By Todd Brommelkamp/1600 ESPN
IOWA CITY – Seth Wallace was born in Kentucky but very much identifies as an Iowan after moving here with his family at a young age. As such, one can assume he’s seen “Field of Dreams” at least once. Like spending a summer detasseling corn or making a pilgrimage to see the Iowa State Fair’s titular attraction the “Butter Cow” at least once, there are some things that come with the territory of living here.
It was through the 1989 Kevin Costner vehicle much of the world was introduced to Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, a real-life former major league baseball player who made one appearance in The Show but never took at at-bat. The movie took some liberties with Graham’s story but both the actual and fictional Graham never set foot on a big league diamond again. Life had other plans for Graham, who eventually became a medical doctor. In the Hollywood version of his existence, an older version of Graham tells Costner’s Ray Kinsella that
“We just don’t recognize life’s most significant moments while they’re happening,” Burt Lancaster’s present-day Graham says. “Back then I thought, “Well, there’ll be other days.” I didn’t realize that that was the only day.”
Wallace is an assistant coach at Iowa but for at least one day, owing to the one-game suspension of Kirk Ferentz, he was the Hawkeyes’ head man. He has said previously he has designs on one day becoming a head coach, just as his father was at Grinnell College. Last season, in an effort to retain his services, the then 44-year-old Wallace was elevated to “Assistant Head Coach,” a designation many took to believe made him Ferentz’s heir apparent.
Odds are Wallace stalks his own sideline someday, be it here or elsewhere. That stock was boosted in Saturday’s 40-0 win over Illinois State. It was Wallace who took over the team at the stroke of midnight Friday, executing Ferentz’s game plan and focusing the team on a big finish following a lackluster first two quarters of play that saw Iowa carry a 6-0 lead into the locker room.
“I’ll end before I take questions with just how unbelievably proud I am of our team, our staff, the way our players responded in the second half,” Wallace said. “This isn’t a normal day around here, obviously, and our players handled it with unbelievable class to go in at halftime up a score but still in a one-possession game.
“The way they responded was pretty special to see.”
As the former Division III wide receiver spoke to the media from behind a lectern normally occupied by Ferentz, it was easier than ever before to picture a world in which his presence in the postgame news conference was anything but out of the ordinary.
Yet there’s no guarantee of that future.
Moonlight Graham thought surely he’d take the field again, whether with John McGraw’s New York Giants or another team. That didn’t happen except through the magic of film.
There was a time not long ago when it may have felt to Wallace like his moment may never come.
It was in April of 2022 when he was publicly named along with Kirk and Brian Ferentz as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by eight black former Hawkeyes alleging racial bias and discrimination within the Iowa program. That lawsuit was initiated in November of 2020, months after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a nationwide discourse on race relations. Former strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle lost his job over the allegations and four confidential personnel reports were generated following an independent investigation by a Kansas City-based law firm. The Des Moines Register reported at the time those four reports were believed to be on Kirk and Brian Ferentz, Doyle and Wallace, who at the time was Iowa’s linebackers coach.
Around that same time Wallace was accused of bullying former Iowa defensive lineman Jack Kallenberger, who said Wallace had posted his GPA on a message board and had made disparaging remarks about his intelligence, or lack thereof.
At that point, Wallace had spent 20 years working his way up the coaching ranks beginning with a two year stint at his alma mater in Cedar Rapids. He spent a brief amount of time at Division III Lake Forest (Ill.) before landing at Iowa as a graduate assistant from 2006 to 2008. Five years at Valdosta State, including the last three as defensive coordinator, led him back to Iowa City in 2014 where he began his first full-time position under Ferentz as an assistant defensive line coach. He coached Iowa’s corners in 2015 and trained his focus on linebackers beginning in 2016. Beginning in 2017 he also doubled as assistant defensive coordinator to Phil Parker.
During a news conference in October of 2020, Wallace was able to address both situations publicly.
“It was a good opportunity to grow, a good opportunity to learn,” he said. “Obviously, we as coaches take responsibility with the way any of our players feel, good or bad.”
The perception of his sincerity was mixed both among the public and the media at the time, with some giving Wallace the benefit of the doubt and others questioning whether or not he was saying what needed to be said to preserve his future.
His career appeared to be a crossroads. Then it wasn’t.
Wallace’s name was dropped from the suit in February of 2023. It was later that same year when Kirk Ferentz shocked many by naming Wallace as the program’s first ever “Assistant Head Coach.”
“It really is more of recognition,” Ferentz said at the time. “Without going into too much detail, people were knocking on his door a little bit in the out-of-season.
I appreciate the fact he chose to stay here, I really do.”
Less than two years later, after Kirk Ferentz announced he’d miss Iowa’s season-opener against Illinois State due to a possible Level II NCAA violation centered on the recruitment of quarterback Cade McNamara, Wallace was thrust into the spotlight. The title was more than recognition.
“I’m happy for the guys (on the team),” Wallace said Saturday. “It was all about them and it always has been. The players win the games. (Former Defensive Coordinator Norm Parker) told me that a long time ago.
“It’s not going to be about schemes, it’s not going to be about strategy. At the end of the day it’s going to be about the players.”
Toward the end of his media availability, Wallace was asked about to reflect on what the day meant to him as the son of a head coach and as an Iowan. There was a hint of outward emotion, but he held back much better than his boss manages to in similar circumstances.
“I don’t know if that’s really set in yet,” he said.
There was time for only two more questions. No one asked the obvious one. It wouldn’t have been popular, but Wallace is just as likely to be a footnote in college football history as he is the next head coach of the Hawkeyes.
Instead, as he turned to re-enter the locker room a member of the media motioned to the Iowa State Patrol officer who traditionally shadows Ferentz during and after games.
How much longer do you get the Secret Service treatment? It seemed like a light-hearted way to end an awkward and emotional day.
“I didn’t want it in the first place!” Wallace exclaimed.
He seemed all too happy to leave the postgame conference room. If you’ve seen “Field of Dreams” there’s a Moonlight Graham parallel to be drawn here, too. A young Archie Graham, fresh from receiving an at-bat he once longed for, steps over a chalk line and morphs back into an elderly doctor to save a little girl from choking to death on a hot dog. Graham can’t go back. Kinsella is sad but the old doctor tips his cap and walks into a field of corn. He got to live out a dream and that was enough.
This week, Wallace will make his way through the doors of the Hansen Performance Center and resume his role as the No. 2 man in charge of Iowa Football. He’ll likely relish the anonymity that comes with not being the face of the football program. There may be a day in the not-too-distant future when Wallace addressing reporters after a game or having a body man at his side won’t seem out of the norm.
Or there may not.
After all, as Moonlight Graham could attest to, the future isn’t guaranteed.
Todd Brommelkamp is the host of “The Todd Brommelkamp Show” and can be heard weekdays on 1600ESPN from 6:30-9 a.m.
