Eddie Tuerk visits Iowa junior day

Class of 2024 defensive lineman Eddie Tuerk was back in Iowa City for a junior day visit with the Hawkeyes on Saturday. For the Illinois native, who checked in at 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, it was his fifth visit to Iowa over the past year so at this point it is more about building relationships than seeing the surroundings.

"My visit at Iowa consisted of lunch and then we toured the facilities and went to position meetings and ended it all up from there," said Tuerk. "I was not as excited to see the facilities and that stuff as I was to talk and build relationships with coaches because I had already done all that stuff before. I talked to many coaches including Coach Wallace, Coach Barnett, Coach Parker, Coach Nieman and Coach Kirk Ferentz. I couldn’t talk to Coach Bell because he was at a wedding."

"As many of the coaches know, I’m going to be playing both ways next year, so Coach Wallace gave me some advice and told me to just use that physicality I play with on defense and keep continuing to play physical on offense."

"At the end, I talked to Coach Ferentz for a bit and he asked about my family and where my older sister was at and how she’s doing because he met her at my high school," Tuerk said.

Leaving Iowa City on Saturday, Tuerk felt he has a good connection with the Hawkeyes football program in the early stages of his recruitment.

"My overall thoughts on Iowa are that it is a place where you will feel a strong connection with your teammates and the staff and coaches," said Tuerk. "There is a big brotherhood and family feel and a strong culture throughout Iowa City, Iowa, and even around the country."

Currently, Tuerk holds scholarship offers from Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Tennessee, Mississippi, Minnesota, Iowa State, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Central Michigan, Miami-OH, and Western Michigan, and looks forward to taking more college visits this spring.

"Recruiting wise, I will probably see many spring practices including Northwestern, Cincinnati, Michigan, Tennessee, Minnesota Nebraska, Wisconsin and Illinois," said Tuerk. "My family and I don’t really have any dates set in stone but those are some of the schools we were planning on visiting."