Iowa general manager and chief of staff Tyler Barnes spent time with the media on Wednesday to discuss the newly signed group of recruits and the some of the trends in the world of recruiting. <\/p>\n
TYLER BARNES: Good afternoon. This is my eighth year now being in front of everybody talking about our signing classes. As Coach kind of hit on too, there\u2019s been a lot of change, not only in college football as a whole, but obviously recruiting. I have a lot more gray hair, maybe a little more seasoned.<\/p>\n
Every year it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s fun to celebrate our class. There\u2019s a lot of work. It\u2019s two or three years in the making with all of these guys. It goes back to seeing these guys at high schools at their games, getting them on campus for your own camps, for junior days, unofficial visits and summer official visits now. I know I\u2019m the one that has to talk to you all the time, but it really takes a village to put together a recruiting class from our coaching staff that does a great job to our support staff. There\u2019s some in the building here. Professors on campus, academic support. Then mostly our players. Our players are vital in helping us recruit and host guys when they\u2019re on campus, and we really look to their feedback.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a smaller class this year with only 15 scholarship guys. Two walk-ons, which is very different than years past. Obviously, the two walk-ons and that number being so low is due to the 105 number. As we\u2019re going through and trying to restructure or roster, there\u2019s not as much space as we once had. That\u2019s something that\u2019s definitely unique for us. Usually, we\u2019ve always got 10 to 12 walk-ons that are committed at this point. This year, only having two is a little bit different.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really a Midwest class. We have 12 of our 15 commitments from surrounding states or within that six- or seven-hour radius. I think 11 of them are from Iowa or states that are touching.<\/p>\n
Then we have a couple of guys from Florida, one from Massachusetts \u2014 lives in Massachusetts, goes to school in Connecticut. But it really is kind of a tight Midwest class. As a whole, it hit what we needed to. Right now more than ever, the fluidity in your roster, it\u2019s ever-changing. So you are trying to project what spots you need from a high school standpoint and from a portal standpoint.<\/p>\n
Coaches have the tendency to overreact sometimes at any given point in the year, whether it\u2019s spring ball or fall camp based on what their room looks like, but you have to be in constant communication with Coach Ferentz, the coordinators, the position coaches on just what the outlook of the room looks like. Now more than ever, we\u2019ve condensed those spots.<\/p>\n
So right now, as you can imagine, Coach Parker is trying to get more spots on the defensive side of the football, and he showed me his algebra equation on his board in his office that I did not understand at all. That\u2019s what they\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n
When I initially sat down and looked at what our roster was and budget was for each position on each side of the ball and you condense it down, you realize that 105 is still a lot of players, but going from 130 to 105, you are really cutting a lot of meat off the bone.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a fun exercise. We\u2019re still talking through it as a staff and kind of figuring out where we\u2019re going and how we want to budget everything, but it certainly played a role into this class being a little bit smaller this year.<\/p>\n
As Coach said, our goal is always to build through the high school ranks. Just like the NFL builds through the draft, our transfer portal is the NFL\u2019s free agency. We would like to go out and fill some holes if we have some. We\u2019ll do that with the transfer portal.<\/p>\n
We will be active in the transfer portal. I will not get into specifics, and I know the question will come about what positions we\u2019re going after. You guys all follow me on Twitter. You can probably see some of the follows I have. You can probably put two and two together and figure that out.<\/p>\n
That will ramp up on Monday. Obviously, there\u2019s some kids already in the portal, grad transfers. There\u2019s some kids that are coming from schools where their staff, unfortunately, got fired. So it\u2019s already started a little bit, but I think Monday the avalanche is really coming, and that\u2019s kind of when myself and our personnel department will dive into that with our coaches. It will be good.<\/p>\n
One thing to kind of dovetail off what Coach was talking about with the calendar change \u2014 having our coaches here in December and not being on the road for not only roster retention, but when you are trying to look to kind of fill some holes through the portal is also a huge advantage. The last couple of Decembers have been pure chaos. You don\u2019t know what day it is or what\u2019s going on. You\u2019re trying to retain your roster and get ready for a Big Ten title game or bowl game. You\u2019re out on the road recruiting. It\u2019s just pure chaos.<\/p>\n
