Talking points with Iowa football assistants

IOWA CITY - In January, Kirk Ferentz first downplayed the announcement that Brian Ferentz, his son and Iowa's offensive line coach, was named 'run game coordinator” during the off-season. He joked that the move was made so someone could veto his bad ideas.

Wednesday, it was Brian Ferentz's turn to say his new title is just that, a title.

' This is really just a clerical ... I don't know - it's almost a formality,” said Ferentz, who's beginning his fourth season as an assistant on his father's staff. 'I don't think it really means too much, if that answers the question.”

Between how Ferentz and offensive assistants Chris White and Bobby Kennedy have described the role, it sounds as if offensive meetings on the running game have been distilled to one voice, that being Brian Ferentz's.

Ferentz said it's a common industry practice to have a single voice dictate and sew together the running concepts. He also said five Iowa assistants carry 'coordinator” in their titles.

'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,” Ferentz said. '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.”

Wednesday was the third week in a series of interviews with Iowa assistant coaches. It was convenient that both coaches heavily involved in finding and recruiting and now coaching new offensive tackles Ike Boettger and Boone Myers were on hand.

Defensive line coach Reese Morgan recruits Iowa and was on point with Boettger (Cedar Falls) and Myers (who was a walk-on from Webster City before being awarded a scholarship last fall).

Morgan pointed to their multisport profiles as the main attraction. During recruiting, Morgan saw Myers play basketball against a Northern Iowa signee.

'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 (6-6, 300) and his intelligence and he was a quarterback and a defensive back 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.”

Boettger and Myers haven't seen a lot of meaningful snaps. Ferentz brought that into perspective and sort of laid out the near future for the third-year sophomores.

'Right now the biggest focus for him [Myers] is going to be to take some of those tangible athletic things he has, some of those intangible character things he has and put those to use on Saturdays in the fall, and if he does a good job with that, then we can talk a little bit further,” Ferentz said. 'But right now I just hope he plays well today when we go out to practice, then tomorrow, then perhaps Saturday, next week, and then we can talk about August when we get there.”

Recruiting coordinator Seth Wallace also spoke Wednesday. He did add cornerback to his coaching duties this season, but recruiting remains the thrust of his job.

Wallace said Iowa's number for recruits in 2016 will be in the low- to mid-20s. He added that Iowa's philosophy has shifted. The staff has been more aggressive with offers. HawkeyeReport.com has Iowa at 146 offers as of Wednesday.

A lot of committing is now done during unofficial visits (which is a proximity thing, with recruits and not schools footing the bill for the unofficial visits). Wallace said the hope is the offer gathers interest and the relationship builds from there.

'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,” said Wallace, who's beginning his second year as Iowa's recruiting coordinator.

Iowa has two commitments for the 2016 class - Wisconsin quarterback Nathan Stanley and Wisconsin running back Toren Young. Is that number low? A quick look around the Big Ten West shows Minnesota with six and Wisconsin and Nebraska with three commits. Wallace doesn't see a red flag here.

'Nobody is going to make a decision without having those relationships built,” Wallace said. '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.”

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