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Kirk Ferentz teases ‘encouraging news’ related to Noah Shannon’s suspension
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Kirk Ferentz and Iowa continue to play the 2023 season without defensive tackle Noah Shannon in the lineup. He was suspended for the entirety of the 2023 season as a part of a gambling probe into the state of Iowa.
However, things might be shifting in regard to Shannon and the Hawkeyes. The NCAA revisited the gambling issue in college athletics this week, and Ferentz pointed to some “encouraging news” after Saturday’s game.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say we have encouraging news, but I believe we have encouraging news, so I’ll verify that Tuesday,” said Ferentz in his press conference. “At least hopefully, I wish everything had happened sooner in this whole scenario and if the world were perfect it would have but any encouraging news is a good thing. I’ll know more Tuesday but we’re optimistic.”
On the field, Iowa would be getting back a veteran defender with 11 TFL and 4.5 sacks in his career. Off the field, Ferentz noted the biggest challenge was trying to get the suspension to make sense for Shannon and his family.
“Anytime you get a guy back with his experience and the quality of person he is, his leadership, that’s always a plus. But I got to tell you, the bigger thing to me… The whole story is just — you know when you have to explain something to a player or his parents that doesn’t make sense,” Ferentz said. “Right? Compare this to that, and the player and the parent can look at a million examples that are more egregious. That was the hard part, to make something that can’t make sense try and make sense.”
Hopefully, Shannon will be cleared in the near future, but it is more waiting for the time being coming out of Week 6.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.