For the Hawkeyes, the most urgent question of them all is who will be the placekicker. Marshall Koehn has gone 2-5 to start the season, and freshman Mick Ellis missed his only attempt in last Saturday’s win over Ball State. The fact that head coach Kirk Ferentz would not name a clear cut favorite for kicking duties makes things a little murkier than they already were. Koehn will likely get another shot this weekend, but do not be surprised if Ellis, who lost his redshirt last weekend, gets the call if Koehn once again falters.

Another big question for Iowa is when the running game will finally start to make some noise on the field. The leading rusher for the Hawkeyes after two weeks is quarterback Jake Rudock, who has 11 rushes for 35 yards on the season. The running back group of Mark Weisman, Jordan Canzeri, LeShun Daniels Jr., Damon Bullock, and Jonathan Parker have combined for 181 yards on 62 carries, which divides out to just under three yards a carry. They need to start showing up in a big way and not forcing Jake Rudock to chuck the ball 93 times in two games to overcome late deficits.

The final big question surrounding the Hawkeyes is the health of two of their most important players, Brandon Scherff and Drew Ott. It was reported by multiple sources on Tuesday that Scherff underwent surgery on his right knee and would likely miss two to three weeks.

Coach Ferentz would not confirm in his weekly conference call that Scherff had surgery, instead calling him day-to-day. If Scherff were to miss those two to three weeks, he would miss this weekend against Iowa State, the following weekend against Pittsburgh on the road, and potentially the Big Ten opener September 27^th against Purdue in West Lafayette. Iowa should be able to survive without Scherff for that time frame as Ike Boettger stepped in admirably against Ball State and looks a capable replacement for Scherff should he have to miss any time.

Ott, on the other hand, appears to come away virtually unscathed after his involvement in an accident early Monday morning in Iowa City. Ott was on his moped when a car turned in front of him and collided with the defensive lineman. He suffered what is being called “road rash” after being examined at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Kirk Ferentz also called Ott day-to-day and barring any setbacks should be ready to go for Saturday’s tilt with the Cyclones.

Iowa State comes into Iowa City looking for their identity. After a 34-14 loss at the hands of FCS powerhouse North Dakota State in Week 1, the Cyclones entertained the Wildcats of Kansas State last Saturday only to see them blow a 28-13 and fall to the ranked Wildcats by a score of 32-28. Iowa State ranks near the bottom in rushing yards per game, passing yards per game, and points scored per game.

Quarterback Sam Richardson is leading the charge through the air as well as on the ground for the Cyclones. He has been one of the few bright spots for a team that has disappointed to begin their 2014-2015 campaign. Injuries and personal issues have stripped the team of some key players. Wide receiver Quenton Bundrage tore his ACL in the opener against NDSU and starting right tackle Jacob Gannon quit the team for “personal reasons” days before their game against Kansas State.

The Cyclones do have some playmakers, however. Freshman wide receiver Allen Lazard out of Urbandale, Iowa, as well as Jarvis West will be asked to shoulder more of the load through the air for coach Paul Rhoads. Aaron Wimberly, who has accumulated 23 carries for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns over the first two weeks, leads the ground attack.

The Cyclones may not look as good on paper as the Hawkeyes, but when there is a rivalry like Iowa and Iowa State stats do not mean as much. Both teams will be amped up and ready to get this game started.

This Cy-Hawk game is sure to be one of the most exciting games in recent memory and Kinnick Stadium will be the go to place Saturday afternoon at 2:30. We will have the game live on 89.7 KRUI and also online at krui.fm with pregame starting around 2:15.

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After an afternoon where the Iowa offense looked lethargic and it seemed a Mid-American Conference (MAC) team was about to claim a third straight victory in Iowa City, Jake Rudock rallied the Hawkeyes in the final three minutes for a 17-13 victory over the Ball State Cardinals.

For a program that has a history of pulling out late victories, this has to rank amongst the most improbable of them all with Jake Duzey scoring the winning touchdown with just a minute left on the clock. For freshman Derrick Willies, his first college touchdown was a major factor in this comeback.

“It was a great feeling of relief after what was a hard fought game,” Willies said. “I blacked out for a second[after catching the touchdown] but it was awesome.”

Rudock had a career day with 322 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. He was a calming presence in the huddle and stayed poised enough to lead his team to a win. Rudock attributes that leadership to the way he was raised and taught to play the game.

“I have been playing sports my whole life. It is never going to be perfect and bad things are going to happen,” Rudock said. “It was the way I was brought up with my parents and coaches that kept telling me that its not other and to work hard as long as there is a chance.”

In a surprising move, backup quarterback C.J. Beathard started the second series of the game and led the Hawkeyes in a drive that resulted in a missed field goal after a touchdown was overturned. Head Coach Kirk Ferentz said it was part of the game plan heading into this week.

“We never got to it last week.  It’s something we said we’re going to do,” Ferentz said. “We basically thought coming into thegame, we’d do second and third series with him and just see where it took us.”

The real trouble for Iowa started came early in the second quarter, as Joshua Parker fumbled the handoff on an end around and Blake Dueitt ran it back to give Ball State a 7-0 lead.

It was on that same play that left tackle Brandon Scherff went down with what appeared to be a leg, though he came back later in same quarter and played without restraint the rest of the game.

