If you have followed Iowa football closely under coach Kirk Ferentz, you know that the past quarter of a century has been marked by elite player development. Iowa football recruiting is remarkable because Ferentz and his staff are able to take two- and three-star players and develop them into four- and five-star-quality performers who go to the NFL. Iowa recruiting and player development is a success story of doing more with less.
Iowa will very rarely win recruiting battles with Michigan and Ohio State. The Hawkeyes will, in many cases, have to get the best of what’s left over. They won’t often be in a position to get the pick of the crop on the trail. That’s just the way it is, and Iowa fans generally accept that.
However, Iowa’s ability to do so much good work under Ferentz in the realm of player development invites the unavoidable question: Why can’t Iowa — due to its reputation — get more four-star recruits Ferentz can develop into superstars? The program does transcend limits, and yet it is still very much constrained by them at the same time. Such is the complexity and the often contradictory nature of Hawkeye football under Kirk Ferentz.
Hawkeyes Wire editor Josh Helmer explained this and a lot of other ideas in our USC Big Ten summer podcast series:
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