Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says the Hawkeye’s health situation is improving heading into Saturday’s homecoming matchup against Michigan. Ferentz says cornerback Shawn Prater will be back in the lineup after missing the Arkansas State game due to a slight knee injury. Tight end Toni Moeaki will practice and is improving and could play.
The Wolverines are coming off their first loss at Michigan State and their spread option attack is led by true freshman quarterback Tate Forcier. Ferentz says Forcier plays with tremendous poise, as he says it’s impressive for any first year player to play college ball. He says it’s an adjustment for all players and impressive that Forcier is playing and giving the team a lift.
Ferentz says the Hawks are well grounded despite being 5-0 for the first time since 1995. He says typically when you win you have a lot of things to clean up. Ferentz says you have to be focused to keep winning and he says there is still a lot of work to do and big challenge this week.
Ferentz feels the play of the offensive line regressed in the win over Arkansas State but he is thrilled the Hawks are still unbeaten and is not concerned the game was closer than expected. He says people who bet were probably disappointed, but outside of that they could have played better and Arkansas State was a good team.
This will be the second time the Hawks have played under the lights in prime time. Ferentz says it will be a great environment like it was playing at Penn State. He says it will be nice to be on the home side and that will hopefully work to their advantage.
Michigan’s spread attack will try to create mismatches against an Iowa defense that wants to employ its base look. He says sometimes they match up with four or five receiver sets, but he says most of the time they keep the base package and adjust to avoid mismatches.