Following signing day we went more in-depth with Iowa director of recruiting, Tyler Barnes to get his thoughts on some specific players in this class, how it came together differently this year and how the Penn State game helped to develop a bond with three future Hawkeyes.
Q: It was kind of a unique way this class came together. Usually you guys are getting your shopping done early in the process, but this year it was different. How was it for the staff because it played out until the very end with a lot more guys than normal?
BARNES: You hit the nail on the head. Recruiting has really sped up in the last five years. Typically we are close to being done by the end of the summer and that was working for it. I’ve mentioned this before, but last year’s class was different because we had so many of those guys on campus and it really didn’t get impacted with the extended dead period because they had made their decisions earlier.
With this class, we basically missed out on about 18 months of recruiting those guys and getting them on campus, getting them here for games, and getting into their schools. It was strange situation where we couldn’t recruit the way we wanted to recruit. We tried to do as much virtual recruiting as we could, but as Coach Ferentz has said, it’s just not the same.
We knew we were going to have a small class, so that factored into the pace of it as well. We swung away on some guys in June when we got them on campus and we missed. We came out of June with a small number of commits and I’m sure not everyone wanted to see that, but Coach Ferentz said you have to be patient. He said guys would come back to us and we would find guys who develop during their senior year and that’s what happened. A few guys we circled back on and ended up signing and some guys who developed like Vanderbush, Entringer, Trader, and Van Kekerix were pure senior film evaluations. It’s been kind of refreshing in some ways to watch and recruit off senior film. There have been some years in the past where we liked guys and we never had room for them. We felt good about these guys and we were able to close with them. We knew we had a good chance to finish strong coming out of the weekend, but you never know and it worked out. Crazy to think that last Wednesday we had not publically committed defensive backs and we finished with the four that we got. Then we got Brian Allen, who we have always felt good about. It’s a marathon in recruiting and our staff did a great job of staying on guys and running the full race.
Q: Always interested in the in-state kid who gets the late offer because a lot of times, those guys end up being good players for you. Tell us about Van Kekerix and how he got on your radar this year?
BARNES: Huge credit to Coach Woods on that one. That’s up in his neck of the woods and he knows that area better than any coach in the state of Iowa. He was hearing things about him earlier in the year and then heard he was having a couple of really productive games early in the year, so we needed to pay attention to him.
Initially we were not going to take a linebacker in this class, but we kind of reshuffled things and talked about taking one more this season so we rebuilt our board to reflect that. We offered three guys before him and we also wanted Landyn, so we just said, hey we will take two if we get one of the three. He is the classic late instate kid that Coach Ferentz is going to fall in love with. He’s a multi-sport athlete from a farming family that has an insanely productive year on both sides of the ball. Not that I try to manipulate Coach Ferentz, but we know he’s not going to say no to a kid like that, so why not try and take two if you can.
He is a little like Josey Jewell, not as a player, but as a person. He comes from a farm family. He might have a basketball game on Tuesday or Friday night and he’s going to go home after school and work on the farm before his game. He has our values as a program. His cousin is Andrew Van Ginkel, who we hosted on a visit and he ended up at Wisconsin. He’s a big guy at 6-2 and 205 pounds. He has long arms and a big frame and he’s going to fill out and we are excited to get him here and see how he develops.
Q: Talk about the tight ends that you landed this year. One was a camp offer and the other a senior film offer.
BARNES: Yeah, we had caught word that Ostrenga was making the rounds in camp in the summer and he was committed here to play baseball. We saw his film and thought he was good and he caught our attention. He wasn’t offer good based on the film. He came down for the first camp and it was kind of like watching Henry Krieger-Coble. He’s kind of an old school tight end who was catching everything and diving all over the place. He is a high effort and motor kid. At that point we still had a couple of guys on our board ahead of him that were visiting and we just kept him on our board. He came back for the last camp of the year and what stood out to us was he had a doubleheader the night before. They got in the car after the game and drove down here for the camp and had a better performance than the first time. He couldn’t stay long after the camp because he needed to get back for baseball practice that night. For us, he made all that effort get here and then get back for his team, so his priorities are right in line with what we like from a teammates. I was kind of in Brian’s ear saying I think this is the guy. He’s one of them because we knew we would take two. He was the right guy because of the way he plays and I am glad we took him because he had a monster senior season on both sides of the ball. He has little bit of a chip on his shoulder and we like that.
