Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz announced that a trio of Hawkeyes aren’t expected to play or be available on Friday in Iowa’s regular season finale versus Nebraska.
Iowa freshman wide receiver Reece Vander Zee, redshirt junior offensive tackle Gennings Dunker and graduate cornerback Jermari Harris will all be sidelined during the Hawkeyes’ final regular season contest.
“Definitely out will be Reece Vander Zee. Still a ways away. Hopefully we’ll get him back for the bowl game. Starting to turn the corner a little bit there. Jermari Harris won’t be able to go. Dunker, pretty sure that he won’t be able to go either. He’s improving, but I don’t think he’s going to make it.
“Everybody else is moving forward. I think we have a chance to have everybody else ready for game time. We’ll see how that goes,” Ferentz said on Tuesday.
Vander Zee has 14 catches for 176 yards with three touchdowns on the season, but he hasn’t played since exiting Iowa’s 40-14 win over Northwestern on Oct. 26. The 6-foot-4, 207 pound receiver has played in and started eight games this season.
Meanwhile, Dunker has been a key cog in Iowa’s rushing attack morphing into one of the nation’s finest. The Hawkeyes rank 13th nationally in rushing offense, averaging 213.5 yards per game on the ground.
As a result of that unit’s hard work, junior running back Kaleb Johnson has set a single-season record with 21 rushing touchdowns and was just named a Doak Walker Award finalist.
Dunker was listed out ahead of Iowa’s 29-13 win over Maryland last week, though. Prior to the Hawkeyes’ win over the Terps, Dunker had started all 10 games at right tackle.
Lastly, graduate cornerback Jermari Harris is once again expected to be out. Initial reports on Friday of last week indicated that Harris was opting out of the remainder of the season to focus on the 2025 NFL draft, but Iowa clarified his status later that day.
“(Jermari Harris) will not play in Saturday’s game due to a medical issue. We hope all our student-athletes can play next week in our regular season finale at Kinnick Stadium, however, a player’s health and wellbeing are always our top priority,” University of Iowa associate athletics director for strategic communications Matt Weitzel said in a statement.
The health of Iowa’s quarterbacks has been another key topic of discussion. Ferentz said on Tuesday that junior quarterback Brendan Sullivan and graduate quarterback Cade McNamara were both back practicing, but redshirt sophomore Jackson Stratton remains the Hawkeyes’ starting quarterback versus the Huskers.
Kickoff on Friday, Nov. 29 against Nebraska is set for 6:30 p.m. CT with the game televised on NBC from inside Kinnick Stadium.
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