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Josey Jewell leads experienced Hawkeye linebacker group

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Josey Jewell

A veteran linebacking crew will lead the Iowa defense this season.

The trio of Josey Jewell, Ben Niemann and Bo Bower have combined for 118 games in a Hawkeye uniform. The September 2 opener against Wyoming will be Jewell’s 31st consecutive start at middle linebacker and he says that experience helps when it comes to making reads.

“The first day out there is going to be rough –everything is going to flying especially a freshman just coming out of high school — and then there’s a huge change from just even a couple of months,” Jewell says. “So I think every time you go on the football field you see something faster, you recognize formations, things coming out of the backfield. It just comes faster every single day.”

Jewell says as he enters his final season he is still a work in progress. “Everybody can always improve, I think I have a lot of things to improve on. Whether it’s pass defense, rushing the quarterback, tackling. There’s always things to improve on, you are never perfect at your craft,” according to Jewell.

Several young players are expected to play a significant role for the defense and Jewell says it is up to all the veterans to provide leadership. “I don’t know if I do anything individually,I think it’s just more of a team effort. We all help everybody out… try to teach the guy what to be able to to. If somebody sees something on tape that wasn’t right and nobody else corrected it, you try to come up to him and tell him what he did wrong and how to improve it,” Jewell says.

Jewell is on a number of preseason watch lists as one of the top linebackers in the country. He has also been named a preseason All American and preseason All Big Ten by a couple of publications.

Photo by Joe Danielson.

Stanley says Hawkeye QB battle makes everyone better

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Nathan Stanley fields questions about the QB race.

Nathan Stanley is in a battle for the starting quarterback job for Iowa as they prepare for the season opener.

The sophomore from Menomonie, Wisconsin was the backup quarterback last season and is trying to beat out Tyler Wiegers for the starting role.

“Competition just breeds success, so we’re just pushing each other each day trying to get better,” Stanley says. His approach is simple.

“Just come out and do my best, really that’s all you can do,” Stanley says. “Hopefully that’s good enough for the coaches and hopefully that’s good enough to win the job.”

QB Nathan Stanley.

Winning the job also means getting used to a new offensive coordinator. Stanley says it has not been a big change.

He says there’s a lot of concepts that are similar to last year, and much of the change involves terminology. Stanley feels he’s becoming more and more comfortable with the offense with each practice.

Stanley says they installed a lot of stuff in the spring and a lot of that carried over, making it easier as they got into the fall. The coaches say they don’t know exactly when they will make a decision on the starter, but say both quarterbacks have been competing hard.

Iowa opens the season September 3rd hosting Wyoming.

(Photos by Joe Danielson)

Hawkeye coach discusses fall preparation with the media

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Kirk Ferentz

The Iowa Hawkeyes entered fall practice with some coaching changes and questions about who will step up to fill key positions.

On media day Saturday, head coach Kirk Ferentz says that’s nothing unusual for him. “This is my 28th year now at Iowa — 19th as head coach — and it’s like every year, every time you start a new season you have new challenges, new opportunities. It’s a different equation than any other year and the trick is to put it all together. And that’s the beauty in my mind of college football. That’s probably why it’s such a popular sport,” Ferentz says.

Ferentz is looking for a new starting quarterback and says Nathan Stanley and Tyler Wiegers have both done a good job competing and are making strides. He says the decision on the starter will come down to one thing for the coaching staff.

“It really gets down to leading the team, that’s what it gets down to,” Ferentz says, .”an all of us have an opinion on that certainly. We’ll keep observing, we’ll watch, we’ll pull information. At some point, we’ll have to make some decisions and go from there. But it will be a group effort.”

Ferentz doesn’t have to worry about experience at running back as Akrum Wadley enters his senior season. “We’ve seen him, we’ve witnessed him, and he is, you know — boy, he’s right on task right now. His weight’s good, his attitude has been tremendous. He’s practicing really well. Again, only six workouts, but he’s looking like a senior player and a good senior player, and that’s — referencing the quarterback, we know whoever it is, we’re getting a new quarterback. So our best guys better be out there doing it,” Ferentz says.

He says graduate transfer James Butler has added important depth at the position. “Like last year, we were better when we had two guys that could help us there,” Ferentz says “If we have three, that would be great too. So that’s just going to give everybody a better chance to play better. That will be easy to have those guys complement each other. We’ve got to make sure all three are ready to go.”

Another big change has Brian Ferentz taking over as offensive coordinator this year. He will be calling the plays, and the elder Ferentz says while he called plays one year as a coach, that was never his dream. He says Brian is ready for the new challenge.

