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And just like that, it’s Week 3! This week’s opponent, the University of Northern Iowa Panthers, should not be a huge issue for this Iowa Hawkeyes team, no matter how the rest of the season goes.

That being said, there are definitely some valid questions to ask about what the rest of the season will look like. Yes, the Hawkeyes came back with a force to win against a dirty Iowa State squad last weekend, but in needing to comeback at all, some issues became apparent. The run game was nonexistent, and Hank Brown was solid in the second half, but brutal in the first few drives of the game. The defense was inconsistent (but got better as the game went on). Special teams remains a work in progress, and penalties were an issue, too.

We knew that NIU was not an opponent to base everything on after Week 1, but I did expect the Hawkeyes to look a litttle better than they did against Iowa State. But! That’s what this game against UNI is for: one final tuneup before Iowa hits the road next weekend and heads to Ann Arbor. And one final opportunity for some key contributors to get healthy (but more on that in a bit).

Let’s get to the meet and potatoes, shall we? Check out the full transcript here and my most interesting tidbits below.

Let’s start with injuries! There are suddenly a lot!

KIRK FERENTZ: Injury-wise, Tyler Brown is starting to get some work. I don’t know that he’ll play this week, but at least he’s working back. Vonnahme, I doubt will be ready on Saturday, at least at this point I don’t expect that.

Then we have a handful of guys that have done very well, are really sore right now. We’ll see how that progresses as the week goes on and play that by ear. But we’ll take it day by day on that one.

Q.  Kamari Moulton, is he going to be good to go this week?

KIRK FERENTZ: We’ll see. He’s one of the day by day guys. We probably have a handful of them right now. It was a physical game. Guys are sore. We’ll see.

Q.  Kind of a two-fold question. You mentioned DJ being hurt; can you elaborate on that? Is it going to be an extended injury?

Kirk Ferentz: With DJ, I don’t think he’ll make it this week, but there’s a good chance a week from now he should be good to go. It’s day by day, so like a lot of injuries, you’re never quite sure until we see how things materialize.

Ok, so no Vonnahme, and probably no Kamari Moulton (who didn’t do much in the run game, but had some surprisingly big plays in the pass game) on Saturday…are they overall needed? Probably not, but still…the offense can’t exactly afford to not rack up points here, and these are two guys that (presumed QB1) Hank Brown loves to throw to, so we’ll see. But again, probably not the end of the world — just expect a lot of Xavier Williams runs.

The mechanics of making the decision to stick with Hank through the entire game last week — was that Tim’s call up in the booth? How does that work during the game where you kind of make that decision to go, hey, we’re going to stick with him?

KIRK FERENTZ: There really wasn’t much discussion. It was just one of those games where things weren’t perfect, certainly, and being down 10-0, but I think we all felt like, hey, let’s just keep playing and see what happens. Kind of feel that way about this whole situation right now. We’re going to kind of play it by ear.

Probably the thing I want to accentuate is we’re really happy with both players. Both Jeremy and Hank are doing a good job. They’re doing a good job in practice. I feel confident that we’re going to play well with either one of them in there.

We’ll have a game like that. We never really got to the point where we discussed it. We’ll kind of keep playing it week by week, see how it goes, as long as both guys continue to practice well. It wasn’t a big discussion on that.

I was very surprised to still see an OR on the depth chart when it came to Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski as quarterbacks going into this game, but it does make sense I suppose, given that we’ll already be seeing a lot of backup guys anyway, to give Hecklinski some more reps. But from my perspective, it seems like Brown has locked up the starting job. Maybe things are different if Brown hadn’t hit that huge pass to Tony Diaz to set up the first touchdown, but the fact that Kirk kept Brown out for that drive after saying prior to the game that we’d see both quarterbacks in the game pretty much cemented Brown being the guy in my mind. Let’s just hope he’s up for the task and wipes away all of the poor play that we saw early in the game last week.

Q.  A little bit of a two-parter for me as well. Do you expect to rotate every two or three possessions? Again, I know that was the expectation going into this game last weekend, didn’t happen, but are you expecting to see both quarterbacks this weekend, and can you talk about Hank’s confidence, especially after that 56-yard deep shot to Tony Diaz? Not something that we’ve seen him do.

KIRK FERENTZ: I’ll go back to that play again. They were making it tough on us and making it tough for us to run the football. So that play really kind of opened things up a little bit and gave, I think, everybody a little juice. After that we started playing with a little bit better rhythm and tempo.

