In January, Seth Wallace was given a raise and promoted to assistant head coach at Iowa (while retaining his duties as linebacker coach as well). It was a notable move because it was the first time in Kirk Ferentz's 25 seasons in charge that Iowa has had anyone in the role of assistant head coach. At the time, Ferentz noted that the promotion was a recognition the "excellent" work that Wallace had done at Iowa for several season.

On Tuesday, Ferentz and Wallace made their first public comments since that promotion was made official. Ferentz re-affirmed that strong performance was at the basis for Wallace's promotion. "It's based on the quality work that Seth has done since he's been in the program. He spent three years as a grad assistant, worked under Norm Parker years ago, and then has been back here since '14 and served in several roles," Ferentz explained.

"I thought this was just an appropriate way to recognize some of the achievements he's had. It's not intended to single anybody out or anything like that, but a recognition of quality work and the role that he's had, the assistance he's given Phil and the entire staff."

As Wallace explained, the promotion conversations were very informal. "I don't know that there were too many conversations, other than just an opportunity to sit down with coach. He pulled me aside a while back and said this is what he wanted to do moving forward."

As for what the promotion -- and the new role -- may mean on a practical level, that's still TBD -- though neither Ferentz nor Wallace expected big changes to their regular activities. "This is the first time we've done this, so I'm not sure what it's going to look like quite frankly," Ferentz said.

"If I weren't able to be here for some reason, and there was a practice back during bowl prep where ... I wanted to attend a funeral, and it just worked out where I actually made it back 10 minutes beforehand, but in a circumstance like that, I'm not in the office for whatever reason, certainly somebody has got to kind of say yes, no or here's what we're doing. There might be some things as we go down the road here a little bit that maybe I can do a better job in terms of delegating, taking some things off."

"I don't see it changing a whole lot of my day-to-day," Wallace said. "My opportunity to be on the defensive side of the ball and continue to do what I'm doing there I think takes enough of my time, but this is certainly a welcomed opportunity, and obviously [I'm] excited for it."

Wallace explained that the coaches and players he's been able to work with at Iowa have been a big factor in keeping him in Iowa City for almost 10 years. "The big thing here is the operation that we have here, the people that are a part of this, the coaches that I have been around, that I'm around today, some of them have come and gone. Some of them have served as big mentors in my life, and I'm proud of that," he explained.

"We've had some very notable players. I've worked in a lot of different capacities, so I've had the opportunity to recruit these guys as a recruiting coordinator, as an assistant D-line coach with Reese Morgan when I first got back here, I've worked with Phil [Parker] in the back end, served as a linebacker coach. I oversaw our punt team, believe it or not, for many, many years," Wallace noted.

"So in a lot of different capacities I've been around a lot of good players and most notably some of the linebackers that have come through here, the Jewells, the Campbells, the Higgins, the Jacksons, Bensons, the Niemann brothers. There's been a bunch, and I'm very proud of that. I'm proud of the opportunity that I have here. I'm very proud to be working alongside Coach Ferentz and this program, this university."

Wallace also noted that while he had had opportunities to leave Iowa in the past, there was a strong pull to stay as well, and he drew parallels with the three Iowa linebackers who opted to return to Iowa City to use a final year of eligibility in 2024 (Kyler Fisher, Jay Higgins, and Nick Jackson). "With that being said, I would tell you I'm probably a lot like the three linebackers that you witnessed this past year that all had the opportunity to leave. They all had the opportunity to go on and move on to different places," Wallace noted.

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Wallace elaborated on what has driven him to stay at Iowa over the years. "I think there's a lot that pulls you here. There's a lot that makes you want to stay here," he said. "I'm fortunate to be here, very happy to be here, and if it wasn't for Coach Ferentz, if it wasn't for Norm Parker's phone call in January of '05, I probably wouldn't be standing up here."

"Yeah, I think there's a want to be here. I wouldn't say there's a need to be here."

Wallace noted that he, his wife, and their respective families are all from Iowa, which is also a factor in staying in Iowa City, but the job itself is a big factor as well. "The way we play defensively, the success we've had here, and defense gets a lot of the notables, but Coach alluded to it, you can go back to nine years ago and you can see that we're one of five programs that's won 62 percent of their games or more a year. We're not much like any of the other four [programs to do that]," Wallace explained.

"There's a lot that keeps you here, that you get a chance to win, you get a chance to coach good people, good players, work with good people, good coaches, good staff. It would take a lot to leave here for a lot of things, to be honest with you."

He also expanded on the decisions of Fisher, Higgins, and Jackson to return to Iowa. "Kyler was the first one. Kyler did have the opportunity to move on. He immediately came in and said that he was coming back, and then certainly the other two held on until the last minute," Wallace said. "Nick, of course, but Jay waited, and I think he did his research, and I think he spoke with those that he needed to in regards to his opportunity at the next level."

Getting all three back was a significant boost for Iowa's linebacker unit, as Wallace noted. "He reached out. He called -- same thing Nick did. It's a breath of fresh air for any coach or for any program, for any side of the ball to be able to get back two guys that -- certainly in Nick's case, I don't know that I was betting on that one happening. I felt like Jay we had a good shot on, but when you get both of them back, a combination of the three of them that started for us, it's a pretty big deal."

The return of Higgins, Jackson, and Fisher also further crowds Iowa's linebacker room -- and scholarship situation. Wallace discussed that situation as well, characterizing the situation as "maybe an inconvenience, [but] not a downside. We've got a lot of good players on our team. The room that I'm responsible for is a foundation and a catalyst to what we do special teams wise, so there is opportunity there," Wallace added.

"But there are some guys in that room that have been waiting around for three, maybe four years for their opportunity, only to think that that opportunity was going to come available this coming year and then you have two or three guys come back."

Wallace obliquely referenced that some of the players in that overstuffed linebacker room are likely to use the transfer portal to find situations where increased playing time may be available, though he (understandably) declined to offer any names. "They have choices to make. I would welcome their choices," Wallace noted.

"I would give the two sides as best I could in regards to it, but at the end of the day, they've got to make some decisions, and I would say that is where we are fortunate. There's not a ton that is good about the transfer portal, but there are kids that can leave now and maybe try to find a better situation if, in fact, they're set on not being here."

Wallace discussed Iowa's heralded trio of incoming linebackers as well -- Cam Buffington, Derek Weisskopf, and Pereston Ries. "To say that we were going to find three linebackers all within a 50-mile radius of Iowa City [is impressive], " Wallace said. "I don't think that any of you would write a negative article on those three after being around them and seeing their storied high school careers because they're all state champions in some regard, which is really fascinating when you think about it, and then they've all come through our camp."