I think this is one thing the NCAA did get right. It\u2019s a step in the right direction, but as a whole, I think the calendar maybe needs to be blown up and start over again, but not sure when that will happen.<\/p>\n
With that I\u2019ll open up to any questions you may have about the class in general.<\/p>\n
Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Tyler, I wanted to ask about O\u2019Lontae Dean. I know he was your most recent signee commit. I had heard that he had the idea of playing both offense and defense. I was curious about your thoughts on his versatility and play-making, but also had seen that Louisville made a little bit of a late push. Were you sweating?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: We usually have uneventful signing days, and I thought we were headed that way. I was actually at the basketball game with my son last night and didn\u2019t see Dix make the game-winning shot because I was looking down on my phone to a text I didn\u2019t expect to receive with some not-so-great news. So it was a later night than I would like to admit, but we got it done.<\/p>\n Tae is awesome. Actually Rhett Smeins, who is in the back of the room, we had Tae on our board as a running back for about a year and a half, and he doesn\u2019t have his film put on Hudl, which is interesting. Every kid in America does at this point. Rhett had brought up, \u201cHave you watched O\u2019Lontae Dean? Have you seen his defensive stuff?\u201d When we put it on, it was like, \u2018Yeah, this kid is a little bit different.\u2019 He\u2019s a kid that plays everything from safety to outside backer, running back, to receiver. He can kind of do it all. A lot of the safeties we\u2019ve had here that have been pretty good football players, you know, they had the ball in their hands in high school as well.<\/p>\n For us, he\u2019s going to be strictly a safety. Where he fits back in the back three, you know, we\u2019ll see. We really don\u2019t go out and try to recruit a strong, a free, a cash. We try and find the best safeties and then when they get here, we let Phil do his magic and see where they fit best. He certainly has some versatility. He\u2019s an awesome kid, big personality. He\u2019s a country boy, which is funny. He\u2019s from Tampa, but very country. Talked about, Rhett was it, he caught alligators? That\u2019s what he would do in his spare time, which is interesting. He has gigantic hands, so he could probably grasp those things like that. We\u2019re excited about Tae.<\/p>\n Every year there\u2019s going to be some bumps in the road in terms of recruiting guys and some second thoughts, but his mom was great through the process. She wanted him to be a Hawkeye, and took a little bit of talking, a little massaging late last night. We got it done, and here we are. Yeah, sweating a little bit this morning, but when he signed, it was good.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0This is kind of maybe a loaded question. Number one, do you feel like you understand the job now more than you did maybe two years ago just because of how much things are changing? I know you said you would like to see them blow up the calendar and start over, but if you could see one realistic change right away, I mean, what would you like to implement? How this next month is going to go and how you divide up your time?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Obviously things have evolved so much in the last three, five, seven years, but from the transfer portal, which we\u2019ve always had a transfer portal. Just obviously it got publicized a lot more a few years ago.<\/p>\n Then you add in NIL into that, and that changed things. Now you have revenue sharing, which is certainly going to change things that we\u2019re working through with that.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been able to take a little bit more of a step back in terms of high school recruiting stuff. I\u2019ve got a great staff with Rhett and Matt Spaulding and Scott Southmayd. Rhett pops through 200 guys a day. He\u2019s a machine when it comes to evaluating, and that helps because then I can take a step back and look at our roster and just kind of see the big picture of things. That\u2019s been a huge help.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have a portal department where we\u2019re watching film all fall long. I was listening to I think it might have been Virginia Tech \u2014 Coach Pry, the head coach there. I worked with him at Vanderbilt. He said they have everything ranked and listed out before the portal opens on any potential guy that could hit the portal. It\u2019s like what happens if 90% of those guys in that position don\u2019t hit the portal? You just wasted somebody\u2019s time watching all those guys.<\/p>\n We\u2019re in a world now where you hear whispers and you hear murmurs of who is going to hit the portal. You can stay ahead of things, obviously. You know, I love the idea of putting the team together. I\u2019m a people person. I like talking to people. I love interacting with the kids and their parents and their family when they\u2019re on campus here and seeing how to whole puzzle is going to go together. I love being around our guys.