Portal season officially beings at Iowa
If you have ever been to the circus, then you have seen a plate spinner. He’s the guy that somehow puts several plates on the top of poles or sticks and gets them spinning. When one starts to wobble, he has to act quickly get the plate spinning at full speed so it doesn’t fall off and break.
For college coaches, portal season is a lot like being a plate spinner.
You have your own players, potential transfer portal targets, and recruits that you are trying to keep engaged with all at once in the next few weeks. Sometimes those players start to wobble and either look at the portal or talk to another school and a coach has to move quickly to get that player back on track before they fall and break the relationship.
After playing in the Big Ten title game this past weekend, Iowa is now officially into portal season. To their credit, the Iowa players and coaches stayed focused on the task at hand this past week. They were dialed in on trying to beat Michigan. While they fell short, we also didn’t see any Iowa players jumping ship and heading into the portal.
Kirk Ferentz said on Sunday afternoon following the bowl announcement that he and his staff will sit down starting Monday morning and discuss the roster and begin the process of speaking individually with players about their future.
“Hard to predict how it will go this year,” Ferentz said. “A year ago at this time we had already met with our players during the week after Thanksgiving. I would talk to each and every one of them about their future so we would have some indication about their future and how the roster would shake out.”
The only positive for Iowa regarding last year and not going to the Big Ten title game was that this process started a week earlier than it did this year. That means the Iowa coaches will have to get a read on the room quickly and the players will have to communicate their intentions sooner rather than later because once the portal officially opens on Monday you do not want to be left behind.
Ferentz said he feels like this process will take a few days to sort out and he certainly doesn’t seem to be panicked heading into the official opening of portal season.
“My guess is by the end of the week we will have a good idea about how our roster is going to shake out and then we will have a better idea moving forward and looking into the portal and what might be of interest to us.”
Iowa saw their first player enter the transfer portal on Sunday when Brenden Deasfernandes said he was leaving the Hawkeye program. He’s been a reserve defensive back and sometimes special team’s player this season, so it’s no surprise that he would look elsewhere for playing time.
There will be more players from the Iowa roster entering the transfer portal. It’s normal expected so fans should be very comfortable and not panic when you start to see more names. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a running back hit the portal along with a wide receiver in the coming days. There will be other positions, but it is also worth noting that Iowa is still over the 85 scholarship limit for next season.
That limit also comes into play with the Hawkeyes trying to convince players like Luke Lachey, Sebastian Castro, and Jay Higgins to return for one more season. Also, there’s a chance that Nick Jackson, who was thought to be out of eligibility, could apply for another season due to his final year at Virginia being cut short after the tragic deaths of his teammates. This will be something to monitor moving forward. One thing to remember, for every player added to the returning list, that’s one less portal player.
Finally, there’ the portal shopping. Right now the biggest need position is cornerback. Beyond that, it’s somewhat up in the air. It will depend on who leaves in the portal. It will also depend on the relationship with a portal prospect, how he would fit in at Iowa, and the need at the position.
One thing is almost certain, the ride is going to be bumpy, so buckle up.
The post Portal season officially beings at Iowa appeared first on On3.
