Cody Ince, Elijah Yelverton leave Iowa football, others change positions

IOWA CITY — Offensive lineman Cody Ince and tight end Elijah Yelverton have left the Iowa football program, the team announced Tuesday afternoon.

While Yelverton did not play a snap in his two years in Iowa City, Ince had a significant role on Iowa’s offense. He had 10 career starts and played 50-plus snaps in Iowa’s first four games of 2021.

“He’s going to step away from football, and he’s a big loss,” offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz said in the Iowa Athletics Department’s in-house podcast.

Ince faced no shortage of adversity in 2021, battling injury and overcoming the death of his grandfather.

“It has been a very difficult year for Cody,” Brian Ferentz said in the week leading up to the Citrus Bowl. “It’s been an up-and-down year for him. It has been a little bit of a roller coaster.”

Iowa also unveiled a couple position changes. Logan Jones, a redshirt freshman in 2021, will move from defensive line to center. Mike Timm, a junior in 2021, will move from linebacker to fullback.

Jones played sparingly in two years at defensive line, and the position group saw hardly any turnover from 2021. The center position is in a much different state, though. Iowa will have a new starting center after Tyler Linderbaum declared for the draft.

Timm joined the Hawkeyes as a walk-on in 2018. Head coach Kirk Ferentz awarded him a scholarship after the 2021 season.

Depth chart unveiled

Iowa’s first two-deep depth chart for the spring season came out Tuesday.

Spencer Petras remains the starting quarterback on the depth chart although Kirk Ferentz said in February it is an open competition at the position.

Alex Padilla was on the second team, and Joey Labas was on the third team.

Tyler Elsbury, who will be a sophomore in 2022, is the starting center, followed by senior Matt Fagan and sophomore Logan Jones.

Sophomore Aaron Blum is the starting kicker, followed by junior Lucas Amaya.

Five redshirt freshmen — Labas, offensive tackle David Davidkov, guard Beau Stephens, defensive end Max Llewellyn and safety Jaxon Rexroth — earned spots on the depth chart.

No true freshmen had a spot on the depth chart.

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