Iowa football media day notebook: Phil Parker out of commission after shoulder surgery

IOWA CITY — It was late in the Kirk Ferentz interview portion of Iowa football media day Friday.

Someone asked the Hawkeyes coach about the running back rotation plan for this season. As he began to answer with the usual everyone-is-doing-a-good-job-right-now response, he suddenly caught himself.

“No one has asked about injuries,” Ferentz said. “I’ll bring it up. I’ll volunteer.”

Iowa is pretty healthy overall right now a bit more than a week into fall camp. Perhaps more healthy than in recent seasons at this point.

That’s players. When it comes to coaches, it’s a bit of a different story.

Defensive coordinator Phil Parker had shoulder surgery Thursday and is convalescing. The 2023 AFCA Assistant FBS Coach of the Year Award winner got run into, if not run over, during a recent practice.

“And long story short, I think he might have had some pre-existing damage in there, but they had to address that,” Ferentz said. “He had surgery yesterday, did show up today for practice. I'm not sure if he was on the planet or not, but he was there and watching.

“He's going to be a little bit more ornery than normal probably for the next couple of weeks ... Biggest thing right now is we've just got to keep him out of harm's way, try to keep him out of the way so he's not doing too much.”

Linebackers coach and assistant defensive coordinator Seth Wallace is running things practice wise during Parker’s absence.

“It doesn’t change us much,” Wallace said.

Wallace said the NCAA deciding to allow program analysts to be on the sideline in a coaching capacity during practice helps. Iowa’s two defensive analysts are Tyler Parker (Phil’s son) and Shane Viilo.

“Both of them have been around this program for years. Both of them are Iowa graduates, so they were in the building during their undergrad (years),” Wallace said. “So they’ve got a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of knowledge. In years past, they weren’t able to go out there on the field coaching. That has changed in the last month and a half.

“This is providing them an opportunity to run the meetings, to be around the players, to do what Phil had been doing. You could come out here, and, other than Phil not being out here, you wouldn’t notice much of a change structurally.”

Tyler Barnes has new title

Ferentz announced Friday that recruiting coordinator Tyler Barnes has a new title. It's football Chief of Staff and General Manager.

Formerly known as Iowa’s recruiting coordinator, he is Ferentz’s son-in-law.

“Tyler basically is really helpful in overseeing our entire personnel group,” Ferentz said. “Used to just be recruiting, now you've got NIL, you've got (transfer) portal, there's all kinds of stuff, all kinds of moving pieces. Having him in place really allows me to do some of the things I want to be doing.”

Let coaches be coaches, Ferentz said.

“With all these changes, the work that Tyler and his staff do is really critical because it allows our coaches to actually coach the guys that we recruit to come here, and when we do recruit players, we promise them and their families that we're going to try to coach them and try to move them forward,” Ferentz said. “To do that, you have to be here, and you have to be present mentally and physically.”

Iowa football injury update

Back to injuries.

Ferentz said running back Leshon Williams has not been practicing and obviously will not participate in Saturday’s Kids Day scrimmage at Kinnick Stadium. Williams, a senior from Chicago, led Iowa with 821 rushing yards last season.

The good news is the team’s depth at running back is outstanding. And Williams’ injury isn’t serious.

“We know who he is, and we’ve got total confidence in him, but he hasn’t been able to go,” Ferentz said. “Hopefully we’ll get him moving here pretty quickly. But he’s working through some stuff. Nothing long term.”

Ferentz added that redshirt freshman back Terrell Washington Jr. has been working out at both running back and wide receiver.

True freshman talk

Ferentz said all of the team’s true freshmen appear to be acclimating well, not referencing anyone specifically. He said the NCAA’s new scholarship limit (up to 105) will require his program to push freshmen to enroll at Iowa during the second semester.

He has mixed feelings about that.

“We have made a living on guys who are three-sport, four-sport athletes,” Ferentz said. “We’ve had guys who are wrestling champions, basketball state champions, track champs. The new world we’re in right now, we’re going to be negligent with our jobs if we’re not trying to, not force, but really encourage guys to come in mid-term their senior year.

“So when we think about all this stuff with college football, the trickle-down effect. To me, that ought to be a part of the high school experience. I’m really torn on that. But I know this, if we don’t (encourage early enrollment), then we’re in trouble. It’s like forget about the high school stuff. The stuff that we told you was (originally) important, forget about that. It’s one of the unintended consequences of the new world we’re in.”

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