Active Iowa Seems to be playing Money Ball in the Portal

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NorthKCHawk

Well-Known Member
Checking on the status of Iowa's portal transfers this morning and was surprised to see 11 commits. Some of them seem to be a bit on the walk-on, practice squad depth level, but Iowa has strongly addressed: WR, safety, DL, and RB with some highly productive players from lower levels of college football. Targeting those type of portal guys, as opposed to USC castoffs, seems to becoming on brand for KF and company in the portal era. At its core, Iowa remains a developmental program, so bringing in productive players from lower levels, presumably at a bargain, hopefully allows Iowa to have sufficient cash to keep its emerging talent and keep attrition low. Seems to be working so far. The only outlier to the formula is the head scratcher in losing Entringer.


247sports.com

Iowa Hawkeyes 2026 College Football Transfer Portal Latest Activity

Iowa Hawkeyes 2026 College football Transfer Portal Latest Activity
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Most all of them have multiple yrs of eligibility too. The strategy they have is pretty apparent. I think KF felt pretty burned by the Kaleb Brown types and he'd prefer to get kids that have had some experience and success on the field. To be able to not have to pay the top of the market price for em also tracks. We'll see if this strategy works or not.

I want to be fired up about it cause I just want it to work. And whenever Iowa lands guys that they tend to target and be all in on usually works out well. But again they are mostly all lower level guys so how's it all translate? We'll find out in the next yr or 2
 
I see these as Iowa type guys in the portal that have a ton in common with the guys were bringing in out of HS. They tend to have diamond in the rough potential, that maybe didn't get a lot of looks from the elite programs. The guys seem to have proved they belonged at the lower level and are determined to advance in the ranks to play at the top level. I honestly think that's a better look then a lateral transfer because they weren't seeing the field at another top school. These might be exactly what KF and our coaching staff see in "Iowa" kids and I'm looking forward to how they pan out. And with a lot of them having 3 years left it definitely opens the door for development.
 
Ex Hawk Mike Daniels posted the below on X recently. It seems to me that most of these portal guys we are getting probably fit what Mike is saying to a T. I like what he said and the types of guys we are getting.

Indiana has a bunch of pissed off FCS kids with a point to prove.

I can empathize because Iowa was my only FBS offer.

If you have never been overlooked, underrecruited, or an underdog then you wouldn't understand the passion, fury and RAGE that these boys are playing with.
 
kicker22 said:
I see these as Iowa type guys in the portal that have a ton in common with the guys were bringing in out of HS. They tend to have diamond in the rough potential, that maybe didn't get a lot of looks from the elite programs. The guys seem to have proved they belonged at the lower level and are determined to advance in the ranks to play at the top level. I honestly think that's a better look then a lateral transfer because they weren't seeing the field at another top school. These might be exactly what KF and our coaching staff see in "Iowa" kids and I'm looking forward to how they pan out. And with a lot of them having 3 years left it definitely opens the door for development.
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Some kids also pop a bit later. Late bloomers. I was a 2:00 half miler out of high school because I did not have a training partner or focus on distance training. By my sophomore year in college, when I was training and running against guys who were better than me, I cut my PR by 8 seconds. A lot happens with kids from 17-20. Hell, we need to look no further than Wetgen to see how an overlooked kid put in the right environment can thrive. How many walk-ons or guys we stole from UNI has KF put into the NFL?
 
JoeyLabasForPresident said:
Wonder what Entringer is getting paid. Must be a pretty hefty sum.
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As stated on another thread, and as is going around the rumor mill, sounds like it was an off-field issue possibly involving academics that forced him to move to a different (and lesser) school. It doesn't seem like he wanted to leave or certainly that the coaches wanted him to leave, and it doesn't seem like he left for a bag of cash. All rumors right now.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Most all of them have multiple yrs of eligibility too. The strategy they have is pretty apparent. I think KF felt pretty burned by the Kaleb Brown types and he'd prefer to get kids that have had some experience and success on the field. To be able to not have to pay the top of the market price for em also tracks. We'll see if this strategy works or not.

I want to be fired up about it cause I just want it to work. And whenever Iowa lands guys that they tend to target and be all in on usually works out well. But again they are mostly all lower level guys so how's it all translate? We'll find out in the next yr or 2
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Agreed. Washed out divas from Top 10 programs doesn't really fit the culture. We haven't seen that mistake repeated. I am sure Iowa could get castoffs from Blue Bloods. They don't seem to be even trying. I am good with that.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Some kids also pop a bit later. Late bloomers. I was a 2:00 half miler out of high school because I did not have a training partner or focus on distance training. By my sophomore year in college, when I was training and running against guys who were better than me, I cut my PR by 8 seconds. A lot happens with kids from 17-20. Hell, we need to look no further than Wetgen to see how an overlooked kid put in the right environment can thrive. How many walk-ons or guys we stole from UNI has KF put into the NFL?
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Totally agree. Were simply finding Iowa kids in colleges across the country now. I love it. Nothing against high school athletes, but they aren't college athletes yet. There's always those can't miss guys at the high school level that are generational players, but I definitely think you learn so much more about a players potential after one year of college ball then you ever would after 4 years of high school.
 
kicker22 said:
Totally agree. Were simply finding Iowa kids in colleges across the country now. I love it. Nothing against high school athletes, but they aren't college athletes yet. There's always those can't miss guys at the high school level that are generational players, but I definitely think you learn so much more about a players potential after one year of college ball then you ever would after 4 years of high school.
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Yup there's tape of them playing against other college level talent. That makes it easier to evaluate em. Not to mention a lot of these coaches all know each other. The ones that have good relationships will actually vouch for kids too which doesn't hurt. I don't think a lot of that is going on but remember when Iowa kicked the tires on that WR from Bama that ended up going to Oregon? I think KF was given a heads up from Saban that me might wanna steer clear of him and it wasn't anything to do with on the field production.
 
