Accent on performance

IOWA CITY -- Shane DiBona is from Duxbury, Mass., a suburb about 20 minutes from Boston. He loves the Red Sox and he even has red hair.

But if you ask him to say "Bar Harbor" to test out his Boston accent, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Perfectly clean midwestern dialect. Almost as though he's from Cedar-something Iowa.

"That's what everyone asks me," said the 6-foot-2, 230-pounder. "I didn't grow up in Boston. It kind of comes out at certain times."

It comes out, he said, when he engages in fiery competition, which is the reason why we're talking to DiBona.

When the season started, Iowa was fully stocked at linebacker with two seniors and a junior in the starter's roles. Going into week nine against Michigan State, it was true freshman, the junior and DiBona, who wasn't on the initial two deep going into the season.

After junior outside linebacker Tyler Nielsen was declared out for the season with a broken vertebrae in his neck, Iowa linebacker went true freshman James Morris, senior Jeremiha Hunter (who returned after sitting out Michigan State with a knee injury) and DiBona at outside linebacker, a position at which he had very limited experience.

In fact, the whole linebacker thing on a Big Ten level is pretty new for DiBona.

"I was brought in as a fullback and then I was switched to linebacker after the summer," he said. "I started on the weakside against Michigan State and then moved over to leo [strongside] for Indiana. They're not all that different in terms of pass coverage, but it is different being on the line of scrimmage with leo."

This means lining up over the tight end on running plays and sealing the edge. On his first day at strongside linebacker, DiBona finished with three tackles.

"I would feel comfortable playing all three linebacker positions," DiBona said. "You have to put the time in, study film and get the calls down. It's not too bad."

If senior Jeff Tarpinian is 100 percent from the neck/shoulder stinger that has cost him of the last five games, he could get the nod at outside linebacker, with Morris and Hunter on the inside. Tarpinian began the season as middle linebacker, but has spent time on the outside during his career.

"We get Jeff Tarpinian back full speed, looks like maybe we'll slide him in where Tyler [Nielsen] was," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "Tyler was really playing well, so that was a big loss for us a week ago. Maybe there's a little bit of a blessing, maybe it's working out okay."

Either way, DiBona has carved out a role. If he's not playing linebacker, he's become a pillar special teamer on kick return and kickoff.

It's not a gusher, at least not yet, but Iowa does have a recruiting reach into the Boston area, which has traditionally been the backyard of Boston College and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Iowa brought in DiBona in 2008. This February, Iowa has commitments from and should sign wide receiver Marcus Grant and linebacker Mike Orloff from Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass. Grant, a 6-2, 190-pounder, was Iowa's first commitment for the 2011 class. Orloff will make the move from quarterback to linebacker when he arrives in Iowa City.

Grant has offers from Boston College, Connecticut and Syracuse. Orloff had an offer from Louisville and interest from BC and Harvard. DiBona had offers from BC and UConn.

“The first time I heard of Iowa was when Shane DiBona committed,” Grant said. “He's from the same area. It was kind of a big deal. He was the first one from around our area to go anywhere besides BC or UConn. That was the first thing that went through my mind, that Iowa recruits out here. I started following them because of Shane.”

Many Iowa coaches are from the east coast and still have ties.

Offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe used to coach in the area at Worcester (Mass.) Academy. He knew Lawrence Academy coach Mike Taylor. Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle is from Quincy, Mass., and attended Boston College High School. Doyle is friends with DiBona's prep coach Dave Maimaron.

"I knew going in [to Iowa] that I had someone out here who is from back east," DiBona said.

Besides, this summer he had someone to commiserate with over the Red Sox' woes in 2010.

"Whenever I came in [to the weightroom] after a loss, coach Doyle would always look at me and shake his head like, we're awful, we need to make some changes," DiBona said.

Maybe at the time he was angry enough for the Boston accent to come out. Now, perfectly clean midwestern Cedar-something Iowa.

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Here's a

link to a story from the Boston Globe when DiBona signed his letter of intent to play at Iowa.