McNutt out for spring
Marc Morehouse had a short post about some of the off-season surgeries for some Iowa players. The headliner is Marvin McNutt who had surgery on his thumb and shoulder. He'll be out for spring practice. Shane DiBona and Tanner Miller also had shoulder surgery and will likely be out this spring.McNutt's absence will leave a huge opportunity for some of the less experienced receivers to get valuable practice time this spring. This will be vital to Iowa's offensive success in 2011 as behind McNutt, the next 4 leaders in receptions and receiving yards from last year (DJK, Reisner, Robinson, and Sandeman) are all gone (wide receivers Paul Chaney and Don Nordmann are also gone). This will leave Keenan Davis, who had just 11 catches for 131, as Iowa's leading returning receiver for spring practice. And, he'll be the only receiver with a collegiate catch. Next in line will likely be red-shirt freshman Kevonte Martin-Manley. After that, who knows? Jordan Cotton had some hype out of high school, but has yet to see the playing field. After that it's just walk-ons.
And speaking of walk-ons... (check out that transition)
Brendon Boerm to walk on
North Tama quarterback Brendon Boerm will join Iowa as a preferred walk-on this fall. Boerm led the Red Hawks to a perfect season 14-0 and won the Iowa Class 1A title. He was the title game MVP amassing 390 of total offense. He passed for 174 yards and 2 TDs, ran for another 104 yards with 2 more TDs, and even had 112 receiving yards and 2 more TDs (over 100 yards passing, receiving, and rushing...ridiculous!!). On the season he was named The Gazette/KCRG Player of the Year. Boerm finished his senior year throwing for 2350 yards and 29 touchdowns. He also ran the ball for 1483 yards and 20 TDs. Boerm is being brought in as an athlete that could contribute as a safety or on special teams. He will not be a quarterback for Iowa.Two Phase Football Facility Renovation
Coach Eric Johnson tweeted about the planned football facility renovation over the weekend. The 2 phase renovation now sort of has a timeline. Phase 1 will be the construction of a new indoor practice facility to replace The Bubble and is now schedule to be completed by the summer of 2012. Phase 2 would be an additional building with a weight room, coach's offices, etc...Great news out of the cruise- the goal is to have phase 1 of our new football facility completed by summer 2012 & phase 2 started right after
Coach Eric Johnson
HawkeyeCoachEJ
The renovation has actually been in the plans for a long time. The Board of Regents gave approval to plan back in October 2008 and accepted the plans in December 2010. Around that time, Marc Morehouse posted about some of the plans for the practice facility and included a couple of pictures of the proposed design.
I think anyone who has been in The Bubble can agree that it needs replacing. And, Iowa doesn't need to go over-extravagant like Oregon's ridiculous facilities, but an upgrade will go a long way with attracting recruits.