<\/p>\n It is different. It\u2019s certainly different. My role is, while there are a lot of things that are certainly the same, there are definitely things that have changed too. Really just kind of taking it as all these changes happen. I mean, I don\u2019t think the changes are done. It\u2019s going to keep evolving. You\u2019ve got to keep an open mind to everything and kind of a fresh eye on how can we get better and do everything we need to do within the framework of Iowa football and what Coach Ferentz wants in his program? That\u2019s the biggest goal in mind.<\/p>\n In terms of the change \u2013 honestly, the best change they\u2019ve made is not going out in December in my opinion. Just the craziness of we\u2019ve got 128 free agents on our roster right now. That\u2019s the reality. It\u2019s what it is. Trying to retain your team, send coaches out to recruit, which it\u2019s a long season. If coaches tell you they look forward to going out in December, they\u2019re 100% lying to you. They don\u2019t want to go out.<\/p>\n Getting them ready to go out is always a challenge. Then you add in the portal and everything we\u2019ve had the past couple of years, being able to keep them here and get face-to-face time with their guys and get a sense on where our guys are at and where our team is at, it\u2019s huge. It\u2019s a big deal.<\/p>\n This is a dead week for the first time too. This is different. We can\u2019t even have guys on campus this week, which again, is needed because this is the first week after the season is over to be able to spend time with the guys, but we\u2019re certainly going to have a bunch of traffic through here. We\u2019re not getting any weekends off. Sorry, Coach Ferentz. We\u2019ll definitely have guys on campus really the next two weeks until that dead period hits again before we go out to our bowl game. We\u2019ll certainly be active.<\/p>\n Then that could be high school-wise too. We have to move on to the \u201926 and \u201927 classes as well. We may or may not end up taking another guy or two out of high school and then \u201925 class as well.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0I wanted to ask about quarterback. Part of it is, the last handful of years it\u2019s been a struggle in the freshman part of things. The one you just brought in got moved to wide receiver almost immediately along with others who have transferred out. Then the portal, the results were the results. How are you evaluating quarterback? Are you evaluating it differently than maybe you did before when you were working with Brian or Ken or anybody like that? How much of a role does Tim Lester play in who you decide to pursue, whether that\u2019s in the portal or even somebody like Jimmy Sullivan or Ryan Fitzgerald?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: When we evaluate quarterbacks, it\u2019s 100% going to be working around who the offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach is, absolutely. Styles are going to change.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want statues back there unless he has just absolutely elite arm talent. Even then, you see it. I mean, football, it\u2019s an imperfect game. You can have a great O-line, but at some point, something is going to break down where you have to move a little bit.<\/p>\n Tim played the position at a high level. He\u2019s coached the position for a long time. He knows exactly what he\u2019s looking for and exactly what he wants, but he\u2019s also open-minded too. Obviously, we had Cade and Sully this year, two very different quarterbacks. Then you throw in Jackson and Marco. You have four different styles there that you can work with.<\/p>\n There are certain characteristics that Tim really wants to see, but a huge part of the quarterback thing that people don\u2019t really talk about is you can be the most talented guy in the world, but in between the ears is where it\u2019s all going to take place. Just having a chance to get guys on campus and dig through them and what they really know and conceptually, what can they handle. We\u2019ll go through four or five of our play calls and see if you can regurgitate it back to us and all the assignments and what you see there. That\u2019s a big part of it.<\/p>\n You know, the good news, it\u2019s different this year. Tim is actually not going out on the read recruiting. I took his place this year because he wanted to be on campus all spring with Jimmy and if we happened to bring in another guy to spend as much time as possible with those guys getting them into our playbook and understanding the offense. That includes Sully right now. Sully got near in June. It\u2019s probably drinking out of a fire hose all season. I think you\u2019re going to see big strides from Sully coming up too as he gets spring ball under his belt in and Tim being able to go around him and going through that.<\/p>\n Tim is a great recruiter. I don\u2019t know how many times you\u2019ve had a chance to talk to Tim. He\u2019s full of energy. Really, really smart guy. I feel great about not just quarterbacks, but any offensive recruit we bring in here. Tim is absolutely going to meet with them because he knocks it out of the park. He\u2019s really good. He\u2019s good with family. He\u2019s a former head coach, so he knows how to go about recruiting, but for him, I mean, he thoroughly just enjoys talking to people. When you get on quarterback play, you have to put a timer on it because it might take a while. He\u2019s great in front of people.