Iowa football: Hawks missing several key players Saturday vs Rutgers

The Iowa football team is only in week two of the college football season, but injuries have already taken a toll. Here’s who is banged up and the impact.

Let’s just start with the obvious, Alaric Jackson. The Iowa football team’s star left tackle is out for the next few weeks, but the Hawkeyes are hopeful he will return after the Middle Tennessee State game. While a devastating loss, it’s not crippling for the Hawks as several guys stepped up Saturday evening versus Miami of Ohio.

First and foremost, Tristan Wirfs seamlessly switched over to left tackle and will be playing there again against Rutgers. In his place will be redshirt senior Levi Paulsen, who is moving from right guard. Making his first start for the Iowa football team at right guard will be former walk-on Kyler Schott, who honestly has one of the coolest stories.

That’s a lot of transition from week 1 to week 2, but it shouldn’t be a problem for the Iowa football team as they rolled out six offensive line combinations last weekend and there were hardly any issues.

Outside of Jackson’s injury causing a version of musical chairs to be played along the offensive line, the Hawks will be without corners Julius Brents and Riley Moss, who were projected to be the top two corners off the bench for the Iowa football team this season.

According to Kirk Ferentz, Brents will be out a few more weeks and Moss is likely out 4-6 weeks with a leg injury. As we noted in our depth chart reactions, DJ Johnson and Terry Roberts are now the first and second corners off the bench Saturday.

The other major injury to be aware of before the Iowa football team takes on Rutgers is last year’s starting guard Cole Banwart. Kirk seems optimistic he will be available if needed, but will likely not be in the starting lineup Saturday.

"Cole has got a shot, I think, this week, so we’ll just see how this week goes, but he worked today and looked pretty good, so that’s good news."

As we said above, this is an abnormally high amount of key players banged up after just one week for the Iowa football team, but there is a bright side.

Most of these guys will be back by the time the Iowa football team takes on Michigan in The Big House in a few weeks, and the game against Rutgers shouldn’t be a problem even without this group of guys.