This could be the most unusual week in Kirk Ferentz’s long coaching career. On Saturday, Iowa will be without its coach for the first time since he took over the program in 1999. An alleged recruiting violation will prevent the 26-year-old veteran from appearing in the Hawkeyes’ opening game against Illinois State at Kinnick Stadium.
Iowa will certainly be at a disadvantage without Ferentz on Saturday, but he said nothing really changes in how the team prepares for Saturday’s contest.
“It’s going to be pretty much business as usual,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “Tim (Lester) is the one I go to (for his opinion) on offense, Phil (Parker) (on defense), LeVar (Woods) (on special teams). (Interim coach) Seth (Wallace) will do the same thing. We talk about things on Thursdays — what we would do on fourth down, in four-down territory, all that stuff.”
“The only thing missing is that sometimes when you go into a game you have a feeling that contradicts what you decided on Thursday. Sometimes you just have to make the decision and follow your instinct.”
Like most college football coaches, Ferentz treats every opponent the same, so there’s really no “good” time to be ruled out of a game. But in Iowa’s case, having the leader out of a game against an FCS opponent is such an ideal situation.
Ferentz thought of something positive about his suspension.
“I found one good thing in all this, I can at least assign blame. If something happens on Saturday, I can say, ‘I don’t know why they did that, that was stupid,'” he said jokingly. “Maybe there’s something positive in all this.”
Rhule is confident about Nebraska’s running backs
The phrase “Run the damn ball” is basically a slogan for the state of Nebraska, and when coach Matt Rhule talked about the Huskers’ running back situation in Week 1, everyone was listening.
Nebraska has more players at the running back position than it has had in a long time. The Huskers start the year with four good running backs – Gabe Ervin Jr., Rahmir Johnson, Emmett Johnson and Dante Dowdell. Each of them will get a chance to show what they can do on Saturday in the game against UTEP.
“I think we’re going to let them all play,” Rhule said of the four defenders. “We have different roles for all of them. Big Ten play is in four weeks, so I was hoping we could adjust a little bit more to where they’re at, but I think they all have enough competitive experience that we’ll give them all a chance. We’ll make some decisions in three weeks… they’re all doing really good things.”
Statistically, Nebraska had a solid running attack in 2023, averaging 176.8 yards per game, ranking second in the Big Ten. But quarterback Heinrich Haarberg was the team’s best runner, rushing for 477 yards and five touchdowns last season.
The Huskers are looking to have more success with their running backs this season, and all four will get a chance to prove they can handle the load in Saturday’s opener.
Indiana in the new look is “old IU”
Indiana will look a lot different in 2024, but that doesn’t mean the Hoosiers aren’t experienced. In his weekly press conference, new coach Curt Cignetti said there will be plenty of veterans on the field in the team’s season opener against FIU.
“The best guys are really playing. We’re an experienced team, even though we have a lot of new guys, we have a lot of seniors on the football team,” Cignetti said. “So I wouldn’t expect to see any freshmen out there. That’s not to say we won’t see one or two, but it all depends on who can help us succeed and who can play great, winning football.”
“Then things change every week. Right now, before the first game, I don’t see many newcomers in very important roles.”
Given last season’s roster turnover, there’s an assumption that Indiana will be a younger team, but Cignetti has brought in 31 transfer players to accompany a solid group of returning players in Bloomington.
So, yes, this is a new-look Indiana team. But the Hoosiers are by no means a “young” team.
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