“Brian’s been intrigued. A lot of that goes back to his time spent in New England, worked on both sides of the football. That’s a pretty cerebral outfit up there, certainly, with their quarterback starts there, Bill O’Brien as coordinator, and then Coach Belichick. He’s run some guys. I think he’s very inquisitive that way. I was more of just like a dumb line coach, just block that guy or whatever. So we’re cut from a little different cloth that way, and I think he’s ready for it,” Ferentz says.

He knows it’s a position that’s always in the spotlight and everyone has an opinion on. “You know, he’s good right now until the first time we have to punt,” Ferentz says.

Iowa opens the season September 3rd hosting Wyoming in Kinnick Stadium.

Hawkeyes already benefiting from preparation for trip to Europe

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Ahmad Wagner goes up for a shot.

The Iowa Hawkeye basketball team is preparing to travel to Europe for a 12-day trip.

Coach Fran McCaffery spoke with reporters about the trip and says they were allowed 10 practices to prepare.

“It was great to be able to get everybody together because we were able to use the other time available for skill development. So, then we had practices and then we had skill development sessions,” according to McCaffery. “And I think that was incredibly beneficial, because even though we have a lot of guys back we still have a lot of young guys. So, I think that’s important.”

McCaffrey says they have had to spend some time working on the rules of the European game, which he says are dramatically different in some cases.

“What we consider goal tending they don’t. What’s a travel over there is not a travel here — and we run, so we are susceptible to more travels — can you get your mind to understand that,” he says.

There’s also a big difference in the type of ball they will use. He says some of the guys really like it and some don’t. “That’s all we’ve played with for two months, so they are getting used to it.” McCaffery says.  He says they will face some good teams, but he’s not concerned about the wins and losses.

“We’re just going to try to really, truthfully focus on what do we have to do to get better,” McCaffery says. “Obviously we are going to try to win. But if you win or lose, nobody will even remember it. It’s not as critical as getting quality playing time for our young guys trying some different things on the court. Just work on our motion game, work on our press.”

McCaffery says the experience gained on this trip will pay dividends this winter. “You know my experience has been in the past has been that the teams that have this opportunity have always jelled and played well the following year. “They’ve just come together,” McCaffery says. “So that’s probably as important a component of this opportunity as any other. Maybe more.”

Iowa will play a total of four exhibition games in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. They leave for Europe on Sunday.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Ray at Hawkeyesports.com

New Kinnick Stadium turf includes Tigerhawk logo at the 50

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After a nearly 40 year absence a midfield logo will return to Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium for next football season.

Iowa officials unveiled plans to place a Tigerhawk on the playing surface for the upcoming season. It will be the first time Kinnick Stadium has featured a midfield logo since the 1980 season.

The Tigerhawk was developed by former football coach Hayden Fry and has served as the national brand logo for the Hawkeyes since 1979. It will debut on September 2nd when Iowa opens the 2017 season against Wyoming.

With the Tigerhawk at midfield, the north end zone will now feature the familiar IOWA spelled out without the Tigerhawk logo. The south end zone will continue to display “Hawkeyes” and will not change. The end zone surface will remain black, with the lettering in each end zone in gold.

 

University of Iowa to spend millions to settle case with fired field hockey coach

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The University of Iowa has reached a settlement with fired field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum and agreed not to appeal the ruling it lost in lawsuit by a former athletic administrator.

The settlement agrees to pay Tracey Griesbaum $300,000 in back pay, $1,187,588 for emotional distress and $1,062, 411 in attorney fees. The settlement comes as Griesbaum’s case alleging discrimination was set to go to trial.

It also comes on the heels of a jury verdict ordering the U-I to pay $1.43 million to former associate athletic director Jane Meyer, who claimed gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, retaliation and equal pay and whistleblower violations.

The U-I has agreed to not appeal the Meyer verdict and to pay her $1.6 million for attorney fees. The settlement says the school does not admit any guilt in the Griesbaum case.

A statement from the school says the money will come out of the Athletic Department budget. It also says “having reached agreements with Ms. Griesbaum and Ms. Meyer, the university will continue to focus on next steps. As previously announced, the University of Iowa will hire an independent firm(s) to conduct an external review of university employment practices. The reviews will include three phases; phase one will cover the U-I Athletics Department, phase two will include U-I academic and operational units, and phase three will focus on U-I Health Care.”

Here’s more information:

Meyer settlement PDF

Griesbaum settlement PDF

Jury sides with former University of Iowa athletic administrator

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Gary Barta

A Polk County jury has ruled a former University of Iowa athletic administrator was the victim of discrimination, retaliation and unequal pay.

The jury awarded Jane Meyer $1.4 million in damages Thursday after hearing nearly three weeks of testimony. Meyer filed the lawsuit in 2015 nearly a year after she was removed from the U-I Athletic Department by Athletic Director Gary Barta.

