As is tradition, we sit down with Iowa's director of recruiting on signing day to discuss the new recruiting class. We visited with Iowa director of recruiting Tyler Barnes to get his thoughts on several of the incoming players and the state of recruiting in college sports today.

Q: What is it like out there with the portal, high school recruiting, and everything else? It seems like chaos.

BARNES: That’s a good way to describe it, but it’s good. There are certain challenges, but our staff does a great job and we are going to put together the team that Coach Ferentz envisions.

We are going to be heavier in the portal than we have in the past, but we are also going to try and get to know as much about those guys to find the right fits for our program. We have been trying to recruit high school players, college players, and in some cases, your own players, so there are a lot of balls in the air.

Q: I said the other day that coaches right now are like the plate spinner at the circus, where the plate might be wobbling and you have to run over and take care of it, and then rush over to another one. Does it feel like that now? You have to manage your own roster, bowl prep, recruiting, the portal. It’s a lot right now on the plate of a college coach.

BARNES: Lucky for me I only have to worry about managing recruiting. Our coaches and Coach Ferentz have to worry more about the other stuff and preparing for the bowl game.

Let’s just say it has been different this year. Last year we played in the Big Ten title game and the recruiting calendar as shorter, so we really only had seven days to go out and recruit, which was good and bad.

This year we had three full weeks and then with the portal opening up, guys were pouring in there and you are trying to keep track of that and recruit guys in the class because you can’t assume anything there. I think there are some things that we will do differently next year as we prepare for it and see if we can improve it. There were certainly a lot of balls in the air.

Q: The quarterback position is always important in any class. How important was it to get Cade McNamara early on in portal process since it is a high demand spot in there and how important was it to get Marco Lainez early on with the class you just signed?

BARNES: I personally think that every class should be centered around getting a good quarterback. You would love to get a quarterback that loves to communicate with other guys and bring them with him. Getting Marco was huge and he loves doing that and he’s always reaching out to guys in to recruit them to Iowa.

Then in the portal, it’s a little different. I think Cade hit the portal on a Sunday just before the regular portal opened up. He could go in any time as a graduate transfer. We knew we had about three days to see if we could get this done and he was talking with some other good schools too. He knew about us and what we were about having played against us and he understands the team. He isn’t listening to the rhetoric out there and he just wants to come out there and fix it. At the same times he has been aggressive trying to bring some guys with him. He has been doing a lot behind the scenes in terms of reaching out to portal guys.

Q: In the last day or so there has been a lot of focus on the offensive lineman not coming here, but this is still a very good offensive line class for Iowa.

BARNES: I think people talk about Leighton because he’s pretty active on social media and Trevor is more highly ranked, but I don’t think people are talking enough about the other guys in this class.

Cannon Leonard is a good prospect. His brother is a freshman at Illinois and myself and Coach Barnett are central Illinois guys. He came to our camp and he’s probably taller than most tackles that we end up recruiting. He’s a legit 6-8 and 250 pounds. We loved what we saw in camp. He took a million reps. He would cut in line to take another rep. That really sold us. He was a basketball player and you worry about if he’s tough enough, but this kid just kept coming. After the camp we knew we should go on him and once we did it was a quick commitment.

Kade Pieper is from Nebraska and a three sport athlete. He’s from a farm family and was committed to North Dakota State. Late in the year we were reviewing some film and looking at some lists and he kind of stuck with us. Then Coach Barnett got to know him more and built a relationship, we got him on campus and he checked all the boxes for us, so it was a no-brainer.

Q: Is Kenny Merriweather kind of the Golston starter kit coming in?

BARNES: He may be more Deontae Craig, I think, just because of his size. He’s another kid who was under recruited and I was surprised more schools weren’t involved. He’s a good kid from a good family. He has some bend to him and he can run and is really twitchy.

He is probably a developmental guy that’s going to take a year or so in the weight room, but we like the way he attacks things. He’s also a two time state champion and we like guys like that who are winners.

Q: What about Jarriet Buie coming out of Florida? You have had success at that school with Dane Belton and dad has a football background as well.

BARNES: Yep, Dane helps there for sure and dad’s entire family is a football family. Dad actually played at Armwood, as did all his family and we have a great relationship with Coach Callahan there, who is now retired.

Jarriet’s recruitment was unique because we offered and then then kind of stiff-armed everyone else that was trying to get in. He knew where he wanted to be and my guess is Coach Challahan and his dad were a big part of that. He played in a bit of a funky triple option single wing type offense so it didn’t showcase his skills as much as they could have. He’s a big kid and a legit 6-3 and 195. He is a great kid and a great family. His mom and grandma actually came up last weekend on their own just to see the town since they couldn’t come on the official visit. They are super excited to get here.

If you look at all three of our receivers, Mota is the smallest and he’s not all that small, so we are adding some size to the receiver position this year.