<\/p>\n I\u2019m looking forward to continuing to work with Tim. We\u2019ve got some guys identified in the next class in the \u201927 class. We\u2019re on to the \u201927 class, which is crazy to think about quarterback-wise, but quarterbacks are always the first ones to go. They\u2019re the earliest guys, so you have to stay a step ahead of it.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Do you already know if guys like Logan Jones and Ethan Hurkett are coming back? There\u2019s probably others, but maybe \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Yes and no. There are still some conversations taking place.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0How are you dealing with this 105 thing? You basically are going from 128 to 105? Is that what you are saying?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Correct, yes.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Do you envision having more than 105 in June before you get down to \u2014 have you made cuts? Is it like \u201cHard Knocks?\u201d How are you approaching this cutdown thing? A smaller class certainly is part of it, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: For sure. That\u2019s a great conversation. We\u2019ve talked about it a bunch as a staff. We have to be at 105 by the start of fall camp next year.<\/p>\n I think there are a few different populations on our teams. There are guys 100 percent that want to go transfer and play somewhere else. There are guys that will want to stay and fight like hell to make the 105 and stay in the spring and go through that, and then there are some guys that may say, Hey, I\u2019ll go through the spring, but I\u2019m going to call it and just finish my undergraduate degree and graduate from Iowa and not play somewhere else.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve left the door open for everybody to come back in the spring. You certainly have to have those conversations to give these kids a heads-up because if they want to hit the portal now, you want to do it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve talked to some teams where they aren\u2019t going to tell anybody until the spring, which I think morally and ethically is kind of wrong because then that window is a little bit different than this window. There\u2019s tiers of guys. There\u2019s been a lot of conversations had and hard conversations. We told all these kids, We want you to be on the team, and we told their families, we\u2019re going to take care of you, and because of a rule change that we didn\u2019t foresee coming, we have to make some cuts and have some tough conversations, but we\u2019ve left it open where everybody can stay through the spring if they want.<\/p>\n If guys aren\u2019t going to go transfer somewhere else and play, then we would happily keep them through the summer too up until the fall camp date. There\u2019s a lot of guys that are probably taking the conversations they\u2019ve had and thinking about it and talking to their families, but we\u2019ll know a little bit more I think once we get through our bowl game and have a better idea of where our roster sits at that point.<\/p>\n A big part of it, too, with the 105 is just practice. We haven\u2019t dove into that yet, but we may have to restructure how we practice because you\u2019re losing 25 to 28 bodies that you are counting on for scout team and how you go about it.<\/p>\n There\u2019s certainly some changes that I\u2019m not sure if the NCAA really saw coming with this drastic cut, but again, everybody has to do it, and everybody around the country is probably having conversations similar to what our staff is doing right now. It\u2019s unfortunate, but it\u2019s where we are.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Did you know Josh (Dix) made the shot (MBB vs. Northwestern) just by the crowd or \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: I did, yes. My son let me know, too, but I was still in disbelief by the text I got. Yeah, I was trying to process that. Not real happy about it, but yeah, it worked out. I saw it two hours later on Twitter. I saw the highlight of it, so it worked out.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Terrence Smith, just curious how did that recruitment unfold from your end? What do you feel he brings to the program?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Coach Wallace was the first person to bring up Terrence. He had a couple of offers, nothing crazy. He had been through the school and just sent a text to Matt and said, Hey, you do mind taking a look at this kid? We both popped him on. Terrence is a big kid. He\u2019s the first guy off the bus type of guy. That\u2019s who you want to play with.<\/p>\n Elite basketball player, really good hooper. Had some lower level Division I interest in basketball as well. We see Terrence. He has big hands, 50\/50 balls are not 50\/50 balls for Terrence. Those are 70\/25 balls. He is really great at high-pointing the ball.<\/p>\n At the same point, he\u2019s still raw, too. There\u2019s a lot of growth that you\u2019re going to see out of him. Another really good kid. Parents are good people.<\/p>\n Comes from a high school where they historically don\u2019t have a lot of D-I guys. If he were 30 minutes east in Chicago a little bit closer, he probably would have had 25 offers. How he didn\u2019t get more offers is kind of crazy to me.