Hawkeyes Must Make Hard Choices About Future: A Group of Iowa Football Players Consider Leaving or Staying
IOWA CITY, Iowa – After signing 21 high school recruits to letters of intent on Wednesday, Iowa Football officially has a roster crunch. It’s a fluid situation that will take time to resolve.
NCAA rules allow a maximum of 85 scholarship student-athletes on the roster when the season kicks off. It would be appear that Iowa is close to that number pending decisions from current players regarding their futures.
The pandemic awarded an extra year of eligibility for student-athletes on 2020 rosters, which has created logjams at programs across the country. It has complicated roster management with the convergence of incoming recruits, the transfer portal, players leaving early for the NFL and guys coming back for additional seasons.
Putting a finger on the exact number of available scholarships can be difficult with so many moving parts. We do know current Hawkeyes still must decide whether they’re staying or going. Until they do, the coaching staff has its hands tied to a degree.
Jay Higgins, Sebastian Castro, Quinn Schulte, Jermari Harris, Erick All Jr. and Kyler Fisher are considering whether to utilize their Covid years. They all would be returning starters.
Linebacker Nick Jackson, who transferred from Virginia before the season, could petition for another year. The final two games of his ’22 campaign were canceled after a campus shooting took three of his teammates’ lives.
Defensive lineman Chris Reames still has his Covid season. Offensive line transfers Rusty Feth and Daijon Parker could appeal for extra years, but that might be difficult as members of the ’18 high school recruiting class.
All of the aforementioned student-athletes participated in senior day last month at Kinnick Stadium. However, Joe Evans and Noah Shannon came back this season after being recognized during the ’22 ceremony.
Underclassmen Cooper DeJean and Luke Lachey are facing decisions as well. The NFL is interested in them even though they suffered season-ending injuries during the ’23 campaign. DeJean is a projected first-round pick.
“I’m really not in any sort of rush,” DeJean said on Monday. “I’m trying to weigh all my options, talk to as many people as I can to make sure it’s the best decision for me going forward.”
DeJean earned consensus All-American honors this fall despite missing four games. Higgins also secured multiple postseason honors for piling up 155 tackles at middle linebacker.
“(The coaches) have given me all the space I needed,” Higgins said earlier this week. “There are just a lot of factors that play into it.”
The guys weighing their options have been consulting each other. While they are individual decisions, the choices of some players could influence others. Perhaps they all run it back in ’24.
“That would be a dream come true,” Higgins said. “I’m sure all the Hawk fans would love that. But at the end of the day, it’s up to those guys and their families.”
The group receives advice from the Iowa coaches, who collect feedback from NFL connections. The NFL also provides advisory reports for student-athletes considering leaving for the draft with college eligibility remaining.
“I would be a late-round guy,” Castro said of the information he’s received. “If I came back, I could improve my stock a lot more. They just started hearing about me this year. So, yeah, whether I stay or go, I’m still playing football at the end of the day.”
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