The Quickest Slants: Find your happy place

First, the Brandon Scherff news.

The Iowa offensive tackle had surgery Tuesday morning to repair meniscus in his right knee. He talked to KCRG-TV9 sports reporter Scott Westerberg and said he's not ruling out a return for the Pitt game (Sept. 20), but the Big Ten schedule (Sept. 27 at Purdue) is more likely.

Scherff, a 6-5, 323-pound senior and preseason all-American, suffered a knee injury in the second quarter of the Hawkeyes' 17-13 victory over Ball State last weekend. Scherff tried to chase down BSU defensive tackle Blake Dueitt and he recovered a fumble and returned it 35 yards for a TD.

Scherff tackled Dueitt at the goal line and came out of the pile seemingly OK. He took a few steps and fell to the turf. Iowa trainers immediately examined his right knee.

In the postgame, he described the knee as 'locked up,” which would point to meniscus damage. That's an arthroscopic procedure that sidelines players from two to six weeks.

After the game, Scherff said the knee felt OK.

'I stood up and my knee locked up,” Scherff said. 'I didn't know what happened. I didn't want to stress anything, so I sat back down. I'm all right, it's good.”

When asked what he thought it was, Scherff said, 'They [UI team doctors] don't know yet. We're going to check it out in the morning. I'm walking, I'm fine, so it's good.”

Head coach Kirk Ferentz talks at 11: 40.

'It was a great effort play on his part. He was just trying to help us out after a turnover,” Ferentz said. 'When he stayed down, that's not a good feeling, obviously.

'The good news is his knee was stable when they examined it. He's a really tough-minded guy. For him to come back and do what he did is a positive. Also Ike Boettger jumped in there and did a nice job. Came out of the bullpen, and seemed like he held his own out there.”

With Boettger as Scherff's replacement, Iowa could have two redshirt freshman on the left side of the offensive line. Boettger, a 6-6, 275-pounder, came to Iowa as a tight end. As a junior at Cedar Falls High School, he played quarterback (it's coincidence that Scherff also played QB at Denison High School).

'He's the best offensive lineman in the country,” said Boettger, who made the move to offensive tackle early last season. 'I'm very good friends with him. Just seeing him come back out, I'm very happy for him to be back out there healthy.”

Going into the 2009 Iowa State game, Bryan Bulaga was in the throes of what turned out to be a thyroid problem. That cost him a couple of starts and thrust a redshirt freshman named Riley Reiff into his first start, as a left tackle at Jack Trice Stadium.

Reiff kept calm and blocked on.

'I've been practicing hard, so I was ready to go,” Reiff said. 'I didn't know what was going on with Bryan. I was told to go in and step up.”

Boettger is in that mode, too. It wasn't that long ago that he was a quarterback in Cedar Falls.

'I came in kind of heavy as a tight end,” he said. 'Honestly, I never thought about offensive line. As time went on, they asked me and I thought what a great opportunity.”

We'll see who goes where on the O-line for Saturday's game (2:30 ESPN or ESPNU).

Ott scooter accident

. . . Iowa defensive end Drew Ott was injured in a scooter accident early Monday morning, Iowa City Police Department documents confirm.

The police report states that the subject was 'down,” which means Ott wasn't up and moving around. The 6-4, 270-pound junior was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with 'non-life threatening” injuries.

Ott was driving his scooter westbound on Benton Street Monday morning. A driver was eastbound on Greenwood drive when they turned north in front of Ott. The driver was cited for failure to yield on a left turn, according to Iowa City Police.

Ott wasn't wearing a helmet.

Ott recorded a team and career-high 13 tackles against Ball State last weekend. He also had 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack and forced fumble that sealed the victory with 25 seconds left and was named the Big Ten defensive player of the week. Ott also was a candidate for national defensive player of the week.

Ott's availability for this weekend's Iowa State game is unknown. The University of Iowa had no immediate comment.

Early details favor Ott playing this weekend, but that's obviously a wait-and-see.

