There is good news on the injury front. Rob Howe of HawkeyeInsider.com posted a recap from Coach Ferentz's weekly call-in radio show last night. The most important piece of information from the post is that most of the players that sat out last week due to injury should be ready to play this week against Iowa State. Adam Gettis, Shaun Prater, Jeff Tarpinian, and Josh Koeppel are all expected to be available on Saturday. Daniel Murray, who has been having issues with a hip flexor, was the only injured player not mentioned. The Hawkeyes will also have two players back from 1-game suspensions: Jewel Hampton and Broderick Binns.
Depth Chart
Offense:
SE | Derrell Johnson-Koulianous or Colin Sandeman, Don Nordmann
LT | Riley Reiff, Kyle Haganman
LG | Julian Vandervelde, Matt Tobin
C | James Ferentz, Josh Koeppel
RG | Nolan MacMillan, Conor Boffeli
RT | Markus Zusevics, Brett Van Sloten
TE | Allen Reisner, Brad Herman
QB | Ricky Stanzi, James Vandenberg
WR | Marvin McNutt, Keenan Davis
RB | Adam Robinson, Jewel Hampton or Paki O'Meara
FB | Brett Morse, Brad Rogers
Defense:
DE | Adrian Claybron, Lebron Daniel
DT | Karl Klug, Steve Bigach
DT | Christian Ballard or Mike Daniels, Thomas Nardo
DE | Christian Ballard or Broderick Binns, Dominic Alvis
OLB | Tyler Nielsen, Troy Johnson
MLB | Bruce Davis, Jeff Tarpinian
WLB | Jeremiha Hunter, Lance Tillison
LC | Greg Castillo, William Lowe
SS | Tyler Sash, Nick Nielsen
FS | Brett Greenwood, Jack Swanson
RC | Micah Hyde, Jordan Bernstine
Special Teams:
PK | Trent Mossbrucker, Michael Meyer
KO | Michael Meyer
P | Ryan Donahue, Eric Guthrie or Jonny Mullings
PR | Colin Sandeman, Mavin McNutt
KR | Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Keenan Davis, Paul Chaney Jr. and Adam Robinson
LS | Andrew Schulze, Casey Keiter
When this week's depth chart came out on Monday as part of the weekly press release [pdf], the status of a few of the injured players was still unknown and they were left off. I expect most of the injured players will be worked back in slowly, but will probably still see a lot of time. Same goes with the suspended players. For example, Ferentz has mentioned that he considers Robinson and Hampton co-starters, even though the depth chart has Hampton as co-second string. I expect on Saturday that Robinson will get the start, which he totally deserves based on his performance last week, and that Hampton will come in the second offensive series and still get a lot of reps.
The other interesting thing of note is with the defensive line. Ballard is still listed as a co-starter at both end and tackle. At first I thought this was because the coaches didn't want to start Binns right after he is coming off a suspension, kind of an extension of the punishment. But Ferentz has made it clear that he considers all 5 guys (Clayborn, Klug, Daniels, Ballard, and Binns) starters and that there will be a rotation that has Ballard play both end (when Daniels is playing) and tackle (when Binns is playing). Having the one extra guy could help out the D-line this year. Last year there was almost no rotation going on and it seemed, especially in some of the earlier games, the some of the linemen tired out by the end of the game.