Hawkeyes hope to curb 'amazing' Michigan QB

It's certainly not by design, but the Michigan offense relies somewhat on the creativity of quarterback Tate Forcier.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz has used the words “magic” and “amazing” while describing the 6-foot-1, 187-pound freshman this week. When he wasn't dropping laurels, Ferentz did bring up Forcier's improvisational skills, which, for a true freshman, have been “magic” and “amazing.”

The quick example to bring it home for Iowa is Drew Tate ‘04, when he spun, kept plays alive and made things happen when they shouldn't have. Tate kept Iowa's offense alive until defenses lost discipline and broke responsibility.

“What you have to be careful of is leaving your responsibility,” Ferentz said. “A lot of Drew's big plays would be when he started running around and people would lose sight.

“The guys who're playing pass had better play pass first until he breaks the line and then we will worry about it. The guys that need to be coming are the underneath cover guys and not the deep cover guys, or you'll give up something really quick and easy and that's not good.”

Thus, the Iowa defense's “bend don't break” mentality comes to the fore this week.

“I'm not going to leave a guy if I think he's going to throw it to him,” linebacker Pat Angerer said. “I'd rather get beat in front of me than behind me. ... That's the ‘bend don't break' defense. Do your job, get depth and make sure they don't get you with the long ball.”

RB watch

Yes, you have reds-hirt freshman Adam Robinson, who's fourth in the Big Ten in rushing with 71.8 yards a game. And you have true freshman Brandon Wegher, who's 10th in the conference with 53.8 yards a game.

Who you don't have is red-shirt freshman Jeff Brinson.

The 5-11, 215-pounder was supposed to challenge for carries when sophomore Jewel Hampton went down with a torn ACL last summer. It hasn't happened and don't expect it to happen anytime soon.

Brinson missed a ton of camp with a foot injury and has yet to catch up.

“He's behind the two guys that run the ball right now. That's where he's at,” Ferentz said. “In his case, first of all, he really hasn't done anything here. I don't mean that in a negative sense, but he doesn't have a resume yet.

“... It's going to be tough for him to catch up during the season.”