Video, Transcript: Tyler Barnes 2-1-23

TYLER BARNES: Good afternoon. Just to touch a little bit on what coach said, obviously we signed a bulk of our class in December and had a chance to meet with everybody and talk a little bit further about that class and signed a few guys today.

But in between there, not really lost in the mix but didn't have quite the fanfare, we had six more guys that started in January. Now we have a five-day open period early January, so as soon as we get back from the bowl game where mid-year transfers have a chance to visit us and have a chance to continue that recruiting process. And those three scholarship guys: Seth Anderson, receiver from Charleston Southern. Actually same high school as Tyler Goodson, former running back here, so a little bit of connection here. Deacon Hill, quarterback from Wisconsin who we've had some familiarity with. And then lastly, Daijon Parker, who is from Detroit area was actually headed to Virginia. Was trying to educate you guys on the rules in December on how that worked. I told you we weren't quite done yet and we felt pretty good about Daijon. He had a connection to Kaevon Merriweather, they actually played AAU basketball with him growing up the whole time. He was a kid we felt really strongly about on film.

And then three, a walk-on transfer, you know, Jackson Filer, who is an Iowa kid. Dowling Catholic from Iowa Western. Austin Kutscher, a wide receiver from Ohio State. We've had some connections with his high school staff from Massillon Washington and Ohio. And then lastly, Hayden Large, who is originally from Grand Rapids Michigan. Was at Dordt. He kind of fell through the cracks a little bit, Hayden did. He had an injury his junior year in high school, which kind of put his recruitment off the rails a little bit. Ended up at Dordt, and a big kid felt we good about taking.

So those are the six that joined us in between the two signing periods, if you will.

Obviously we get to today. We announced two guys we signed today scholarship-wise, Grant Leeper, tight end from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Grant was somebody Coach Bell saw early in the fall. He was a former basketball player. Had played football like peewee days, but hadn't played in high school at all. Coach Bell caught his eye a little bit, kind of liked what he saw. As we got through the season, started talking a little bit more and more about our needs and where we were going.

We had a chance to get Grant in the boat. He was here this past weekend and is a great kid from an awesome family. He’s going to be a big kid and was a really good basketball player, as well. You guys follow our tight end recruiting history, typically our best ones are pretty good hoopers. It's a good thing to have.

And then Rusty Feth, who was an offensive line graduate transfer. He's actually finishing his degree this spring at Miami of Ohio and he'll be out here in June. Coach Barnett recruited him out of high school when he was at Miami as the O-line coach coaching for a couple years, so once he hit the portal, we tried to move kind of quick on that. We brought him out this weekend and got that done there.

As coach said, we had a few more walk-ons today that we announced, and there are a few we can't talk about just yet, but what's been unique, since I've been back here, 44 guys, new guys that will be on the team from start of January to June.

That's a big, big number. And have different categories. As I was telling Steve earlier, as we were going through announcing all these guys today, it's interesting, because it used to be two categories. Used to be the guys you sign in December, the guys in February, you had your scholarship guys and your walk-ons, and now we've got the transfers that signed in December here and January. You got the guys that were here in January that started in January during what used to be a dead period.

And then you have your mix of guys here, and just the way the portal is working, the way recruiting is shifting, it has been a long year but a fun year. It's different kind of putting together the roster this year in terms of years past, just kind of how we're putting it together between the portal guys, the grad transfers, all the portal windows, the new open periods, dead periods.

It's been something we've had to shift to a little bit, but you adapt and adjust, and I think our staff has done a really good job. Just echo what coach said, I know everybody loves who's coming out of the transfer portal, what are the high school kids you're getting, but I'm with coach, the three biggest recruits I think we got are Nico, Joe, and Noah.

Those are three guys that are going into their sixth year here that have given their blood, sweat, and tears to this program. I can't take credit for recruiting those guys back, but I was certainly in their ear the entire week down in Nashville and for a few days post bowl game.

But when you can get guys to come back like that, that speaks volumes to who we are as a program, and then just from a leadership standpoint, what those guys provide. They know our program. They can help bring along young guys. I think that's really important and pretty special.

I think you guys can probably help me, I think we have two more years of guys with COVID years left, I believe. So once we get to that, we'll see what the next rule that changes is and getting guys an extra year. It's certainly good to have those guys back.

