The Quickest Slant (with Minnesota tickets available)

-- Linebacker Jeff Tarpinian is out for the rest of the regular season, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday.

Tarpinian has been fighting with a neck/shoulder stinger since the Ball State game. He played maybe a series in Iowa's Big Ten opener against Penn State. He returned and played passing downs against Michigan State and Indiana. He started at outside linebacker last week against Northwestern, but reaggravated the injury and is now out until the bowl game.

I wrote about stingers in 2007, when Paul Federici was Iowa's head trainer (now he's director of football operations).

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Federici said the injury is an amplified version of hitting your "funny" bone on your elbow. (By the way, it's not really a "bone," but that feeling comes from the ulnar nerve in your elbow.)

A "stinger" is a temporary nerve injury. There are nerve roots that exit the cervical spine on both sides that intermingle and feed sensory areas of the upper extremities. The nerves carry sensory and movement information to the muscles in the neck, shoulder, arm and hands.

"If the neck gets extended or, sometimes, laterally flexed to extreme, these nerve roots through their exit paths get compressed or stretched," Federici said. "When that happens, there's a temporary loss of feeling. Some players describe it as a burning or tingling and there may or may not be associated weakness with it as well."

When the nerves are irritated, they send out the "sting" or the "burn" that sends players off the field holding and dragging their arm.

Here's how former Iowa LB A.J. Edds described it, "People have asked me what it's like, it's like having a blow torch go down your arm. That's the best way I can describe it. It's horrible, it's horrible."

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That's what Tarpinian has been dealing with. It's not minor or something you just shake off.

-- Guard Adam Gettis (ankle) and WR Colin Sandeman (ankle) have chances to return this week. Gettis has missed the last two games after suffering the injury against Michigan State. Freshman Nolan MacMillan played some at right guard last week, but is still bothered by an upper-body neck injury. Josh Koeppel is the starter for the third straight week.

Paul Chaney returned punts in Sandeman's place last week. Chaney also took Sandeman's spot at third WR.

-- Defensive coordinator Norm Parker is involved but only on a minimal basis. Parker, 69, spent nearly two months in the hospital after having his right foot amputated due to diabetes. Right now, Parker is doing some supplemental work, Ferentz said.

-- Linebacker Bruce Davis (ACL) has a chance to be back for spring practice, Ferentz said. RB Jewel Hampton (ACL) is looking at possibly August.

Ferentz said he hopes Jewel, whose torn ACLs in both knees, gets tackle in the 26 remaining games he has in his career.

"Bruce's is, I don't want to say, a little more routine, but predictable," Ferentz said. "He has a legitimate chance to be out there. Jewel, I made this comment, he'll be tackled hopefully 26 more times in his career, 26 more days. We're not going to have him get tackled while he's here. It's how we do it with guys that have played.

"To me' there's not a sense of urgency there. We want to get him fully healthy. If we have him back in August, that will be great."

From UI sports info:

IOWA AT MINNESOTA FOOTBALL TICKETS AVAILABLE

IOWA CITY, IA - - The University of Minnesota athletic ticket office has released a limited number of reserved seat tickets for the Iowa at Minnesota football game on Saturday, Nov. 27. The game will mark Iowa's first visit to Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium, which opened in 2009.

Tickets are $60 each and can be purchased at www.mygophersports.com, or by calling 1-800-UGOPHER.

Game time for the season finale has not yet been announced. The Hawkeyes and Gophers will battle for the 104th time as both teams close the regular season in the battle for Floyd of Rosedale.