“I stood up [after the tackle] and my leg locked up and I didn’t know what happened and didn’t want to stress anything so I just went back down,” Scherff said.

Though Ferentz had some anxious moments in the aftermath of the injury. He was relieved that he was did not sustain a serious injury and impressed by the way that Scherff came back into the game and played.

“The good news is his knee was stable when they examined it.  He’s a really tough minded guy.  For him to come back and do what he did is a positive,” Ferentz said.

The offense continued to struggle until late in the 4^th quarter when the team knew desperation time was upon it and the only choice was to go out and score.

“We knew that we needed to go down there and get a score but we couldn’t put all of our stock into scoring, we just had to worry about each play at a time,” Rudock said. “It was not too far out of reach and we always had a chance. We are grateful for what the defense did and holding [Ball State] to field goals when they did.”

Though it was a win, there are still some major concerns for the Hawkeyes going forward. Placekickers Marshall Koehn and Mick Ellis went a combined 1 for 4 on field goal attempts. A position that was a question mark heading into the season looks even murkier going forward.

“I’m glad that I was able to put one of them through to help the team but that was completely unacceptable,” Koehn said. “I am going to watch some film and hope to get better next week.”

Iowa has also had problems getting the running game going over the first two weeks of the season. Part of the problem has been finding the right number of carries for a roster that is uncharacteristically filled with healthy running backs. Ferentz stated that it was just good planning on Ball State’s part.

“They had an excellent game plan.  They did a really good job.  We didn’t establish anything really in that run game, especially in the first half,” Ferentz said. “We’re going to really have to look hard at that, but I thought we adjusted a little bit better in the third quarter.”

Iowa now sits at 2-0 and welcomes Iowa State next weekend for the annual Cy-Hawk rivalry game.

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The Iowa football team had been averaging a hefty total of 12 points per game in its first two outings, a win over Northern Illinois and a 9-6 loss to rival Iowa State.

The Hawkeyes doubled their average and finally scored more touchdowns than field goals in a 27-16 win over Northern Iowa at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday.  They would likely be happy just scoring touchdowns after Mike Meyer’s two field goals last week against the Cyclones were all the team could muster.

Meyer got his field goals again.  The offense, though, finally cashed in some touchdowns, specifically walk-on fullback Mark Weisman–three times–deep in the Panther red zone.  It only took injuries to Iowa’s first and second-string rushers to make Weisman the main attraction.  Featured tailback Damon Bullock left the game with an undisclosed injury.  Backup runner Greg Garmon appeared to injure his elbow and did not return.  So, what to do?  Put the next man in.  In this case, a walk-on military academy transfer.

Weisman took advantage.  On numerous rushes, the former Air Force cadet bouldered through wide-open spaces and powered hard at defenders.  Weisman has no video game juke move or the steps of a spread-offense jitterbug.  He’s an elevated train on feet, a point A to point B style of runner.  It’s exactly what Iowa needed in the red zone.  In addition to his three short-yardage touchdowns, Weisman rushed for 114 yards on 24 carries.

“He stepped up and did a heck of a job,” said Iowa offensive lineman Brandon Scherff, whose squad pushed away UNI’s smaller defensive line.  “We tired them out.  We did our job.”

The offense as a whole looked like a transformed group.  James Vandenberg completed 18 of 28 passes for 228 yards, a handful to a streaking Kevonte Martin-Manley, who had 5 catches for 101 yards–including a 51 yarder.  Before exiting the game with injuries, Bullock and Garmon combined for 91 yards on 16 carries.

Keenan Davis added 54 yards on 5 catches.  The offense finished with 429 yards and 25 first downs.

Vandenberg still doesn’t have a touchdown pass this season, but he seemed energized by the team’s performance in post-game comments.  “A lot of guys took a step forward today,” he said. Said Davis: “We scored.  We’re happy.”

Northern Iowa made a game of it early on.  The Panthers took their opening drive 83 yards on eight plays with wide-open catches from David Johnson and Brett LeMaster.  Johnson ran in the ball from 1 yard out to give UNI  7-0 lead.  They kept it close at halftime, trailing 17-13.

The Iowa players and coaches understood that Northern Iowa was going to be a load to handle, especially head coach Kirk Ferentz.  “Their players are very well coached and they played extremely hard, and they have a good team, so we knew this was going to be a tough ballgame, and it was,” he said.

After the frenzied opening drive that gave UNI the lead, the defense tightened like a Boa Constrictor through the rest of the game.  Tom Donatell pulled in an interception.  The run defense stood up, holding the Panthers to 94 yards on 24 carries.  Iowa forced a few three-and-outs while doing enough to push UNI’s coaches to opt for field goal attempts instead of confident fourth-down heaves at the end zone.

With the win, Iowa improves to 2-1.  The Hawkeyes have two more home games in the next two weeks, hosting Central Michigan next Saturday and opening the Big Ten at home against Minesota on September 29th.  Northern Iowa falls to 1-2, with both losses being to Big Ten teams (Wisconsin being the other).

“I’m pleased with our team and what they had to do in two of the last three weeks,” said Northern Iowa coach Mark Farley.  “And as you can see, a Big Ten team is going to line up and just try to win the line of scrimmage and wear you down.  And that’s kind of what happened.”

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