The Walk Through

Good morning, let's get started.

- Ball State releases its injury report early in the week. Here are the players who are out: WR Shane Belle (ankle), WR Julian Boyd (shoulder), free safety Dae'Shaun Hurley (knee), offensive tackle Drake Miller (hand), WR Ralph Smith (foot) and DT Carlutorbantu Zaramo (knee).

Who are they? Mostly backup WRs, but Hurley is a returning starter at free safety and Miller is a starter at tackle.

- Iowa's injury list is unchanged from last week. LB Josey Jewell (hand) is out this week. Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday that next week remains the target.

- Not a great first quarter for the early Big Ten teams, but it's early.

Check back for more (BTW, Ball State has a rental truck, so truck pics probably return next week).

- Beautiful day here. Little wind out of the north.

- Jordan Williams, BSU's leading receiver from 2013, left last week's victory against Colgate with an ankle injury. He is listed as a starter this morning.

- Iowa is trying to find some depth at fullback. Last week, true freshman Aaron Mends was mentioned here, but he didn't play. In practice this week, redshirt freshman linebacker John Kenny was tried at fullback. I don't know if he'll play, but something to keep an eye out for.

- I wrote about WR Tevaun Smith this week. Iowa radio producer Kevin Dolan also does stuff with Mediacom. The cable company has a 'what you might not know” feature about a Hawkeye.

Smith volunteered for this. His hook was the fact that he put up 38 points in a Toronto high school basketball game against former Michigan star and NBA rookie Nik Stauskas, who's also Canadian.

Give Smith credit, he did throw in the part where Stauskas scored 40 on him.

Hey, Smith can still claim that!

- QBs are out on the field warming up. It's a beautiful day. 56 minutes to kick.

- Iowa specialists are out on the field. All the constestants at kicker/punter are warming up. A little rewind: kicker Marshall Koehn made 1 of 2 last week, hitting from 40 just before half and missing a 37-yarder that would've given Iowa a two-score lead in the second, and punter Dillon Kidd averaged 36.4 on four attempts.

Kirk Ferentz said this week that they will be allowed to compete and didn't have to worry about their jobs. Connor Kornbrath, the other scholarship punter, is the holder, so of course he's out there. Freshmen kickers Miguel Recinos and Mick Ellis also are out there. Iowa can dress as many as it wants for home games (that's not true, but more than the road number of 65), so that's not unexpected.

- Into the north wind from 45, Koehn has more than enough leg. Leaves the ball way above the Allstate hands logo. He clearly has the strongest leg of the three. He just now tried a couple from 55 and hit one and left another just wide left.

- Do we see C.J. Beathard this week? I think so. You see what ISU is doing with K-State. Then, it's off to Pitt and the Big Ten schedule starts at Purdue.

If you're going to experiment, this might be the last chance. That said, Iowa has to get to the point where it's comfortable in this one.

With the wind to his back, Koehn has plenty of leg from 43. Tried a bunch from there.

Leg strength is there. Accuracy needs improvement. Let's see where it goes today.

- Iowa AD said on the radio pregame that Iowa had budgeted $500,000 to $700,000 for the unlimited food thingie. Just FYI. Barta, BTW, is all for enhancing schollies. He said the 'cost of attendance” thing might cost as much as $600,000.

- KF on last week's soft middle cover: Safeties were outside the hashes. Have to funnel receiver to the leverage and away from where the D is vulnerable.

- Team drills: Iowa has the same starting lineup as last week on both sides of the ball. Wait, Mike Hardy is in for both DE spots. There's Nate Meier. He's out there.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@sourcemedia.net