But he had missed on a couple, too, prior to that. Again, you’ve just got to stick with it and keep going. We really haven’t had a conversation about how we’re going to handle it yet, but I think just broad-based, I’d say this: We will have that conversation. But both guys are practicing well, and we, again — I think I can speak for everybody on the staff. I think we all have confidence that both of them are good players right now. Much improved from a year ago; I’ll just put it that way. I think that’s how we feel.

We’ll see how it all shakes out, and ultimately whatever we decide is always subject to change once you get into a game, and I guess I’ll reserve the right to pull that card if necessary and just, hey, let’s see how this goes or let’s make a move here.

That play was downright electric. A near perfect throw from Brown, and Tony Diaz is just electric…that play changed the whole game. More of that, please. Also before I move on from this question, I’m already so over hearing Kirk say they feel good about letting either guy play. That’s great and all, but just pick one. I reiterate that I think they have, so hopefully this is the last week we have to deal with this…until Brown is named the starter and inevitably people start calling for Hecklinski the second he has a poor performance.

Q.  Is Hank Brown your starter?

KIRK FERENTZ: He started last week, and as I stand here right now, he’ll probably start this week. Like a lot of guys, yeah.

Q.  Subject to change?

KIRK FERENTZ: Everything is subject to change, yeah. Pretty much everything.

“Is bubblegum your favorite in-game snack, coach?”

“Well, I chewed it during the game last week, and as I stand here right now, I’ll probably chew some again this week. Like I have a lot of times, yeah.”

“Subject to change?”

“Everything is subject to change, yeah.”

Q.  With the running game against Iowa State, they did a good job of bottling that up. You guys did start to break them down in the fourth quarter a little bit, but curious your evaluation of the running game, how much of that was what Iowa State did, how much was maybe offensive line related, running back related, and how you guys can kind of get back on track moving forward?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I’d give them a lot of credit. They had a good plan. They played extremely hard. I thought all their players played extremely hard all three phases.

Our guys played hard, too. It was just one of those things. I’ve always felt like you can take the run game away if that’s what you’re determined to do, and that probably is part of the reason we hit the big play that got things going for us.

Then we did a little better job in that fourth quarter. I may have said it before, but I remember 30 years ago hearing Tom Osborne talk about the effectiveness of the running game usually starts to show more so in the second half than it does in the first half. Sometimes you get out there and things just work, and that’s great when it happens. But a lot of times you have to work for that to get it done.

Then again, if people are going to truly shut off the run, that’s where we’ve got to be able to answer with something, counter it and have some answers there, and I thought we found ways to do that on Saturday as well.

I think that game is representative of what we’re going to be involved in a lot of weeks here in the future if we’re doing our part. First of all, you have to be in close games first of all, and then you’ve got to find a way to win them. Hopefully that’s the part that we can gain from. But not taking anything for granted; it’s going to be tough each and every week out there.

I think this is a very interesting answer, and one I agree with. Him mentioning that Diaz play multiple times is a huge indicator of why it’s so important to actually have a quarterback and offensive weapons, because even like 2 years ago, this game would have been a loss if there hadn’t been any potential of a deep ball. I’ve been so gaslit by the Iowa offenses of ole that I am ecstatic about the concept of the downfield pass being in the gameplan again.

Let’s end with special teams:

Q.  Zach Lutmer said in there he’s still working his way back. Do you expect him to be your punt returner once he’s not on a pitch count anymore? I know Brevin Doll hasn’t had a chance to return to kick yet, but he’s at the top of the depth chart there. What has he done to earn that spot?

KIRK FERENTZ: Brevin is really good in practice. To your point, we haven’t had a chance to return a kick. Maybe one of these days we will, so we’ll see how that goes. But it’s a matter of time.

He’s done a really good job. He’s playing with more confidence right now, and I think you watch his confidence, he’s doing a great job in that regard. He’s really cut out a good niche there and doing as well as anybody we have. He’s flying down there.

I think it was the first week he was wearing 55 or something. I was like, who the heck is that guy, 55, going that fast. But yeah, okay, got these fake jerseys now. But yeah, we solved that; he’s in 13 and is going to wear that, doing a really good job.

Then regarding Zach, we’ll play it by ear. We want to be smart about how we do it because he’s had some issues. In the meantime, that gives the other guys a chance. We’ll just kind of see how that goes. But we have total confidence in Reece. Evan is a really good prospect. I don’t think he’s there yet, but he’s a really good prospect on top of it.

Mentioning this mostly because of the punt returner aspect. We saw multiple instances on Saturday of RVZ and Evan James both not fielding punts and almost having it become costly, so that needs to get figured out soon. At the very least, get a body out there who can fair catch when needed. But, in an ideal world, we’d probably like to see more of James, but Kirk won’t do it if he feels like there’s a chance it could cause a turnover.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

And just like that, it’s Week 3! This week’s opponent, the University of Northern Iowa Panthers, should not be a huge issue for this Iowa Hawkeyes team, no matter how the rest of the season goes.

