Beau Stephens ‘questionable at best,’ Arland Bruce IV has ‘chance’ to play vs. Minnesota

IOWA CITY — Iowa offensive lineman Beau Stephens is “questionable at best” for Saturday’s game against Minnesota, head coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday.

“We'll be prepared to go without him,” Ferentz said.

Stephens has started every game this season at right guard.

Nick DeJong will “most likely” play at right guard, Ferentz said. Gennings Dunker will “end up playing some,” but not necessarily as a starter.

Wide receiver Arland Bruce IV, meanwhile, has a “chance” to play after missing last week’s game against Wisconsin.

“He has practiced the past two days and hopefully going to be OK,” Ferentz said.

It’s unclear whether he will continue to handle punt returns, as he did before suffering the injury. Cooper DeJean filled in for Bruce and averaged 20.5 yards on four punt returns, but having DeJean return punts means he’s not at another important position on the punt return unit.

“We'll wait and see,” Ferentz said. “We'll make a decision on it later in the week.”

Fellow wide receiver Keagan Johnson’s continued absence “stinks,” Ferentz said.

“It's a credit to him staying upbeat,” Ferentz said. “All you can do is try to make lemonade out of lemons, I guess, that's about all you can do. But to try to deny it or say I'm fine. He's not fine. Nobody is when they're out.”

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