I think with limited funs from the NIL and the inherent risk now with paying players based upon their skill set, Iowa likely is doing much like they do with recruiting. Finding guys who fit what Iowa does. I think overall, Iowa does a tremendous job with recruiting players who are appropriate for their program. They look more at potential and how they fit into the culture and system and less about the immediate impact highly coveted players tend to be.
 
I had a buddy who played college football at Simpson in the late 90s and I asked him what was the difference between college and high school. He said, "think of the worst hit you ever took in high school. That happens pretty much every day." Even at a really small college, all the kids were for the most part the best kids on their high school team and were recruited and dedicated to playing college ball. Half the kids on a lot of high school teams are there because their buddies play or their dad is making them or the school only has a limited number of boys. The jump to college ball is huge, no matter what level of college ball.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Checking on the status of Iowa's portal transfers this morning and was surprised to see 11 commits. Some of them seem to be a bit on the walk-on, practice squad depth level, but Iowa has strongly addressed: WR, safety, DL, and RB with some highly productive players from lower levels of college football. Targeting those type of portal guys, as opposed to USC castoffs, seems to becoming on brand for KF and company in the portal era. At its core, Iowa remains a developmental program, so bringing in productive players from lower levels, presumably at a bargain, hopefully allows Iowa to have sufficient cash to keep its emerging talent and keep attrition low. Seems to be working so far. The only outlier to the formula is the head scratcher in losing Entringer.


247sports.com

Iowa Hawkeyes 2026 College Football Transfer Portal Latest Activity

Iowa Hawkeyes 2026 College football Transfer Portal Latest Activity
247sports.com 247sports.com
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Well, if it is the Moneyball strategy, than it's all about taking advantage of market inefficiencies.

Maybe based on Iowa's own analysis, or what they've studied, safety is a position that doesn't have a huge impact on winning. And/or the value over a replacement player is minimal. If you think about it, Iowa seems to plug and play with safeties. Probably more so than any other position, Iowa has been able to throw in a recent walk-on and experience minimal drop off from the previous starter. Or at least it doesn't appear to negatively impact Iowa all that much. Often times, there isn't a safety drafted in the first round, either.

If we are running with the Moneyball thinking, perhaps Iowa has decided they aren't paying safeties over a minimum level.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
Well, if it is the Moneyball strategy, than it's all about taking advantage of market inefficiencies.

Maybe based on Iowa's own analysis, or what they've studied, safety is a position that doesn't have a huge impact on winning. And/or the value over a replacement player is minimal. If you think about it, Iowa seems to plug and play with safeties. Probably more so than any other position, Iowa has been able to throw in a recent walk-on and experience minimal drop off from the previous starter. Or at least it doesn't appear to negatively impact Iowa all that much. Often times, there isn't a safety drafted in the first round, either.

If we are running with the Moneyball thinking, perhaps Iowa has decided they aren't paying safeties over a minimum level.
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The safety position is intriguing that we have brought in so many and that could be a couple things. 1) has Phil found that getting younger (New) guys up to speed is taking longer than he needs right now or at least early in the year. Will these new guys be more prepared to take the field early on having college experience? 2) Is Phil looking at a way to utilize more players with their unique skill set on the field at one time. For instance in obvious passing situations does he bring in another safety to play another cash type position almost like a 4-1-6 type of formation. Not sure how the LB crew is at covering so possibly playing with different schemes to get more speed and coverage ability on the field.
 
SwirlinLingerie said:
Well, if it is the Moneyball strategy, than it's all about taking advantage of market inefficiencies.

Maybe based on Iowa's own analysis, or what they've studied, safety is a position that doesn't have a huge impact on winning. And/or the value over a replacement player is minimal. If you think about it, Iowa seems to plug and play with safeties. Probably more so than any other position, Iowa has been able to throw in a recent walk-on and experience minimal drop off from the previous starter. Or at least it doesn't appear to negatively impact Iowa all that much. Often times, there isn't a safety drafted in the first round, either.

If we are running with the Moneyball thinking, perhaps Iowa has decided they aren't paying safeties over a minimum level.
Click to expand...
Astute observation. Most MLB teams won't pay a premium for 1st basemen unless they hit a ton. But, they will overpay for a high-end catcher or shortstop whether they hit or not. You can teach any fat kid like Chris Pratt how to play first base.

If you think about it, safeties are usually guys who aren't quite fast enough to be a corner, but have good ball skills and instincts. There are certain athletic gifts that a CB needs that you cannot teach. Where as safety? You don't have to be overly athletic, just really smart and a good tackler and ball hawk.

Unfortunately, it appears that KF places about the same amount of value on WR on offense. :)
 
Yes, this seems to be how Indiana did it. Now all of college football will try to copy the Hoosiers.
 
I was just poking around to see how some of the elite teams are doing, and it sounds like OSU is getting killed in the portal. 30 players have entered the portal! OSU has not pulled nearly that number back out. Will be interesting to see how that shakes out.
 
I find our transfer portal incoming really intriguing. First and foremost, nearly all of them have 3 years of eligibility. Obviously, this is exactly what Iowa focused on and was totally successful.

Second, there was a detailed article I ran into that made the case that power teams were going to raid the secondary level conferences for transfers. Why? Because they had already been introduced to college football, likely had really good coaches, and “development”, an Iowa favorite term, had largely been started. The article argued that “why go to high school for recruits when more experienced players were readily available.?” We can argue that “oh gee. How do we know a lower level transfer can adjust to power 5?” Want a higher risk? Recruit a high school kid.

As usual KF and his staff are way ahead of the game.
 
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