That being said, there are definitely some valid questions to ask about what the rest of the season will look like. Yes, the Hawkeyes came back with a force to win against a dirty Iowa State squad last weekend, but in needing to comeback at all, some issues became apparent. The run game was nonexistent, and Hank Brown was solid in the second half, but brutal in the first few drives of the game. The defense was inconsistent (but got better as the game went on). Special teams remains a work in progress, and penalties were an issue, too.

We knew that NIU was not an opponent to base everything on after Week 1, but I did expect the Hawkeyes to look a litttle better than they did against Iowa State. But! That’s what this game against UNI is for: one final tuneup before Iowa hits the road next weekend and heads to Ann Arbor. And one final opportunity for some key contributors to get healthy (but more on that in a bit).

Let’s get to the meet and potatoes, shall we? Check out the full transcript here and my most interesting tidbits below.

Let’s start with injuries! There are suddenly a lot!

KIRK FERENTZ: Injury-wise, Tyler Brown is starting to get some work. I don’t know that he’ll play this week, but at least he’s working back. Vonnahme, I doubt will be ready on Saturday, at least at this point I don’t expect that.

Then we have a handful of guys that have done very well, are really sore right now. We’ll see how that progresses as the week goes on and play that by ear. But we’ll take it day by day on that one.

Q.  Kamari Moulton, is he going to be good to go this week?

KIRK FERENTZ: We’ll see. He’s one of the day by day guys. We probably have a handful of them right now. It was a physical game. Guys are sore. We’ll see.

Q.  Kind of a two-fold question. You mentioned DJ being hurt; can you elaborate on that? Is it going to be an extended injury?

Kirk Ferentz: With DJ, I don’t think he’ll make it this week, but there’s a good chance a week from now he should be good to go. It’s day by day, so like a lot of injuries, you’re never quite sure until we see how things materialize.

Ok, so no Vonnahme, and probably no Kamari Moulton (who didn’t do much in the run game, but had some surprisingly big plays in the pass game) on Saturday…are they overall needed? Probably not, but still…the offense can’t exactly afford to not rack up points here, and these are two guys that (presumed QB1) Hank Brown loves to throw to, so we’ll see. But again, probably not the end of the world — just expect a lot of Xavier Williams runs.

The mechanics of making the decision to stick with Hank through the entire game last week — was that Tim’s call up in the booth? How does that work during the game where you kind of make that decision to go, hey, we’re going to stick with him?

KIRK FERENTZ: There really wasn’t much discussion. It was just one of those games where things weren’t perfect, certainly, and being down 10-0, but I think we all felt like, hey, let’s just keep playing and see what happens. Kind of feel that way about this whole situation right now. We’re going to kind of play it by ear.

Probably the thing I want to accentuate is we’re really happy with both players. Both Jeremy and Hank are doing a good job. They’re doing a good job in practice. I feel confident that we’re going to play well with either one of them in there.

We’ll have a game like that. We never really got to the point where we discussed it. We’ll kind of keep playing it week by week, see how it goes, as long as both guys continue to practice well. It wasn’t a big discussion on that.

I was very surprised to still see an OR on the depth chart when it came to Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski as quarterbacks going into this game, but it does make sense I suppose, given that we’ll already be seeing a lot of backup guys anyway, to give Hecklinski some more reps. But from my perspective, it seems like Brown has locked up the starting job. Maybe things are different if Brown hadn’t hit that huge pass to Tony Diaz to set up the first touchdown, but the fact that Kirk kept Brown out for that drive after saying prior to the game that we’d see both quarterbacks in the game pretty much cemented Brown being the guy in my mind. Let’s just hope he’s up for the task and wipes away all of the poor play that we saw early in the game last week.

Q.  A little bit of a two-parter for me as well. Do you expect to rotate every two or three possessions? Again, I know that was the expectation going into this game last weekend, didn’t happen, but are you expecting to see both quarterbacks this weekend, and can you talk about Hank’s confidence, especially after that 56-yard deep shot to Tony Diaz? Not something that we’ve seen him do.

KIRK FERENTZ: I’ll go back to that play again. They were making it tough on us and making it tough for us to run the football. So that play really kind of opened things up a little bit and gave, I think, everybody a little juice. After that we started playing with a little bit better rhythm and tempo.

