The Iowa Hawkeye football team opens spring practice today in Iowa City. Coach Kirk Ferentz says they have goals going into every spring. He says they want to teach the fundamentals and get their system installed. Ferentz says it’s an evaluation process for the players, as he says every position is an open book at this point. Ferentz says he did some evaluation of the whole program after finishing last season with a 6-7 record, and that also continues this spring.
Ferentz says he’s still where he was at last December, as the problems aren’t about the system, but more about the people involved and how the people carry out their given roles. He says though they’re always trying to improve and tweak things. Ferentz says people who come to the first game in September won’t see any dramatic changes, "We won’t be in the wishbone, or no backs or whatever."
Ferentz says they do need to look at some newcomers to fill some holes. Ferentz says they don’t have a returning starter at safety, and also are looking at newcomers at quarterback, the kicking specialist and in the offensive line. Ferentz says the good news is they feel they have some new players that can fill in those spots, but they have some work to do. While Ferentz says they have some people to replace in the offensive line, he doesn’t think the line was to blame for the poor record last season.
Ferentz says it was talked about last year that the offensive line wasn’t playing well, but he says the offensive line played pretty well overall and the run game was okay overall. Ferentz says the big problem offensively was turnovers. Iowa has 13 days of drills before wrapping up spring practice.