The Iowa Hawkeyes return home to play host to the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon in a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff on Big Ten Network.
After a frustrating loss last week at Michigan State, Iowa (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) is looking to bounce back in a big way in front of its fans from inside Kinnick Stadium.
As the Hawkeyes ready to host the Wildcats, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz updated the injury front in his weekly press conference.
“Injury-wise, nothing really to report. Addison (Ostrenga) is going to be out for a while and then Beau (Stephens) will not make it this week, so we’ll see what next week brings, but he definitely won’t play this week,” Ferentz said.
Both Ostrenga and Stephens were listed out in last week’s availability report at Michigan State.
On the season, Ostrenga has caught 11 passes for 63 yards with one touchdown grab. Stephens has started 16 games in his career and started the first six games of this season at left guard.
Meanwhile, graduate CASH Sebastian Castro was listed as questionable on last week’s availability report. The 5-foot-11, 205 pound defensive back didn’t dress out against the Spartans.
That gave redshirt sophomore defensive back Koen Entringer an opportunity to make his first career start at MSU. Entringer made the most of it, intercepting a pass from sophomore Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles in the first quarter.
However, Entringer exited the Michigan State game with an injury.
“Yeah, I think he’s going to be okay. He’s got a hand issue, but I don’t think it’s going to be career-ending by any stretch,” Ferentz said of Entringer after the Michigan State loss.
On Tuesday, Ferentz provided positive injury updates on both Castro and Entringer.
“They both practiced today, so I anticipate they’re going to be okay. Koen’s injury looked like it might be a little bit more serious on Saturday. But fortunately, he’ll be fine,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz had noted after the Michigan State game that Castro was dealing with an ankle tweak.
“I expect him to play next week. At least I think he will. He just tweaked his ankle basically. I thought he might have a chance today, but he couldn’t go yesterday. Hopeful with a little extra time today that maybe he’d be alright, but he’s not. I don’t think it’s anything longterm,” Ferentz said of Castro following the Michigan State game.
Ferentz discussed the plan on the interior of Iowa’s offensive line with Stephens still sidelined. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), senior Tyler Elsbury played 28 snaps and redshirt freshman Kade Pieper played 20 snaps at left guard against Michigan State.
“Yeah, obviously the injury was Beau being out, and that’ll be the case this week, too. We’ll probably go the same way. Tyler has done a great job. I’ve talked about him a lot. Really has good position flexibility. He’ll be our backup center this week, I would imagine, going into the game and start at left guard.
“Then Pieper is a guy, young guy, obviously, a little different, kind of the exact opposite of Tyler, but really impressed us last year and had a really good spring ball and had a good camp, so we think he’s got a really good future right now. So our plan the other night was to play both those guys, and we’ll probably do the same thing this week.
“I mentioned Tyler being the backup center only because Kade has been working backup center, too, but I don’t think we want to have him doing two things this week. So we’ll just keep him at guard and let Tyler float around a little bit. His versatility, part of that comes with his experience. He did a great job last year when Logan was out,” Ferentz said.
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