They haven’t located another year of eligibility for LaDell Betts. Nick Bell’s bigger, faster, younger brother isn’t enrolling at Iowa. Beanie Wells hasn’t transferred in from Ohio State.
It looks as if the starter for now might be Paki O’Meara.
Contain your enthusiasm.
Shonn Greene hasn’t cleared all his academic hurdles yet. Junior college transfer Nate Guillory is enrolled in Blocking 101. Ferentz indicated it isn’t “realistic’’ to think incoming recruits Jeff Brinson and Jewel Hampton will make any freshman All-American teams.
So O’Meara is atop the depth chart heading into Saturday’s spring whatchacallit.
The sophomore walk-on from Cedar Rapids Washington, who never has carried the ball in a college game, received this ringing endorsement from Ferentz: “If we have to go with him in the fall, we will.’’
A few seconds later he piled on even more praise: “Obviously, we’re hoping we’ll be able to supplement him with other players in the fall.’’
He’s undoubtedly referring to Greene, a 225-pound pile-driver who rushed for 378 yards in two seasons with the Hawkeyes before encountering academic problems. He’s trying to work his way back through junior college, but he doesn’t have the requisite number of credits yet.
“It’s just a matter of him doing the work he needs to get done,’’ Ferentz said. “I think he has a good plan, a very workable plan. He just needs to do it.’’
But even if Greene does make it, he hasn’t toted a football in a year-and-a-half, and Ferentz said he’s not likely to hit the ground rumbling.
“We’re not looking for him to be the savior,’’ he said.
Some Hawkeyes fans might have held out hope that Guillory could fill that role, but it turns out blocking wasn’t part of the curriculum at Coffeyville Community College. Ferentz said he has yet to sort out who to block and how to block them.
“The first three practices he had no idea what he was doing,’’ Ferentz said.
It seems the kid also needs to tweak his running style and learn that every off-tackle play isn’t destined to be a SportsCenter highlight. Ferentz said he would just take positive yardage most of the time.
“He’s new to the system,’’ Ferentz added. “It’s new terminology. Spring ball is pretty condensed anyway. I think what you’ll see out of him next August will be drastically different than what we see now from a comfort standpoint. It’s been an acclimation process.’’
The Hawkeyes also have tried Jayme Murphy, a special teams sensation last fall, at running back. However, Murphy already is hurt and was not on the depth chart that was issued to the media Wednesday.
But O’Meara was. He’s No. 1. For now.
On Saturday, in an event that Ferentz said will look much more like a controlled scrimmage than an actual game, O’Meara will run behind an offensive line that will be without three projected starters. Seth Olson has participated in less than half the spring workouts because of a muscle strain, and Bryan Bulaga and Rafael Eubanks have missed every practice because of injuries.
That’s not likely to help O’Meara resemble Beanie Wells.
“If we could order up a guy who would give us 1,600 yards every season, we’d take one of those and be satisfied with it,’’ Ferentz said with a we-know-that-ain’t-gonna-happen shrug.
“We’ll work our way through it.’’
Don Doxsie can be contacted at (563) 383-2280 or ddoxsie@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at Hawkmania.com.
Comments
Tom Kenney wrote on Apr 18, 2008 8:16 AM:
" Anyone that doesn't have confidence in Paki O'Meara, doesn't know him. Paki is a "football player" and an exceptional athlete. Wait and see. "
Josh wrote on Apr 17, 2008 11:20 AM:
" This is a poorly written article. From other articles and the audio I've listened to, you took lots of this information completely out of context to put a negative slant on it. When did Ferentz insinuat that the freshmen running backs would not make a freshmen all-american team? He simply stated the obvious that they won't walk in the door from day 1 and carry the load. Very very poor journalism. "
