How Kirk Ferentz approaches players’ stay-or-go decisions ahead of Iowa football’s bowl game

ORLANDO — Kirk Ferentz remembers a noisy stay in Tampa ahead of one of his six Outback Bowl appearances as Iowa’s head football coach.

“You stay right there on the bay,” Ferentz said. “New Year’s Eve is wild down there. Just loud. And the hotel we were in was like the place to be apparently. … You couldn’t sleep.”

Iowa now stays off-site the night before to avoid such a distraction, but a different type of distraction is harder to avoid — looming decisions for players who could come back or move on to the NFL (or their post-football lives).

Tight end Luke Lachey, linebacker Jay Higgins and offensive lineman Nick DeJong have already announced plans to stay. Defensive backs Cooper DeJean, Sebastian Castro, Quinn Schulte and Jermari Harris still have decisions to announce.

“I don’t want to speak for the other guys,” Ferentz said. “My sense is that they’re all different stories and they’re all going at their different rates.”

Regardless of where on the stay-or-go spectrum a player might be, Ferentz has a “request” for all of his players who have decisions to make.

“Don’t be distracted this week with whatever you’re thinking about,” Ferentz said. “If you want to announce, great. If you don’t, hold off, that’s great, too. … I’ve witnessed that in the last couple of years, some guys have done a better job of that than others.”

That may be easier for Ferentz to say than for athletes to do, especially given the high stakes. Spotrac projects that the 12th overall pick in next year’s NFL Draft would receive a $10 million signing bonus. The 32nd pick is projected to receive a $5.7 million signing bonus.

“It’s a big decision, so it’s easy to understand why they might be distracted,” Ferentz said. “But I also try to reinforce that you only have so many chances to play in a football game during your career. … Don’t let the specialness of this event be diminished by maybe some things that are on your mind.”

While Ferentz and the undecided players have conversations before traveling to the bowl site, but there is “very little discussion here” about their futures while on the trip.

“If one of the players wants to talk, we’d be happy to visit with them,” Ferentz said.

Some schools have a litany of opt-outs as players avoid the risk of an injury in the bowl game, but no Hawkeyes have opted out of Monday’s Citrus Bowl. Kaevon Merriweather was the only Hawkeye to opt out in 2022, and Tyler Goodson was the only Hawkeye to opt out in 2021.

One of the perks of waiting to make a decision until after January is having more time to receive feedback from the NFL rather than from “advisers” who might have an “agenda.”

“Certainly the NFL people know more in January than they did four weeks ago,” Ferentz said. “We’ll try to get them on the phone with anybody they need to be on the phone with, all that kind of stuff, so they are getting accurate information from the people who do it for a living.”

The deadline for entering the NFL Draft is Jan. 15 — two weeks after the Citrus Bowl.

“The guys that haven’t made up their minds have plenty of time when we get back,” Ferentz said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com