Iowa tight end Luke Lachey’s injury is ‘fairly significant,’ Kirk Ferentz says

IOWA CITY — Iowa tight end Luke Lachey’s injury is “fairly significant,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said after Saturday’s 41-10 win over Western Michigan.

“We’ll know more about that in a couple of days,” Ferentz said. “They’re assessing that.”

Lachey suffered the injury in the first quarter as he was hit while trying to catch a pass from quarterback Cade McNamara.

Trainers helped him off the field as he did not put any weight on his right side. He was later seen on the sidelines wearing a walking boot on his right foot.

The loss of Lachey leaves the Hawkeyes without their top receiver this season. Lachey had a team-high 10 receptions for 131 yards in Iowa’s first two games.

“It’s disappointing,” Ferentz said. ‘There is not a better guy in our program than Luke Lachey. He’s just such a good young guy, so keep our fingers crossed.“

Update on Kaleb Johnson, Jaziun Patterson

Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson missed Saturday’s game with an ankle injury from last week’s Cy-Hawk battle.

The injury “just didn’t respond” to treatment, Ferentz said.

“So we’ll take that week-to-week, day-by-day,” Ferentz said.

Jaziun Patterson, the redshirt freshman who entered Week 3 as the team’s leading rusher, did not play in the second half of Iowa’s 41-10 win on Saturday.

Patterson’s injury also goes back to last week’s win over Iowa State.

“Jaz had a little bit of a tweak as well,” Ferentz said. “Obviously, we thought he was going to go today, but tweaked it a little bit again during the game. So I don’t think it’s real significant, but we’ll know more here in a couple of days.”

Patterson had six carries for 20 yards before exiting the game. He was able to walk under his own power without any issues on the sideline.

Patterson had a breakout game the week before against Iowa State, recording 86 yards on 10 carries. That included a 59-yard carry that set up a field goal.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com