Following Kadyn Proctor’s departure, Kirk Ferentz reiterates he doesn’t want someone who ‘doesn’t want to be here’

IOWA CITY — When Iowa alumnus Charlie Bullen recently visited his alma mater, the New York Giants’ outside linebackers coach was talking with Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz about the differences between college football and the NFL.

“At least when you sign a contract, you sign a contract — coaches and players — and you're there or you don't work,” Ferentz said of the NFL. “It’s one or the other.“

Ferentz has seen how much different that is in college football this year following much-acclaimed offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor’s relatively short stay in Iowa City.

The former five-star offensive lineman, after committing to Iowa via the transfer portal on Jan. 20, informed the team of his intention to leave via the portal on March 19. (It was deja vu for Iowa fans after Proctor flipped his commitment in high school from Iowa to Alabama.)

“You don’t want a player in the program that doesn’t want to be here,” Ferentz said in his first news conference since Proctor’s decision. “That’s always kind of been our feeling, and in my mind at least it’s best for both parties to go separate ways at that point.”

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Proctor cannot officially enter the transfer portal until April 16 (when the second portal window opens), but that appears to be merely a formality at this point. Iowa removed him from the official roster within 24 hours of the news breaking.

Ferentz assumes Proctor is “going to finish out the semester and then go from there.” Proctor still was listed in the University of Iowa’s student directory, as of Tuesday afternoon.

“But I’m not sure about his whereabouts right now,” Ferentz said.

Ferentz said he was not surprised by Proctor’s departure, but he also tries “not to get too surprised by anything” as a college football coach.

“Somewhere in my first year of being a head coach at the University of Maine — I can’t remember what happened exactly — but I told my wife when I went home that night, ‘If I ever come home and say I’m surprised by anything, just hit me with a baseball bat,’” Ferentz said.

Proctor’s 59 days as a Hawkeye was not enough time to participate in practices, but it was enough time for him to receive some money from Iowa’s NIL war chest.

Proctor received a “portion of his Swarm Inc. contracted payment from a sponsoring business” before bolting, Swarm founder Brad Heinrichs said in a statement last week, but he did not receive any funding from the donor-funded nonprofit arm of the NIL collective.

Proctor’s situation is “probably a reflection of the system frankly and where we’re at right now,” Ferentz said.

“There's no structure, no framework, and that part makes it interesting in the fact that I don’t know if it is sustainable,” Ferentz said. “So at some point we’re going to have to be able to have a framework and a mode of operation.”

It is a system Iowa will surely have to live with, though, to at least some extent. Iowa’s first-team players on the spring depth chart at quarterback, both wide receiver positions and weakside linebacker are all former transfers.

As for when the second transfer portal window opens — a shorter one, spanning April 16-30 — it is too early to tell how active the Hawkeyes will be.

“We’ll know more about our team at the end of spring,” Ferentz said when asked about the portal. “We’re always going to look at it and always consider, and if there’s a glaring weakness or a place we think we can make our team better, absolutely.”

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