Iowa RB Jewel Hampton out for season
Looks like Jewel Hampton, the next in line for departed starter Shonne Greene, is out for the season with a serious knee injury. No official statement from the coaching staff, but BHGP and Iowa's Scout and Rivals message boards pretty much have the drop on the news. Pretty big blow to Iowa's RB corp; next on the depth chart is Paki O'Mera, who is a walk-on, and Brandon Wegher, a true freshman. Wegher was 4 star recruit who was #14 APB on Rivals, so Iowa does have some good talent coming in. This news a big help to M or will Iowa recover?
I think that will hurt them. I am always concerned with playing at Iowa, and especially when, like this year, the game is at night. This is surely a significant blow to an already thin offense that could leave Stanzi/Christensen out to dry. Don't know exactly how good he was going to be - it could be like losing David Underwood only to expose Mike Hart. But either way, it hurts depth. For me, the game this year would be a huge win for Michigan regardless.
The scout guys had been hinting at this all morning but apparently he wasn't a slouch. From what I remember from watching him in a backup role to Green and from watching some highlights this morning he's electric. After snooping around the Iowa board it seems that they are genuinely disheartened.
Hawkeyes are supposed to have one of the best OL's in the conference this year. O'Meara had only 21 carries last year for 62 yrds, 2 were for touchdowns. Wegher is supposed to be fairly quick from what I've read. I would not be at all surprised to see Ferentz burn the redshirt. Iowa has no RB commits so far for 2010, which is surprising. A lot of hope was pinned on Hampton, as there is a big gap between him and the backups.
I think losing Hampton will place greater pressure on Stanzi to make big plays passing. Stanzi is good, and has some great receivers to throw to this year in Johnson-Koulianos, McNutt and TE Andy Brodell.
I could seriously see Iowa being 5-0 going into the Michigan game in October. Offense should work well enough, but defense needs to step up with loss of leading tackler Matt Kroul.
I bet he’ll be back and at 100% by the time we face them which is half way into the season. If Hampton isn’t back and that Wegher guy isn’t any good I still think Stanzi could still hurt us, especially since our secondary is iffy. I think Stanzi is at least the second best passer in the conference if not he’s number one. I never like to hear players getting injured, but I would so love to steal this one and losing Hampton could help.
in 3 months not even the Bionic Man. IMO, the secondary isn't as iffy as everyone thinks as long as Warren stays healthy and JT gets here. The scheme last year was terrible and Warren played hurt. Get ready to be surprised!
It depends if he needs surgery or not. If the knee has to be surgically repaired, then no, he almost certainly won't be back to play us. But if it doesn't need to be operated on, he might make it back.
When I hear "serious knee injury", first thing I think about is a torn ACL, or what happened to Antonio Bass and Cory Zirbel. Forget about him coming back this season; I hope the kid comes back at all.
ACL tears aren't nearly as bad as people think. The surgery to repair them is actually pretty simple. It takes some time to rehab and build up strength in the knee afterward, but you can make a full recovery. Tearing your PCL is actually much worse.
In Bass's case, he suffered nerve damage. That can't really be fixed.
This could potentially help Robinson plan for the Iowa game though. If this is as big a loss as it seems to be, and barring any freak occurrences with a back-up turning out to be better, their run game will most likely take a hit. As markusr2007 stated in the post above, this could mean we will see a pass heavy Hawkeye offense, and perhaps we will focus our defense on the pass rush in preparation. Granted, it appears as though our secondary is our defenses weakness, however taking away half of an offense can only help our chances.
want to look at a key injury to another team as a 'good thing' (even if it does in fact help M) because I dont want to invite bad karma.
as we know, usually when a walk-on starts bad things happen.
though I think they will be OK with their true freshman.....hopefully he doesn't get nicked either
as an aside, Paki O'Meara is one kick ass name
OK, a couple points of clarification:
(1) Hampton had a sprained ACL in the spring, so we're all crossing our fingers it's just a reaggravation of that injury. Not that it wouldn't hamper him early on (or raise the red flag on a recurring problem), but it's the best possible scenario.
