Iowa football: Top four storylines to follow in the Cy-Hawk trophy game.
By Andrew Wade
Who starts at inside linebacker?
This was one of the biggest question marks heading into the 2018 season for the Hawks. Who is going to replace one of the greatest middle linebackers in Iowa football history? The short answer is nobody can replace a Josey Jewell, but who will be stepping up to at least fill in admirably.
Unfortunately for Hawkeye fans, there wasn’t much clarity provided throughout the game nor in Kirk Ferentz’s media conference Wednesday where he was inevitably probed on the inside linebacker spot. Amani Jones started the game out but made more than a few mistakes, which Kirk chalked up to being a little excited.
Kirk had this to say about Amani’s excitement:
"Guys for the most part were in their spots, and when Amani wasn’t, that hurt us a little bit. But that’s a big part of playing defense is just knowing where to be and what to do and then being there consistently. Just got to get him to slow it down a little bit. I thought we saw some real positives, and a lot of room for improvement, though, and a lot of things we can still do better."
Against the Cyclones, we are going to be seeing Jack Hockaday in the starting lineup, but it’ll be interesting to see how quick Iowa is willing to pull the plug if the senior struggles.