Over instagram Willies announced that he would be transferring from Iowa.
Last week in typical Iowa fashion, Iowa lost to the bye week 17-10. Some of the same issues that Iowa had all season long reared their ugly head once again. The linebackers looked sluggish and non-responsive, the wide receivers disappeared, and the running backs broke their own ankles. I jest, (but it was clever right? Right? RIGHT?), but it really wasn’t a very good bye week for the Hawkeyes as they took three significant blows.
Linebacker Reggie Spearman was arrested last Friday night (well ok, Saturday morning at 12:01 a.m.) for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. According to Marc Morehouse, He was pulled over while riding his moped for an expired registration and no safety flags. They then noticed that his eyes were blood shot, smelled like alcohol, and had two bar wristbands on. He blew a .087 BrAC percent on the preliminary breath test.
Ferentz announced yesterday that Spearman will be suspended for the next two games. That means after missing games against Northwestern and Minnesota he will be able to return against Illinois. Spearman has started all seven games so far this season. He has 34 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 2 pass break-ups.
In his place, freshman redshirt Josey Jewell will start. Jowell has played some this season, but this will be the first time he will see extended action. The coaches praised him non-stop this offseason so we will get to see if it was justified.
Ferentz also addressed the rumor about sophomore running back LeShun Daniels. Daniels had surgery on his ankle earlier this week and will most likely be out for the rest of the season. Ferentz said that they will try to apply for a medical redshirt but he doubts it will be granted.
Daniels was expected to take on a bigger role this year on offense but he never broke through. He only has 14 carries for only 42 yards. He had 36 carries for 142 yards as a true freshman last season. Hopefully he will be able to get a medical redshirt; otherwise Iowa just wasted two years of a promising running back’s career.
In even more depressing news (yes, there is more), redshirt freshman and spring practice superstar Derrick Willies is transferring. Ferentz said that the reason why is because he wants to be closer to his dad who had health problems. His dad is in Arizona so it will be quite a move for him.
It will be a huge blow for the future of the Iowa Hawkeyes’ offense as Willies was a very promising player. As only a redshirt freshman, he blew up this spring and August in practices. He had tremendous size and speed, something the Iowa offense sorely needs. He demonstrated his big play ability at the start of the season averaging over 15 yards per reception on his 4 catches.
There was a lot of criticism levied towards the coaches at this departure as many people feel that Willies is leaving as he wasn’t shown much playing time. Even back up quarter back C.J. Beathard hinted at that by saying that Willies wasn’t satisfied with his playing time.
“I guess he wasn’t getting the reps he wanted to get, and that was maybe one of the reasons,” Beathard said.
What is even more worrisome is that very talented wide receiver Tevaun Smith said on Facebook, “I wonder whose next.” Hopefully he was saying this jokingly and no one else will leave. With that said, one can’t help but worry.
Well, thankfully, there are no more bye weeks for this Hawkeye team. After a slow, but awful bye week, Iowa is set to take on Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium. Hopefully they can put all the bad news behind and win.
This article Iowa football: The big bad bye week appeared first on isportsweb by Austin Kreber