(2) Awesome monicker aside, PAKIBOMB will not start at tailback. You guys left out redshirt freshman Jeff Brinson, a consensus 3-star tailback who was a Rivals "Top 5 sleeper recruit" last year (whatever that means) and received late offers from Florida and FSU. There were short-lived rumors that Brinson was actually pushing Hampton for the starting spot in spring (what with Hampton injured). He's bigger than Hampton, and by all accounts might be a better fit for this line. There is also the possibility it goes to Adam Robinson or Jayme Murphy, both of whom received some spring buzz after converting from safety (and one of which, unfortunately, is named Jayme).
(3) Wegher was never going to redshirt. He was a kick returner, at least, this season, so there's no loss in giving him the two spot. There have been favorable comparisons to Tim Dwight, for whatever that might mean. However, Iowa places significant emphasis on a back's ability to pass protect (there's a reason why Greene didn't catch too many passes last year), so he could be O.J. Simpson and would still have to prove he could block the blitzing linebacker before he saw any significant time.
(4) I would say it's no big deal because I could run for 5 ypc behind that line, but they just announced LG/C Julian Vandervelde had surgery last week and will probably not be ready for the first few games. That leaves a massive hole at center, which could be filled by Rafael Eubanks (who was honorable mention all-conference and a Remington watch list candidate 2 years ago, but has apparently regressed into a pile of goo) or James "Body Shot" Ferentz in that spot. That might actually be worse news than Hampton, to be honest.
There. Now you can all go back to working with t-squares and building bridges and shit.
but no one cares. Plus, I think Hampton is least of your worries, considering another Iowa player has been arrested. Kirk Ferentz has a lot of criminals on his roster, next to OSU of course.
http://ballhype.com/story/iowa_football_hawkeye_lineman_charged_with_ow…
Sparty on Hawkeye hatred on a Michigan blog...only in early July...
Haha the irony in him talking about players being arrested. Is he trying to disparage Iowa in hopes of impressing his big brother? Not working.
for visiting and adding your two cents, despite what Sparty says.
Brinson played for a team where he was basically options number one, two, and three. The QB could run a little bit, but couldn't throw for crap, so the coach called a lot of predictable running plays. The game I went to, the QB made a couple of pass atttempts that were so terrible that the opposing coach pretty much put eight or nine men in the box the rest of the game and almost upset them.
Running backs like carries, but it's really tough to gain a lot of yards when everybody on the field knows you're getting the ball. Despite this, he still managed to get about 175 yards and avoid an upset for his team.
Playing against Brinson may be a case of "be careful what you ask for."
Appreciate the info. Hope Hampton gets well and looking forwarding to playing Iowa after a several year break.
to do fairly well despite the odds. Last year nobody really knew all that much about Shonn Greene. I think their line will be more than solid enough to make up for a lack of talent in the back field.
they just didn't know what to expect because he sat out a year because of academics.
I agree. Iowa is the one game I watch each year going, "I have no idea what to expect, except that it will be a tough game."
championship season... we trailed Iowa, IIRC, and had to come back in the second half.
recall correctly. That was a sick game. I think that was definitely a defining moment in that season and really showed the toughness and leadership we had to pull it out in the second half.
Shonn Greene was only a 3-star...
...Pat White...Mike Hart...David Harris.....hot tub...bubbles....lucky pierre...
Ok that was gross. And yes, I just replied to my own comment.
(See Artie Lange on Joe Buck show)
The Iowa game will be nearly impossible to win this year. They have a lot of junior and senior returning starters in their two-deep. Michigan would probably be an underdog in this one at home and Kinnick Stadium has been an extremely hard place to play at least since 1994.
Well at least this injury gives us a much better chance. But with Shonn Green gone I think Iowa is a lot worse of then many people imagine, so now with Hampton out there RB talent goes down, and their depth even more importantly in a run first offense.