Iowa's Gettis overcomes injury to earn offensive line spot

Adam Gettis suffered through an excruciating injury this summer, yet rebounded to earn the left guard spot on Iowa's first-team offense.

Gettis felt his right big toe crumble during a scrimmage. The injury cost him eight days, but not a shot at the first team.

“Somebody stepped on it, and it was dislocated and fractured,” Gettis said. “It was pretty cool.”

Gettis, a red-shirt sophomore, stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 280 pounds. He's starting at left guard because of a knee injury to Julian Vandervelde, who started the last nine games at the position last year.

“(Offensive line) Coach (Reese) Morgan is giving me this opportunity to actually play with the ones and have my first start, and I'm very appreciative of that,” Gettis said. “If Julian comes back and has the position, that's fine with me as long as the best five O-linemen are on the field.”

Suite emotion

Iowa leased 10 of Kinnick Stadium's 12 available suites for the upcoming season. The other two will be leased on a game-by-game basis.

The athletics department is leasing suite 107 on its Web site, www.hawkeyesports.com, via auction. As of Tuesday morning, the going price for the Iowa-Arizona football game was $2,800 with about two days left.

The athletics department controls the other suite, and it is leased for Saturday's game against UNI, Sept. 19 against Arizona and Oct. 3 against Michigan. The cost varies from $11,000 for the Michigan game to $6,000 for the Oct. 10 game against Arkansas State. The money goes to the UI Foundation and is considered a tax-exempt donation.

Associate Athletics Director Mark Jennings said he hopes to fill the suites in the future.

“I think it just worked out that way this year,” he said. “We had kind of a couple of people late in the game that decided they couldn't swing it.

“Suite 107 is very good location. Instead of just letting a new person come in and just plop into a great location, next year we're going to have to do some domino moving and some of those longtime people who would like a better location, we'll do it that way. We didn't have time this year.”

ESPN analyst high on Iowa

ESPN college football analyst Chris Spielman said Iowa has the potential to compete for a Big Ten title.

“I think you can make an argument that they can fit anywhere from two to four or five,” Spielman said. “All of those teams are interchangeable. I think you have Ohio State as the favorite and Penn State, and then after that it's anybody's guess.

“The team I would look at is Illinois, I think they're stacked on offense. Now if they've got it going on defensively, they can match up with anybody.”

Spielman said he likes quarterback Ricky Stanzi's progress.

“Hopefully he's going to make that natural improvement that quarterbacks make from the first year of starting through the second year of starting,” Spielman said.

“Defensively, they're solid.

“I look for a big year from them.”