Iowa football: Barrington Wade to start for Nick Niemann

Redshirt sophomore Barrington Wade will be starting in place of the injured Nick Niemann Saturday for the Iowa football program as they take on the Gophers.

Kirk Ferentz confirmed in his Tuesday media conference that Barrington Wade will be receiving his first career start for the Iowa football team as Nick Niemann sits out with a leg injury that he suffered on the final play of the loss to Wisconsin.

Nick Niemann, in his first year as a starter for the Hawkeyes has been a pleasant surprise through four games. Currently, he is fourth on the team in tackles and second in tackles for loss. Furthermore, his stellar play has led us to honor him as one of our standout players of the game against Iowa State.

While this is a blow to Iowa’s defense, it is nothing unusual as the linebacker group has been a revolving door of players stepping up due to injuries and ineffective play. Wade is just the next one in a group of young players who has proven that he is ready to take the field, although according to Kirk Ferentz this wasn’t always the case.

"To me he’s a much better player than he was last fall or even last spring. And that’s encouraging. He gets an opportunity to go out there show what he can do and hopefully he’ll play well."

The former honorable All-American linebacker out of Skokie, Illinois will be seeing his first extended playing time in the Hawkeye uniform. His first year in the Iowa football program, Wade redshirted and last year, he sat buried on the depth chart behind three senior starters. In fact, even to this point, Wade hasn’t so much as gotten a tackle in live action so he is about as unknown as it gets for Iowa football fans.

Kirk Ferentz also isn’t quite sure what to expect of Barrington Wade when he gets into live game action Saturday. Although, to be fair, he has spent a lot more time with him in practices to have a better sense than us at this point.

"This is his opportunity to go out there and play. And it’s a good opportunity for them. And really just kind of goes back to the comments back in early August where reference that might take a while for us to really figure out who is who and what’s what and evaluate what goes on in practice. But until guys get in game day activity, hard to know what they’re going to do and how they’re going to respond and all things that go on during especially conference play. It’s a great opportunity for them."

In just four days when the Hawks take on the Golden Gophers, we will find out exactly what kind of football player Barrington Wade is and whether he could possibly next in a line of great Iowa linebackers.