Iowa football: Hawkeyes find silver lining to injuries
Nolan MacMillan
The silver lining to injuries hasn’t been hard to find for the Iowa football program in recent years.
One player goes down and opportunity arises for another.
Jewel Hampton sustained a knee injury that erased his 2009 season before it started and Adam Robinson set a school record for most rushing yards in a season by an Iowa freshman.
Bryan Bulaga was sidelined for three games last season with a thyroid condition and the Hawkeyes uncovered Riley Reiff. The freshman played his way into a permanent starting role during Bulaga’s absence, and by the end of the season Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Reiff was the team’s most consistent lineman.
Nolan MacMillan might be the latest Hawkeye to capitalize on an opportunity created by a teammate’s misfortune. The 6-foot-6, 288-pound freshman went from Reiff’s backup at left tackle to the starting right guard spot last week, filling a hole that surfaced when junior Adam Gettis sustained an ankle injury.
Ferentz said Tuesday that MacMillan might have been the highlight for the Hawkeyes in their 37-7 win against Eastern Illinois in the season opener.
“He played well,” Ferentz said. “We had high hopes for him, but he missed a lot of last fall and missed a lot of spring with injuries, so we didn’t know quite how to gauge it. Fortunately, he came back well. He started slow in camp and then kept on building. I wasn’t sure what would happen Saturday, but it was a good start for him.”
How good?
“You talk about Nolan MacMillan getting thrown into a situation where he’s never played a game at this level before, and there’s usually a big gap between the tempo of a high school game and a college game,” senior left guard Julian Vandervelde said. “Out of all of us, he might’ve had the best tempo of anybody.”
That’s good news for an Iowa team that went through training camp with questions about the depth of its offensive line beyond its top six players. The Hawkeyes are hopeful Gettis, who emerged in August as one of the team’s most improved linemen, could return Saturday when No. 9 Iowa plays Iowa State at Kinnick Stadium.
Gettis is one of seven players in Iowa’s two-deep who sat out the season opener. Hampton and defensive end Broderick Binns are set to return after serving one-game suspensions.
Ferentz said the Hawkeyes are hopeful the other five — Gettis, center Josh Koeppel, kicker Daniel Murray, linebacker Jeff Tarpinian and cornerback Shaun Prater — will be ready for Saturday.
Koeppel competed throughout camp with James Ferentz for the starting center job. Kirk Ferentz said there’s a possibility the Hawkeyes could also use Koeppel at guard or in some short-yardage situations at tight end.
“He’s a real seasoned guy, a smart guy and a good player,” Kirk Ferentz said. “We’ll try to utilize his talents.”
Tarpinian had been penciled in as a starter at one of Iowa’s inside linebacker positions until he suffered a hand injury during camp.
“He’s gaining ground,” Ferentz said. “The thing with him is the strength of his grip, and it’s tough to play effectively with a bulb on there. They have taken that off, so it’s now just him getting confidence in it. He’s progressing faster than I would have though, and we’ll see how he looks this week.”
Ferentz said Iowa’s coaching staff hasn’t yet talked extensively about how the Hawkeyes will divide the workload between Robinson and Hampton at running back. Hampton hasn’t appeared in a game since he carried 12 times for 54 yards in Iowa’s victory against South Carolina in the 2009 Outback Bowl.
“I’m starving to get back out on the field because I’ve missed a lot of what I love,” he said. “When I get on the field I’m going to hit the ground running and not look back.”
Binns started all 13 games for the Hawkeyes last season. In his absence, Iowa shifted senior defensive tackle Christian Ballard back to defensive end where he was a starter as a sophomore and inserted junior Mike Daniels into the starting lineup at defensive tackle.
“What we’ll probably do is continue to roll guys through,” Ferentz said. “It’s kind of like our backs. I consider both of our backs to be starters and I said this back in the spring — Mike Daniels, in our minds, is a starter now. We’ve got five good defensive linemen, and we’ll rotate them through. I don’t know how we’ll start the game, but (Binns and Daniels will) both play a lot.”
Reach Andy Hamilton at 339-7368 or ahamilton@press-citizen.com.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
[...] | Hawkeye Nation Iowa 9th in Both Polls | Hawkeye Nation MMQB with Jared Clauss | Hawkeye Nation Iowa football: Hawkeyes find silver lining to injuries | Hawk Central Iowa Football: YouTube sensation Koeppel turns focus to ISU | Hawk Central Koeppel on his newfound [...]
Report this comment
gots to love the big uglies!
Report this comment