Iowa Football Notebook: Injury Update

Hawkeyes Lose Starting LB Jacobs for Season, Keagan Johnson Out for Michigan

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The season is over for Iowa linebacker Jestin Jacobs.

Jacobs, who has been battling injuries throughout the early part of the season, will have surgery and miss the rest of the season, coach Kirk Ferentz said on Tuesday.

Jacobs, who has played in two games this season, left Saturday’s 27-10 win over Rutgers and didn’t return.

“Didn't sound good the other night, and that's been confirmed,” Ferentz said as he previewed Saturday’s game against No. 4 Michigan at Kinnick Stadium. “That's obviously a tough break. Tough for the team, but most importantly just tough on the individual, and that's the worst part about injuries.”

Jacobs, a fourth-year junior, was expected to be a big part of Iowa’s defense at the “cash” position after a 2021 season in which he had 53 tackles. Logan Klemp moves to No. 1 on the depth chart to replace Jacobs.

:Just like anybody, though, it stinks,” Ferentz said of Jacobs’ injury. “I've said a million times, that's the thing about injuries that I'm not sure anybody understands. If you're a college football player, that's important to you to play those 12 games. That's all you have guaranteed. He just lost whatever we've got left, ten, nine. There's nothing worse. Then you feel isolated.

“There's a whole mental psychological component that comes with being injured. I can't say enough about our training staff, not only about the job they do to physically get people back, but there's a lot of lonely hours when you're not involved. Whether you have a sprained ankle or in this case a surgery, it's awful. It's terrible.”

Ferentz also said wide receiver Keagan Johnson won’t play. Johnson, who came into fall camp listed at No. 1 on the depth chart at one of the receiver positions, has only played in one game this season and has just two catches for 11 yards.

“We'll take that a day at a time, week at a time, and keep moving forward there,” Ferentz said.

Cornerback Terry Roberts has been limited in practice this week. Asked if he could play this week, Ferentz said, “We’ll see. We’re hoping so.”

WATCHING ON THE BIG SCREEN: The giant TV screen in the lobby of Iowa’s football facility was showing Iowa’s 42-3 loss to Michigan in last season’s Big Ten championship game.

Ferentz said it wasn’t about motivating the Hawkeyes.

“It obviously didn't feel very good that day, that's for sure,” Ferentz said. “Our challenge at that point back in December was to move forward — like we do any game, you look at and study and learn from it and move forward, and we're not trying to shame anybody or anything like that. That's not the idea at all. We typically rotate three or four games of our opponents' TV games up on the screens during the week.

“As far as that game carrying into this game... we're looking forward, not backwards.”

A FULL RUNNING BACK CONTINGENT: Ferentz is happy to have his three main running backs together now.

Gavin Williams was injured early in the season. Leshon Williams missed the 27-0 win over Nevada after the death of his father.

Now both are playing, along with freshman Kaleb Johnson.

Ferentz said he isn’t afraid to play any of the three.

“We'll take that week by week, too,” Ferentz said. “It just depends how it presents itself. Right now it's great to have both Leshon and Gavin in the locker room together at the same time. It's the first time we've had both those guys playing.

“Kaleb is growing and getting a little bit better every week. My guess is we're going to need all three of them. All three of them are really quality players and all have different strengths and weaknesses, so I'm glad they're on our team.”