Kadyn Proctor’s time at Iowa was so short, the former five-star recruit never even took the practice field.
After opting to leave Alabama in January and return home to play for the Hawkeyes, the freshman All-American left tackle is expected to return to Tuscaloosa and resume his career with the Tide.
“At the end of the day, whenever it happens, if it does happen, you don't want a player in the program that doesn't want to be here,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “If his heart and soul is not into it, it's not good for him, it's not good for us, either.”
Proctor, from Des Moines, originally committed to Iowa out of high school, but flipped to the powerhouse SEC program. The same scenario played out again this spring.
Proctor did not participate at all in spring ball for the Hawkeyes, who are two weeks into a time of the year Ferentz stressed as critical.
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“If there's a silver lining here, too, we didn't spend any practice reps with someone who had no intention of being here, and that's a positive, as well,” Ferentz said of the 6-7, 360-pound Proctor, who started all 14 games last season for the Crimson Tide, including the College Football Playoff semifinal game against Michigan.
Proctor was pegged to fill the left tackle spot on the Iowa offensive line — a position at which the Hawkeyes struggled last season. Instead, those reps are going to returners Mason Richman (14 starts, 39 games), Gennings Dunker (13-13), Connor Colby (12-36), Nick De Jong (6-23) and Beau Stephens (0-10). Center Logan Jones (13-26) is sidelined after offseason surgery, but is expected to be ready for the fall. Richman, Dunker, Colby and Jones were starters in the Hawkeyes’ 10-4 2023 campaign.
“We've had a recruiting class or two where we've had some things work out not in a way we had hoped or maybe would have planned, so all of a sudden you're a little deficient, and then that's showing up,” Ferentz said of the O-line’s performance. “It's tough to separate offensively within most systems if you don't block as well as you like.”
The returners get 15 practices to improve, the last of which will be held at Kinnick Stadium on April 20.
“The good news is I think we are more veteran. It's not like there's any pixie dust we can sprinkle on those guys last year or the year before,” Ferentz said. “In some cases we've had guys playing probably before they maybe were ready, fully ready, to play at a high level. I think the good news is right now we have an opportunity maybe to develop into a good line because we do have pretty good experience.”
But it will not include Proctor.
“I think the bottom line there is that you don’t want a player in the program that doesn’t want to be here,” Ferentz said. “That’s always kind of been our feeling, and in my mind at least, it’s best for both parties to go separate ways at that point.”