The Hawkeyes football team got an influx of talent with a couple of graduate transfers this summer.

One of those players’ chances with Iowa has been years in the making. It might be a few years after he wanted, but James Butler is finally sporting the black and gold.

“Being here at Iowa, you know, putting the uniform on for the first time, it feels good,” Butler said. “It was plan A coming out of high school. So then to actually be able to come here was a huge opportunity.”

The Hawkeyes never offered Butler a scholarship coming out of high school. He comes to the Iowa program as a graduate transfer after rushing for more than 3,300 yards in three years at the University of Nevada.

“I’m just trying to come in and be this new face, this fresh guy and not going off what I’ve already done and just being the new guy and knowing my role and being the best teammate I can be,” Butler said.

Butler adds depth to an already strong group of running backs in the Hawkeyes offense. His character off the field is also impressing Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz and the coaching staff since he arrived in Iowa City.

“To have him here on campus and start having an opportunity to work with him, I think all of us have really been enjoying that, really pleased,” Ferentz said. “Anytime you can add a good player and a good person, a high-caliber guy to your roster, that’s a positive.”

Since Butler’s been in Iowa City less than a month, he’s leaning on guys like senior running back Akrum Wadley to become accustomed to the way Iowa does things around the football program.

“Before he even started practicing, he reached out to me,” Wadley said. “We talked, we vibed, you know, we hung out. Right now we’re in camp, it’s grind mode, me and him. If he missed a cut, I’ll tell him, ‘Hey, you missed that’. If I miss something, he tells me.”

Wadley’s tutalage with learning a new system has been especially beneficial.

“Some of the stuff, you know, I feel like I know what it is, but I’m not completely confident,” Butler said. “So I ask him and he helps me with that.”

“He’s doing a lot better than how I would’ve thought,” Wadley said. “You know, I probably would have been a little slower in learning the offense than him, but he’s a quick learner, he’s very mature.”

Butler’s arrival probably increases the chances the Hawkeyes could have two 1,000-yard rushers for the second consecutive season. Akrum Wadley teamed with LeShun Daniels last fall to do that for the first time in school history.

For more Hawkeye football coverage, follow @AdamJRossow and @HawkeyeHQ on Twitter and Hawkeye Headquarters on OurQuadCities.com all season.