Kirk Ferentz addressed the media today in his weekly Tuesday presser. You can find a transcript on hawkeyesports.com.

The big news of today is the official announcement that Jewel Hampton's right knee injury requires surgery and will force him to miss the entire 2009 season. Hampton will redshirt this year and come back as a sophomore in 2010. Ferentz didn't go into specifics about the injury but called it "repairable" and said that Jewel should be fully recovered by next summer.

The running back position will be handled by committee with Paki O'Meara, Adam Robinson, Jeff Brinson, and Brandon Wegher. On Saturday expect a lot of Paki and a lot of Robinson. Brinson has missed a substantial amount of practice with an ankle injury, so may not see a ton of action until later in the season. I think Wegher will also definitely get his share of reps. He'll probably come in during mop-up time against a beat-up and tired UNI defense, break a couple of long runs, and then will be anointed as the greatest running back ever. Only time will tell who will ultimately emerge from this group as a legitimate number 1.

Other not as big news:

• Julian Vandervelde is on his way back. He'll be practicing again, but will probably be out until the Penn State game on September 26th.
  
• Kyle Calloway has been practicing and it sounds like he'll be ready next week against ISU. Ferentz didn't speculate whether or not Dace Richardson will move back to guard once Calloway is back, but I think that's what we're all expecting. Adam Gettis will probably be the odd man out. Things will get really interesting with Vandervelde is back...will he start over Richardson or Doering?
• The other corner still has not been settled. Ferentz will be watching Lowe, Castillo, and even Hyde this week to decide who will start.
• I was right about Ferentz purposely leaving off the true freshman from the depth chart. He said that he was "trying to keep a lid on that" but that the BTN preview show last week exposed the freshmen.
• The Murray and Mossbrucker competition still goes on, but he did mention Mossbrucker redshirting again.
• Ferentz reiterated that Ballard has been very strong at defensive tackle and Binns an excellent defensive end.
  

Outstanding special teams were a staple of the 2002-2004 years of glory. The last few years, special teams have been average, but they appear to be on the rise. The Hawkeyes return their punter, two placekickers who are tied atop the depth chart, an outstanding long snapper, and have some big potential in the return game. I think this year could be special for the special teams (yeah, I used special twice in that sentence...so?)

Punting:
Ryan Donahue is a fantastic punter. His average yards per punt (41.6) is not outstanding, but that stat does not tell the whole story. His biggest asset is the ability to place the ball inside the 20 giving the opponent tough field position. He had 19 of his 50 punts downed inside the 20. Even more astounding is that only 12 punts were returned for a total of 60 yards, accredited to the Donahue's punt's hang time. That comes out to be an average of 1.2 return yards per punt. If Donahue continues this kind of success, his name on the Ray Guy Award watch list, may turn into his name on the Ray Guy Award trophy. Donahue also handles duties as the holder for field goals and PATs. He was solid as a holder all year long and you may remember the slightly high snap on the game-winning field goal against Penn State that Donahue got down beautifully.

Placekicking:
In 2008, Daniel Murray and Trent Mossbrucker split time kicking field goals. Murray was 6-9 on FGs and 14-14 on PATs, while Mossbrucker was 13-15 on FGs and 31-33 of PATs. Murray tended to kick the longer attempts and he handled kickoffs. After the infamous kick against PSU, Murray appeared to have won the job was listed as the starter after spring practice. The latest depth chart, however, shows the two with the dreaded "OR." I think Iowa will be fine with either kicking. In the open practice 2 weeks ago, both were very good (Murray 12-13, Mossbrucker 11-13). It would just be nice if somebody flat out won the job.

Long Snapping:
I mention the long snapper because I think it's a vital role that's often overlooked, and Iowa has an excellent long snapper. Andrew Schulze handled 122 long snaps last year (that's every punt, field goal, and PAT) without a single fumbled snap or non-attempted kick.

Returning Kicks:
Last year Andy Brodell was the punt returner and Jewel Hampton and Paki O'Meara handled most of the kick offs. This year, Brodell is gone and Hampton is injured for now. There was a lot of talk about the possibilities of incoming freshman returning kicks (primarily about Brandon Wegher, but also Keenan Davis or Jordan Cotton), but the current depth chart shows Amari Spievey as the main returnman with Paki being the other on kickoffs. It seems to me the starting running back usually does not go back for kickoffs very often, so I do think there is still a strong possibility of Wegher jumping in back there. Much more interesting though is Spievey as a returner. He has huge potential there to be a game changed. And, yes, the Hawkeyes cannot afford to lose him, but his record speaks for itself. In JUCO he had 2 kickoffs returned for TDs and 2 interceptions returned for TDs. He also had a total of 65 career touchdowns in high school. The guy knows how to find the endzone.

Other thoughts:

• Special teams extraordinaire Jayme Murphy underwent back surgery and his football career is sadly over. Kirk Ferentz said that Murphy was one of the best special teams player at Iowa in the past decade. I would say the best...unless somebody can think of someone better (Tim Dwight was obviously amazing but that was just over 10 years ago).
• I think there may be some more blocked kicks this year. I know Ballard blocked a field goal and Paki had a blocked punt (there might have been more, but I can't remember), but this year there are some guys that should be able to get some good penetration. I think Broderick Binns may be one of those guys with his long arms and his quickness off the snap.
• Kirk Ferentz has mentioned a few times that he wants the kickoff return game to be more dynamic. I'll be interested who ultimately lines up to return the kicks and if Iowa can actually return one for a touchdown, something that hasn't happened since the start of the Orange Bowl.

In case you missed it, here are the season primers for the offense and the defense.

