Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Hawkeyes receiver Mo Brown might play in Saturday’s game against Illinois. Brown has been out since injuring his ankle in the Hawkeyes’s September 13th win at Iowa State. Ferentz says Brown made a lot of progress last week and says he’s real close to coming back. Ferentz says they want to be real careful about bringing him back.The Hawkeyes are 6-2 after overcoming a slow start in a 26-14 win over Penn State. The Hawks turned it over three times but were picked up by a defense that only yielded 176-yards of offense to Penn State. Ferentz says while he would like to get the injured players back in the lineup, he would also like to get them back on the practice field. He says they weren’t able to practice very well with so many people gone and he hopes they can pick up the tempo in practice. Another concern is penalties. The Hawks had nine in Saturday’s game and one wiped out a touchdown run by Fred Russell. He says they haven’t had many penalties, but the ones they’ve had have come at key times and hurt them.Special teams provided a lift. Jermire Roberts returned a Penn State blocked punt 26-yards for a touchdown. Linebacker Chad Greenway broke through to block the punt. He says it was set up for Bob Sanders, but he got there first.
