From Hawkeyes to Panthers: Former Iowa teammates together again at Eastern Illinois

New Eastern Illinois tight ends coach Jordan Walsh (above) played offensive line at the University of Iowa, where he met former college teammate – and EIU cornerbacks coach – Maurice Fleming. (Photo by Selena Martinez)

By Barry Bottino                                                

When Maurice Fleming and Jordan Walsh met 11 years ago as teammates in Iowa City, Iowa, they connected during conversations about what they missed in the Chicago area.

“You talk about different cuisines back in the home state,” said Walsh, a Glenbard West graduate. “Portillo’s and things like that.”

After four years and three bowl games together with the Hawkeyes, the duo has teamed up again on a football field. This time, it is as assistant coaches at Eastern Illinois.

Walsh was hired in March after two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Iowa to lead the EIU tight ends. A month later, Fleming – who played in the NFL and Canadian Football League – joined the staff as cornerbacks coach.

The path to Charleston

After coaching stops at Missouri State and Wyoming, Walsh was part of the offensive staff at Iowa, where he started 37 games and was an All-Big Ten first-team right guard in 2015 and a third-team All-American that season.

In 2021 and 2022, he was part of two bowl appearances before he joined EIU.

“I was excited for him,” said Fleming, who made a phone call weeks later after the cornerbacks job opened at Eastern when ex-EIU player D.J. Bland left for the same role at FBS Northern Illinois.

“I hit (Walsh) up and asked him about how the university was, how the team was, how the staff was, the chemistry,” said Fleming, who starred as a defensive back at Chicago’s Curie Metropolitan High School. “I wanted to be part of something special.”

Rewards on the sidelines

Walsh said he knew what his career path would be even before his prep career ended.

“I’ve always wanted to coach, ever since I was in high school,” he said. “I had a lot of father figures when I was in high school who were coaching me, mentoring me and developing me as a young man.”

Along with his high school head coach, Chad Hetlet, Walsh said Glenbard West assistant coach John Sigmund was a big part of his development.

“In college, it was a handful of people, starting with Kirk Ferentz, the head coach at Iowa,” he said, along with now-retired Iowa assistant Reese Morgan and current Hawkeyes offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

For Fleming, who finished his career at West Virginia before a couple of professional stops, coaching is about sharing lessons.

“As you get older, you want to pass that knowledge down to younger guys,” he said. “Give them stories. Be a great teacher.”

At Iowa, Fleming said he learned under longtime defensive coordinator Phil Parker. Dana Holgorsen was the head coach at West Virginia and now leads the University of Houston program, where Fleming was a defensive graduate assistant last season.

Fleming also learned at Houston under Doug Belk, the Cougars’ assistant head coach/defensive coordinator.

“He took me under his wing and developed me,” Fleming said.

Turnaround experience

Eastern was 2-9 a year ago under first-year head coach Chris Wilkerson, and the Panthers haven’t had a winning season since finishing 6-5 in 2017.

At Iowa, Fleming and Walsh got their own taste of a turnaround.

The Hawkeyes finished 4-8 in 2012 but followed that with an 8-5 campaign that launched its current streak on nine consecutive bowl seasons. In 2015, the final season Fleming and Walsh played together, Iowa finished 12-2, won the Big Ten Conference West Division and played in the Rose Bowl.

“When we went 4-8, the team was kind of divided,” Fleming said. “We started doing things off the field more, whether it was paintball, going fishing, going deer hunting. We were doing things that you wouldn’t usually do if you were back home.”

Though time will tell if EIU can pull off a similar turnaround starting Aug. 31 at Indiana State, Fleming and Walsh expect better results in 2023.

“The offense is working extremely hard, and it’s been showing on the tape,” Walsh said. “Guys are getting better and there’s going to be a better product this fall.”

Fleming said the cornerbacks have responded well to him.

“They do what I ask them to do,” he said. “They listen. They’re very detailed. I have high hopes, and I have faith in my guys.”

Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.

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