By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kinnick Stadium’s north end zone renovation serves as the perfect metaphor for the 2018 Iowa football team.

Neither is close to being a finished product, but progress is being made.

The renovation has gone from being a destruction zone to a construction zone, while the Iowa football team has gone through 15 practices this spring, with Friday’s two-hour session under the lights at Kinnick Stadium marking the end of spring practice.

It was called a spring game, but was far from it as the Iowa players and coaches worked around the $89 million renovation, which is the latest enhancement to the 89-year old stadium.

The team only used about 70 yards of the playing surface for practice, but that’s the price you pay for progress, on and off the field.

As for what occurred on the field, it’s so hard to make any judgments based on just one spring practice on a shortened field. It’s hard enough to learn anything credible from a real spring game, but nearly impossible to learn anything from a controlled scrimmage. 

I went into Friday’s practice thinking Iowa was an 8-4 team on paper and left thinking Iowa was an 8-4 team on paper.

“We were in game uniforms tonight, but we’re hardly game ready,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said to the media after Friday’s practice.

The night started on a somber note as Iowa announced that senior linebacker Aaron Mends would miss an extended period of time due to what Ferentz said was a serious knee injury. Mends was poised to be a starter as a fifth-year senior, according to defensive coordinator Phil Parker’s update this past Tuesday, but the injury could derail those plans.

Mends has more than four months to recover before the season opener, so you hope for the best because he has waited nearly four years to play a key role.

“I feel fairly good about the overall progress of our football team this spring, but that puts a damper on it,” Ferentz said. “Aaron is a great young guy and he can’t seem to catch a break right now.”

One of the neatest moments on Friday came when the players, coaches, officials and the roughly 9.300 fans all turned and waved to the patients in the University of Iowa Stead Children’s Hospital, carrying on tradition that swept the nation last fall.

Iowa also announced that the water tower located just northeast of Kinnick Stadium finally would be painted with the tiger hawk logo, much to the delight of fans who have been clamoring for that to happen for years.

“I swear I didn’t know it was going on, the water tower, but I think it’s great,” Ferentz said.

Junior safety Amani Hooker and junior linebacker Amani Jones both stood out with their performances on Friday. Hooker really came into his own last season and shows signs of being Iowa’s next star defensive back.

He intercepted an ill-advised pass thrown by starting quarterback Nate Stanley and made some impressive tackles in open field.

“Just from where I was standing it was kind of funny, you could see him sizing it up and we haven’t covered that route all spring, not that we’ve thrown it a lot,” Ferentz said. “But he spotted it right off the bat. So I think that shows he’s moving forward a little bit, too. And that’s what you hope for experienced players.”

I feel somewhat justified in promoting Hooker because he already has proven himself in prime time, while Jones has played almost exclusively on special teams to this point.

Jones performed well against the run in Friday’s scrimmage and showed a knack for being around the ball.

“The first time you meet Amani, there is something about the guy,” Ferentz said of Amani Jones. “He loves the game and he’s appreciative of the opportunities that are in front of him right now.”

The Iowa defense mostly had its way against the offense, which is typical for a spring practice because the defense is usually further along at this stage. But the Iowa defenders were also aggressive and stayed on the attack from start to finish while holding the first-team offense to zero touchdowns in six possessions.

Sophomore punter Ryan Gersonde showed why he is listed ahead of last year’s starter, Colten Rastetter, in the spring prospectus. Gersonde’s punts had more hang time and more distance than Rastetter’s punts on Friday.

Friday’s practice did little to showcase Noah Fant’s immense talent at tight end, but that should came as no surprise because he has nothing to prove after catching 11 of Stanley’s 26 touchdown passes last season. The biggest question with Fant at this stage is will this be his final spring as a Hawkeye? A repeat of last season could make him a hot commodity in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Iowa's final spring practice seems to bring out the best in senior safety Jake Gervase, who had an interception on Friday. The former Davenport Assumption star had three inerceptions in last year's spring game.

Running backs Ivory Kelly-Martin and Toren Young both had their moments on Friday, but the jury still is out on both of them until they start carrying the load in the fall.

Sophomore Max Cooper stood out the most amongst the receivers on Friday with a team-leading eight catches. The Wisconsin native was able to get some separation and showed the ability to catch in traffic.

The next step for Cooper is to show those same qualities in the fall.

True freshman quarterback Spencer Petras showed a strong arm on Friday and drew praise from Ferentz for his development throughout the spring. Petras enrolled at Iowa for the spring semester after graduating from high school early.

"Petras kind of surprised us a little bit," Ferentz said of the San Rafael, Calif., native. "He's caught on to things a little quicker than you might imagine." 

Probably the best news from Friday's practice is that there were no serious injuries. You feel horrible for the players who are injured, especially Mends, but life goes on.

Iowa now enters the offseason with guarded optimism. There is plenty to like about this Iowa team, but also plenty to question at this point.

That's always the circumstance at the end of spring practice.