With that, I'll open it up any questions you guys have about really anybody in the class either way from December or the guys that have joined us just recently.

Q. Seth Anderson, how did that come about, and what do you think he brings to this team?

TYLER BARNES: Yeah, so Seth is interesting. He was up for the Jerry Rice Award, FCS Receiver of the Year from North Gwinnett, so it was nice to have that connection.

When I'm going through the portal and digging through guys before I went to the coaching staff, I'm a big production guy. It's a little bit different with offensive lineman. They don't really measure production, but everywhere else there is going to be some type of production, numbers to back up your production, and Seth had a really good year down there.

As we dug more into background and what he was about, he was a high school wrestler. I think we were talking with coach, I think Chic Ejiasi was the last skill guy to come here that was a high school wrestler. Typically you're semi-skill and your big guys are the wrestlers, not very often are your skill guys.

But his dad was a high school wrestler from the northeast, so that's kind of where it was engrained into him. I really didn't think wrestling existed in Georgia, so that kind of surprised me. His dad, Flipper Anderson, played in the NFL for a long time. Played at UCLA with Troy Aikman. Still has, to this day, the single season record for most receiving yards in the game, which I think is like 336. I think that's probably safe for now.

But then when you meet the family and you talk to the kid, he's a great kid, big smile, big personality, and the type of guy we like to go after. He's a guy that he thought he could play at a higher level. He has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. He has something to prove. The production, again, this past year was something that we liked, and getting him out here, he's been here now two weeks, seems like everything is good so far.

Anytime you can add any type of depth into that room and create competition in any room, that's a good thing.

Q. How did the Deacon Hill situation come about?

TYLER BARNES: Unfortunately Carson May decided to transfer after the bowl game, and with Cade coming off an injury, I'm not 100 percent sure when he's going to be ready, so we were down to one quarterback again. Tough to go through spring ball that way. You always like to have four scholarship quarterbacks in your room, so obviously when Marco gets here in June we'll be at that four number. So we had kind of had conversations if somebody leaves we're going to have to be ready to bring in another guy, so we had our list of potential guys quarterback-wise that maybe we can call on there.

It's somebody that obviously he was in the Big Ten. We knew a little bit about him coming out recruiting wise. It's tough when you take a guy like Cade, it's not like you can go out and find just another bona fide starter. You are going to have to be realistic about what you can go out and get, and Deacon is still young. It's just his second year in college here, just finished his second fall.

I think he liked the fit and kind of the opportunity here.

Q. How much did his familiarity with Jon Budmayr play into effect?

TYLER BARNES: It certainly did. Yeah, it's a familiar face that he knows. Recruited him out of high school and coached him up there for a year, so I think in this day and age, relationships is huge in any part of the recruiting process, whatever you can have.

And that's whether it's from a high school coach to you coaching a guy somewhere else or you just recruiting a guy somewhere else. Relationships are always going to be -- usually they get you in the door with most guys, especially in this world where things move really, really fast.

If you don't have any familiarity with a guy or his high school coach or somebody in that region, it's going to be tough the way the portal works these days.

Q. The portal process, it seems like speed dating --

TYLER BARNES: Yeah, it can be.

Q. How does that work? You guys are very thorough in how you approach a recruit. It seems like it's just sped up so much.

TYLER BARNES: So it's interesting. As we were finishing our season and we were getting into the open period and the contact period, that was my biggest thing to Coach, is we're going to have to move fast on some of these guys; but we also can't get away from how we operate normally.

We've still got to dig on guys. We've got to ask the right questions. We've got to talk to as many people as possible. But there's definitely a sense of urgency that you have to move within, because if you don't, in the portal you've got one or two days to get the attention of a kid. If you don't, they're on to whatever next school or the other 15 schools that offer them.

I think you guys have seen, if you have the tiniest bit of production at the college level and you enter the transfer portal, you're over-recruited realistically. You're going to get offers from schools that you probably could have never dreamed of coming out of high school.

There is a sense of urgency, but my biggest thing is we're going to have to act fast to get the relationship started, but we still have to dig and make sure we're doing the right things before we decide we're going to sign this kid or take this kid. There's a balancing act to it for sure.

I still don't think -- I don't want to name other schools, but there's some schools that offer 30 receivers in the portal, really the 30 best guys out there, and just kind of throw darts. We're still trying to take a targeted approach to finding the right guys and moving at our pace.

