10 Takeaways: Ott or not?

Some of the two obs (observation and objectivity):

1. Weird Vibe Tuesday

— This was one of those weird Tuesdays where most of Kirk Ferentz's news conference was about the periphery and not the task at hand. I generally don't mind these, but Pitt is a step up in weight class for this team. Obviously, there's the outside noise and the inside calm, but the Pitt questions were few and far between.

Pitt is good. Pat Narduzzi's team has two QBs who can play, a grade-A wide receiver and one of those defenses he had at Michigan State.

Is this an 'Admiral Ackbar' level trap game? Pitt is too good of a team and Iowa needed every inch of 60 minutes (60 bleeping minutes for those of you who saw the Damond Powell Instagram vid in the postgame lockerroom celebration last year) to win there last season.

2. Still . . .

Ferentz seemed happy. We even joked a little afterward. I was working a theme on what the 200 rushing yards from the last two weeks says and means for this team. I asked some O-linemen, running backs and even wide receiver Tevaun Smith.

The consensus was that, yes, of course, it's a team stat. I told Ferentz that the wide receivers said it was a wide receivers stat, wide receivers being wide receivers.

He might've even laughed.

3. Happy because . . .

It sounds as if the UI issue with Derrick Mitchell resolved quickly. I don't have any idea what it was and the UI student code of conduct is a laborious read.

The way Ferentz explained it makes me believe whatever it is, he just didn't want to digest it on a Friday night in Ames before what, in big-picture terms, was a pretty huge game. (Who knows where Iowa State is going, but you know as well as I that the Hawkeyes wanted to measure themselves on this stage. And, oh yeah, rivalry trophy game losing streak snapped.)

That said, a release Sunday would've kept Hawkeye Internet from rolling off the rails and into speculative gore as Hawkeye Internet is wont to do.

Here was the pregame seen during the stretch period for running backs: Senior Jordan Canzeri was in a line of one. He stood and faced junior LeShun Daniels and sophomore AKrum Wadley in warmups.

Even with Daniels' injury (ankle), Iowa dodged a bullet as far as depth goes here. It was a career-high carry day for Canzeri (24), but he was all smiles Tuesday and seemed no worse for the wear.

4. OK, should DE Drew Ott even think about playing

— I've sounded the alarms for RB depth. Is DE depth that much better?

Redshirt freshman Parker Hesse had the best moments of his young Hawkeye career when he replaced Ott. He pressured the quarterback, he ran stunts and twists as though he's done it all summer (small joke there, of course, he has done just that all summer) and created havoc.

Hesse embodied a lot of the things that good teams do. He began Saturday as a reserve, but he ended it as an important player who arrived in the nick of time.

We've been over the amount of new bodies who contributed Saturday, what does that say about this roster? That the reserves aren't blindly following the lead of the starters and letting them do all the work. They go to meetings and engage. They take each rep as if it's a down in a game on the Kinnick turf. That's a credit to the staff. These players are getting coached from No. 1 to 105.

Hesse probably will end up being his own kind of player. Right now, he's a Drew Ott starter kit, at around 245. Ott is a fully formed, 270-plus senior. Every Iowa team under Ferentz needs all the Drew Ott/senior/best player contribution it can get.

Ott's injury is a dislocated elbow. Don't look at any of the stills and, in retrospect knowing what you know, don't slow down the video.

There are degrees to this and we don't really know where Ott sits, just that he hasn't practiced, is rehabbing and was in the complex with ice on the left elbow Tuesday.

5. So, yes?

— You can't put a percentage on Ott's health, not without any sort of real info. Ferentz has been positive, but Tuesday it sounded as though he was waiting on the medical staff's clearance. We all know that's not the be-all, end-all for coaches. It's a starting point, and it was Tuesday heading into Wednesday and Ferentz made it sound as though that starting point hadn't been determined.

He's cleared, play him? Iowa has momentum and is shooting for its first 3-0 since 2009. Why not keep that going? Or, at least put yourselves in the best position to keep that going by putting your best players on the field (even if they're not completely healthy)?

6. No, final answer is no

— Ott's injury is the kind that makes you rub your elbow to 1) make sure it's still there and 2) groooooooooooooossssssssssss.

Medical clearance, schmedical schmerance.

There are a couple of benefits to sitting one of your most valuable commodities (a hugely talented pass rusher, full-service DE and captain): 1) You let Hesse run the whole way. Ott is a senior and Hesse is next up here. This would be eating the meal for Hesse ('eating the meal' is a journalistic term for that one time you covered a lady who made stew out of road kill and you wanted to get the 'real feel' for the story, so you . . . ate the meal). 2) This would possibly give Ott two weeks to get right. If you sit him vs. Pitt, there's probably a good chance he could sit against North Texas (although, Ferentz did say today that he didn't see this lingering).

Would Ott's loss be enough to really tilt the scales against Pitt? I think possibly (they did make it through Iowa State, though). But it's not like Iowa hasn't sacrificed a game against Pitt. You know, the 2008 game, Jake Christensen's last stand at QB. He and Ricky Stanzi traded places in the first half. Stanzi moved the team better, but Christensen went the whole second half and the Hawkeyes lost 21-20.

The QB change was made the next week and that was that (except for a successful relief appearance against Iowa State).

Eat the meal, take your chances and feel your elbow to make sure it's still there.

7. Special teams spine

— This team has some good, established players, some possibly emerging stars and just some overall reliable dudes.

In that 'reliable dude' category is a special teams core that is in the midst of changing culture. Ferentz nailed special teams improvement into the Iowa mission statement in January. There has been more time spent in practice on special teams drills and situations.

That special teams core is senior linebackers Travis Perry and Cole Fisher, sophomore linebacker Ben Niemann, safeties Anthony Gair and Miles Taylor and wide receiver Jacob Hillyer. In talking to a few of these guys on Tuesday, there's a huge pride and toughness factor that they've totally bought into.

This is what good Iowa teams have.

8. Is it me or . . .

Does WR Matt VandeBerg look like a villian in a spy movie who is eventually defeated but whose demise leaves the door open for a return in the sequel?

Maybe that's just me.

9. Night game finances

— Iowa spent two years putting permanent lights in Kinnick Stadium at a cost of $350,000. (I kind of got into a whole Twitter debate on Big Ten teams that don't have permanent lighting, but it's down to Purdue and Michigan State, which trucks lights in for each game.)

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta went to the Big Ten and Big Ten Network last winter and spring and made his pitch for more night games at Kinnick (which hadn't hosted a night game since 2012, I know!) and, with a team that finished 7-6, somehow got two.

These are big scores for Iowa in the way that you believe Pro Combat unis are big scores for Iowa.

More on this later.

10. Irony being ironic

— On its face, it is ironic that Bruce Kittle's son, George, had to learn how to block to work his way into the Iowa TE rotation. This is going back awhile, but you remember Bruce Kittle as a former Iowa offensive lineman for the Hawkeyes who was co-captain of Iowa's 1982 Rose Bowl team. You know George Kittle as a junior tight end who's hoping to make his way back this week from a knee injury that slowed him vs. Iowa State.

But then you gather facts and reflect on the irony and conclude that maybe it was more George Kittle coming into Iowa as a wide receiver/safety who never blocked a day in his life.

George Kittle also began his career as a 6-4, 199-pounder. He put on 15 pounds this summer and nearly is up to 240.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com