Hospital head count dwindles to eight for Hawkeyes

Five University of Iowa football players were released from the hospital Friday afternoon, according to a news release that included a statement from Coach Kirk Ferentz.

“I am pleased to learn that five of the 13 members of the UI football team are being discharged from UI Hospitals and Clinics throughout this afternoon and evening,” Ferentz said. ”I am very happy for these student-athletes and their families, and look forward to the release of the remaining student-athletes in the days ahead.”

This was the first public statement this week from Ferentz, who's entering his 13th season as Iowa's coach.

“I have been communicating with each student-athlete and their parents, or guardians, since learning they were admitted into the hospital,” Ferentz said. ”Members of the football staff have also been communicating daily with this group. This communication will continue until each student-athlete is able to resume their academic and athletic commitments.”

A source with knowledge of the situation told The Gazette the NCAA isn't looking into the situation that saw 13 Iowa players hospitalized Monday for rhabdomyolysis after off-season workouts.

For more on this story go to Marc Morehouse's On Iowa blog and The Hlog by Mike Hlas.

National story

An anonymous parent told ESPN.com Friday that a strength coach told Iowa players the team didn't finish games this season and “we'll find out who wants to be here.” The 8-5 Hawkeyes collapsed in the fourth quarter in all five losses.

The Sporting News and ESPN.com reported the 13 players tested negative for illegal drugs.

Possibly because of The Sporting News report, the UIHC sent employees a reminder on HIPAA privacy laws early Friday. By Friday afternoon, hospital officials announced they are conducting an investigation after a proactive screening of electronic medical records system indicated that some of the players' records may have been accessed inappropriately.

Ferentz was at the hospital Thursday night after returning from a recruiting trip through Ohio and Michigan, a source confirmed. ESPN.com quoted a parent saying Ferentz was “blistered” for not returning sooner. This was confirmed Friday by a Gazette source.

“I believe he is devastated by all this. He has been wonderful. But his mistake was not coming off the road right away,” the parent told ESPN.com.

A source told The Gazette the general mood of the parents is they want Iowa to be straightforward and make sure there are safeguards so this doesn't happen again.

"As the parent of both a current and former member of the team, the health and well-being of each student-athlete in our football program is paramount,” Ferentz said in the news release. “I will work with all of the individuals and groups that contribute to the welfare of our student-athletes to understand what led to this occurrence in order to make certain it does not happen again.”

ESPN.com reported that a parent said some players had gained “30 to 50 pounds” since entering the hospital because of the amount of fluids forced into their bodies. Another parent told ESPN.com a player had sustained “20 to 30 (percent?) loss of kidney function.”

Jordan Bernstine is one of the hospitalized players. His brother, Keevon Bernstine, posted on his Facebook account Thursday that Jordan “is fat as hell.”

Also confirmed as being hospitalized are Jim Poggi, Shane DiBona, Willie Lowe and Tom Donatell. It's not known if they were among those released.

WBZ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Boston, reported that DiBona's mother, Faith, is in Iowa City.

She told the station Shane is “doing much better” and might be out of the hospital today.

Kidney dialysis would be a worst-case scenario with this rhabdomyolysis, but Dr. Bryan Becker, the immediate past president of the National Kidney Foundation and a physician at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he wouldn't anticipate the acute injury to be permanent and they likely would recover.

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The debate

Meanwhile, the national debate continued to rage.

“As a lawyer, I have to tell, in my opinion, you're probably looking at some guys thinking about filing suit against the university,” ESPN college football analyst Rod Gilmore said Friday on ESPN's “College Football Live.”

The Iowa debate led the show and lasted nearly six minutes.

Several former Iowa players came to the defense of strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, who, according to sources, is shaken over the incident.

Adam Blalock, co-director of Performance Sport & Speed in Coralville, part of Performance Therapies, also had high praise for Doyle.

“Other than this one instance, the way he's run his program is ideal,” Blalock said. ”When you want a job in this business, you put Doyle as a reference. If someone on the East Coast calls him about a strength coach and he says ‘Hire this guy,' they hire him.”

No news conference has been scheduled with Ferentz, Doyle or Athletics Director Gary Barta, who was out of town but returned Thursday night. Ferentz traditionally meets with the media on national signing day, which is next Wednesday.