You don't know if you don't try

IOWA CITY — C.J. Beathard was one bobble from a his name going up on the stadium.

OK, that's an overstatement. But for everyone Hawkeye clamoring for that big pass play that puts points on the board, it was oh, so close. In the first quarter of the Hawkeyes' pressure-packed 17-13 comeback victory over Ball State last week, Beathard launched a 38-yard pass that looked as though it went down the chimney and into wide receiver Damond Powell's arms for a touchdown.

The play was initially ruled a TD, but the review showed the ball shimmy and Powell went out of bounds and the play was ruled incomplete. Beathard finished 2 of 3 for 13 yards.

He didn't play again, but head coach Kirk Ferentz makes it sound as though the experiment will continue when Iowa (2-0) plays host to Iowa State (0-2) on Saturday.

'We haven't had that discussion yet, but I don't think anyone is opposed to that,' Ferentz said. 'We thought he played very well when he was in there. He was that close to having . . . that play could've gone either way, I think. His statistics would've been pretty good if that would've gone through.'

Ferentz made the 'inches' motion with his fingers while describing the play. That kind of measures Beathard's playing time.

'It was really fun, it was an adrenaline rush that's for sure,' Beathard said. 'We haven't started breaking down tape, so I don't even know if my package will even be used this week. Who knows? We'll see.'

The sample sized bites of Beathard remains a discussion point. Even after junior starter Jake Rudock led two TD drives late in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory.

When Beathard trotted onto the field, the ESPN2 cameras caught a glimpse of Rudock. He looked awful angry at that point.

'I'm always angry during the game,' Rudock said with a laugh, kind of a laugh. 'It's just that you guys are maybe following me a little more than you did before.'

Rudock was, in fact, not angry. Beathard was in the script for Northern Iowa, it just never happened (Iowa held off UNI, 31-23). Rudock knew Beathard would play at some point. Not angry, not any more than usual, anyway.

'It's different, kind of weird putting the headset back on,' Rudock said. 'At the time, it gave them a little bit of a different wrinkle, which is what we were looking for.'

Beathard said the 'wrinkle' is the zone option read. His first two plays were zone reads with freshman running back Jonathan Parker.

'It's nothing too different [than what Iowa does with Rudock],' Beathard said. 'It is more zone read stuff. There were a few handoffs where I was reading, I just didn't get to keep it.'

Ferentz and offensive coordinator Greg Davis mentioned Beathard's quickness as a differentiator between the quarterbacks. They also acknowledged that Beathard has the stronger arm.

Beathard's next two plays were passes, a 7-yarder to wide receiver Derrick Willies and a 13-yarder on the seam to tight end Ray Hamilton. With first-and-10 on Ball State's 39, Iowa tried running twice and 2 yards and minus-1, setting up a third-and-9 at BSU's 38.

Beathard had a receiver open in the flat. It might've been a first down, maybe an easy first down. He didn't look that way and instead went for the jackpot, over the top to Powell.

'When we're reading coverages, it's harder than any fan can see,' Beathard said. ''Oh, he's wide open.' Well yeah, maybe it looks that way to you, but I don't know.'

With the Hawkeyes trailing 13-3 in the fourth quarter, Rudock completed 9 of 11 for 81 yards and the two TDs in the final 2:52 of the game. He also rushed for 32 yards on those final two drives. He posted career highs with 33 completions, 52 attempts and 322 yards to go along with two TDs and no interceptions.

'He got the job done at the end of the game, what was needed to be done and got the win,' Beathard said. 'That two-minute drive was the huge drive in the game. It showed a lot of fight out of our team.'

It was as good as Rudock's looked, as good as Iowa's passing game has looked.

'The good news is we probably moved better [in the passing game] certainly in the last couple drives, maybe even the last three, than we had in the past, at least in recent history,' Ferentz said. 'So, that was good to see. I think part of that is we have an experienced quarterback and feel a little better about our receivers, as opposed to the last couple of years. We've made some progress there and hopefully that's something we can build on.'

It's the coaches' decision. Both QBs, of course, say they are on board. Don't try to map this out, think of it more as an experiment.

The whole point of an experiment is figuring out what you don't know.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@sourcemedia.net