Iowa’s attrition level set at ‘nagging’

IOWA CITY - Attrition is perhaps the worst defeat for a college football coach. It's time drained, resources squandered and relationships severed. Something went wrong, and it could've been anything.

Last week, C.J. Hilliard, a redshirt freshman running back who wasn't in Iowa's fall camp, announced his transfer and is now enrolled at Ohio University, a home-state school for the Cincinnati native. Also last week, redshirt freshman defensive back Jalen Embry transferred to Iowa Central Community College. He told HawkeyeReport.com that he was looking for a fresh start and hoped to find an FBS school after a year.

Since January, the Hawkeyes have had eight players transfer. Quarterback Jake Rudock is the highest profile. He started two seasons for the Hawkeyes before being unseated as the starter in January and subsequently transferring to Michigan. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz has said all along on this that there has been no animus and gave Rudock an open release to transfer anywhere.

Linebackers Reggie Spearman was in and out of the starting lineup last season and, sometime in January, decided to transfer to Illinois State.

Yes, that Illinois State. The 6-3, 230-pounder will face his old school in the season opener on Sept. 5. The Redbirds added four FBS transfers in the second semester last spring, including defensive lineman David Kenney (Indiana) who once committed to play at Iowa.

Linebacker John Kenny started at fullback about midway through last season. With senior fullbacks Adam Cox and Macon Plewa healthy and on scholarship, Kenny moved back to linebacker this spring and found himself on the third team. He transferred to Arizona where he will play linebacker.

Defensive backs Malik Rucker and Solomon Warfield and offensive lineman Reid Sealby also elected to transfer. All three were buried on the depth chart. Only Rucker saw time on special teams. Rucker transferred to Western Michigan. Sealby is at Southern Illinois. There has been no word on Warfield's landing spot.

During Big Ten media days last month in Chicago, Ferentz talked attrition. It's not a tumultuous level, not yet, for Iowa, but you could probably categorize it as nagging.

'Attrition in college athletics is nothing new, but, to your point, I think it has accelerated maybe a tad,” he said. 'Sometimes, it's a good thing.”

Ferentz brought up former Iowa QB Cody Sokol. The quarterback left Iowa last spring and emerged as a graduate transfer at Louisiana Tech, where he led the Bulldogs to nine wins and a victory over Illinois in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

'He couldn't have handled that situation any better,” Ferentz said. 'He competed for the job two years ago, didn't earn it. He came in after we made the decision and told me that unless something changes dramatically, I'd like to look into finding another school for my last year and did a stellar job that whole season. No one else in the program knew about our conversation and you'd never know by watching him. That's a really good example of a guy who took care of things the way you should take care of it and he did something that was good for him.

'Sometimes, it's good for the players. Quite frankly, if a guy is in a situation where he's not totally happy, you have two choices: You work through it or you try something else. Bottom line, if you're not fully onboard, then that's probably not the best place to be at that point.”

That doesn't lessen the sting of the lost opportunity, not to mention the time and the development that went into a player transferring.

'We try to work and develop all of our guys the same,” Ferentz said. 'No matter if a guy is fourth on the depth chart or a walk-on or scholarship player. One thing we tell all of our guys, we tell walk-ons, once they're a Hawkeye, they're a Hawkeye. We're going to coach them and train them with all the intensity we can. The only dividing line is we can't invite everyone to camp. Outside of that, everybody is treated the same, everyone has equal opportunity to move forward. That's probably why we've had so many great walk-ons in our history.”

Of course, there's a factor with the players. It's a lost opportunity for them. They saw themselves doing great things in Iowa colors and, at some point, that vision faded. It affects everyone.

'It's hard to see guys leave,” said center Austin Blythe, who is friends with Sealby and Colin Goebel, who transferred to Cal Poly before last season. 'We're friends. I obviously wish them the best. They left on good terms with coaches. They either plateau or there are younger guys who come in that they recruit who kind of jump them. That's just college football. That's unfortunate, but I think both of those guys are going to go on and have good careers at other places.”

Everyone has a point, senior free safety Jordan Lomax said, when they ask themselves if they're happy where they are. The answer isn't yes for everyone.

'It's always tough to lose guys,” Lomax said. 'At the end of the day, they have to make the decision that's best for them. I support them and good luck wherever they end up.”

Ferentz calls Iowa a 'developmental” program. Attrition robs directly from that concept. No coach will ever completely solve this issue, but nagging issues have a way of becoming something worse if they hang around too long. When you term your program 'development,” sometimes it's hard to sell and resell to players who're trying to get over the hump.

How do you get over that plateau? What can a player who's on that edge buy into?

'It's unfortunate, but they still love it,” senior defensive end Drew Ott said. 'They love developing and that's why they're here. They love their role. They get on scout team. They're still playing football. You have to love it no matter what your role is.”

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