Tuesday talk

Chaney season over -- Wide receiver Paul Chaney suffered a torn ACL on a punt return during the second quarter last week against Michigan. The junior from St. Louis is out for the season, coach Kirk Ferentz said.

Chaney was have a renaissance year of sorts. He followed up a fairly successful redshirt freshman year (19 catches, OT game-winner TD vs. Michigan State) with just two catches last season. This year, he earned all-Big Ten honors as a sprinter for the Iowa track team. On the football field, he carved roles in the receiving rotation, ran reverses and returned punts and kicks.

He caught seven passes for 50 yards. He had five rushes for 64. He was Iowa's leading punt (5.1 avg on eight returns) and kick (20.1 avg on eight returns) returner.

This bumps true freshman wide out Keenan Davis (6-3, 200) up in the rotation. Davis has four catches for 55 yards and a TD this season.

"We've been playing pretty much about six guys, and we haven't had all six at once typically," Ferentz said. "I think the other night we did for the first time maybe. Anyway, with Paul coming out, Keenan will do that, and then Colin can play at both sides. At least we've got five guys right now that have been playing, and that will be our rotation."

Flu bugaboo -- If you've listened to Ferentz for the last four or five weeks, he's kind of mentioned Iowa's troubles with the flu. It's been subtle things that we on the outside don't see, like being seriously depleted on Tuesday and Wednesdays for the full-practice days. He kind of mentioned that Tuesday in a quote about worrying about being able to field a team.

Then, he was asked about the flu. Yeah, it's been bad, as in worst season ever.

"Russ Haynes, our trainer did a nice presentation, whatever, Sunday, and we immediately had about 15 guys out following (Sunday)," Ferentz said. "I think it was right after the Iowa State game. So it worked. We talked about it, and boy, everybody got it.

"It's still floating around. But I think like every college team in America, we're trying to be smart about hygiene; they give you that stuff to put on your hands and all that stuff. And we've had guys get the medicine and what have you, and a lot of us got the flu shots. I guess there's two kinds of flu right now. Whatever."

Run around -- Iowa allowed 195 rushing yards against Michigan, a season high and most against the Hawkeyes since Penn State piled 256 on the Hawkeyes on Oct. 6, 2007. Right now, Iowa allows 4.2 yards a carry, which is the most since 2000, when Iowa allowed 4.5 yards a carry. Iowa is on pace to yield its most rushing yards (892) since that season (2,331).

"We're hardly in a panic place at all," Ferentz said. "I hope we can play a little bit better. Those guys had it going pretty good. They came in here to win the football game and they came pretty close."

Big Ten Bowls -- The Big Ten Conference announced its new bowl lineup for the 2010-13 seasons.

Here's the rundown:

1. BCS -- Rose/BCS vs. Pac-10/BCS, Jan. 1

2. Capital One vs. SEC, Jan. 1

3. Outback vs. SEC, Jan. 1

4/5. Gator vs. SEC, Jan. 1

4/5. Insight vs. Big 12, Dec. 31

6. Texas vs. Big 12, late December

7. Dallas Football Classic vs. Conference USA (or Big 12) Jan. 1

An eighth bowl slot will be announced later. It'll likely be the Detroit Bowl.

Ferentz on the bowls: "Right now that's like 37th on my list of things I'm even thinking about. Right now, I have a hard time getting to three, I gotta tell you. I'm not doing so good with No. 2, either."

Turnovers -- Iowa is No. 5 in the nation in turnover margin, gaining 1.50 more than its opponent during a game. Iowa's 19 takeaways are tied for No. 2 in the nation, behind only Air Force (20).

Tony's ankle -- Ferentz characterized the ankle sprain that kept tight end Tony Moeaki out of action for three weeks as bad, but wouldn't go as far to say that it's a chronic problem. Last season, Moeaki suffered a broken foot in camp and missed the first two games. The foot never fully healed and nagged him all last season. He had another operation in February and missed spring practice.

Against Iowa State, he suffered an ankle injury. He returned Saturday night and claimed Big Ten offensive player of the week honors with six catches for 105 yards and two TDs (34, 42). He said after the game the problem was ankle/foot.

Ferentz said Moeaki probably could've returned sooner, but wanted to get him as close to 100 percent as possible.

"If this were the end of the year, we might've pushed faster," Ferentz said. "When you have so much football ahead, this is a senior. Why would you want to have him limp around for six weeks? I don't think that's fair and you can't listen to players. They're going to tell you they want to be out there."

Moeaki also helped block Michigan DE Brandon Graham on Saturday. He was a handful for all Iowa blockers.

Ferentz wouldn't put on his NFL cap Tuesday, but said he's certain the NFL will know what it's getting with Moeaki and his injury history. (BTW, former Hawkeye Matt Bowen's mom taught Moeaki at Warrenville.) It just depends on how heavily a team would weigh it.

"We just want to see him play seven great games," Ferentz said. "If every game was like last week, it'd be a no-brainer (Moeaki and NFL). There aren't a lot of great tight ends out there ever. That's never been an issue."

 Jewel update -- RB Jewel Hampton came up.

"Jewel is doing very well, very pleased to say that," Ferentz said. "We had a medical meeting this morning and his rehab is going very well. He's got a great attitude towards it. The repair was good. It's just a matter of hard work right now and him being patient. I know he's doing that, and he's going to be a very good football player for us.

I think we've got two pretty good guys running the football right now, so hopefully a year from now we'll have three of them. It hasn't been an issue around here, but I hope it will be. That would be great."

Don't look for the Iowa running back rotation of Adam Robinson and Brandon Wegher to change. Ferentz said he and coaches are very pleased with what they've produced.

Iowa will have four sophomore running backs when Hampton returns next season -- Hampton, Robinson, Wegher and Jeff Brinson.

Coach Ferentz - 10 13 09