Iowa’s youth movement is fun to watch
Due to injuries, Kirk Ferentz and the rest of the Iowa football team staff have had to introduce a few younger guys into the rotation quicker than expected, specifically at the corner position where season-opener starters Michael Ojemudia and Matt Hankins did not start against Minnesota. This left true freshman Julius Brents and Riley Moss to both make their first starts of their very young Hawkeyes career. Two true freshman starting in the secondary under Kirk is pretty rare considering it hasn’t happened since 2000.
Freshmen CB Julius Brents & CB Riley Moss made their first career starts. Iowa started two true freshmen in the secondary for the first time since 2000, when CB Benny Sapp & SS Bob Sanders started the final four games of the season. #Hawkeyes
— HawkeyeFBNotes (@HawkeyeFBNotes) October 6, 2018
Despite some early struggles, both played pretty well in their first start with the two of them collecting three interceptions total on the day. Earlier in the game, however, Moss was feeling the heat as Minnesota’s own true freshman quarterback was going at him consistently, and Hawkeyes twitter was quick to write off the kid.
Kudos to Moss as he stepped up in a big way, and had Hawkeyes twitter going nuts over his performance just a few minutes later.
Kudos to Riley Moss after showing remarkable persistence in his first college start. It's easy, especially as a freshman, to check out after a few balls don't go your way. To be able to fight back and provide a boost with two interceptions shows how gritty this kid is. #Hawkeyes
— Sean Bock (@SBock247) October 6, 2018
In addition to Brents and Moss, there were numerous underclassmen that played significant minutes for the Hawkeyes. The Hawkeyes started nine sophomores in yesterday’s contest and a few others came in off the bench such as Geno Stone, Ihmir Smith-Marsette, AJ Epenesa and Mekhi Sargent.
This is incredible for an Iowa football program that typically relies on a development program that lends towards a predominantly veteran presence in each game. The future is bright for the Iowa football team.