10 Takeaways from Iowa football Wednesday

1. Can't ignore the news

- Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and now stands convicted in the 2013 murder of onetime friend Odin Lloyd.

DJ Hernandez, Aaron's brother, has served as a graduate assistant at Iowa for the last two year. His term ends after this spring semester. Also, Iowa OL coach Brian Ferentz coached Aaron Hernandez as New England's tight ends coach in 2011.

'These things are unfortunate, and really I don't think it benefits Iowa football or myself to comment on the situation other than it's tragic,” Brian Ferentz said. 'It's certainly much more tragic for the victims involved, but these types of things, they affect everyone. I feel bad for DJ and for his family, but I feel worse for the victims in this case. Things like this, again, I think the reason you don't comment is what can you really say. I don't know what I could say that would make any sense to me or to anyone in here and wouldn't be picked apart. I think it's very difficult for DJ, and I think it's more difficult for the victims. I wish it hadn't happened, but it did.”

2. Iowa has 146 scholarship offers out for the 2016 class

- Recruiting coordinator Seth Wallace talked about a philosophical change in Iowa recruiting. Under Wallace, who'll begin his second year on the job this summer, Iowa has kicked up on early offers with 146 scholarships out to 2016 prospects. No, they don't expect a whole bunch of yes. Wallace said the class will likely run into the low to mid 20s.

'We've recognized that we can get into areas and have success and draw interest, but the biggest thing is being able to get ahead of the curve, which is probably the biggest change, just how aggressively we've been on the front end of things,” Wallace said.

3. Is it working, what's the measure?

- Yes, Iowa has two commitments right now. I'm not going to go through the whole Big Ten right this minute to see how that compares, but let's pick one - Minnesota.

The Gophers have six commits including four-star OL Sean Foster, a 6-8, 285-pounder from Mundelein, Ill. Iowa's commits are QB Nathan Stanley (three stars) and RB Toren Young (two stars).

'There's no red flags going up right now that we've got X amount of commitments versus what other programs have, but the way that we're measuring it is in conversations that we've had with these young men, their parents, opportunities to be around them, having them here on campus during the months of January and February, and then as we've moved into March and April, having them here for spring practice, the opportunity to spend significant time with them is really how we're measuring it because it still goes back to relationships,” Wallace said. 'Nobody is going to make a decision without having those relationships built. We're, again, ahead of the curve or are moving a little bit faster than we have in the past, but it's allowed us to build significant relationships with some of these guys.”

Kirk Ferentz has given Wallace leeway to change Iowa's recruiting strategy. This is very different. Frankly, I applaud it. It is going to take more than one year. I don't think we've reached the 'steak knives” part of 'Glengarry Glen Ross.”

4. Run game coordinator

- As you might've thought, Brian Ferentz waved this question through. He was asked what the conversation was like when Kirk Ferentz gave him that title and announced the change and he left the convo behind closed doors.

Any changes in the running attack?

'I wouldn't foresee any radical changes on our run game. You know, the people who taught me anything that I know about football were essentially the architects of this run game anyway, so I wouldn't see any changes there.”

Any specifics on the job?

'I think a lot - you guys' job is to write stories and to create stories and do all those things. I think if you look around the country, this is a pretty common thing. If you walk down that hallway in there, which none of you are invited to do, that's the nice thing about this building; there's locks and key fobs and things like that, but if you were to walk down that hallway, I think there's nine - well, I know there's nine full‑time assistants on our staff. There's five that carry some type of coordinator title, so if more than half of your assistants are coordinators, my question would be what is really in a title.

'But it's just a matter of I think we wanted to simplify the teaching from the standpoint of if you're going to have a meeting then there needs to be one voice, so to create one voice, that's a good thing when we all get together, but I think it's important to remember that as an offensive staff we have five very capable, very qualified coaches on that staff that all have a tremendous amount of input. This is really just a clerical, I don't know - it's almost a formality. I don't think it really means too much, if that answers the question.”

5. They call him 'Turbo”

- Junior defensive tackle Kyle Terlouw (6-4, 288) is nicknamed 'Turbo.” That was the one thing we really learned from last weekend's scrimmage in Des Moines. We learned Wednesday from Iowa DL coach Reese Morgan that 'Turbo” is very much in the plans for 2015.

'He's going to play for us next year. He's going to get on the field. He's very tough. He's a junior college young man out of Iowa Central that had Division I scholarship opportunities, chose to come here, and we're delighted to have him. He's a work in progress, now. He's a pickup truck with some used tires on it, but he's a great young man that really, really cares about football.”

Morgan compared Drew Ott to a pickup truck last season. If he compares you to a motorized vehicle, that's a good sign.

