PHOTO: Caleb Saunders The Hawkeye locker room is in constant motion about 48 hours before kickoff.

It’s two days before kickoff at Kinnick Stadium, and the Iowa football locker room is almost ready for game day. Several of the team’s 12 student managers work alongside equipment staff, removing shoulder pads and cleats from duffel bags and placing them in each locker. Others hang freshly laundered pregame warmup shorts, T-shirts, and lightweight hoodies along with in-game compression shirts, socks, and padded girdles. Numbered loops connecting the items help identify each player’s apparel after washing.

Jerseys are hung in the middle of each locker with the name facing out before pants are placed on a hook to the left. Each helmet rests at the top of the locker, above the name plate, and faces right—a standard that legendary football coach Hayden Fry established so that the America Needs Farmers sticker is visible.

PHOTO: Caleb Saunders One of the student managers’ first tasks each morning is stocking each refuel station, including this one in the Hawkeye locker room, with nutrient-dense foods and beverages. These stations offer players options to aid recovery.

As up to more than 100 lockers are prepared for each home game, another student manager restocks snacks and drinks in the refuel stations throughout Kinnick Stadium and the Stew and LeNore Hansen Football Performance Center. These Thursday morning responsibilities are just a fraction of the duties the student managers complete in a busy seven-day work week supporting Hawkeye football.

“[They’re] the backbone of our team, because they probably do more work than anybody in this entire organization when it comes to having things ready,” says Kelly Koch, the team’s former assistant equipment manager. “They do a tremendous amount of work; we couldn’t do it without them.”

Making the Grade

PHOTO: Caleb Saunders Every item has a designated spot within a locker. The helmets always rest on the top shelf and face right, a directive by former Hawkeye football coach Hayden Fry so that the America Needs Farmers decal is visible.

Most student managers have already completed at least one year of college before joining the team, with tryouts held each spring. If they make the cut, they’re offered early registration so they can schedule their classes between 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., allowing them to meet their morning and evening responsibilities for the team. Handling a heavy workload, they take advantage of downtime during team meals or flying to away games to complete their homework. When a student has a test or big project, others step up in their absence.

For many of these students, serving on the Iowa football team is a way to remain involved with the sport without being a Division I athlete, or to gain experience for a career in football operations. “I knew I wasn’t going to be playing on the field, but I felt that I had a purpose in helping out on the sidelines and still helping the team win,” says Elio Celentino (25BBA, 25BS), who was graduate assistant head football manager for operations last season.

PHOTO: Caleb Saunders Player jerseys are the first item to be hung in each locker. While only 74 players can dress for a road game, more than 100 often suit up at home.

PHOTO: Caleb Saunders Student workers on the equipment staff wash and dry team laundry. Each player’s apparel has a specific number heat pressed onto it and is connected to other pieces by a numbered loop to keep it all organized when it’s washed and dried.

PHOTO: Caleb Saunders The Hawkeye locker room is organized by position group, making it easier for coordinators and position coaches to review video and communicate any adjustments in a confined space.

Celentino was one of the team’s co-head managers who work additional hours each week and mentor other student managers. Any manager can attend football operations meetings to gain more knowledge about the field, and the program has served as a training ground for many who have gone on to football operations careers in college and the NFL.

Practice to Game Day

PHOTO: John Emigh The Iowa football team’s student managers take advantage of a brief break from their game day duties to curb their hunger. During the season, these indispensable staff members work extensive hours each week, serving many of the team’s needs for each practice and game. They are paid a partial scholarship.

Practices are the main priority for the student managers, who are each responsible for a specific position group. They’re the first ones to the practice field, assembling equipment for drills that they help oversee while also running the clock for different practice periods. During scrimmages, they act as refs and the chain gang, spotting the ball and moving the first-down markers. “Anything that a player doesn’t do during practice, that’s our job—to make practice go,” says Celentino.

The student managers are also the last to leave. After practice ends, they operate the JUGS machine—a portable, motorized device that throws passes—for the wide receivers and retrieve balls for the quarterbacks getting in extra throws.

On game day, managers set up headset communications for coaches in the press box and on the field. They warm up the quarterbacks and help the starter determine which ball they want to use first in the game. Four managers serve as ball boys, with two on each sideline, ready to provide the ball to the official or recoup one after a field goal or extra point. Other students chart plays by recording the formation and result of each snap. Some managers stand right next to a position coach to hear which coverage they yell, while others wear a headset to hear the play call.

All managers travel for each road game, arriving first to load the team truck before boarding the plane last. Upon arrival, the managers hustle to arrange the equipment and gear for all 74 traveling players in the visiting locker room, while the rest of the team heads to a hotel for dinner. The managers also reload the truck after the game and unload it once they return to Iowa City.

Student Manager Traditions

PHOTO: Caleb Saunders When the locker room is fully prepared and the student managers have a few spare minutes, they circle around in chairs for a game of two-ball. Two tennis-sized balls are bounced between the group at random with each manager required to bounce the ball toward another person within a split second. It’s another way this dedicated crew builds chemistry and unwinds before their next task beckons.

The student managers also practice weekly to prepare for their annual eight-on-eight flag football game against Wisconsin’s student managers, which is played the night before the Hawkeyes and Badgers meet on the gridiron. The tradition dates to 1991, but was skipped for a few years due to bad blood between the programs before resuming in 1995. The student managers take this game just as seriously as their team duties, drawing up plays they reference from their wrist cards and designing their own defenses while competing for the traveling Rusty Toolbox trophy. Iowa leads the all-time series 16-13 and has won five of the last six games.

Celentino, who played on the line, uses air quotes for the “flag” in flag football, noting the physicality of each game, which features three offensive linemen against two defensive linemen. “We’re hitting each other, we’re wearing mouth guards and getting popped,” says Celentino. “One of our guys had to sit out the game because he got a concussion.”

PHOTO: Owen Aanestad/HAWKEYESPORTS.COM After a possession, players review video of the previous series of plays on iPads and communicate via headset with a position coach in the press box. Each play is reviewable with sideline, end zone, and telecast camera views less than a minute after it happens. The Big Ten introduced the use of iPads in the 2024 football season, following an NCAA ruling that allows each team to use up to 18 active tablets during a game.

Each year, former student managers from as far back as the 1970s return for an alumni event and share memorable stories from their time serving on the Iowa football team and where it’s led them in their careers. Celentino, who plans to continue working in football operations at the collegiate or professional level, says the alumni all share a fondness for their time on the team and the connections they built with one another. “It’s a special bond you get because we spend a ridiculous amount of time with each other,” he says. “We’re all friends and brothers, and you bicker sometimes, but that’s what a brotherhood is. That’s what the Iowa football managers are.”