It's probably faster than it has been, but it's kind of the world we live in and we have to do, it but we have to be diligent we have to be thorough. We can't trade that for just bringing in a guy that we just don't know a whole lot about. If he doesn't fit in our locker room, if our players don't like and respect him, it's a wasted scholarship and it can lead to worse things.

Q. As you guys evaluated the portal, when did you decide to take two offensive linemen and just kind of how that process fit in, and were there any other positions that you're still kind of looking around?

TYLER BARNES: Yeah, so it's always a fluid process from whether you're recruiting high school kids to portal kids. Your board changes all the time. You get through certain portions of the year. Bowl prep is always a good time where you see some younger guys kind of develop and make strides.

We had always kind of talked about it a little bit. Obviously losing Kaydn kind of shifted our focus a little bit on what we were going to do in the portal at that position, so it provided a little sense of urgency.

Again, Daijon was a guy we had been talking to prior to that December signing period that we felt pretty strongly about. And then we still had an open eye. There's always going to be a portion in the year where we may need X, Y, and Z positionally. If a guy pops up and we think he can help our team and provide depth or push guys, we've got to talk about it and make sure.

That's where Rusty came along. This is a guy that Coach Barnett had a ton of familiarity with. Recruited the kid, coached him, knows the high school program extremely well. So when Rusty became available, it really was kind of a no-brainer for us. If we can add to the team, we're going to add to the team, and Rusty is a great kid. He's going to fit right in. The offensive line this weekend, they enjoyed him.

So it's very fluid. As me being the guy that has the budget for our scholarship numbers every year, I would love if we would just stick to what every number said. That's just not realistic. But again, if we can add somebody that we feel really strongly about and is going to help us as a program regardless of position, then we're going to talk about it as a staff and we're going to move that route.

We have a couple spots left. I think you guys can probably figure those out from social media and the other offers that have come out. But again, that doesn't mean those are the two spots we're going to take.

We'll kind of see what pops up in this next transfer portal window that comes at the end of the spring here, kind of see who's available, and we'll kind of go from there.

Q. How difficult is the scholarship path? Seems like some schools are kind of loading up and then eventually hoping the math is going to figure itself out.

TYLER BARNES: I'm a finance guy. I love numbers. I love it. I have a scholarship grid that Coach Ferentz probably hates because the writing on it is tiny, because everything that's going on on the roster is on there.

I think it's fun. It's not hard. You've just got to be reasonable. Probably the hardest is when you're going in to talk to a position coach or a coordinator and they're really sold on this guy, but I've got to tell them like, hey, we're already two over that spot. I love them too and I love you, but like you're already credit card spending.

When you take one away from one spot, when you're over spending your spot, you're taking that spot away from another position. There's a give and take with it, but our staff does a great job. They know what they have. They know where we are at. I try and over-communicate as much as possible with them so they understand that, and obviously I'm not doing anything without Coach Ferentz saying okay, or Phil or Brian.

It's a constant communication, but I enjoy it. It's one of the parts of the job I do really like. It's different. But you kind of see -- I see the roster from a 10,000 foot view, where the coaches are coaching their position rooms or their side of the ball. They see it a little bit different, but that's kind of the recruiting process in general, honestly.

Q. Every year you guys seem to be able to pull several walk-ons who have D1 offers elsewhere and get them to come and walk on at the University of Iowa. How do you guys do that? Is that just because you guys have traditionally -- is that part of the sales pitch?

TYLER BARNES: I think that certainly plays into it. We're unique. You look at our two deeps at any point in the year, it's littered with walk-ons. Some guys that are still walk-ons, some guys that have been put on scholarship. I think we recruit walk-ons a little bit different than most places. We recruit walk-ons just as hard as we recruit scholarship guys, especially those guys that are giving up full rides to other places.

But then again, you look through our history, and when we bring these guys on campus and they have a chance to sit down with Joe Evans, Monte Pottebaum, some of those guys that have come here, given up money to come here and chase their dream and have had success and worked their way towards getting a scholarship and having a chance to play at the next level, it's a selling point.

We're probably not as successful as people say we are. There's some walk-ons we work pretty hard on and we never pressure them. It's a financial decision. We get it. You're giving up a lot of money to chase your dream or prove that you can play at this level.

