The University of Iowa Hawkeye football team won’t have a “spring game” this year because of the renovations that’re underway at the Hawkeye’s home, Kinnick Stadium.
“The progress on Kinnick Stadium’s something we’re all very excited about. It’s a little bit of an inconvenience from a spring game standpoint certainly, but certainly well worth the little adjustments we have to make to have the project completed,” Ferentz says. The team begins spring drills Wednesday. “We’re anxious to see what we have as a football team,” Ferentz says.
Five players will be working in new positions, including Gavin McGrath who is moving from linebacker to fullback. Seven players who’ve had surgery and another couple who are healing up from injuries won’t be participating in spring drills.
“We’ve got a significant amount of guys out,” Ferentz says. “It’s kind of the nature of the beast. After a season like we had last year, we had an inordinant amount of injuries.”
Ferentz says he’s anxious to get on the field and see what the team looks like. He’ll be paying particular attention to the defensive line. Four seniors on that line graduated. Ferentz says the runningback situation isn’t that much different than it was a few months ago.
“The guys (who) had the injuries are still in the process of recovery so we’re not going to take any chances with those guys. They’ll be able to do some limited workout, but to me it would be really, you know, silly to put those guys in any risk positions during the spring,” Ferentz says. “We want those guys to be healthy when we get going in August.”
The Hawkeye’s cross-state rivals will have a spring game. Iowa State will hold its annual spring game on April 16th at one o’clock in the afternoon at Jack Trice Stadium. Cyclone fans may have a chance to see a former starting quarterback in a new role. Austin Flynn is moving from quarterback to wide receiver.