Eight days in, nothing concrete

IOWA CITY -- Nothing to get your Tiger Hawks in a bunch. At least not yet.

The 2011 Iowa Hawkeyes will look much different Sept. 3 than the first look they gave about 10,000 fans Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Four expected starters on the defense didn't practice. The offense missed No. 1 running back Marcus Coker and Nos. 1 and 2 at left guard. Iowa is one of a handful of teams in the country that still uses a fullback. Because of injury or inexperience or whatnot, the fullback was used in very few plays.

Coach Kirk Ferentz used the competition at kicker for a mirror into his team.

"There's potential there, but not a lot of consistency," he said. "We're still trying to evaluate to see who our best one, two and three are at each position. Then, we have to figure it out. It's like anytime in camp, we have a lot of work to do."

Kicker was interesting. Mike Meyer (6 of 9), Trent Mossbrucker (8 of 10) and Marshall Koehn (7 of 9), a walk-on freshman from Solon, kicked to pretty much a draw. They finished their afternoons with successful 49-yard field goals.

For Iowa's defense, Saturday was kind of about who wasn't practicing.

Sophomore middle linebacker James Morris, defensive tackle Dominic Alvis and defensive end Lebron Daniel didn't

participate. Senior outside linebacker Tyler Nielsen, coming back from a broken neck, was kept out of a few drills.

Iowa is being understandably cautious here. Linebacker, decimated by injuries last season, lost sophomore Shane DiBona for the season on Wednesday with an achilles injury. Plus, Saturday was the eighth consecutive day of practice. The Hawkeyes will take today off and resume practice Monday. Their next big scrimmage event will be Friday night at Kinnick (closed to the public).

Ferentz conceded the offense is ahead of the defense. No one on defense seems to be sweating, at least not yet.

"We definitely have a lot of work to do," junior Micah Hyde said. "We're halfway through camp right now. There's work to do. We have two more weeks of camp before our first game week. The whole team has a lot to improve on and we'll do that."

Iowa's defensive line is trying to catch breath after losing three stars to the NFL. Two of those stars -- Adrian Clayborn and Karl Klug -- started for their teams this weekend. Tackle Mike Daniels and end Broderick Binns were forces at times Saturday. After those two, true freshman tackle Darian Cooper might've been the next best.

"The two oldest guys look like the most experienced, but after that there are a bunch of guys who are working hard," Ferentz said. "There's good competition there, we'll see how it goes. We'll probably play six to eight. Cooper might be in that mix. He has done some good things."

Cooper was late reporting to camp for an unspecified reason. He was the only player in the scrimmage wearing shorts.

"Cooper," Binns said, "he played a lot today. He was just thrown in there and I thought he did a good job."

Nothing is settled in the secondary. Junior Collin Sleeper, who's never player at Iowa, got the start at strong safety, but Ferentz said senior Jordan Bernstine has had his best camp and is pushing. Hyde started at free safety, but said he doesn't know if he will stick there. Junior Greg Castillo broke up a couple passes at right cornerback, but did give up a long gain to wide receiver Marvin McNutt.

The inside running situations were somewhat limited after redshirt freshman running back De'Andre Johnson left the scrimmage with an unspecified injury. Iowa's first- and second-team offenses scored five touchdowns in goal-line drills. True freshman quarterback Jake Rudock hit true freshman wideout Marcus Grant for a 47-yard TD, the day's only legit score.

Junior walk-on Matt Tobin replaced Brandon Scherff (unspecified injury) and Nolan MacMillan (sports hernia) at right guard.

Quarterback James Vandenberg lived through two out route attempts that were jumped and nearly picked, completing 15 of 25 for 159 yards. Vandenberg seemed to have excellent timing with junior receiver Keenan Davis on the slant. He showed brilliant touch on a 45-yarder to McNutt. He also dropped a nice 20-yarder over coverage to No. 2 tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz.

Vandenberg turned it on for a two-minute drill, the first time in camp Iowa practiced that situation. He completed 5 of 6 and set up a 28-yard field goal attempt in 1:28 and one timeout.

"We had some ups and downs today, some misses and some hits," Vandenberg said. "We have work to do."

Nothing has been decided on No. 2 quarterback nor on No. 2 running back. Junior John Wienke, who's also the No. 2 punter, and redshirt freshman A.J. Derby are neck and neck behind Vandenberg. Jason White, Johnson and freshman Mika'il McCall are in the mix for backup running back.

Ferentz wants No. 2 decided as soon as possible.

"That's a position over the next two weeks that we'll have to get some clarity at," he said. "You can only practice so many guys at quarterback. We'll have to draw some conclusions in the next six or seven days."