The Iowa Hawkeyes welcome in the Nebraska Cornhuskers for a massive Black Friday date with plenty of Big Ten implications. If the Hawkeyes take care of business against the Huskers, then it’s off to the Big Ten Championship game against either No. 2 Ohio State or No. 3 Michigan.
Iowa (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) is battling the injury bug heading in, though. Kirk Ferentz said he doesn’t expect tight end Sam LaPorta or fullback Monte Pottebaum to play this week for the Hawkeyes.
“I just don’t think that’s realistic, so that’s kind of where that’s at,” Ferentz said.
There’s at least hope that they could be back next week for the Big Ten Championship game if Iowa manages to beat Nebraska.
“Better news. It could have gone either way. You never know what to think coming off the field. They both got tested yesterday. I think things look about as good as they can. We’ll just take it a day at a time. The door is open, but not this week,” Ferentz said.
How are the Hawkeyes planning to withstand the loss this week of each?
“Changes things. Sam is Sam, arguably our best guy on offense. Then Monte can do so many things, play in different positions, help us. It kind of limits what we have to do. We have to be smart about it.
“The good news is Luke Lachey has improved week over week the last couple years, has done a good job. Ostrenga did a good job jumping in there. We’ll have to play him more. We have to find a way to get it done. We’ll adjust our personnel a little bit,” Ferentz said.
Redshirt freshman Eli Miller was listed as the backup fullback behind redshirt senior Turner Pallissard.
“It’s a little unsettling not to have Monte because he’s one of our best players on our football team, one of our best leaders. Eli has things in a way where you have confidence. He’s a wired-in guy, goes one speed. We’ll play him on Friday, and I’m sure he’ll do a great job,” Ferentz said of Miller.
Elsewhere offensively, Ferentz noted that offensive guard Beau Stephens returned to practice.
“Positive news, we’ll get Beau Stephens—he was back at practice today—so, he’ll be available. I don’t know how ready he’ll be. He’s missed some time here and he’s a young player, so it’s not like he’s got a lot of experience banked up, but we’ll go through and see what that looks like,” Ferentz said.
Moving left to right, Iowa’s offensive line looked like this last week: left tackle Mason Richman, left guard Connor Colby, center Logan Jones, right guard Nick DeJong and right tackle Jack Plumb. Even with Stephens back practicing, Ferentz is expecting that to be the starting group once again.
“I think it will be the same. It will be good to get him back for depth purposes. If he was a fifth-year guy, maybe he’d be right back in there. He’s so young, still learning so much on the job.
“The good news is we were really thin last Saturday. At least we get somebody back who we can put in the game. Keep pushing forward. Hopefully we keep getting better,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz also confirmed that running back Kaleb Johnson is healthy and ready for this game against the Huskers.
“He’s fine,” Ferentz said when asked about Johnson’s availability.
Lastly, redshirt senior defensive back Terry Roberts remains out. Ferentz said that he feels for Roberts that he just hasn’t been able to heal up enough to return to play.
“You do. I’m not sure he’s ever gotten back to full strength whenever it was, late October. It’s tough. He’s tried, worked at it. He shut it down here a couple weeks ago, four, five weeks ago. He’s been such a spark player for us, did such a great job on special teams, a real catalyst. When he played in the defensive backfield, he’s played well.
“It’s hard. I say it every time you talk about a major injury, it’s harder on nobody more than the player, the individual, because all the investment they make. You only get 12 games guaranteed. Any time you lose one or half of one, that’s important. It’s really tough here because it happened at the back end of his career. There’s not next year. At least Jermari Harris has next year in front of him. It makes it that much harder. It’s hard on our football team, but it’s tough on the individual,” Ferentz said.
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