The Iowa football team’s transfer exodus continued on Thursday afternoon as two more players announced their attention to enter the portal. Quarterback-turned-receiver James Resar and fullback Rusty VanWetzinga IV are the fifth and sixth Hawkeyes who entered the transfer portal this season.
Resar, a 247 Sports’ four-star recruit out of Bishop Kenny High School in Florida, made the transition to wideout early in the fall, but suffered a non-contact injury. The first-year has not seen action this season.
Resar’s departure is the latest among a trend of Iowa quarterback recruits departing before the season concludes. John Steppe of the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that QB recruits from 2019-22 all ended up in the transfer portal. The remaining quarterbacks on Iowa’s roster include Brendan Sullivan, Jackson Stratton, and Marco Lainez, who head coach Kirk Ferentz said is out of a cast following a thumb injury.
VanWetzinga, a redshirt freshman from Pleasant Valley, Iowa, saw his first action in the Hawkeyes’ bowl game loss to Tennessee last season. In 2024, he appeared in four games but had no statistics. Part of his reasoning for entering the portal was because of a “coaching/system change over the past year on offense.” Iowa hired Tim Lester as offensive coordinator last offseason.
The remaining fullbacks on Iowa’s roster include Hayden Large and Eli Miller.
As part of the House v. NCAA settlement established over the summer, NCAA teams will not have roster caps as opposed to scholarship limits. Football squads will have to decrease their roster sizes from the usual 121 to 105 in time for 2025-2026 school year. Â For an underutilized position like fullback, teams might not want to dedicate three spots to the position and instead rely on hybrid players like Large, who has past experience at tight end.
Resar and VanWetzinga join running back Lehson Williams, quarterback Cade McNamara, tight end Johnny Pascuzzi, and wide receiver Kaleb Brown as the team’s transfer portal departures. Williams, who led the Hawkeyes in rushing last season, initially committed to Memphis before flipping to Kansas on Dec. 2.