Iowa football enjoys couple ‘fun’ plays with Cooper DeJean on offense

CHICAGO — Deacon Hill heard the Wrigley Field crowd roar in the first quarter.

It was not because of a highlight-reel-worthy touchdown or turnover forced. It was because the Hawkeye-heavy crowd saw Cooper DeJean — Iowa’s defensive and special teams star — take the field with the offense.

“The crowd was as loud as it was today when Cooper ran on the field,” said Hill, Iowa’s starting quarterback.

After its previous reluctance to give DeJean a nod on offense, Iowa’s coaching staff greenlit the play-making defensive back playing sparingly on the other side of the ball in the Hawkeyes’ 10-7 win over Northwestern.

“When you have a guy that dynamic, that athletic, you just find ways to use him,” Hill said.

DeJean was involved in two offensive plays. The first was an end-around run by DeJean for a gain of 8 yards.

Then Iowa faked a run to DeJean, who did the same end-around motion, and instead gave it to running back Leshon Williams for a gain of 6 yards.

While it will not look that way on the box score, Hill believes the second play was more impactful.

“People are going to look at the sweep we gave him, but the biggest thing was when we ran the inside zone,” Hill said. “We put Coop in motion like we’re running the same play. The whole world knew or thought we’d get the ball again. … He provided that distraction so that we could get the ball up the middle and gain 6, 7 yards.”

The limited use of DeJean gave a lift to an offense that has struggled mightily this season. The team ranks dead last out of 130 FBS teams in yards per game, and it is not much higher in several other significant statistics.

When DeJean was on the field, Iowa averaged 7 yards per play (although it obviously was a small sample size). The rest of the time, Iowa averaged 2.9 yards per play.

“Offensively, we’re trying to move the needle forward,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said.

Ferentz, in his 25th year as head coach at Iowa, has historically not been keen on pulling the lever that he pulled Saturday with DeJean.

“We could have done that with Micah Hyde, could have done that with Cooper,” Ferentz said. “We’ve had several guys like that.”

Ferentz’s fear is “we only got one of him.”

Last year’s Nebraska game — the 24-17 loss in which DeJean exited with an injury — was a case study for what happens when a player as dynamic as DeJean is not on the field.

DeJean has taken 804 snaps so far this season, according to Pro Football Focus.

"You’ve got to be smart and think about the big picture,“ Ferentz said.

DeJean, who played quarterback and a litany of other positions in high school at Ida Grove OABCIG, said it was “a lot of fun.”

“I haven’t been over there in a while,” DeJean said.

Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins, thinking from a defensive player’s perspective, views DeJean playing on offense as “fun and scary.”

“I couldn’t imagine seeing Cooper on the other side of the ball,” Higgins said. “I’d tell everybody to back up probably.”

Higgins also noted how DeJean “loves football,” which allows for Iowa to experiment with him like it did Saturday for the two exciting plays.

“A player of his caliber — he can easily go to the coaching staff and say, ‘Protect me, I’m looking toward the future,’” Higgins said. “But he just wants to be on the field any time. That’s a true testament to who he is as a player.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com