Depth Chart Monday

Monday's depth chart confirmed what Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz confirmed in Madison on Saturday.

True freshman wide receiver Jerminic Smith and left offensive tackle Cole Croston were listed as starters in place of senior WR Tevaun Smith and sophomore OT Boone Myers.

Tevaun Smith (sprained knee) will be out until after Iowa's bye week, so his first game back will be Maryland at Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 31. Myers is week-to-week with a neck/shoulder stinger issue that has been ongoing.

'He's got a knee issue, so I doubt he'll be back before the bye (Oct. 24), but we're optimistic he'll be ready to go after we get back from our bye week,” Ferentz said after last weekend's 10-6 victory at Wisconsin. 'More day-to-day, week-to-week (on Myers). Hopefully, day-to-day, we'll see.”

Ferentz was asked if Smith's absence changed Iowa's playbook. Smith is Iowa's most experienced deep option at wide receiver. Before Saturday, he led the Hawkeyes with 19.58 yards per catch (12 catches). But, no, Iowa's playbook didn't change. Jerminic Smith (6-1, 180) was targeted four times, including two of 20-plus yards. Senior Jacob Hillyer was targeted on one deep pass and drew a pass interference penalty.

'We went into this game the same way,” Ferentz said. 'We have a lot of confidence in Jake Hillyer and Jerminic Smith. Jerminic surprised us back in August. I didn't quite see that one coming, but he's really practiced well. Jake has done a great job, along that senior theme. Their defense made us adjust some things, but it wasn't our personnel as much as what they do.”

South Garland (Texas) coach Mark Cox told HawkeyeReport.com about Jerminic Smith: 'A young man with a good, strong work ethic, who shows up each week prepared. He is a student of the game, runs good routes, has a really good set of hands and really just puts in the extra time with film study. He is in every Saturday to see what he did the week before, looks for things he can improve on and then looks ahead to our upcoming opponent to see if there are any weaknesses that he can exploit.”

Smith set the South Garland receiving record as a senior, piling up 1,207 yards and 13 TDs on 76 receptions.

'I left it really simple,” said junior receiver Matt VandeBerg on his words of advice for Jerminic Smith. 'Just do what you do everyday. Everyday we go out and catch passes. We go up against two of the best DBs, I think, who are around in Greg (Mabin) and Desmond (King). I just said, do what you do.”

Ferentz, who coached Cole's father, Dave, when he was an assistant at Iowa in the 1980s, said he didn't offer any words of wisdom for junior Cole Croston, a walk-on who received a scholarship in August and his first career start in October. In last week's postgame, Ferentz seemed pleased with Croston's performance.

'He's done a great job,” said Ferentz, whose theme in the Wisconsin postgame was praising a so far incredibly productive senior class. 'He's not a senior, but he falls in that group.”

Ferentz also pointed out that Myers, a sophomore, is four starts into his career. Now, Croston is one. Maybe he also was trying to say there's not a huge gap between them.

'He's been practicing well,” Ferentz said. 'We have a lot of faith in Cole. You believe what you see players do. He has been playing this year and doing a good job. The challenge was who we had to block.”

Ticket count for Saturday

- According to Iowa sports information, 64,600 tickets have been sold for the No. 23 Hawkeyes (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten) game against Illinois (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten) Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com