Iowa football enters ‘really valuable’ time of year for player development

IOWA CITY — Away from the constant flux of the transfer portal, Iowa football is in the midst of what Logan Lee describes as a “really fun time of year for the guys.”

The week-to-week grind of the regular season (and Big Ten championship game) is over. The postseason bowl game — a return trip to the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 — still is more than three weeks away.

“It’s just a little bit more lax, a little bit more laid back for about a week-and-a-half, and then we’ll pick it back up,” Lee said, looking ahead after the Big Ten championship game loss.

Do not mistake the lower-key nature of practice in the next few weeks for a lack of importance, though.

The next month of practices — something afforded to the Hawkeyes because of their postseason bowl trip — is a “really valuable, really important” period, Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said.

“It's really important for us to be working as much in any opportunity we can on football, and that's one nice thing about a bowl game,” Ferentz said. “It gives you a real opportunity to coach those younger guys.“

In the course of the regular season, “you’re running to Saturday each week,” as quarterback Deacon Hill described it.

“Coaches have a game plan,” Hill said. “You go out and practice and then you meet all week, practice all week, preparing for that game plan.”

Ferentz said the early stages of bowl prep are a “little more like a bye week schedule in some ways at this juncture.”

“We’ll get a chance to work the younger guys that haven’t been playing on Saturdays and don’t have that volume of work built up,” Ferentz said.

Iowa’s older players, meanwhile, “don't need to have shoulder pads or have contact for a couple weeks.”

“Need them to kind of recharge a little bit and just get back to a refreshed mode, if you will,” Ferentz said.

Linebackers Jay Higgins and Ben Kueter, for example — one is a senior and the other is a true freshman — will have “very different programs, but hopefully beneficial for both.”

This month could be an especially valuable time for Hill. The bowl practices will be his first extended period of practices without game preparation since getting thrust into the QB1 role after Cade McNamara’s injury

“I’m excited for it,” Hill said. “You really get to dive into your footwork and all that stuff. … You get a lot more individual time in practice.”

Quarterback is obviously far from the only position where the next month of practices are expected to be beneficial. All but one linebacker on Iowa’s Big Ten championship depth chart are seniors.

In the secondary, Sebastian Castro and Quinn Schulte both are seniors. Cooper DeJean, meanwhile, is a projected first-round pick in next year’s NFL Draft.

“For a program like us, when we lose a guy — and quarterback is a good position — we don’t have guys stacked up that are five-star recruits or have three years of game experience,” Ferentz said.

Along with all the football work that must be done this month, Lee has an eye on “enjoying the time with each other” as a fifth-year senior.

“It’s wrapping up,” Lee said. “Don’t take anything for granted.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com