Meyer had alleged she suffered workplace discrimination as a gay woman in a relationship with former field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum. She said Barta retaliated against her for complaining about Griesbaum’s firing.

The jury unanimously found for Meyer on all five counts of the lawsuit: gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, retaliation, whistleblower and equal pay.

U-I Athletic Department photo.

 

Des Moines to host 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney

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Wells Fargo Arena during the 2016 NCAA Tourney.

The NCAA announced today that Des Moines will host the first and second rounds of the 2019 Men’s Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.

Drake University is the host school for 2019, which means Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa basketball teams could play in Des Moines.

Des Moines hosted the men’s tournament for the first time ever in 2016, with ISU serving as the host school. Host schools cannot play at the site where they host, so they Cyclones played their first round games in Denver.

The Hawkeyes and Panthers also made the tournament in 2016, but were sent to different sites. Thousands of basketball fans from across the state took advantage of the opportunity to see the tournament in their home state in in 2016. And they got to see some top teams in that tournament as Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana were part of the field that played in Des Moines.

Police officers team up with Hawkeye wrestlers for training

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Iowa City Police Chief Jody Matherly.

Officers with the Iowa City and Oelwein police departments and the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety recently got some All-American training in how to handle someone who doesn’t want to cooperate.

Iowa City Police Chief Jody Matherly was looking for a better way to train officers and after talking with U-I Public Safety director Scott Beckner, they decided to ask for help from the University of Iowa wrestling team. Matherly had a couple of goals in mind.

“To be a little better at our defensive tactics and our ability to control people with decreasing the likelihood that officers would be injured or the suspect,” Matherly says. Matherly had previously been a certified high school wrestling coach, and he thought partnering with the Hawkeyes would be a good idea. Iowa assistant wrestling coach, Ryan Morningstar, says they appreciated the opportunity to help out.

Chief Matherly watches training.

“It’s a pretty cool partnership and we’re glad to help in any way that we can, and hopefully some of our techniques can transition over to the field,” Morningstar says. Iowa All-American wrestlers Matt McDonough, Mike Evans and Thomas Gilman helped instruct officers. Morningstar says the officers learned some key moves to protect themselves.

“They’re being taught basically how to sprawl, defend yourself off of leg attacks. Being able to put a guy down and defend yourself,” Morningstar explains.

Sergeant Doug Hart is the training coordinator for the Iowa City department and for him the wrestling training was a breathe of fresh air.

He says training can get monotonous, especially for older officers like himself who don’t look forward to the defensive tactics training. “What a great idea to freshen this up and I think it brought a lot of synergy to the training and to our department.”

Chief Matherly is pleased with the way the training turned out. “It’s a win- win for us — and it’s a win-win for the defendant, the suspect — we don’t want them hurt,” Matherly says. He says officers will try to get someone to comply by talking to them, but sometimes that doesn’t work and they have to be prepared to go hands-on to take a person into custody.

Iowa football coach looks to find players to fill gaps in spring practice

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The cover of the Iowa Spring Football Prospectus.

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz met with the media today as the teams prepares to begin spring drills Wednesday.

The Hawkeyes lose 5 starters on offense, 3 on defense and must find a new punter.

Ferentz says the good thing about graduation is that it creates new opportunities for the returning players as they says goodbye to those who graduated.

The players have 15 spring practices to show their stuff. “One thing about football, our opportunities to practice football, to be in helmets is so limited. So, be it in the spring and then certainly preseason — those opportunities are very limited. Each and every workout is important, each and every practice, the meetings that we have that go along with it, as well as our strength and conditioning work that continues is very important to the players. And I think they understand that,” Ferentz says.

Ferentz says the lines return experience, but they’ll need to find players to complement them. He says they are very young and inexperienced on the perimeter from the receivers to the defensive backs. “I’d throw the quarterback situation right in there with it… we will have a new quarterback, I”m not sure who that’s going to be right now.”

Receiver Matt Vandeberg won a redshirt year after being injured last year, but has been sidelined again with another foot injury and will miss the spring practices. Ferentz says it wasn’t a matter of him trying to come back too early. “He really had a chance to play in the bowl game, that thing was well healed when he got back in January. That’s just one of those things that happens occasionally and there’s not much we can do about it,” according to Ferentz.

The Hawkeyes announced they will hold an open practice for the fifth year in a row at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines on April 7th. Ferentz says they are excited to go back to central Iowa and says it’s a small way to says thank you to the fans who come from the area to Iowa City in the fall. He says they also decided to move the spring game to Friday night as something the fans might like.

Iowa is coming off an 8-5 season where they lost their fifth straight bowl game. They open the 2017 football season September 2nd hosting Wyoming.