Iowa football dissects kicking game struggles, Kaden Wetjen, and more

The Iowa football team has a bye this weekend, so instead of head coach Kirk Ferentz addressing the media, the three main coordinators got the chance to do so.

That includes the special teams coordinator, LeVar Woods, whose unit has seen some up and down moments in 2025 so far. The Hawkeyes have gotten some big plays from their special teams this year, including multiple returns for touchdowns from Kaden Wetjen and a few long field goals from Drew Stevens. But the inconsistency has been maddening for fans.

Iowa's had two punts blocked already, and Stevens has missed a field goal in three straight games, including the potential game-winner against Indiana. Snaps and holds on field goals have also been an issue, leading to some things for Woods to clean up over the bye week.

Woods spoke to the media on Tuesday about all of those things and more. Here's what he had to say.

LeVar Woods comments on his special teams unit in 2025

Woods was asked about Stevens' missed field goals first, and had this to say about his senior kicker.

"First off, it's a unit, so it's not just one person. Drew is the kicker, so everyone looks at him. It'ssort of like the quarterback. Everyone looks at the quarterback. Did he make the pass? Did he not make the pass? But there's ten other guys out there. There's ten other things, ten other layers that go into that in regards to any play in football, particularly in field goal.

Yeah, not the kicks he wanted to make and didn't go through the uprights. I've seen Drew make plenty of kicksthat have gone through the uprights. That's another thing we saw. We saw a career long field goal from Drew in Week 1.

We see it every day here in practice, right? We see himevery day. Look at this kick. It's unbelievable. Also, over the course of his career he's gone on and has made big kicks for this football team. Just didn't get it done in the most recent game, but that to me is a one-off."

Following that, Woods was asked about his senior returnman Kaden Wetjen, who's been electric in 2025. Woods compared Wetjen to another all-time great Hawkeyes returnman: Tim Dwight.

"I think initially the stature and how he runs. Tim is not the tallest guys. Tim is blazing fast. Kaden, again, not the tallest guy, but super fast. Kaden has really good balance, really good lower body strength.

It's very unique to have a guy that can do kick returns andpunt returns and still -- he has a speed of a wide receiverand probably the build of a running back. I think it's a very unique build that he has physically."

Iowa's kick coverage on both kickoffs and punts has been good in 2025. Woods was asked about some players who have stood out to him so far on the kick coverage team.

"So coverage, I'll kind of hit overall just the core players. Obviously you know about Lutmer. You know Entringer. Right, they're the gunners. They're flying down the field.

Okay, there are some other guys. I think Preston Ries has shown up, especially early in the game. He had twotackles, two big tackles, inside the 20. Blocked a punt in his first game. Teams have definitely found him (smiling). They definitely have game plans for him right now.

Derek Weisskopf has shown up as a young guy. Nolan DeLong has shown up more so on punt return and kickreturn. Done a really good job. Same thing with Landyn Van Kekerix. Chubs is what we call him. Man, he's quietly a really good football player, and he's really helped."

Woods was also asked about his second-year punter, Rhys Dakin, who's gotten off to an up-and-down start himself. Woods had this to say about Dakin.

"Rhys, a really talented young man. Still young player. Talk about being a human being and thingsyou see at practice versus games, but really talented.

This kid, really like how he works every day. Very diligent, very focused, accountable. You can coach him. There's no pushback. There's no, Well, coach, I don't think this. You don't see that at all from Rhys.

A couple of things we're still working on, ironing out. We're still trying to build some of that consistency between snapper to punter, but what he's done so far, been happy with. He hasn't had as many opportunities, which is good for us, right, because it's less times -- I think he is averaging two punts a game, maybe three. You know better than I do.

I thought he played his best game last week as far as 47-yard punt, fair caught. One inside the 5. Another onehad a chance inside the 10. Bounced back. I think he is really starting to come along. Still a thing, looking forconsistency, right, with what we're doing."

Finally, Woods was asked about the blocked punts his unit has allowed this year and what they need to do to get that ironed up.

"Again, going back to consistency in operation. So snap location, getting the punter pulled off his line, not great. So that definitely doesn't help.

Again, those are some of the things, consistency, that we're looking for and we need to improve upon. Again, Idon't attribute it really to anything really other than that. I wasn't overly upset, because it's, like, man, we just have to be better. It's just hard for me to not be upset about those things, but I'm trying hard. Trying to keep that blood pressure down a little bit.

In regards to that, again, just we need to be better than that. I expect us to be better, but I don't see anything, like, oh, it's Rhys's fault or this's fault, the snap's fault. I don't see that.

We're a unit. We have to just be better, be cleaner."

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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa football dissects kicking game struggles, Kaden Wetjen, and more