Another day, another lineup for Hawkeyes O-line

EVANSTON, Ill., - For a time this year, Sean Welsh was absent from the Iowa football team. It looked like the Hawkeyes' offensive line had lost a returning starter before the season even started.

For undisclosed personal reasons, he didn't participate in spring practice.

Welsh started nine games as a redshirt freshman last season and then was a no-show for spring. To the outside world, it was puzzling and likely will remain that way. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has never said why. Offensive line coach Brian Ferentz has never said why.

Welsh didn't say why after he was kind of a key cog in the No. 17 Hawkeyes (7-0, 3-0) 40-10 victory at Northwestern.

'It's been a long road from the spring,” the sophomore from Springboro, Ohio, said with a bit of a catch in his voice. 'Every time we win a game, I think of not being with the team in the spring. It was a tough time, but right now . . . any good feeling I have it's just being a part of a great group of people.

'And just being surrounded by everyone and everyone is on the same page.”

It's really a great thing for Iowa that Welsh came back into the fold.

The 6-3, 288-pound sophomore slid from his spot at left guard to right tackle sometime early this week. This makes Welsh the fourth different player to start a game at offensive tackle and the fifth O-lineman to fill in at tackle this fall.

Iowa has missed left tackle Boone Myers (neck/shoulder stinger) for all three Big Ten games. It lost right tackle Ike Boettger (high-ankle sprain) last week. Junior Cole Croston made his first career start at Wisconsin. Saturday, it was Welsh's turn to make his first career start at a tackle position.

Iowa began the season with two tackles with one career start. Now, due to injury, it has four with 14. And don't forget, true freshman James Daniels, who took Welsh's spot at left guard, played nearly a half at right tackle against Illinois.

Lots of tackles with experience now. Is that a good problem?

'It is, it's all good,” Kirk Ferentz said. 'I'd like to tell you I saw it coming, but you do what you have to do. The players responded in a positive way. That's one of the good things about injuries. We have a lot more faith and confidence in a lot of guys. We'll find things to correct tomorrow, don't get me wrong, but there were a lot of positive things out of this effort.”

Step back and take a loot at moving Welsh to tackle. Iowa already wasn't going to do a lot of drop-back passing with quarterback C.J. Beathard playing through hip and groin injuries. Moving Welsh and playing to Daniels' strengths as a run blocker and keeping the game a little more straightforward (he is, after all, a true freshman), Iowa put the best possible run offensive line it could out there.

The results: After senior running back Jordan Canzeri left the game in the first quarter with an ankle sprain, sophomore Akrum Wadley put up career highs of 204 yards and 26 carries to go with four TDs. Sophomore Derrick Mitchell gained 79 yards on 10 carries with a TD.

Iowa rushed for a season-high 294 yards and averaged 5.8 yards on 51 carries. That's a number that leaves a mark.

'With the way they did today, I think you guys could go out there and get 100 apiece,” Mitchell said with a laugh to reporters.

So, to follow the cosmic wave that brought together the O-line group that trampled Northwestern on Saturday, Daniels is a true freshman that picked Iowa over Ohio State and Alabama. Croston is a former walk-on who came out on the tough end of a tangle with Iowa hoops center Adam Woodbury during a prep basketball game (that was nearly 100 pounds ago for Croston). Iowa latched on to center Austin Blythe when he was a sophomore wrestler at Williamsburg.

Senior guard Jordan Walsh has steadily developed and is playing the best football of his career.

Welsh decided to come back after taking some time away this spring. That turned out to be pretty good for Iowa.

'I just do my best to do my job,” Welsh said. 'I'm sorry, I know that's a company line, but it's as simple as that. It's not a complicated thing. If you make it more complicated, that's when you start freaking out.”

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