances to get him.

"And then the rest of the story is he was a good football player. We really liked him. I fell in love with the guy when I met him and his mom, tremendous people."

Ferentz thought he lost Coker again after Coker tore up -- coincidentally -- Gilman. The 6-foot, 228-pounder rushed for 392 yards and five TDs in a victory.

"I've got a friend who scouts in the NFL for a profession," Ferentz said. "He happened to be at the game. He called and left me a voice mail. He said, 'Boy, I saw that guy committed to you, he's a really good player. You guys will probably lose him now.'

"And that was it. Good friend of mine. My good friend. I'm not going to name him right now. S,o I was in the tank on that a little bit. But Marcus has stuck with us and we're really excited about him."

Also also broke into Cincinnati for cornerback B.J. Lowery. Iowa signed three out of Ohio (Lowery, OL Andrew Donnal and S Anthony Hitchens). Iowa now has 13 players from Ohio, the second-most after the 27 from the state of Iowa.

No tackle -- Unless tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz blows up to the 280 range in the weightroom, don't even think he's a future offensive tackle.

The Johnsburg (Ill.) prep is pure tight end, according to his coach Barry Creviston.

"He's 6-7, 250. If he puts on 30 pounds of muscle, what are they going to do with him?" Creviston said. "But I know that's 100 percent what he doesn't want to have happen. They've (Iowa coaches) never recruited him and said we want you to gain 30 pounds and play tackle. He has the mentality of a receiver, not a tackle."

Iowa has more than done its research on Fiedorowicz. Assistant coach Lester Erb, who recruits Illinois, spotted him as a sophomore. Iowa kept an eye on him and offered a scholarship.

After committing to Illinois last summer, Fiedorowicz opened his recruitment and committed to Iowa not long after visiting during the Minnesota weekend.

"I think he also felt comfortable with his opportunities in our offense and maybe what he could do," Ferentz said. "We do play with tight ends, and he certainly is a tight end. We think he's a pretty good one."

Early enrollees -- Iowa City High quarterback A.J. Derby and Lane Tech (Chicago) defensive end Louis Trinca-Pasat have enrolled and will participate in spring practice.

It made sense for Derby, an Iowa City native. He wanted to get a playbook in his hand and get going with his career. He's rooming with Trinca-Pasat, but he's also in the same town his family is in.

But Ferentz isn't about to start asking his recruits to enroll for the spring semester or report in June for summer workouts. In fact, he plans to campaign for a rule against it during the Big Ten coaches meeting this spring.

"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," Ferentz said. "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."

Fit over stars -- That's Iowa's recruiting in a nutshell.

Now, Iowa doesn't get in the recruiting game for a lot of multi-star recruits, but when they do, the recruit still has to be a fit.

"There are certain things that we think are important in football players," Ferentz said. "It's a tough tour of duty to go to a Big Ten school and get a diploma, that's not easy in itself, and then they play in a program that wants to compete at a high level. Nothing easy about that. And you know our players are very, very visible in our community, which I think is a great thing, but with that comes a lot of responsibility.

"We're looking for guys who are going to welcome those three challenges. And it's all projection."

Ferentz then mentioned a few of the star-challenged recruits who hit it big at Iowa. Not Bob Sanders and Dallas Clark, but fresh examples.

"I know they rank classes, but they ought to go back and look at teams when they play each other and take the cumulative merits that guys have, recruiting merits, and see how they all compare and what really happens with the results on the field," Ferentz said, "because that's all that counts at the end of the day.

But that's what we're looking for. We've had guys that I think have been recognized that have done very well. We've had a lot of two star guys. I talked about them last year. Guys like (Bradley) Fletcher, Shonn Greene. (Charles) Godfrey was a two-star guy, started as a rookie in the NFL. Karl Klug. I just mentioned him. So we just need guys who are going to come in here and really work hard and buy into what we're trying to get accomplished.

"I wish we had a better chart but that's what we do."

OK, we're done here -- The heavily recruited offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson took an unofficial visit to Iowa City during Iowa's victory over Minnesota on Nov. 21. From there, his recruiting seemed to be positive. He sort of liked Iowa and what it did with its offensive linemen and kept Iowa on his list.

Then, sometime in December, it abruptly ended.

Henderson and his family wouldn't put Iowa on their list of five official visits. So, Ferentz said no thanks to an in-home visit and ended the recruiting.

"If he doesn't want to visit, he doesn't want to come, right? Nice kid, though," Ferentz said Wednesday.

Henderson nearly signed with USC and coach Lane Kiffin on Wednesday, but at the last minute, he and his family decided to wait to see the results/punishment on the upcoming NCAA investigation USC faces.

Spring dates -- Iowa's spring practice begins March 24. Ferentz will meet with the media that day.

Before Iowa's open practice on April 17 in Kinnick Stadium, coordinators Ken O'Keefe and Norm Parker will hold a news conference April 13.

Then, Iowa football goes radio silence until the Big Ten media days Aug. 2-3.