By Tyler Devine

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa football team was supposed to have its first workout Monday since allegations of racial injustice within the program surfaced on June 5.

But instead, the players and coaching staff held a team meeting that head coach Kirk Ferentz described as one of the most emotional, powerful, and at times heated, meetings he has ever been a part of.

“Everything was raw. Everything was powerful. Everybody got what they wanted off their chest,” sophomore defensive back Kaevon Merriweather said. “It was definitely a really strong step forward for the program and definitely a strong step forward for this team.

“I feel like I’m closer to every single person on this team. I feel like every single person on this team feels like they’re closer to one another. This is probably one of the strongest things that’s happened in this program.”

Ferentz said he feared at times that the meeting would go sideways, but it didn’t.

Senior kicker Keith Duncan said he feels the team is more unified now than it has been since he came to Iowa in 2016.

“I’ve been on the team for four years and it’s super unique, I think this is the most connected we’ve been as a team right now,” Duncan said. “We haven’t even been on the field together. We’ve only been in the facility for a week and there has been a change of energy and a change of connectivity.

“So, I think that is a great positive coming out of this. It’s the most connected team I’ve ever been on right now and I think that’s speaks a lot to what we’re doing.”

Some of the allegations – most of which center around strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, who has since been put on paid administrative leave – described a sense that players had to “walk on eggshells” and didn’t feel like they could be themselves in the football facility.

Steps to change the culture have already been put in place by Ferentz, including lifting a years-old Twitter use ban on players.

“It’s all about assessing where we are right now and where can we give more leeway, more trust, listen to things,” Ferentz said. “I don’t really understand Twitter. I understand it’s popular. But, you know, that was stupid. That was stupid on my part.”

Junior running back Ivory Kelly-Martin said that the last few days of conversation have gone a long way in creating hope among the players for positive change in the future.

“It was an atmosphere where you did have to look out, kind of watch your back,” Kelly-Martin said. “You always had to kind of be on your toes at times. But throughout this week there have been so many conversations that have been made, talking about change and we’re all hopeful that this is actually going to happen. These last couple days in the weight room and outside on the field, we can all tell that there’s a clear difference between how it was and how it is now.”

Merriweather gained a lot of attention Monday when he posted on Twitter about the possibility of the team kneeling during the national anthem this fall.

“I would rather play in front of 1,000 fans who care about us as people outside of football and what we are standing for, than 70,000 fans who only care about us when we are in uniform and on the field entertaining them,” Merriweather said on Twitter.

Merriweather said Friday that the team had not made a decision as to whether or not it would kneel, but Ferentz said that he would like the team to be unified in whatever decision it makes.