The second season ended for college football coaches on Wednesday with the start of the national signing period. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz signed 20 players on Wednesday. After back-to-back January bowl games the Hawkeyes banged heads with the nation’s top programs on the recruiting trail and came up short on several of the top players. But Ferentz says each the program becomes more involved with big-time recruits. He says in the last two years they’re one of six teams that’ve finished in the top eight in two straight years. He says the other five teams are elite company. Ferentz says right now their odds of beating the other teams on the field is better than beating them in recruiting. He says that’s frustrating, but the situation is better than five years ago when he took over.Ferentz says player evaluation is more important than recruiting coups. He says they’ve had four major award winners in the last two years, from Brad Banks, Nate Kaeding, Robert Gallery and Dallas Clark, all guys who weren’t major recruits. Ferentz says no matter how high they climb in the recruiting race, they still have to do a good job of evaluation talent.Iowa State coach Dan McCarney inked a total of 28 players, 22 high school players and six from junior colleges. McCarney says many of the players can go at more than one position.McCarney wants to get the running game going. That is evident by the signing of several running backs, including Jason Scales of West Des Moines Valley and Greg Coleman from Iowa City West. He says they have a real need as he has one running back that’s show he can win on game day.