The RB Situation

Lets start by stating the obvious, Jewel Hampton is out for the year. That leaves us with Paki O'Meara as the only RB with experience. Paki wasn't a big time recruit. He was a walk-on that worked his tail off to get where he is today. Kind of like Dallas Clark did and we all know how that turned out. Paki hasn't shown a lot of flash the past two years but he has shown two things... He takes care of the ball and runs North-n-South. Word in camp though is he has shown a lot more this year. So we will see what kind of Paki went get on Saturday. I am believing it is the new and improved Paki with over 100yds rushing.

Second Team is redshirt freshman Adam Robinson out of Des Moines. Adam had back to back 1,000yds rushing seasons at Lincoln High School but Iowa was the only major to offer him. It looks like we might have found another diamond in the rough. Adam has really impressed the coaching staff this camp. I have a feeling if it wasn't for Paki's experience that Adam might be starting on Saturday. But who cares who starts this weekend, Adam will be getting a good share of snaps on Saturday.

Third Team is a mix of redshirt freshman Jeff Brinson and true freshman Brandon Wegher. If Jeff wouldn't have missed a lot of camp due to an ankle injury, he might have been the starter. I have heard over the pass two years that he is the closest to Shonn Greene that we have. He is a punishing back and has delivered some vicious hits running scout team against our first team Defense. Jeff might not see much action this weekend due to missing so much of camp but we should at least see some glimpse of what he has. Brandon was a four star, highly recruited last year with 3,200yds rushing last year. He is supposedly quick and fast and is supposed to be a damn good return man for both punts and kick offs. As of Tuesday, Coach stated that Paki would still be the kick return man if they played today. I see that changing on Saturday since Coach stated that Brandon will play and not redshirt. Coach doesn't like having his starting RB as a KR man. I suspect Brandon will be the third man in on Saturday and get a decent look with maybe 10 or so carries.

The rest, we have two true freshman in Brad Rogers out of OH and Josh Brown out of FL. Brad is just a huge true freshamn RB close to the 230lb mark. Josh moved from CB/S to RB during camp. Many believe with the depth we have at the Freshman mark and with Jewel having 3 more years of eligibility going into 2010 that he might move back to CB/S. It will be very interesting to see if either of these two play this year or redshirt.

Even without Jewel, our running game will be just fine. It wasn't all Shonn last year! He had some big holes to run through by those OLinemen. This could be the best OL that we have ever had at Iowa when they all get healthy and off suspension. It will be interesting to see how they do against UNI without Vandervelde (due to injury) and Kuempel (OWI suspension). When these two get back in action, look out!!!