Losing a key piece on offense before a matchup against Northwestern is nothing new for Iowa.
By Blake Dowson
It seems like the Iowa football team has been here before, dealing with injuries in the middle of the season.
It’s probably because it was, last year. And it was against Northwestern, to complete some déjà vu.
Heading into the 2015 game in Evanston, the Hawkeyes were fighting a losing battle with the injury bug. Tevaun Smith, LeShun Daniels Jr., Boone Myers, Ike Boettger, and Drew Ott were all sidelined for the game.
The most glaring injury in Iowa’s lineup at this point is the recent loss of No. 1 receiver Matt VandeBerg, whose presence on the field will be sorely missed. But compared with last season, Iowa is in decent shape on the two-deeps.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz talked about the similarities between this year’s matchup against Northwestern and last year’s.
“That’s when [injuries] were really kind of hitting it pretty good,” he said, speaking about the 2015 matchup. “Good teams find a way to win. They find a way to be successful. They find a way to adjust, and it involves other people picking up the rope a little bit when something happens.
“We’re confident that will happen. Ironically, Jay Scheel was doing really well, then he got injured. Fortunately, now he’s coming back. It would be wonderful to have everybody at full speed, but it just doesn’t seem to work out that way.”
Although the Hawkeyes are thin at receiver with the loss of VandeBerg, they have options. They’re just options with relatively little experience.
Ferentz reported on Tuesday that Jonathan Parker is back to full speed in practice, and he could be a big boost to the offense. Parker was mostly used in jet sweep-type plays last season, but offensive coordinator Greg Davis seems to like Parker to have his stamp on the playbook at least a couple times every game.
Parker won’t go this weekend, but he is close. And that is a good thing.
As far as the receivers who will suit up on Saturday, quarterback C.J. Beathard said nothing really changes with VandeBerg out.
“I don’t think I’ll adjust too much,” he said. “Obviously, [VandeBerg] is a great receiver, he’s a guy who in certain one-on-one situations we like to take advantage of, but I’m still going to go through my progressions, go through my reads, no matter who’s out there in his spot.”
Almost assuredly though, there will a bigger emphasis on the ground game. Daniels and Akrum Wadley looked like the one-two punch everyone envisioned them being against Rutgers, and the offensive line is healthy for the second week in a row.
The running game has looked explosive at times, with Daniels breaking more than one big-time run this season. The only problem, though, is that two of them have been called back because of penalties.
Ferentz, forever a perfectionist, has been irked by the penalties his offensive line have committed so far.
“I’d be really happy if we could eliminate some of the mistakes that have kept us from having some big plays,” he said. “We’ve had about 140 yards of offense and two runs taken off the board, which to me that’s our focus right now is cleaning those kinds of things up.”
The Hawkeyes will continue playing with the physicality they hang their hats on and continue to pound the ball on the ground.
The thing to watch Saturday is how Northwestern handles the Iowa running game, because one of the Wildcats, only strengths this season has been stopping the run.
“Their front seven, the defensive linemen and the linebackers, in my opinion, are the best we’ve seen this year,” James Daniels said. “Their two defensive tackles are both very big, very strong, very physical.”