<\/p>\n He\u2019s a kid we\u2019re excited about. We\u2019ve got a couple of bigger guys on the outside. Now the next goal is finding a guy that can really run. We\u2019re looking for speed. We talked about potentially taking two in this class year. We really don\u2019t lose anybody in the wide receiver room. Again, with that budget and everything that plays a factor into that, but as a big X possession receiver and Terrence can run, too. That\u2019s a guy you want to look for, and we\u2019re excited to get him here.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0I want to ask about the revenue share. Are you talking numbers with players? Now they\u2019re making all of a sudden these decisions about their futures.<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Not quite yet. We\u2019re getting there. That\u2019s something I probably spend a bulk of my day on every day. It almost gets tiresome looking at the same spreadsheet and moving numbers around and playing with models a little bit.<\/p>\n There are a couple of guys that have decisions to make on our roster that is coming here very soon, and they know that. It might play a factor into whether they stay or they leave.<\/p>\n But at least the good news is now we can go to guys, unlike the past and say, Hey, you might be a fifth or sixth round pick. You should come back, and money is always an issue for those guys. Well, I need to go get money. Now we can provide them money and maybe, Hey, you come back and increase your draft stock, and this small investment we\u2019re making in you turns into you making a couple 3-4 more million dollars by coming back.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not deep into the weeds in those conversations, but he it\u2019s certainly coming soon.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Kirk has always been about telling guys, Hey, go finish out your senior year. This year is \u2014 and the usual amount of players that are enrolling early for you guys \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Seven guys. Yes, seven early enrollees as of right now.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Is that going to be an off-shoot of maybe we need more bodies in the spring now because you\u2019re going to be down to 105 eventually? Maybe not this year, but years forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: We\u2019ve talked about that. We\u2019ve never pressed kids to come early. Obviously we recruit a lot of multi-sport athletes and usually guys that are pretty good at the other sports they play.<\/p>\n There are a couple of guys that aren\u2019t coming early that I would love to get here early, but I get it. I get what they want to stay for. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever make it a demand that you need to come early, but we\u2019ll certainly \u2014 I think because of spring because you lose your senior class and you don\u2019t technically have your freshman class in, moving forward practice-wise, that\u2019s going to be an issue. I think we might encourage guys, but some guys they just want to stay and finish out their senior year, which we get.<\/p>\n I think you\u2019re going to see \u2014 it\u2019s already started around the country, but I think more and more around the country you\u2019re going to see staffs really try and press guys to get on campus in the spring just from a body standpoint. Then after the season you have guys that have postseason surgeries. Your roster is really shrunk at that point.<\/p>\n This is an odd year for us to have seven guys. I think that\u2019s the most out of high school that we have ever had. We didn\u2019t push any of the guys to do it. It\u2019s a lot of the guys that\u2019s where it\u2019s turning to high school, too. A lot of guys can\u2019t wait to \u2014 I loved my time in high school. I wouldn\u2019t want to go to college early, but a lot of guys are just ready to get out of high school and get started playing football.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve talked about it, but it\u2019s certainly going to play a factor in some of the recruitments moving forward.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Joey VanWetzinga is going to join his brother Rusty next year. What stood out to you about him, and what did that recruiting process look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Joey is a strong, silent type. He doesn\u2019t say a whole lot. I think he lets his pad and helmet do the talking. Joey had been to camp probably two or three times on both sides of the ball as an O-lineman and D-lineman.<\/p>\n Joey is a powerful, explosive, tough kid. Kind of the epitome of how we recruit both sides of the football here. Initially we offered Joey out of a camp where he was playing D-line, and we didn\u2019t know which side we were going to take him on. We just knew we wanted Joey on the football team.<\/p>\n Obviously his dad is a head coach. You love head coach\u2019s sons. You know, it\u2019s funny. Joey is here all the time, and I think I\u2019ve heard him say four or five words. On his official visit his brother hosted him, so we saw a little bit more personality come out of him, more trash-talking than anything else.