Hawkeyes 3 and Out: Steve Ferentz expects tears on senior day

1. Prop bet: Will senior offensive lineman Steve Ferentz shed a few tears on senior day?

The end is here for Steve Ferentz. It's been a concept for so long. He could always see it coming and now the fifth-year Iowa offensive lineman will take his last steps in an Iowa uniform.

'This is something I've thought about the last five years,' Ferentz said. 'There's going to come a day when it's over. It's finally coming. It's always been so far off in my mind, but now it's kind of here.'

Steve Ferentz's situation is a little different. He is the youngest of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and his wife Mary's five children. He'll be Kirk's last son to wear an Iowa jersey. Steve walked on in 2012 after a stellar prep career at Iowa City High. He followed his oldest brother Brian, who happens to be the Hawkeyes' offensive line coach, and middle brother James, who plays for the Denver Broncos, as Hawkeyes.

When Brian finished at Iowa in 2005, he was a mess jogging up to meet his parents. James, more of a stoic, also lost it.

Steve?

'I'm sure there'll be a prop bet on whether there will be some water works for me,' Steve said with a laugh.

Steve grew up Hawkeye. He was 5 when his dad was hired by the UI in 1998. He grew up playing with strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle's sons Declan, Donovan and Dillon. And then Doyle helped Steve grow from a 230-pound tight end to a 280-pound center/guard.

Steve's experience differs from Brian and James, both of whom were three-year starters for the Hawkeyes, in that he didn't crack the starting lineup. He also remained a walk-on for his five years.

Steve is nonetheless proud of his days in the program. Everyone counts.

'You take the same approach no matter what your role is,' he said. 'You're doing what you can to help the team and get better as an individual. I've been back and forth from scout team and the two deep-type-of-guy. Whatever my role is on a week-to-week basis, it's just about filling it. Whether it's giving the defense a good look or backing up a guy or even just showing younger guys the work ethic that's necessary around here, I might not be playing but there's a role for everybody on the team.'

Don't shrug at scout team. Quarterback C.J. Beathard did his time there and spoke this summer of taking shots from former Iowa linebackers James Morris and Anthony Hitchens.

Steve was in on the floor of senior defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson's career. He also lined up across from former defensive tackles Louis Trinca-Pasat and Carl Davis.

'Jaleel and Carl are the same,' Steve said. 'If I have my best day and use my best fundamentals, they still might just crinkle me up like a ball of paper and throw me 5 yards into the backfield.'

Crinkled up like paper and thrown into ... maybe a classroom.

Steve said one of the careers he's considering is history and secondary education. And don't rule out coaching.

'I'm thinking about it right now,' Steve said. 'We'll see what happens. I try to put all of that stuff off until the future, but the future is coming up quick on me right now.'

2. Contrary to popular belief, Iowa has decided to continue recruiting football players for football

This is the day after Thanksgiving. Do you think football recruiting stops? Nah, it doesn't.

And, yes, Iowa's recruiting class took a hit in the decommitment department this week and Ferentz answered questions kind of like a hostile witness when questioned about Iowa's 'no visit' policy.

The Hawkeyes remain in the business of football and will continue to recruit football players.

HawkeyeReport.com publisher Tom Kakert takes us through some of the visitors who'll be here in Kinnick.

Here's Tom ...

With the final home game of the regular season upon us, it's also another opportunity for the Iowa coaches to bring in potential recruits to Kinnick Stadium.

It's going to be hard to top what the more than 60 recruits witnessed in the last home game, when Iowa knocked off previously undefeated Michigan, but the Hawkeyes will try to deliver another strong performance on Senior Day.

Leading the group of recruits for the Nebraska/Iowa game is Oliver Martin

. The star wide receiver from Iowa City West is making his fifth unofficial trip to Kinnick Stadium this season. With his season over following the Trojans runner-up finish in Class 4A in Iowa, Martin can now start to focus on making his college choice. He still is considering Michigan, Notre Dame and Michigan State at this point, but no timeline has been set for a decision.

Given the recent defections from Iowa's 2017 class at wide receiver, landing Martin would cushion that blow significantly.

Two other prospects with offers from Iowa who will be here Friday afternoon are 2018 athlete Saybein Clark, from Sioux City, and 2019 quarterback Max Duggan

, of Council Bluffs.

A couple of interesting names from the 2017 class who could be worth watching include Jake Kallenberger, a junior college defensive end originally from Bettendorf and currently at Iowa Central. He is the brother of 2017 commit Mark Kallenberger. Also Thomas Dutton

, a tight end prospect from Columbia, Mo., who is currently committed to Air Force. Neither have Iowa offers yet.

One other interesting name that will be making another visit to Iowa this weekend is Javian Dayne

from Wisconsin. He is the son of former Wisconsin standout Ron Dayne and is a 2018 prospect.

There also will be several 2017 Iowa commits making their way to Iowa City on Black Friday. They include Kallenberger, Jacob Coons, Tristan Wirfs, Levi Duwa, Cameron Harrell, Ivory Kelly-Martin and Coy Kirkpatrick

.

3. Big Ten Love Tester

It's Rutgers at Maryland, an 11 a.m. kickoff on none other than ESPNews.

If you're on Twitter, go there, follow a bunch of sportswriters, college football websites and TV and whatever college football and get ready for a torrent of tweets questioning why Rutgers is in the Big Ten.

And then simply tweet back, '$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.'

That's the answer.

But other than that, enjoy a fantastic slate of football. After Saturday, they're not making a whole lot more of it, at least not in the Big Ten stadium near you and not for another nine or 10 months.

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