Kirk Ferentz has had a number of talented wide receivers in his tenure with the Iowa football program. Here are the top five from his twenty years as coach.
With senior Nick Easley graduating and moving on to greener pastures after the Hawks victory over Mississippi State in the 2019 Outback Bowl, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at all of the wide receivers that have come through the Iowa football program in the Kirk Ferentz era.
While the Iowa football team isn’t exactly known for producing NFL-caliber wide receivers, there have been a number of guys that have played under Kirk Ferentz that have set the standard high for future wide receivers. In fact, five of the top seven wide receivers in terms of receiving yards have all been a part of the Kirk Ferentz era.
Here are our top five Iowa football wide receivers in the Kirk Ferentz era.
5. Kevonte Martin-Manley
Kevonte Martin Manley, the most recent guy on our list of top five wide receivers, played for the Iowa football team from 2010 to 2014. After redshirting his first year in Iowa City, Martin-Manley quickly became a key contributor for Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes. In his redshirt freshman season, Martin-Manley had 30 receptions for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns which led to him being named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
He built off of that fantastic first year of active playing time by posting a career high in receptions (52) and yards (571). The former two-star wide receiver from Pontiac, Michigan would continue the consistent production his final two years in Iowa City as well finishing with 174 total receptions, 1,799 receiving yards, and 12 touchdowns.
His 174 receptions is the Iowa football record, but he wasn’t just a standout receiver. His junior season, he showed what kind of returner he could be as well taking two of his twenty punt returns to the house averaging 15.4 yards per return along the way. These punt returns helped him receive All-Big Ten as a specialist in his junior season.
4. Clinton Solomon
Clinton Solomon, a two-star recruit from Fort Worth, Texas had an interesting career with the Iowa football team. After a solid, but unspectacular freshman performance where he logged 14 catches 159 yards and one touchdown, Solomon left the Iowa football program due to poor grades. He would, however, return just one year later and he came back with some gusto.
Solomon’s junior season saw him breakout in a big way posting career highs in catches (58) and yards (905) while also adding six touchdowns. This performance helped lead the Hawks to one of the best seasons in the Kirk Ferentz era; Iowa would win the Big Ten that year and beat #12 ranked LSU in the 2005 Capital One Bowl, which could be considered the most exciting bowl win in Kirk’s career. Solomon would also receive Second Team All-Big Ten that year.
For his senior season encore, Solomon caught 46 passes for 800 yards for an incredible 17.4 yard per catch average. Clinton Solomon’s career stat line would read 118 catches, 1,864 yards, and 14 touchdowns.
While the total catches were good for just 11th all-time, his yards were 7th best overall. Meanwhile his 15.8 yard per catch average is third best among the other six wide receivers ahead of him in total receiving yards.
This ranking is based heavily on what he did for the Hawks during the 2005 season.
3. Derrell Johnson-Koulianos
The controversial Derrell Johnson-Koulianos was quite the entertainer on the field, and he was a key contributor on the Iowa football team’s 2010 Orange Bowl championship team.
After redshirting his first season in Iowa City, Johnson-Koulianos busted out for 38 catches and 482 yards in his redshirt freshman season despite playing with the much maligned Jake Christenson.
He would continue to build off his freshman season posting higher catch totals in every season he spent with the Iowa football team. During his sophomore campaign, he reeled in 44 catches for 639 yards and three touchdowns. His junior year saw him add one more reception and 111 more yards than the year before, helping the Iowa football team go 11-2 and win the Orange Bowl.
Heading into his senior season, Johnson-Koulianos was beginning to receive a lot of hype. Fresh off receiving Second Team All-Big Ten honors, Johnson-Koulianos (often referred to as DJK) was listed on many preseason watch lists including the famed Belitnikoff Award watch list given to the nation’s best wide receiver.
DJK would not disappoint. He would go on to catch 46 passes for 745 yards and ten touchdowns. Those ten touchdowns were three more than his first three seasons combined. Moreover, he had a fantastic season as a kick returner, returning 17 kick for 498 yards and a 29.3 yard per return average.
His outstanding senior year would culminate in First Team All-Big Ten honors and the Iowa football record for receiving yards (2,616) and catches (173) in a career. Both of these records, however, would fall just a few years later.
2. Kevin Kasper
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly twenty years since Kevin Kasper donned the black and gold of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Despite playing during one of the worst stretches in Iowa football history, the electrifying Kevin Kasper still put impressive enough numbers to be ranked second overall on our list of top five wide receivers in the Kirk Ferentz era. He would also go on to have the most successful NFL career of all of the guys on this list.
Kasper, a Hinsdale, Illinois native and former walk-on managed to catch 157 passes for 1,974 yards and 11 touchdowns while playing with a bevy of extremely limited quarterbacks.
During Kasper’s senior season, he accounted for 38% of the total passing offense all while playing with three different quarterbacks, none of which threw for over 900 yards total that season. He would set the season record for receptions (82) in that year.
When his Iowa football career was finished, Kasper held every major receiving record for the Hawks.
He would go on to be drafted in the sixth round by the Denver Broncos and would end up playing for nearly 1/3 of the NFL teams in his seven-year career.
1. Marvin McNutt
Could there really be any other guy at the top of this list than the great Marvin McNutt?
McNutt, the Iowa football career record holder for receiving yards (2,861) and touchdowns (28) had a fantastic run in Iowa City.
Marvin McNutt came to the Hawks as a three-star dual-threat quarterback but after redshirting his first year and being buried on the quarterback depth chart, he was moved over to wide receiver. In his first full season of playing wide receiver he averaged nearly 20 yards per reception (19.8) on 34 receptions.
The Hazelwood, MO native was just getting started though. His junior year, he tallied 53 receptions for 861 yards and eight touchdowns, and his senior year he pulled in 82 catches for a season-record 1,315 yards and a season-record 12 touchdowns. The 1,315 yards was almost double the next closest guy and accounted for an absurd 43% of the total passing offense.
This amazing season was good enough to get McNutt First Team All-Big Ten honors his senior season.
Considering his 28 touchdowns are seven away from the next closest guy and 19 away from the next closest active guy, his career record should stand for quite some time. This is why Marvin McNutt is easily the best receiver in the Kirk Ferentz era and arguably in all of Iowa football history.