Iowa Football Looks To Move On After Rhabdo Case

March 24, 2011 / Football

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz reported today that all 13 of the players involved in the rhabdo incident earlier this year have been cleared for spring drills and 12 of them are taking part.

Although Iowa has dropped the drill that apparently brought on the Rhabdo, Ferentz said they are not backing off strenuous training.

“We put players in tough situations, difficult circumstances,” Head Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “We do the same thing on the practice field. We did that in December on the practice field. And that’s part of what we do.”

“Because when we play on Saturdays, or in bowl games, it’s usually pretty challenging out there,” he continued. “The competition we play is tough. It’s going to get tougher with Nebraska coming to our conference. It’s just the nature of what we do.”

“It’s been that way for 13 years and as I said earlier, we work hard and we’ll continue to work hard,” Ferentz said.

The rhabdo story became national news and Ferentz thought that some writers delivered some cheap shots before they knew all the facts.

“I think a lot of the shots that were taken were drive-by shooters, if you will,” Ferentz said. “To throw out the term barbaric or… somebody suggested we’d have thirteen transfers… Things like that, those are shots from left field.”

Ferentz defended team physician Ned Amendola in particular.

“Probably the most ludicrous thing [was] the shot that was taken at Ned Amendola, who is just an outstanding physician,” Ferentz said. “[Amendola is] respected internationally – not only nationally but internationally – and the report I read on him was just totally ludicrous.”

Ferentz called Amendola top shelf and is glad to have him board.

Ferentz believes some will use the rahbdo case against iowa when it comes to recruiting.


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