Iowa football’s latest wave of transfer portal additions address areas where Hawkeyes were ‘thin a little bit’

WEST DES MOINES — Kirk Ferentz said over the weekend that Iowa football was “not done yet” in the transfer portal.

He wasn’t kidding.

Three days later, the Hawkeyes added former Purdue defensive back Ty Hudkins via the portal. Hudkins became the third Hawkeye portal commitment in a seven-day span, joining former South Dakota defensive back Shahid Barros and former Wake Forest quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski.

All three of Iowa’s recent portal additions address areas that were not necessarily dire needs, but areas where the Hawkeyes certainly could benefit from more depth.

Iowa’s secondary must replace three multiyear seniors — Jermari Harris at cornerback and Sebastian Castro and Quinn Schulte at safety — as they pursue the NFL. Safety Xavier Nwankpa and cornerbacks T.J. Hall and Deshaun Lee return with notable starting experience although all three experienced some ups and downs in 2024.

“We were thin a little bit in the back end, in the secondary,” Ferentz said ahead of an event Polk County I-Club event on Wednesday. “So we’ve signed two guys now and feel good about both those guys. One’s younger, one’s older.”

Hudkins has three years of eligibility after appearing in 12 games (mostly on special teams) as a true freshman at Purdue. Barros has one year of eligibility after four years at South Dakota, including two as a starter.

“So I think they’ll come in and, most importantly, compete,” Ferentz said. “And at that position, even if they don’t end up being starters — if they do, that’s great — but if they don’t, they’ll be involved in special teams. And we play more than one guy at that position obviously, so I think they’re going to have a chance when they get in to try to carve out a role.”

At quarterback, meanwhile, the Hawkeyes had the ability to add after Brendan Sullivan — a Northwestern transfer who started three games in his one season in Iowa City — entered the transfer portal.

Warren Ruggiero, now an analyst on Iowa’s staff, previously was the offensive coordinator at Wake Forest and obviously had an existing level of familiarity with Hecklinski.

“We weren’t necessarily looking, but Warren brought his name up,” Ferentz said. “I’m not sure what the situation was at Wake, but Jeremy became available. … Warren recruited him and knew him, and then the most important part is Warren knows our guys, too. He’s been in there long enough now to know our program, so he was confident that Jeremy would be a really good fit with our team.”

Mark Gronowski is expected to be Iowa’s starting quarterback after leading South Dakota State to two FCS national championships. He has only one year of eligibility, though.

Iowa’s other quarterbacks this spring were Auburn transfer Hank Brown, walk-on Jackson Stratton and early enrollee Jimmy Sullivan. Incoming walk-on Ryan Fitzgerald will join the team in the summer. Stratton has two years of eligibility remaining, and Brown has three years remaining.

“Hank’s already done a great job,” Ferentz said. “And you got Jackson, you got Jimmy. So it’s going to be, hopefully, a really healthy room, healthy competition, and hopefully we’ll have a good 1-2-3 punch when we come out of camp next August.”

It is a significantly different quarterback room from a year ago, as Cade McNamara and Marco Lainez departed via the transfer portal (along with the aforementioned Sullivan). Iowa then added three quarterbacks via portal — Brown and Gronowski in the winter and Hecklinski in the spring.

The Hawkeyes have added at least two quarterbacks in each of the last three portal cycles. (McNamara and Deacon Hill joined the room ahead of the 2023 season, and Sullivan and Stratton joined the room ahead of the 2024 season.)

“In a perfect world — the world’s hardly perfect — but it’d be great if we could get back to not having to go looking for a quarterback in the portal,” Ferentz said. “It seems to be a really popular thing right now, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we’d rather at all positions be growing guys at home and getting guys ready from that standpoint.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

Sign up for our curated Iowa Hawkeyes athletics newsletter at thegazette.com/hawks.