Iowa football senior class prepares to bid farewell on Senior Day against Michigan State

IOWA CITY — There’s only so many ways to say farewell to a football stadium, especially after years of spending countless hours working, waiting and pouring everything into 60 minutes once a week.

Yet every season in November, there’s a group of players that bid farewell to the place they called home as 18-year-olds.

“It's always kind of bittersweet, I think, for everybody involved,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said, “certainly for the players. It's the last time they're in Kinnick, which is a really special thing for each and every one of those guys.”

Iowa football hosts its senior day on Saturday ahead of its matchup against Michigan State. During the festivities, 27 athletes will be recognized.

It’s a group of players that have spent the last season in leadership roles, on and off the field. Some have been there their entire collegiate careers, others joined this year.

But Saturday’s festivities aren’t simply a goodbye. The Hawkeyes have a regular-season finale and a bowl game afterward, so of course, there’s the reminder of what’s at stake.

“I'm just focused on improvement,” defensive back Koen Entringer said. “You know, obviously every day is not promised, so you’ve got to maximize each day.”

Entringer is one of the 27 walking on Saturday. However, he does have an extra year of eligibility remaining. He said he hasn’t made a decision on if he’ll return to Iowa for his own swan song or take his chances at the next level.

The defensive back has been one of four captains this season, alongside defensive lineman Ethan Hurkett, quarterback Mark Gronowski and center Logan Jones. All four of them are participating in Senior Day.

“We’ve got two more games, two more opportunities, one more at Kinnick,” Jones said after the loss to USC last week. “I'm going to cherish these last two games ... I can't explain it and put it in words.”

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Entringer jokingly said the festivities were something he wasn’t going to miss, particularly to help honor his family for what they’ve done while he’s worn a Hawkeye jersey.

“My parents, they sacrificed so much just for me to get here,” Entringer said. “And I know I'm getting celebrated, but I think most probably, it's an opportunity for them to be celebrated and for people to recognize them, and all the hard work they've done.”

Players like Entringer, Jones and Hurkett have spent their entire careers in Iowa, but Gronowski is one that didn’t get all four years. In fact, he chose to stay in collegiate football after spending time at South Dakota State.

Even with a shortened timeline, the graduate quarterback earned the captain nod all season and said he’d developed a love for Iowa football over the course of the last 11 months. Gronowski said this closing year of eligibility has been about developing close relationships with the coaching staff and players, and there is a sense of finality that didn’t exist before.

“It's been a really fun year,” Gronowski said. “The thing I remember most is all the relationships that I built with all the guys in the team, the times in the locker rooms, in the weight room, and even just like learning from great coaches, like Coach Ferentz and Coach Lester, Coach Parker ... It didn't end up turning out the exact way that we were hoping for, that we were all training for throughout the entire summer and spring, but I'm really looking forward to playing at Kinnick for the last time.”

So, how do you say goodbye to a football stadium? There’s flowers, football fanatics and all the overwhelming emotion of playing at home, sure. There’s still a game to be played after the heartwarming moment of bidding farewell, too.

At Kinnick Stadium, the Hawkeyes say goodbye the same way they try to every week: win the football game.

“Nothing but top respect for all these guys, and just really be great for the fans in Kinnick to have a chance to salute them, honor them, and certainly it's not the end of their careers here,” Ferentz said. “It will be a challenge for them afterward to kind of get back on the ground and get focused on our game. That's always the tough part of it.

“We're ready for another tough, competitive Big Ten football game.“

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