Planning stages

IOWA CITY — Death comes in many metaphorical ways on a football field. There's interception and then there's a blindside hit that takes you face-first into the plastic grass and rubber pellets.

Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock managed to avoid all death scenarios in the Hawkeyes' opening victory over Northern Iowa. Is this a bit of a heavy-handed metaphor for a game? Yes, but let's play it out.

The topic of discussion is the high amount of short passes Rudock threw last weekend and some of the longer targets he didn't throw. The idea that, no, what happens on the field is not a video game is tossed out. Rudock takes it from there.

'It's not 'Call of Duty,' you're actually going to get shot,' said Rudock, who put up career highs in completions (31) and completion percentage (75.6) against the Panthers. 'And when you get shot and you die, you don't come back.'

Like it or not, that does accurately describe the Hawkeyes' margin for error against UNI. Sophomore cornerback Greg Mabin's interception in desperation time finally sealed Iowa's 31-23 win.

So, no, Iowa didn't die Saturday. There are some perceptions of the Hawkeyes offense coming out of the game that, right now, are zombielike creatures that will roam the earth until the Hawkeyes show otherwise.

Yes, Rudock threw a lot of short passes, launching just three of more than 15 yards in the air. No, this wasn't a directive from the coaches, head coach Kirk Ferentz or offensive coordinator Greg Davis. UNI defended the deep pass and allowed Iowa to take chunks.

'No, we don't tell him that unless we're throwing a screen pass, obviously,' Ferentz said Tuesday. 'When you can make people drive the ball 10, 12 plays, that's typically a good strategy, and they did a nice job, so we didn't expect many clean shots down the field. Going into the game didn't look like part of the possibility.'

Perhaps the prime example of throwing where UNI wasn't came on the Hawkeyes' 17-play, 79-yard scoring drive in the second quarter. The long plays on that drive were a 13-yard completion to tight end Henry Krieger-Coble, a 12-yarder to wide receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley (on a third-and-9) and Rudock's key 12-yard scramble on a third-and-10.

Chains moved, running back Mark Weisman scored on a 1-yard run and Iowa answered after the Panthers took a 10-7 lead.

'You move enough chains, the next chain you move is the ref putting his arms up,' Rudock said. 'That's the ultimate goal.'

That's a bit of an explainer for all of the checkdowns you saw last Saturday. It wasn't a directive, it was what Rudock saw and UNI left open (Rudock did cop to missing a few deeper passes early).

Iowa's running game was stopped up. Again Ferentz credited UNI's defense for throwing some different linebacker and safety keys that had the Hawkeyes in dry-erase board mode on the sideline. You can argue that Iowa got there with 151 yards (4.2 yards on 36 carries), but it just looked a whole lot different from it usually does.

'I thought we did a good job adjusting during the course of the game, but it wasn't the same-old same-old,' Ferentz said. 'They threw a couple of wrinkles at us that we had to discuss and try to come up with some answers for. They're a good, aggressive team, and they're very well-coached. We knew that coming in, we just didn't know what the variables would be.'

Ferentz was asked how the O-line graded out. It wasn't a ringing endorsement, but he also pointed out some of the inexperience, particularly redshirt freshman guard Sean Welsh.

'They're fine,' Ferentz said. 'There's room for improvement, no question about it.'

It's probably time to stop discussing how the running backs will be used. Senior Mark Weisman led the group with 10 carries for 34 yards. From there, the carries went eight for LeShun Daniels, seven for Jordan Canzeri and three for Damon Bullock.

Canzeri said running backs coach Chris White doesn't say to them before the game they're going to get X amount of carries. So, whenever you see White on the Iowa sideline, you're going to see four or five running backs with their helmets on right behind him.

Iowa has the big backs (Weisman and Daniels) and the smaller, quicker backs (Canzeri, Bullock, Jonathan Parker and Akrum Wadley). It's a puzzle and, apparently, will remain a puzzle.

'I think anytime you can change the pace, it's probably not a bad thing,' Ferentz said. 'There are virtues with both styles of running.'

A few of the running backs said Tuesday they don't necessarily buy the idea of needing a lot of carries for a back to find a rhythm. Then again, there are four serious contenders for carries, and complainers probably go to the back of the line.

'I don't know when the last carry I took was before the last drive,' Weisman said about the 'rhythm' notion (Weisman had one fourth-quarter carry before the second-to-last drive that was a straight-ahead clock-eater). 'You have to be ready, stay fresh. That's a mental game more than anything. You have to stay mentally in it. When your number is called, your team expects you to perform.'

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