For the second straight year the Iowa Hawkeyes will take spring practice to central Iowa when they hold a workout on Saturday afternoon at Valley High School’s stadium in West Des Moines. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Valley did a “tremendous” job of hosting them last year. “It’s just a chance for us to reach out a little bit to the people who travel to Kinnick for so many Saturdays over the falls. So, it gives a a chance to maybe take the product to them a little bit, so we are excited by that.”

With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland next season the Big Ten Conference is going to an east-west division split. Ferentz says he likes the idea of playing regional rivals more often. “Not playing Illinois, not playing Wisconsin, it was different, but that was part of expansion,” Ferentz says. He says fans probably like playing those games and being able to jump in the car and drive to a game.

Iowa’s third Big Ten game next season will be a visit to Maryland. “It’s going to be a little different, we’ve never traveled to Maryland — at least since I’ve been here. Never traveled to New Jersey to play games outside of the Kickoff Classic in the 80s. That’s going to be a little different for us, a little different flavor,” Ferentz says.

Iowa concludes spring drills with a scrimmage on April 26th.