<\/p>\n He\u2019s your typical Iowa lineman. That\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re looking for. Kind of the strong, silent type. The guys that don\u2019t talk much and do what he does on a football field, those are the guys that scare you a little bit in a good way.<\/p>\n Q.<\/strong>\u00a0I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m the first one to ask about Iose Epenesa, but that was another one that sounded like it was a little bit more, I don\u2019t know if contentious is the right word, but competitive with a few other schools. Two-parter here. Then it looks like you have a slew of tight ends coming in with three different guys, one of them being a legacy and a guy that could play wide receiver or tight end. So just wanted to ask about both those things.<\/strong><\/p>\n TYLER BARNES: Iose, I joked with Eppy and Stephanie, I wish you had more kids because then you wouldn\u2019t have enough time to go out and visit all these other schools like you do with Iose. With A.J. and his sister Sam, they were always busy, and Eric. I was like, man, the fifth kid \u2014 or the fourth kid, this is tough because now you actually can go see things.<\/p>\n That family is awesome. Sometimes when you are recruiting legacies and especially he\u2019s had two brothers here, obviously everybody knows his dad is a Hawkeye through and through, sometimes you worry about does this kid want to go do his own thing, and is this the one that\u2019s going to go forge your own path?<\/p>\n They were great through the whole process. That\u2019s the one where we let it play out. We knew we were always going to be in it until the end. Whether we won out or not, there were times we worried more than other times, but I think we got him here on a visit weekend. He wasn\u2019t here with our big official visit weekend. He came a couple of weeks before.<\/p>\n We had a legacy event where a lot of our alumni came back. I think just Eppy being around everybody and Iose seeing how everybody operates around each other, and A.J. came back for that visit, which was huge. That visit really pushed things over the top for us.<\/p>\n Again, we don\u2019t pressure anybody. We certainly weren\u2019t going to pressure Iose. We wanted him to want to come here on his own and not because his brothers went here and his dad went here.<\/p>\n It was good. I think he knew for a while even coming into that visit that this is where he wanted to be, but we, again, just let it play out. We had a lot of things working in our favor obviously with the family and A.J. coming back I think was huge, too. Even we had to tell A.J., Hey, back off a little bit. It\u2019s okay. We need your help, but just tone it down some.<\/p>\n Obviously excited to get him here. He\u2019s one I wish were coming in January, but it\u2019s fine. We\u2019ll get him here in June and get him up and rolling.<\/p>\n Then tight ends, yeah. Mason, it is challenging recruiting a coaching staff\u2019s son. It\u2019s very different because you don\u2019t want to overstep your bounds. Sometimes Mase \u2014 when I got back, Mase was a little kid. I\u2019ve known Mase since he was 2 or 3. Sometimes you forget about him. Oh, yeah, Mason is here. He\u2019s in the building all the time.<\/p>\n Mason is a guy, we didn\u2019t know if he was going to be a receiver or tight end. I think we\u2019re going to start him in the tight end room, kind of Noah Fant-ish, if you will. He is a guy, he can really run. Awesome ball skills. Very fluid. He can just be a mismatch out there. I think it\u2019s a guy that Tim is looking forward to as a new toy to have in that room.<\/p>\n We had only set out to take two tight ends in this class, but we weren\u2019t going to not take Mason if he wanted to come. That was the conversation we had as a staff. We told the other two guys that\u2019s how it was going to play out. If it plays out this way, we are going to take Mason, and there\u2019s a chance he will be a tight end.<\/p>\n Thomas speaks for himself. Highly-recruited kid in the state. Thankfully comes from a Hawkeye family. They\u2019ve had season tickets forever. Same with him. Kind of let that whole recruiting process play out. I think we knew we were in a good spot, but he was seeing the places he wanted to see.<\/p>\n Ultimately he made finally made the call. Eli Johnson is a guy that is from Wisconsin, but he\u2019s 25 minutes from Minneapolis. How Minnesota and Wisconsin weren\u2019t all over this kid before we got to him is unbelievable because he stands out like a sore thumb. He\u2019s 6\u20195\u2033, 225 pounds. Really good basketball player. Very good football player. Obviously once we all offered him, he picked up some traction. Those are kind of \u2014 we\u2019ve had a bunch of stories with tight ends like that.<\/p>\n Players all over the board, but specifically tight ends that are kind of diamonds in the rough, if you will.<\/p>\n We\u2019re excited about all three guys coming here. Abdul should be really excited. His room is young, minus Addi right now, but there\u2019s some talent in there. Obviously those three guys will certainly add to that room.<\/p>\n The post Tyler Barnes talks Hawkeye Football Signing Day<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Iowa general manager and chief of staff Tyler Barnes spent time with the media on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}