But we also I think treat walk-ons very differently than a lot of places, too. When these guys step foot in this building, we will have 125 to 126 guys, nobody knows the difference between the walk-ons and the scholarship guys. Really the only difference is one kid paying tuition, the other is not. In terms of the opportunity they have here, all the resources they have within this building, at Gerdin, everything on the field, it's all the same.

I don't think that can be said for a lot of other places, so I think that's part of our Coach Ferentz has built this program, and I think it's definitely a positive for us when it comes to recruiting walk-ons.

Q. Anything that's really kind of stood out to you or surprised you now that you've had the first transfer portal window complete?

TYLER BARNES: No. I wouldn't say anything surprised me. I think at this point you've got to be ready to adapt and adjust. As Coach Ferentz has said and I'll stand by, too, we're going to build this roster through high school recruiting. I think that's the best way you can be sustainable.

I think if you live in the portal and take 8 to 12 to 15 guys a year every year, you're always going to have holes, and it's really hard to sustain a roster that way. This so happens to be a year where we were a little bit more aggressive in the portal, but I can't say it's going to be the same every year moving forward.

Again, we're constantly evaluating our roaster and what our needs are and where we may have holes. It depends on your high school recruits, too, and kind of the readiness of those guys, but I don't think there's anything challenging about it.

I think you have to be ready to adapt with the times and kind of figure it out however it can work.

Q. What was it like to talk to Parker and Hill who were committed to other schools, and how did you maintain that relationship through everything because a lot of times maybe high school kids you'd probably just back off for a little while?

TYLER BARNES: Yeah. We will recruit committed guys, whether high school or portal guys, but there's got to be a two-way communication street. Some guys will tell y9ou, hey, I'm good. I'm solid here. Which Daijon did tell me. I was like, again, I'm a numbers guy. I go pull up a lot of comparisons between UVA and University of Iowa. Not just wins, but offensive line development, how far it is from home, how easy is it for your mom to get here and watch games, cost of travel, hotel, all that stuff and send it to him and say, hey, just take a look at this and let me know if this maybe gets your interest.

Then I also hit Kaevon and told Kaevon to get on him too. Assist to Kaevon there.

But it's got to be a two-way street. We're not going to go out and just try and constantly poach guys, but if we have a need and there's some type of interest, we're going to pursue it until they tell us no, or we get their attention where we get them on campus and continue to recruit them.

Q. Several receivers in that 6'2", 200 plus range, couple guys in the '23 class that you signed in December. Is that body type something that you saw as a specific need, and what are you hoping that they can bring to the receiving room?

TYLER BARNES: I mean, I don't know if we were specifically targeting walk-on receivers in that body type. It always helps to have bigger guys, obviously. But you look at Nico, Nico might be listed as six foot. Nico is 5'11" realistically and he's going to have 120 plus career catches once he starts next fall.

There is a certain body type and skill set that you need for outside versus inside. When it comes to walk-ons and really any of our scholarship guys, we're trying to find best available. Some of these guys, do we need five walk-on receivers? Probably not, but some of these guys, they're recruiting us, and they think they have a chance to come here and play, and when you watch the film, they're probably correct.

Certainly it's good to have length. I think it's good to have length across the entire program, every position you have. Quarterback might be the one kicker where it might not matter that much. The rest of it you obviously want length.

But I think everybody has been talking about that's a trend, are we going to bunch of bigger receivers. We are just going to the best football players we can find realistically.

Q. For Austin Kutscher, coming from Ohio State that catches your eye even if he only played in a couple games. Was that him looking for an opportunity to play, because Ohio State has got some pretty good wide receivers?

TYLER BARNES: I think it was a change of scenery for him. He was a, really, really productive player his junior and senior year in high school, and we have a GA on our staff who works with the receivers who's from that high school as well, so he had some familiarity there.

I had talked to a couple guys on the Ohio State staff and they have nothing but great things to say about him. I think he just wanted a change of scenery, and maybe in his mind a chance to compete, and we'll see if he can do it here.

Obviously that Ohio State room is a little loaded so I can see why he'd want a change of scenery. Yeah, once we did our homework and checked it out, he was adamant about trying to go somewhere in the Big Ten and just kind of worked out where we were the place.