It's here! After roughly 5 months of blogging without any real news (I'm not sure why I decided to start a football blog in the middle of April), it's finally game week, and there will finally be something to actually write about. I've been researching up on UNI and I'll have more analysis on the match up later in the week. For now, just a couple of quick items.

Game Day:

• Opponent - The University of Northern Iowa
• Time - Saturday, September 5 at 11:01 AM
• Place - Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, IA
• TV - Big Ten Network HD (on main feed in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota...see coverage map for more info)

Quick Notes:

• It's the Gold Bowl...so if you're headed to Kinnick remember to "Be bold, wear gold"
• FryFest is the night before, which sounds like a lot of fun
• Both teams will be very inexperienced and thin at running back. Iowa will be missing Jewel Hampton with his right knee injury, and UNI will be without Derrick Law and Taylor Brookins due to suspension
• In case you missed it, here's the depth chart for week 1

The Iowa Hawkeyes put out their depth chart for the game against UNI on Friday. Though there is nothing overly surprising on the 2-deeps, there were a few things worth commenting.

• Probably the biggest "news" is that Jewel Hampton is not listed (as was expected). There is no definite news on whether or not he will redshirt this year, but he will be out for the opener.
• Christian Ballard is definitely a defensive tackle. Again we already kind of new that.
• DJK is still number 2. Ferentz has said it mostly due to DJK missing some time with a minor injury, but I think the whole "dog house"/motivational thing is still going on.
• Murray and Mossbrucker are still listed with an "OR". There was a little talk going around of Mossbrucker redshirting, but it doesn't look like it at this point.
• William Lowe and Greg Castillo are tied for the starting left corner spot. Most thought the job was Lowe's, but Castillo must be making some good strides in camp.
• Amari Spievey is listed as the punt and kick returner. I think that's a great choice. He was an excellent returnman in JUCO averaging 41 yards on kick returns. He once also had a 94-yard inception return for a touchdown to end the first half, only to start the second half with a 96-yard kick off return for a second touchdown.
• I also noticed no true freshman are listed anywhere, though Ferentz said we will probably see 3 to 4 play next Saturday. I have to think Ferentz did this on purpose. Micah Hyde is probably the next cornerback in line, but only 3 are listed. I also suspect that the other kick returner spot may be filled by Brandon Wegher instead of Paki (usually the starting running back isn't returning kicks for Iowa). Also, Keenan Davis may be good enough that he'd be on the 2-deeps over Paul Chaney, Jr.

Depth Chart:

Offense
SE- Marvin McNutt, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos
LT- Bryan Bulaga, Riley Reiff
LG- Adam Gettis, Kyle Haganman
C- Rafael Eubanks, Josh Koeppel
RG- Dan Doering, Andy Kuempel
RT- Dace Richardson, Markus Zusevics
TE- Tony Moeaki, Allen Reisner
QB- Ricky Stanzi , James Vandenberg/John Wiene
WR- Trey Stross, Paul Chaney, Jr.
RB- Paki O’Meara, Adam Robinson
FB- Brett Morse, Wade Leppert

Defense
DE- Adrian Clayborn, Lebron Daniel
DT- Karl Klug, Travis Meade
DT- Christian Ballard, Mike Daniels
DE- Broderick Binns, Cody Hundertmark
OLB-A.J. Edds, Tyler Nielsen
MLB- Pat Angerer, Troy Johnson
WLB- Jeremiha Hunter, Jeff Tarpinian
LC- Greg Castillo/William Lowe
SS- Tyler Sash, David Cato
FS- Brett Greenwood, Joe Conklin
RC- Amari Spievey, William Lowe/Greg Castillo

Special Teams
PK- Daniel Murray/Trent Mossbrucker
PT- Ryan Donahue, Eric Guthrie
Punt Returns- Amari Spievey
Kickoff Returns- Paki O’Meara & Amari Spievey
Deep Snaps- Andrew Schulze, Josh Koeppel
Holder- Ryan Donahue

There was a lot of high school football action last night as 12 of the 13 Iowa commits kicked off their 2009 seasons.

Andrew Donnal - Anthony Wayne 28 - Rogers 32
Anthony Wayne loses in a close one to Rogers.

Anthony Ferguson and Jim Poggi - Gilman 63 - Saint John's 16
Ferguson and Poggi are primarily defensive players, but it was Gilman's offense that dominated this game.

Austin Gray -Fitzgerald 21 - Lamphere 20
Fitzgerald wins in OT with the defense stopping a 2-point conversion to end the game.

Mike Hardy - Kimberly 41 vs. Kaukauna 0
Kimberly rolls over Kaukauna as Hardy and the Papermaker's put up a shut out.

Matt Hoch vs. Brandon Scherff - Harlan 56 - Denison 21
Hoch won the first battle between Hawkeye commits as Harlan defeats Denison. On offense, Hoch ran for a touchdown and the (unfortunately named) Cyclone defense forced 2 fumbles and blocked a punt.

Christian Kirksey and Don Shumpert -Hazelwood East 28 at CBC 38
Hazelwood East lost their first came to CBC. Kirksey did catch a pass in the end zone on a 2-point conversion.

James Morris -Solon 49 -Mt. Vernon 10
Morris ran for 152 yards on 13 carries, scoring 4 touchdowns of 4, 9, 23 and 34 yards as Solon destroyed rival Mt. Vernon.

Louis Trinca-Pasat - Lane Tech 7 - DeLaSalle 28
Lane Tech struggled in its opener against DeLaSalle.

Austin Vier -Ballard 35 - North Polk 0
Vier did not play due to a knee injury, but Ballard still won easily of North Polk.

Marcus Coker - not in action this week.