Iowa's secondary needs to get its 'dudes' back

Iowa’s bye week was good for rest and the healing of injuries.

Meanwhile, back in the secondary…

“I looked over today, half our two-deep in the secondary is in street clothes watching practice,” coach Kirk Ferentz said on Tuesday.

So there’s that.

Iowa’s depth chart in the secondary has been an injury mess all season. Cornerbacks Matt Hankins, Riley Moss and Julius Moss are all out, as is safety Kaevon Merriweather.

All four were on the depth chart in the preseason — Hankins and Moss were 1-2 at right cornerback.

Now the starters are senior Michael Ojemudia and redshirt freshman D.J. Johnson at cornerback, junior Geno Stone and sophomore Jack Koerner at safety. Stone, in fact, is also listed as Koerner’s backup at strong safety.

Ojemudia’s backup is true freshman Jermari Harris. Johnson’s backup is Terry Roberts, another redshirt freshman.

But the No. 14 Hawkeyes are 3-0 and surviving with their secondary. Some of these injured players are expected back soon.

In the end, the guys on the back end of the defense say, this might be a good thing.

“It’s going to be a long season,” Ojemudia said. “During the season, crazy things can happen. Having older dudes, experienced dudes, is better. But having depth, at the back end, is definitely a plus. We can use more packages. When people get hurt, other dudes can come in.”

“Thank God it happened early in the season, so it won’t hurt us later in the season,” Stone said. “I feel like everyone playing now is going to help a lot. Later in the season, we’ll probably have most everyone back. So everyone will be experienced at that point.”

That’s important, Stone said, considering that after Saturday’s 11 a.m. game against Middle Tennessee State at Kinnick Stadium the Hawkeyes will see nothing but Big Ten games the rest of the season.

“If someone goes down again, God forbid, it’s not going to be like plugging somebody (new) in,” Stone said. “I feel it’s like it’s helping us now. Throwing someone in later in the season, it’s a Big Ten game, they go in … we go to Wisconsin, you put a young guy in, they don’t know what to do. I feel like it’s really going to help us a lot.”

“The good thing about it is it creates opportunity for other players and that's how we'll look at it and continue to look at it that way,” Ferentz said. “At some point we'll get guys back. It's been slow, that's all.”

It’s pushed Stone and Ojemudia into bigger leadership roles, and they’re OK with being teachers.

“For me, I try to give my experience on how I was,” said Stone, who is third on the team with 14 tackles. “Really, I just tell young guys, don’t say much, be as fundamental as you can, take care of your responsibilities first, don’t try to do too much, don’t try to jump anything, just worry about your guy. Me and OJ are really the leaders back there now. Just tell them to follow him, follow me.”

“It’s leading by example first,” Ojemudia said. “But also getting them in the right spot. During the game, you have to have a sense of urgency. Just letting them know that they have to be on their stuff early is a good thing for younger guys.”

“Certainly Geno and OJ have done a really good job,” Ferentz said. “They are both veteran guys. Geno is not a senior but they are playing with guys that have played and they play with some confidence and they are also good about sharing their expertise, their knowledge with their teammates and that's how teams have to function.

“We are going to have injuries every year. It's not a new phenomena. It seems like we are bunched up a little bit this year. You deal with it and keep moving, and it's an opportunity for someone else to jump in there and play well.”

The numbers suggest that the Hawkeyes haven’t been affected much by the injuries. They rank seventh in the Big Ten in pass defense efficiency and eighth in pass defense, allowing just 186.4 passing yards per game. They also have three interceptions, two from Ojemudia. Koerner has been effective in his role, with 12 tackles and two pass breakups.

The lack of depth in the secondary has forced the Hawkeyes into more of their base 4-3 defense, and less of the 4-2-5 “cash” defense that became more common late last season.

“We'll be a lot more limited in our sub packages because we are out of guys, and you want your best guys out there playing,” Ferentz said. “But you know, I'm not going to say it's totally off the table but we'll probably do a little bit less of it than maybe we would have in the past.”

At some point, Ferentz is hoping he won’t see all of those injured players not practicing.

“But again the big thing is it should make us stronger as a football team,” he said. “Give us some depth maybe we didn't have two months ago and make us a better football team as we move forward.”

Until then, Ojemudia knows what he has to do.

“As you know, we had a lot of dudes getting hurt. So the bye week has been extra recovery for them,” he said. “It’s definitely hard. With young dudes, they definitely show inexperience at first. It’s just the job of the older dudes to rally them along. I think, so far, we’ve done a good job.”

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