Q: I really like two of the Chicago guys that you picked up in Nestor and Tate. I joked that Nestor is kind of out of central casting for a Phil Parker safety. Can you talk about those two guys?

BARNES: Yeah, John kind of came on our radar in the spring and Tate, we knew about for a while and Phil and Seth has seen him a couple of times.

Nestor is high energy. He is kind of like Riley Moss to the tenth degree in terms of energy and we are going to have to harness some of that when he gets here. He is a good football player. He will strike you and a good athlete. We had brought him in and offered him. Then he had gone to Iowa State for a junior day and was driving back and he sent me a text saying he was in the Kinnick parking lot. We had visitors that day in the building so I grabbed Phil and Seth and said, hey, Nestor is over in the parking lot. Let’s get him over here and see if we can get this done. So we spent some time with him that day and he ended up committing to us then.

With Tate, he can play inside and outside. He had a lot of schools interested in him, but he just fits with us perfectly. He’s a great kid from a solid family and everything about him fit with who we are as a program. Before he committed we really didn’t have a feel for where he was going. He’s a good poker player and didn’t tip his hand.

Q: Last year we talked about you expanding the recruiting footprint into Colorado. You land Chase Brackney from there this year. It felt like he committed out of the blue.

BARNES: He really did. It was out of the blue. Seth had been out there and saw him and then he came out for an unofficial visit with his family. We were talking about if we should offer him or not and then I told Kelvin we should offer him, but didn’t think he was close to a commit. Then three days later he committed. He had picked up a USC offer and some other schools were in contact, but we are glad he committed. Each time he comes out here he keeps getting bigger. He is a going be a load at defensive tackle.

He’s excited to be a Hawkeye. His parents came out here and I think they fell in love with our culture and what we are about as a program. We are really excited about getting Chase to Iowa City.

Q: What is the state of college football right now with everything going on? Is this environment in recruiting and everything else really all that healthy for the sport?

BARNES: I think we are headed down what could be a dangerous path. I don’t have the answers to fix it. I think even the schools recruit at the top tier would tell you that what is happening right now is pretty dysfunctional. We are trying to survive a little bit. We are trying to hold our rosters together and win football games. I didn’t see this coming five years ago. If you would have asked me five years ago I would have never predicted this.

Is it all bad? No. There is more power for the players, which was needed. They are able to make some money, which was needed as well. It’s the lack of structure and rules that make it challenging and for schools that follow the rules, it makes it even harder.

Q: How helpful has the Iowa Swarm Collective been for your program?

BARNES: A huge shoutout to Brad Heinrichs and those guys with the Iowa Swarm. Whether it’s a scholarship guy or a walk-on player, to have the opportunity to come here and make some money is great. If it’s doing service in the community or a sponsor event and to have that platform it’s important. If you don’t have a strong collective, at some point it will hurt you in recruiting. I think it is really important for us that there are opportunities for everyone on our roster. We take pride in our walk-on program and rely on them and to be able to get them involved in this is huge. I think everyone thinks NIL and the starters or the recognized players, which is also needed, but if you can get them some of these opportunities after they have turned won scholarship money elsewhere is huge.

Q: What can you tell us about Kamari Moulton?

BARNES: He’s a guy that Coach Hodge has a great good relationship with some of his coaches, going back to some youth league coaches in Florida. He plays at a really good high school with a great program and they throw it a lot. They really don’t run it until they get to the playoffs.

He is probably under the radar because he only runs it 8-10 times most weeks and then in the playoffs he runs it a bit more. He reminds me of Patterson a little bit. Not as big, but he can run between the tackles and runs bigger than he is. He can also catch the ball out of the backfield and we are excited about him.

Q: One of the things we are seeing nationally is some schools, even bigger name schools, are allocating 10-15 scholarships each year for the portal. Some high school kids are going to get overlooked. Could that be a net benefit for Iowa because as you and Kirk said today, this program is still going to build itself in a traditional way for the most part.

BARNES: I think so. I feel bad for some of the high school kids that are getting overlooked because the portal is becoming so popular. Even going into this next signing period there are going to be guys who were overlooked. Most schools are trying to finish their high school recuiting, but I bet in December 50% of schools were just hammering the portal to get a quick fix and fill a hole. Look, you have to do that. We have to do that too, but for us, taking ten portal guys every year is not sustainable. At some point you have to create depth and keep building it organically. We will be more aggressive in the portal and I think we are doing that, but we are never going to be a team that lives in the portal.

Q: Last question, so moving forward to wrap things up in February or in the portal you guys are looking for WR, corner and is linebacker maybe something you would look at?

BARNES: Potentially. We will see. We are keeping our eyes and ears open for a little bit of everything right now. If it’s a guy that will make our football team better, regardless of position, other than probably quarterback, we are going to take a look at it.