Iowa football coaches impressed with players transition to unusual fall camp
No matter the position, the coaches have seen resiliency from players as the team prepares for its season opener.
Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz looks down on the stadium before addressing members of the press during football media day in Kinnick Stadium on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. “It’s not a normal media day by any stretch, but what it does signify is that we’re one step closer to getting on with football,” Ferentz said. “It’s been great to get started with practice.”
October 8, 2020
Fall camp looks different this year as the Iowa football team prepares for the 2020 season. But that can be said about the entire offseason.
There were no spring practices this year because of COVID-19 and preparation for the season was put on hold when the Big Ten postponed it Aug. 11. Now, the Hawkeyes are gearing up for a football season that starts in a little over two weeks after the Big Ten announced it would start the weekend of Oct. 24.
The twists and turns of the offseason have forced not only players, but coaches to adjust, from holding fall camp while classes are in session to coming back to the facility after months of virtual meetings.
“Just from the Zoom calls, I thought [players] made the transition very smoothly,” running backs coach Derrick Foster said. “And you worry about that they’ll be able to retain information that we would review back in the sessions when we’re going through Zoom meetings only. And so, they were retaining a lot of information. I think we picked off right where we left off and just moved forward because we knew we didn’t have a whole lot of time, but we knew everyone had the same amount of time we have.”
Iowa’s running backs are supposed to be a productive group this season. The preseason depth chart has sophomore Tyler Goodson as the starter, with senior Mekhi Sargent as one of his backups. In 2019, Goodson was the first true freshman to ever lead the Hawkeyes in rushing yards in a season. He had 638 yards and five TDs.
Sargent started eight games last season and has 13 rushing TDs as a Hawkeye. There will be a new starting fullback because Brady Ross graduated, and redshirt sophomore Monte Pottebaum is the starter on the depth chart.
At wide receiver, seniors Brandon Smith and Ihmir Smith-Marsette are expected to be the most productive players and are helping the younger Hawkeyes at their position, which is also true for other seniors at different positions.
“They’ve set the precedent with how things should be, how things should be done, and the ways things are done here at Iowa and what the expectations are,” wide receivers coach Kelton Copleland said.
The Big Ten schedule wasn’t announced until Sept. 16, and Iowa starts its season on Oct. 24 at Purdue.
Knowing the schedule way less in advance than normal has Iowa’s coaches finding new ways to prepare for the season, which they typically spend months doing.
“I will say I complement our offense for the way they have broaden the use of their players,” assistant defensive coordinator Seth Wallace said. “Because it’s not the traditional two back down hill, splits zone, slam play. We’re defending a lot right now, which is only helping us get further ahead with some things we’re going to see during the season.
“But it’s always been a challenge and will continue to be a challenge. Seeing the ball go east and west and more vertical down the field and coming right at you like you would find from a typical Iowa run game or Wisconsin run game. So, just trying to prepare for that, which is how much we have left in these 16 days that we got to get ready for our first opponent.”
Head coach Kirk Ferentz said his team went slow to start off camp because of COVID-19, and that it’s been the hardest camp Iowa’s had to work through in his tenure. His players are starting to catch up and have good attitudes, he said.
“This isn’t like any preseason camp, the psychology of it is very strange,” Ferentz said. “To be out there and really not face any heat challenges, it’s a little bit weird to see the leaves changing colors and wearing sweat shirts and long pants at times that’s been a little different.
“But where it is like camp there’s some good things that we’re seeing on a daily basis, some things that aren’t so good and that tends to change day-by-day and sometimes even period-to-period. So it is like the preseason in that regard, and our challenge is to try to pull everything together. The bottom line is our time is really short right now, we’ll have another week of ‘camp type’ preparation and then get into our game prep for the first game against Purdue.”