6. Cooper not medically cleared

- Senior DT Darian Cooper was in sweats last weekend. After missing 2014 with knee surgeries, it's unclear if he'll be able to return in ‘15.

Here's what Morgan said: 'He still has not been cleared by our medical and training staff, and Coop, if you recall back to when he was a true freshman, he was really a dynamic, exciting player and so forth, and he's endured multiple injuries and surgeries on those knees. Until he gets cleared, and he's working in that direction, and he's in every meeting, his attitude has been great, and our medical staff is amazed at his mental and physical toughness, to go through what he's gone through physically, our surgeons are just amazed at his pain threshold quite honestly.”

7. BF on close ballgames

- OK, this is why I'm at a hold with the Ferentz regime. Last year fell short of goal and it wasn't close and I'm definitely not arguing that. Yet, the fact remains that four of Iowa's six losses were by a touchdown or less. OK, let's go to three, because that Maryland game was out of reach and it ended so badly that let's just not argue for it for any reason whatsoever.

Iowa lost by three to ISU, two to Wisconsin and three in overtime to Nebraska. That's not salve for the wounds (you'll be quick to remind me that ISU was 2-10 last season and the game was in Kinnick), but it is a fact.

I thought Brian's comments on this were a little more than spackling a hole in the wall: 'We lost close ballgames last year, and when we have a good football team, when we have a healthy program, we don't lose close ballgames, we win close ballgames. So when you look at the games we lost and you look at the ways we lost those games, I don't think you have to look too much further than that. We didn't get the things done that we needed to do. We did not establish the run consistently enough. We didn't protect the passer well enough. I guess I'm living in my world right now, but that's really all I can control and that's what I focus on.

'When you don't do those things very well and you don't play well in the fourth quarter of close ballgames, you're not going to be happy with the result, and that's not how we've had success around here. We've had success by getting into close football games and winning them at the end, and you look at our football team two years ago, we were able to do that. You look at our football team last year, we weren't able to, so that's to me what we have to fix immediately.”

Let me highlight this part: 'We lost close ballgames last year, and when we have a good football team, when we have a healthy program, we don't lose close ballgames

, we win close ballgames.”

There it is. What defines a healthy program for Iowa? That's our homework assignment.

8. Recruiting skill positions at Iowa

- You might remember the post I wrote last week about Iowa's lopsided history with NFL draft picks - heavy on the OL and DL, not well represented in the skill positions.

I asked Seth Wallace if it's difficult to recruit skill players to Iowa City and if that history ever bites them?

'You look at the skill players that we got from this past year and this year's signing class, there's some damned good ones. Those guys were attracted here for different reasons. It could be because they wanted to play in a pro‑style offense, it could be because when they came up here, Iowa was the right fit for them, and they knew that by being a part of this program, for what it stands for and the values that are in place here, they knew that they were going to get a hell of an experience in college and college football.

'You know, I know that that's out there, that it's tough to recruit skill players here. I kind of disagree. It still has to be the right fit, and to me there's still a lot to sell with those guys

.”

9. Iowa has three DL who played 8-man football - DE Drew Ott, DT Nathan Bazata and DE Nate Meier all played eight-man football before they accepted scholarships to play at Iowa. Ott and Meier you know. Ott will be a three-year starter. Meier will be in his second season as a starter this fall. Bazata has won the DT spot opposite Jaleel Johnson and is in competition with Faith Ekakitie to hold on to it.

Oh yeah, they all also were recruited by Morgan, their position coach.

'There's a profile for those type of guys,” Morgan said. 'If you go back and look at them, Nate Meier was an all‑state running back, was a state qualifier in track, was a really good multi‑sport athlete. Drew Ott was the player of the year in the state of Nebraska in basketball, was state champ two years in a row. He was the Gatorade Player of the Year. He was the state shot‑put champ. Bazata was the state wrestling champ, state shot‑put champ, only lost, I think, five games in four years in high school, two‑time state champ.

'So these guys all have those other things and characteristics. That helps reinforce the argument for trying to take guys like that.”

10. Speaking of Morgan and recruiting - Brian Ferentz coaches them now, but Reese Morgan was the recruiter for Iowa's two new offensive tackles Boone Myers and Ike Boettger.

On Myers: 'Probably the thing that really caught the eye was the night I went to watch him play basketball at the Waverly, they played Waverly High School, and a young man from Waverly was going to play basketball at UNI, and Boone guarded him, and Boone is not a basketball player but he's a tremendous competitor with a lot of pride,” Morgan said. 'To see him compete and the production that he had and the way‑‑ that just was‑‑ right away you knew.”

On Boettger: 'With Ike, the first thing you noticed was his size and his intelligence and he was a quarterback and a DB and they played him at tight end and then he's played in the offensive line and an athletic guy. These guys are going to be good players, they're going to be very good players.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com