Iowa football plans to keep traveling Tradon Bessinger to road games - Hawkeyes Wire
The Iowa football program picked up a huge addition to its 2026 signing class late last year in four-star quarterback Tradon Bessinger. Now, fans are finding out a bit more about the plans for the young signal-caller.
Bessinger is a 6-foot-5, 213-pound quarterback from Kaysville, Utah. Originally committed to Boise State, Bessinger flipped to Iowa following a late October visit with the Hawkeyes. His commitment was met with plenty of excitement from a fanbase desperately looking for a bright future at the most important position in sports. He's yet to see the field as a first-year player, but Bessinger's Iowa career took a very important step forward last weekend.
For the first time in his Hawkeye career, Bessinger traveled with the team for their road game at Minnesota. For context, teams can only bring 80 players with them to road games. So, the coaching staff has to decide which players get to travel and which stay behind. It was a big deal that Iowa chose to include him on the travel roster, even though the chances of him actually getting in the game were slim.
At his weekly media availability, Kirk Ferentz explained the decision-making process behind Bessinger traveling with the team. He also gave a small glimpse into the plans for Bessinger going forward.
"Yeah, he's a beneficiary of the new rule," Ferentz said. "Our rosters are squeezed down where we're the few, the proud, the free anymore. With our practices out there, our scout teams are basically decimated in the new world, but the good thing in the new world, you can travel 80 instead of whatever it was, 74, so we get a little room there.
"He's going to be a player in the future. We wanted to get him used to just being in the game routine and traveling, all those types of things. That's a positive, that 74 to 80, because it allows us to travel more guys than we used to, although I'm not a big fan in taking people that are going to be spectators. It's not a field trip either, but for him it was valuable, and we'll keep doing that."
Iowa has two road games remaining in the regular season, with trips to No. 18 Northwestern and Illinois on the docket. If Ferentz holds to his words, fans should expect to see Bessinger with the team for those games.
Iowa is taking the development of Bessinger very seriously. They view him as a viable starter for the program, potentially even as soon as next season. Bessinger traveling with the team is a big step toward that becoming a reality sooner rather than later.
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