Cael is a little different story. Someone in the recruiting business shot me a text about him and say hey he’s a MAC guy that might be under recruited. The first thing I saw was that he was long. He’s about 6-5 and a good basketball player, as is Addison. We have always had good basketball players in the tight end room. He can run and is sudden. We just felt good about him. We saw him on a Friday and tried to get him here the next Saturday for a game and didn’t know if he could do it. He came the next week and we verified his size and we talked to him and his family and we offered him. Other schools were getting intrigued and we thought he might take it out a bit because other schools were interested, but he called and committed. He was content with his decision. His dad was a football and baseball player at Michigan State and comes from an athletic family.
Q: Curious about Jacob Bostick. I know you are pretty high on him. What can you tell us about him and how he picked you guys up when he committed?
BARNES: We had offered a couple of other guys that were ahead of him on the board and were supposed to visit that big weekend. When you talk to him, he’s a big personality with a big smile. He has a great family. Coach Wallace identified him early on and passed him on to me and Coach Copeland and once you talk to him you just want him in your room. We offered him and wanted to get him out here as soon as we could and he and his family came out right away on their own dime. We were around them for about 12 hours that day and it felt like only an hour because they were so easy to talk to and such good people.
After that we told him that we were going to tell those other guys that you are our guy and you are who we wanted. It was a gamble and he came back later that month and committed and we were excited when he did.
He’s a long kid that is going to have to put on some weight, which is fine. He has good size and ball skills and is quicker than people think. He has a track background as well. He is the type of kid you like being around and will make our room better.
Q: Going back to the Penn State game and after that game. You had the three official visitors that day in Kaleb Johnson, Xavier Nwankpa, and TJ Hall. Those guys seemed to really click right away. We were down there by the tunnel when the players are leaving the field and those guys were down there. Then they went to the locker room and were in there for the celebration. In retrospect did that weekend set into motion what happened to end this class?
BARNES: I think it certainly helped. One thing I wanted to mention is that our staff does such a good job with visitors during the season. As you know, there’s just no time to get around the kids during the season on official visits. There’s just not as much time with the prospects and their families. That’s why we like those summer visits to be official so we can spend that time with them and let them meet as many people as possible and spend time with them.
That weekend, you can’t buy that atmosphere. To win that game and get to 6-0 on the season and bump us to #2 and everything that night was so special. I think Xavier said that was the turning point for him. As I mentioned, guys want to play with guys and the bonds were built there and it was a powerful weekend. I think you could say that for some of the 2023 guys that were there as well. Kaleb committed shortly after that. TJ basically committed shortly after that and we thought we made a huge move with Xavier.
Q: As things moved forward from that weekend were you aware that those three stayed in close contact with each other and developed a really strong bond? How helpful was it that they came back this past weekend to recruit?
BARNES: I did know about it. Part of my job is being that creepy guy that talks to these kids all day long and finding out any bit of information that might help us land a commitment. Xavier and Kaleb hit it off really well and I think those guys talked every day. TJ was the same way. They kept in touch with him. We can be the best recruiters in the world, but the kids can be the most powerful recruits. That’s fellow recruits and current players. That’s why it’s great to get an alpha recruiter early on because he will help you recruit. Selfishly, if Xavier would have been done three months ago, I think this class would have been done earlier. We had him a week ago and he helped fill out this class. You love having guys like him help out because it is a very powerful tool.
Q: You feel like there are any significant needs that you still need to fill on the roster heading into next year either via a traditional recruit, portal, or perhaps the JUCO ranks?
BARNES: Yeah, we were looking for another offensive lineman in this class. We took a big class last year, so it wasn’t a huge priority, but we will keep our eyes open. Then it will be the best available. If we can find a tight end, we will take them. If we find the right running back, we will take them, but those aren’t pressing needs. We won’t take a guy to take a guy. Some of it will depend on what some of these guys decide that have another year and whatever attrition will end up taking place. I hope we don’t lose anyone after the bowl game, but history would tell you that we are probably going to and we have wait and see how it shakes out.
Q: With Tracy and Hutson leaving is wide receiver a need or are you good where you are?
BARNES: I think it depends on what Charlie Jones does with his decision. We would obviously welcome him back with open arms. If he comes back then we could potentially sit tight, otherwise we might have to address that need. We will know more after the bowl game and we will keep looking around and might take someone even if Charlie is back if it’s the right guy.
