In a college football landscape that keeps churning through roster changes, portal movement, and coaching turnover, Iowa keeps leaning on something a lot of programs talk about but few sustain: culture.
That has shown up again with the Hawkeyes’ special teams, a group that had to absorb major change this offseason. Iowa replaced its special teams coordinator, punter, and kicker, a lot for any team, and especially for one that so often depends on that phase to tilt games its way.
Chris Polizzi stepped in as the new special teams coordinator, and he hasn’t treated the transition like a reset. Instead, he’s embraced the standard Kirk Ferentz has built over three decades in Iowa City, trying to keep the operation tight even as the faces around him changed.
"I think with any person when you set a standard, and you can show them, 'This is the way we operate from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep, in the meetings, in the weight room, in practice. These are your habits. These are how we take notes,'" Polizzi said of the special teams.
"And you have a guy like Coach Ferentz that can point to so many different individuals. You can bring individuals back, Drew Stevens, Ty Nissen’s back here with us.
"Nate Kaeding has come by, Jason Baker, Tory Taylor, all these guys that can help these guys out in the sense of, 'Hey, I put on that helmet when I walked in that locker room.' That's a tremendous resource for the players.
The results through six games suggest the Hawkeyes have handled the overhaul better than many would have guessed. That’s been true on special teams, where the unit has held its own despite the turnover that could have easily knocked it off course.
Polizzi said none of that surprises him. In his view, the reason Iowa keeps functioning so smoothly in that phase is the foundation Ferentz has already established, backed by the strength staff, athletic training, and the rest of the support system around the program.
"I still don't think we've hit that era of a Tory Taylor, a Kaden Wetjen, a Nate Kaeding, a Drew Stevens, but I think these guys are working towards it."
"And again, I point to the culture that Coach Ferentz sets and, you know, between the strength staff and athletic training and the assistance that we have here, it's everything's simpler because they -- they've walked that before," Chris Polizzi continued.
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Iowas Remaining Schedule Suddenly Feels Bigger Than Anyone Expected
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The Hawkeyes still have work to do, of course, but the remaining schedule now carries more weight because the field around them has become so unsettled. If Iowa handles its own business, those chaotic results could leave the door open to postseason possibilities that felt far less realistic before the latest round of turbulence. [Read more 🡒]