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Kirk Ferentz has an encyclopedic recall of Iowa players, the result of a quarter-century as Hawkeyes head coach, plus another nine years as an assistant.
Mention a current Hawkeye, and Ferentz reflexively lists two or three from his own past, noting details about their play style, top moments, personality, NFL path and more. But Cooper DeJean, Iowa's ubiquitous star defensive back, projected to go in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft, elicits a different type of response.
When watching DeJean last season, Ferentz kept thinking about a player he never coached or even met, who competed for Iowa and died more than a decade before Ferentz was born.