LUNCH LINKS ENTERS THE PORTAL

Iowa football takes the spotlight from Iowa basketball in this news dump. Sorry not sorry!

Kirk Ferentz addressed the media yesterday, and you don’t need me to tell you he said a whole lot of nothing. But since I can’t find a transcript you kinda do need me to tell you, unless you’re in the mood to watch the Ferentz’s 10 minute-long opening statement:

Anyway, the gist is as follows: Iowa has four players declaring early for the draft, and that’s A LOT, Marc Morehouse writes. Is it untenable, though? That remains to be seen.

Daviyon Nixon, Garret Jansen, Dominique Dafney and Brandon Simon have entered the NCAA transfer portal. Nixon is obviously the most consequential name on that list, and it’s not exactly clear what his status is, but if we’re to believe the football coach, he wants him on the team:

“Daviyon is in class, and he’s considering his options right now,” Ferentz said.

“He came in with some conditions when he was here. He wasn’t able to dress out and those types of things. I’ll just say this: Daviyon, my exposure to him has been extremely positive. We’ve liked what we’ve seen of him on the field. He’s a tremendous young guy, and right now he’s working through some options and we’ll see where it all goes.”

And Scott Dochterman thinks Iowa could perhaps use the portal to its advantage, especially if Nixon doesn’t wind up in the Black and Gold. I’m #AllIn on that. The defensive line would be a bit of a quagmire after the starting four so that would be a nice option for Iowa, according to Mark Emmert.

Emmert also brought up the point — seeing as Iowa’s tight ends on its roster next year will have a combined 2 catches — coupled with the fact that Iowa’s receivers are kinda sorta emerging (?) we could see an offense that simply doesn’t rely on tight end usage. Wild stuff!

I know I’m linking to a lot of $$$ content here, but this piece Doc wrote on Iowa’s recruiting of Jestin Jacobs is really good! It gets under the hood of that weird Iowa visit policy that Eno Benjamin ran afoul of, and I really think it was overblown and we won’t hear about it again.

The rest

• Speaking of paid content, here’s Mel Kiper Jr. saying TJ Hockenson will go in the first round of the NFL draft! No. 19 overall! He now has Noah Fant as the No. 3 tight end in the draft. Maybe Fant wasn’t misused after all?
• Casey Kreiter is going to the Pro Bowl!

• Did you know Iowa basketball is back? It sure is!
• Why NBA players love getting pedicures.

AND FINALLY, THE REASON I WROTE THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE:

Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

IOWA FOOTBALL WAS AT PARIS FASHION WEEK Y’ALL. WE MADE IT. LOUIS VUITTON-WEARIN’ ASSES GOT A TIGERHAWK ON THEIR HEAD BOY OH BOY I’M GONNA GET MARRIED IN NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL AND WEAR THIS DOWN THE AISLE AND LOOK BETTER THAN ALL YOU SAD, TACKY, ASSHOLES.*

Attack the weekend, idiots. Drink drink water, sleep sleep alone.

*My future bride will take exception to this.