But he had missed on a couple, too, prior to that. Again, you’ve just got to stick with it and keep going. We really haven’t had a conversation about how we’re going to handle it yet, but I think just broad-based, I’d say this: We will have that conversation. But both guys are practicing well, and we, again — I think I can speak for everybody on the staff. I think we all have confidence that both of them are good players right now. Much improved from a year ago; I’ll just put it that way. I think that’s how we feel.

We’ll see how it all shakes out, and ultimately whatever we decide is always subject to change once you get into a game, and I guess I’ll reserve the right to pull that card if necessary and just, hey, let’s see how this goes or let’s make a move here.

That play was downright electric. A near perfect throw from Brown, and Tony Diaz is just electric…that play changed the whole game. More of that, please. Also before I move on from this question, I’m already so over hearing Kirk say they feel good about letting either guy play. That’s great and all, but just pick one. I reiterate that I think they have, so hopefully this is the last week we have to deal with this…until Brown is named the starter and inevitably people start calling for Hecklinski the second he has a poor performance.

Q.  Is Hank Brown your starter?

KIRK FERENTZ: He started last week, and as I stand here right now, he’ll probably start this week. Like a lot of guys, yeah.

Q.  Subject to change?

KIRK FERENTZ: Everything is subject to change, yeah. Pretty much everything.

“Is bubblegum your favorite in-game snack, coach?”

“Well, I chewed it during the game last week, and as I stand here right now, I’ll probably chew some again this week. Like I have a lot of times, yeah.”

“Subject to change?”

“Everything is subject to change, yeah.”

Q.  With the running game against Iowa State, they did a good job of bottling that up. You guys did start to break them down in the fourth quarter a little bit, but curious your evaluation of the running game, how much of that was what Iowa State did, how much was maybe offensive line related, running back related, and how you guys can kind of get back on track moving forward?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I’d give them a lot of credit. They had a good plan. They played extremely hard. I thought all their players played extremely hard all three phases.

Our guys played hard, too. It was just one of those things. I’ve always felt like you can take the run game away if that’s what you’re determined to do, and that probably is part of the reason we hit the big play that got things going for us.

Then we did a little better job in that fourth quarter. I may have said it before, but I remember 30 years ago hearing Tom Osborne talk about the effectiveness of the running game usually starts to show more so in the second half than it does in the first half. Sometimes you get out there and things just work, and that’s great when it happens. But a lot of times you have to work for that to get it done.

Then again, if people are going to truly shut off the run, that’s where we’ve got to be able to answer with something, counter it and have some answers there, and I thought we found ways to do that on Saturday as well.

I think that game is representative of what we’re going to be involved in a lot of weeks here in the future if we’re doing our part. First of all, you have to be in close games first of all, and then you’ve got to find a way to win them. Hopefully that’s the part that we can gain from. But not taking anything for granted; it’s going to be tough each and every week out there.

I think this is a very interesting answer, and one I agree with. Him mentioning that Diaz play multiple times is a huge indicator of why it’s so important to actually have a quarterback and offensive weapons, because even like 2 years ago, this game would have been a loss if there hadn’t been any potential of a deep ball. I’ve been so gaslit by the Iowa offenses of ole that I am ecstatic about the concept of the downfield pass being in the gameplan again.

Let’s end with special teams:

Q.  Zach Lutmer said in there he’s still working his way back. Do you expect him to be your punt returner once he’s not on a pitch count anymore? I know Brevin Doll hasn’t had a chance to return to kick yet, but he’s at the top of the depth chart there. What has he done to earn that spot?

KIRK FERENTZ: Brevin is really good in practice. To your point, we haven’t had a chance to return a kick. Maybe one of these days we will, so we’ll see how that goes. But it’s a matter of time.

He’s done a really good job. He’s playing with more confidence right now, and I think you watch his confidence, he’s doing a great job in that regard. He’s really cut out a good niche there and doing as well as anybody we have. He’s flying down there.

I think it was the first week he was wearing 55 or something. I was like, who the heck is that guy, 55, going that fast. But yeah, okay, got these fake jerseys now. But yeah, we solved that; he’s in 13 and is going to wear that, doing a really good job.

Then regarding Zach, we’ll play it by ear. We want to be smart about how we do it because he’s had some issues. In the meantime, that gives the other guys a chance. We’ll just kind of see how that goes. But we have total confidence in Reece. Evan is a really good prospect. I don’t think he’s there yet, but he’s a really good prospect on top of it.

Mentioning this mostly because of the punt returner aspect. We saw multiple instances on Saturday of RVZ and Evan James both not fielding punts and almost having it become costly, so that needs to get figured out soon. At the very least, get a body out there who can fair catch when needed. But, in an ideal world, we’d probably like to see more of James, but Kirk won’t do it if he feels like there’s a chance it could cause a turnover.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos