It’s flu season.

After Wisconsin’s football team was crippled last week because 10 players were coping with the flu, other teams are heeding to a strict precautionary regimen to avoid such potential drawbacks come Saturday — especially Iowa.

Last weekend, while the Hawkeyes were on the road facing Iowa State in Ames, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was notified that a few of his players had gotten sick.

While junior left tackle Bryan Bulaga was held out of the Hawkeyes’ clash with the Cyclones because of an unspecified illness, sophomore fullback Wade Leppert was corralled in his hotel room the night before the annual Cy-Hawk game to prevent contaminating his teammates.

“We had a guy who was quarantined [on Sept. 11],” Ferentz said. “[That] night, I was told we had a guy with a fever. He just stayed in the hotel. “We have a couple of guys [ill] right now.”

The afflicted Wisconsin football players showed significant signs of illness during the Badgers’ 34-31 overtime win over Fresno State on Sept. 12. Defensive back Aaron Henry threw up numerous times on game day and was pulled from the contest after the first few series once he had called the team’s trainer around 1:30 a.m., complaining of nausea.

“I was feeling real bad,” Henry told the Associated Press after the game. “A lot of people were saying, ‘If you don’t have it, then eventually you’re going to get it.’ The next guy that was healthy was anticipating getting it. Some guys were diagnosing themselves as having the flu or H1N1.”

With flu-like symptoms being similar to those of the H1N1 virus — a runny nose, sore throat, chills, fatigue, headache, fever, and coughs — concern is obviously imminent. The Iowa football trainers and coaches are not taking any chances with their players.

“The building is filled with hand sanitizers,” said offensive lineman Julian Vandervelde. “We’ve got the trainers talking to us daily about stuff we can do to avoid the H1N1 [virus] and all that stuff.

“Really, what it comes down to is us just making smart decisions during the week as far as our own health and just making the right decisions.”

Trainers have issued the Hawkeyes a 24-hour, heavy-duty hand sanitizer for the players to use before and after practice. The team is hope the precautionary gel proves to be effective so no player is quarantined or sidelined for Saturday’s game against Arizona.

Touted as a “miracle mist,” the excessive preventive measures have heightened some players’ anxiety of getting the flu, though.

“We all are starting to get a little nervous,” offensive lineman Dace Richardson said. “[Monday], I was having a headache and little stuff like that, so I was freaking out, thinking I was maybe coming down with it.

“We all are just taking actions to not have that happen to us — especially with what is happening with the Wisconsin team and how 10 of their guys were sick.”