James Vandenberg was born for this

From the football to the brainpower, James Vandenberg was born for this.

He's a third generation quarterback. His grandfather, Jim, played quarterback for a year at Southern Arkansas before switching to fullback. His dad, Toby, played quarterback for a season at Missouri Western. Four knee surgeries later, his career was over. He didn't sit around and wonder “what if,” though. He became a doctor.

Toby Vandenberg is an emergency room doctor at Great River Medical Center and Keokuk Hospital.

So, Iowa's new quarterback is a third generation college football player with a dad who's an emergency room doctor who makes life-and-death decisions on a regular basis.

He's going to need to draw on all of that.

“I thought Coach (Ken) O'Keefe was really aggressive with the playcalls with James considering his lack of experience,” wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos said. “James accepted it. He was excited. He knows the reads, he knows the defenses just as well as Ricky does. He's just missing out on the actual playing time and the game speed.

“But right now, it's James V's time.”

It's James V's time and it's the crunchiest of crunch times for the Iowa Hawkeyes (9-1, 5-1 Big Ten), who's charmed 2009 season took a severe twist in Saturday's 17-10 upset to Northwestern.

No. 15 Iowa will go into the Horseshoe in Columbus for a Big Ten championship showdown against No. 10 Ohio State (8-2, 5-1) with a red-shirt freshman making his first career start.

Quarterback Ricky Stanzi suffered what looked to be a high-ankle sprain in the second quarter against Northwestern.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said X-rays were negative but guessed that Stanzi will miss the rest of the regular season.

Stanzi was two steps spinning out of a fake and into a bootleg when NU defensive end Corey Wootton batted the ball out of his hand and landed his full 280 pounds on Stanzi's right ankle, twisting it out, which would be a high-ankle sprain.

“It's like seeing your little brother get hurt,” wide receiver Marvin McNutt said. “You want to go pick him up off the field yourself. At the same time, you know you've got another little brother who can step in and play, too.”

Vandenberg looks very, very little brother.

Vandenberg, who has a shade of whiskers on his youngish face, will turn 20 on Nov. 24.

He aged a little after his first pass Saturday was picked off. He'll age a little more this week when the task at hand finally hits him. Ohio State is coming off a 24-7 victory at Penn State. Never mind the fact that Iowa could clinch a share of its first Big Ten title since 2004 with a victory. The Hawkeyes haven't won in Columbus since 1991 and has won there just twice since 1987.

“I've got to learn from today and we've got to move on,” said Vandenberg, a 6-3, 205-pounder from Keokuk. “There's no time to dwell on being nervous anymore. There's too much at stake now.”

Vandenberg finished 9 of 27 for 82 yards with the interception, which led to an NU touchdown and a 14-10 lead. In the first quarter, the Hawkeyes gained 160 yards. They finished with 281.

The longest drive Vandenberg directed was nine plays for 43 yards. It ended with Daniel Murray missing a 46-yard field goal wide left. The next longest went only 27 yards.

On Iowa's last-gasp drive, with NU mostly dropping eight into coverage with a blitz or two mixed in, Vandenberg was 1 of 7 for 7 yards. His last pass was into eight defensive backs and well behind McNutt.

Vandenberg said he remembered every throw he made. The one that stung him was a third-and-8 bomb to Johnson-Koulianos that just sailed a few yards long over DJK's shoulder with about five minutes left.

It was there.

“It's different when you're in the game, the speed is a whole lot quicker,” he said. “You've got to slow yourself down sometimes. I missed a throw that I could've made. We made some plays, but we just couldn't quite make enough in a row to put a whole drive together.”

Vandenberg is now the face of Iowa football. Iowa's defense is most of the rest of the body.

The pressure is on all available working and bending Hawkeye body parts. As painful as Saturday was, Ohio State will be the difference between magical and the Magic Kingdom, which would mean a New Year's Day bowl game in Orlando.

Not bad, but not magical.

“It's going to be a challenge going to the Horseshoe,” Johnson-Koulianos said. “That place is electric. They're going to be prepared for an inexperienced quarterback and they're going to try to pressure us. They're going to try to everything to get after James.

“I think the pressure's on a lot of guys - receivers, O-line, Coach O'Keefe, Coach Ferentz. It's on us as a unit as a whole to find a way to overcome that this week. Right now, that's the most important.”