Cy-Hawk Thoughts: Injured Iowa running back may not play; Ferentz bashes blocking rule

IOWA CITY, Ia. — Kirk Ferentz said he might — might — celebrate his historic 144th career coaching win at Iowa with “a little extra ice cream. You never know.”

The update from the Ferentz home late Saturday night after Hawkeyes' 33-7 win against Northern Illinois?

“You know, I never got to the ice cream. It was kind of late,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “I was hungry. I’m always hungry after games. I had a big bowl of salad, pasta, had Graziano’s sausage. I’ll give them a free plug. It is the best. I was out of gas. That was it. Really nothing too crazy.”

There you have it. 

That’s how Ferentz celebrated surpassing Hayden Fry as the Hawkeyes’ winningest coach.

Now, it’s on to Cy-Hawk week, where Saturday’s 4:05 p.m. football game between Iowa and Iowa State at Kinnick Stadium deservedly takes center stage.

The Hawkeyes are supposed to be good. The Cyclones are supposed to be good.

Let’s get to more stuff we learned during Tuesday interviews at the Stew and Lenore Hansen Football Performance Center.

Iowa might be without its starting running back. And even though the Hawkeyes feature a three-back rotation, that's not good.

Ivory Kelly-Martin left Saturday's opener with an ice wrap on his left ankle. The sophomore was injured on a 4-yard run early in the fourth quarter against Northern Illinois.

"We’ll see where it goes," Ferentz said. "Hopefully, we’ll know by the end of the week where we’re at."

If Kelly-Martin (16 carries, 62 yards in the opener) can't go, that's a big blow. He is Iowa's most versatile back and has drawn Akrum Wadley comparisons from teammates. Kelly-Martin should've had a 100-yard game in his first career start, but had a 45-yarder negated on a borderline penalty away from the ball. 

It could be the Toren Young and Mekhi Sargent show Saturday.

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The plan at linebacker still seems a little cloudy. A fascinating development in Saturday’s win was the benching of starting middle linebacker Amani Jones, who was widely praised in the offseason as the successor at that position to Josey Jewell.

Jones was pulled after 14 unremarkable plays in favor of senior Jack Hockaday, who was listed as the No. 1 linebacker Monday and could be in line for his first career start against the Cyclones.

In the conversation about Jones on Tuesday, Ferentz recalled former quarterback Drew Tate "hyperventilating" before his first big game. In other words, Jones was so excited that he tried to do too much.

Iowa likes Jones. A lot. 

He probably won't get the start Saturday, but Jones has a chance to work his way back into a starting — and perhaps starring — role.

"We’re going to keep evaluating the team as we go,” Ferentz said. “That includes every practice and pretty much every position. I think that’s one of the positions we’ll learn more as we go.”

Jones did return with the No. 2 unit later in the game. Ferentz liked what he saw there, even though NIU scored its lone points of the day on that possession.

It's way too early to bury Jones' chances of being a meaningful player at Iowa. Ferentz said he could get a chance against Saturday.

"The reason we like him so much, he's high-energy — he wants to make every play and get to the ball," Ferentz said, "and you can't always do that. Sometimes you just have to play your position."

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But look for Iowa to play more nickel coverage against Iowa State. The Cyclones routinely throw three- and four-wide receiver sets on the field, and they feature a slew of talented receivers — even with the departure of Allen Lazard to the NFL. Hakeem Butler is 6-foot-6, and tight end Chase Allen is 6-7.

“We should throw Anthony Nelson out there (on the scout team),” starting Iowa safety Jake Gervase joked of Iowa’s star defensive end, who stands 6-7 himself. “He’s fast enough.”

In reality, Iowa is practicing its nickel formations — replacing a linebacker with a fifth defensive back — in preparation for Iowa State.

“That’ll probably be in our gameplan with a lot of the personnel they run,” Gervase said. “… We’ll be ready to go, whoever’s on the field.”

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That third corner could be true freshman Julius Brents. Iowa didn’t go nickel once in Northern Illinois’ 62 offensive snaps, instead choosing to leave all three linebackers on the field. Brents (6-2, 180) comes with a lot of intrigue. It was three years ago in this Iowa State matchup that a young freshman named Josh Jackson was given his first crack at key snaps ... and he went one-on-one with Lazard, and held up fine.

Two years later, he was a consensus all-American. Now, he's with the Green Bay Packers.

Piggy-backing off the middle-linebacker conversation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Iowa coaches pull the middle linebacker when they go nickel and leave weakside linebacker Kristian Welch and outside linebacker Nick Niemann on the field. Both third-year players had strong openers in their first career starts.

Iowa has looked at the film … and isn’t going to change its blocking style.  The most riled up Kirk Ferentz got on Cy-Hawk week? Talking about technical matters in coaching the offensive line. 

Ferentz went on a short filibuster when the topic of the NCAA's new low-blocking rule was brought up.

"The dumbest rule in football," Ferentz said. "I think I'm safe in saying that."

It was topical because left guard Ross Reynolds was flagged for a 15-yard penalty against Northern Illinois. The rule says players can’t block below the waist if the ball carrier is outside the tackle box, or if the defender is not in a "10 o'clock to 2 o'clock" forward position.

(This was the flag that wiped out Kelly-Martin's long gain.)

“It’s a tough call, and it could have gone either way," center Keegan Render said. "So, we just (were told to) keep doing it and see what happens.”

Given Ferentz’s offensive-line acumen, it’s no surprise Iowa is standing firm with the way it teaches how to block.

"Defensive guys are supposed to know how to use their hands to play cut blocks. They used to teach that, back when defense was really important," Ferentz said. "But now the way they've got this rule structured, defensive guys can just turn and run. Which is ridiculous.

"My stance is, there's a certain area where they've got to play defense. And if they (can't), they should be penalized by getting blocked."

There's been a lot of talk about suspensions this week, with Iowa State reinstating two starters from one-game suspensions despite the Cyclones' opener being cancelled by bad weather.

Iowa, meanwhile, had four guys coming off one-game penalties, too. 

Offensive linemen Tristan Wirfs and Alaric Jackson and defensive tackles Cedrick Lattimore spent last week on the scout team. On Friday, they served four hours of community service. On Saturday, instead of playing in the game, they served eight more hours of community service.

"They came back Sunday and we've welcomed them back,"  Ferentz said, "and they're all doing a good job. Really happy with the way they've handled it."

Don't underestimate the importance of Lattimore and Reiff. While most of the suspension attention in the opener surrounded the absence of both starting offensive tackles in Jackson and Wirfs, the second-string defensive tackles will play big roles against Iowa State.

Iowa used a six-man defensive-line rotation against Northern Illinois; look for it to be back to the preferred eight this week.

“Depth is really important," defensive tackle Sam Brincks said, "especially against an up-tempo team like Iowa State."

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 23 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.