UI coaches and policies on helmets . . . Gazette reporter Erin Jordan wrote extensively about UI coaches and their helmet policies in February. Here' the link.

Riding without a helmet isn't illegal in Iowa, and the UI doesn't require helmets of all students. But because helmets save lives, some UI doctors and a former football player said student athletes could set an example for the rest of the UI population.

From the piece:

'It might have a positive effect,” said Josh Koeppel, a former UI football player who was struck by a truck while riding a moped in August 2010.

Koeppel's crash, a cringe-worthy collision still on YouTube, shows him being struck by a pickup, flipping feet-over-head and rolling briefly on the pavement. The real shocker is when Koeppel stands up, suffering only minor scrapes and pain from the collision.

'I was lucky enough to walk away,” said Koeppel, 25. 'I should have been wearing a helmet.”

Ferentz on the Big Ten teleconference

. . . Here we go.

Opener

- Ball State . . . Work hard fourth quarter. . . . Big game against Iowa State. Big challenge. A lot of work to do, a lot of improving to do.

Scherff status, Ott health

- Brandon was stiff Sunday, as you might imagine. He's going to be day-to-day right now. We'll see how it goes during the course of the week. And Drew Ott, as far as I know will be ready to go, too.

Something about bowl teams

- [Me: Spaced out.]

Scherff surgery?

- Brandon injured his knee Saturday, I guess that's pretty apparent. Outside of that, I don't have much to tell you. He got hurt, came back and he did a helluva job. He was stiff on Sunday, like you'd expect. We had a lot of guys sore and stiff. Right now, he's got an opportunity to play, so that's what we're focused on.

Question on Ott and accident

- I saw him this morning. I talked to him last night and saw him this morning.

Something Penn State

- [Me: Who cares.]

Iowa State question points for and against

- Thanks for a question about Iowa State. You're looking at two different games. If you go back, they have a lot of new coaches. Transition probably showed up in first ballgame. Last week, that's the team we better get ready for. They improved a lot more during the course of the week than we did.

How intense is Iowa-ISU, deserve more attention

- Don't know nationally. It's my 25th and all have been hotly contested. It's a great rivalry. It's endured. It's been exciting to be part of every year.

- And we're back:

Kirk Ferentz Part 1 video

Ferentz said LB Josey Jewell (hand) has a chance to be back this week.

And then, he really didn't say much about injuries, but, yes, OT Brandon Scherff had his knee scoped this morning and is out at least this week. Scherff told KCRG-TV9 that he would like to be back for Pitt and feels he can make it back for when the Big Ten season starts Sept. 27 at Purdue.

Ferentz has never directly addressed injuries, particularly during a game week. He is asked about a half dozen times here and doesn't budge. Several Iowa players, including QB Jake Rudock, did acknowledge Tuesday that Scherff is out this week.

Scherff was on crutches and had his right knee wrapped in the football complex on Tuesday.

That and DE Drew Ott's scooter accident are about the first five minutes or so of this video. I think you'll get some laughs.

5:36 -- On Iowa's running game. Needs to be better.

6:24 -- Running game improved late.

7:43 -- Talking the play in which Scherff got hurt.

8:41 -- Jake Rudock demeanor

9:10 -- Crazy amount of pass attempts

9:46 -- On ISU's Jarvis West

10:20 -- OL and pass protection

10:45 -- Iowa isn't and has never been afraid to throw the ball

And finally, field goal kicking.

Part 2

More from Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz on Tuesday of Iowa State week:

First minute is on Iowa State.

:48 -- Where KF got 'Next Man In.”

1:41 -- On ISU defense

2:42 to 5:04 -- Mostly about where Iowa's running game has gone.

5:04 -- On C.J. Beathard

8:05 -- #FreeWillies

8:27 -- On ISU WR Allen Lazard

9:18 -- On RB Damon Bullock

10:09 -- on Iowa's successful two-minute drills so far this year

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