Kirk Ferentz threw a bit of a curveball on Tuesday morning.

While it hasn’t officially be confirmed, ESPN.com’s Pete Thamel tweeted this morning that Iowa was hiring former Hawkeye Abdul Hodge to coach tight ends and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz would be moving to coaching quarterbacks along with his offensive coordinator duties.

It’s an interesting move and on the surface a positive one getting Hodge back in the Iowa program. He was a standout All Big Ten linebacker for the Hawkeyes in the mid-2000’s. He remains third on Iowa’s all-time tackles list and was one of the most popular players of his era.

Here are some quick thoughts on the hire.

1. Getting Hodge back in the program is a good thing. Back in his era, Hodge, along with Chad Greenway, were exceptional leaders. He’s the type of person Kirk Ferentz wants representing his program. Hodge caught the coaching bug in recent years and did a good job at South Dakota coaching linebackers. From a diversity aspect, this is also a positive. Iowa now has another former player who can be a great example for younger players on the Hawkeye roster.

2. I think Hodge will adapt pretty quickly to the offensive side of the ball and coaching linebackers. One thing to remember is Hodge was dealing with tight ends quite a bit in his playing career, so he knows what they need to do to be effective. We have also seen another former Iowa linebacker be successful coaching tight ends and that was LeVar Woods, who guided the position group from 2015-17. The other thing is there’s no shortage of coaches around the program who has coached tight ends with Woods and Brian Ferentz on staff and Reese Morgan is still a resource for the program.

3. It seems like Kirk Ferentz is turning his focus to trying to recruit Florida more heavily once again. Last year it was former Hawkeye Ladell Betts, who was coaching at the high school level in the Ft. Lauderdale area, returned to coach running backs. Now Hodge, who grew up in South Florida, is back with the program as well. Both players, along with Miami native Kelton Copeland give the Iowa program a boost in their Florida recruiting.

4. It makes sense that the offensive coordinator would be the quarterback coach. The quarterback is the extension of the coordinator on the field, so having Brian Ferentz working with Spencer Petras, Alex Padilla, and every Iowa signal caller is a positive move on the surface. Perhaps that will help the offense grow a bit more from working together more closely.

5. This move does have one concern and that is Brian Ferentz has never coached the quarterback position. It’s the most important position on the field and technique is important and unless Iowa hires a former quarterback as a graduate assistant there’s a bit of a hole that needs to be filled. Also, any fan thinking that Kirk Ferentz was going to bring a great deal of change to the Hawkeye offense is disappointed in this news, but they shouldn’t have been surprised. In early February, the Iowa head coach essentially said they were simply going to keep working on getting better at what they do next season.

Those are a few thoughts on the hire and staff changes. It is certainly an interesting move with plenty of positives But, how the team, particularly the offense, performs in 2022 will determine if it is a good one.