Iowa notes: Beathard’s family, the ‘U’ and tight ends

IOWA CITY — A clearly conflicted Bobby Beathard wore a poetically named Battle Ground Academy T-shirt and overlooked the field at Kinnick Stadium moments before Iowa faced Illinois State in the teams' season opener on Saturday.

Beathard, a potential Hall of Fame general manager and personnel director with the Dolphins, Redskins and Chargers, watched his son, Kurt, set to battle his grandson, C.J. that afternoon. Kurt Beathard is Illinois State's offensive coordinator and C.J. Beathard — Kurt's nephew — was Iowa's starting quarterback.

'It's really difficult,' Bobby Beathard told BTN's Lisa Byington. 'Kurt is a great coach. I don't know who to root for. I'm rooting for C.J. to do well and Curt's side of the ball to do well so it's really difficult. It's just fun to be here.'

C.J. Beathard, who attended Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tenn., understood his grandfather's conflict.

'It's his son and his grandson playing against each other,' C.J. Beathard said Tuesday. 'I think he was happy for both of us. He was happy for me and he felt bad for my uncle. He was pulling for both of us.'

Iowa won the game 31-14. Postgame interviews kept C.J. Beathard from meeting with his uncle afterward.

'He had to get on the road,' C.J. Beathard said. 'He had nothing but positive stuff to say about me. No hard feelings there. They're going to move on to the next game they have on their schedule.'

'U' RIVALRY

The Iowa-Iowa State rivalry often divides households, friendships and workplace relationships. Many of the competitors faced one another in high school and some competed on the same team.

Such was the case for Iowa senior linebacker Travis Perry and Iowa State sophomore wide receiver Allen Lazard. At Urbandale High School in 2010, Perry was a starting safety until he was injured in the second game of his senior season. Lazard was only a freshman but he moved up to varsity to replace Perry.

'That's the reason why I moved up to varsity, there was no one really to back him up at free safety,' Lazard said. 'So I was playing. He came back about a month, month and a half later so he took over after that.'

Perry raved about Lazard's athletic ability and they were friends despite their age difference in high school.

'For having such a big gap, there actually was quite a bit of interaction,' Perry said. 'I still talk to him a little bit. We both had a bye week last year the same week and we both went back to Urbandale and talked a little bit at the high school game. We're friends. His dad (Kevin Lazard) coached me in high school and my dad (Russ Perry) coached him. I got to know their family, and they're a great family. It should be fun playing against him.'

TIGHTLY CONTESTED

Iowa tight ends combined for 58 catches last year, or 22 percent of the Hawkeyes' receptions. Saturday, none of Beathard's 15 completions went to a tight end. In fact, he didn't even target a tight end.

'I think it was kind of how the game unfolded,' Beathard said. 'The tight ends did a great job blocking, and we didn't go into the week saying we didn't want to get the tight ends the ball.'

Reserve tight end Jameer Outsey did make a catch late in the game on a 10-yard pass from back-up quarterback Tyler Wiegers.

Starting tight end Henry Krieger Coble said he won't complain about the lack of targets in the passing game.

'We're going to do exactly what they tell us to do, whether that's catch more balls to help the team or be in on more run plays,' Krieger Coble said. 'Whatever they ask us to do, we're going to do it. It depends on the game plan, and we had a lot of run blocking to do last week.'

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