IOWA CITY, Iowa — Two’s company and three’s a crowd.
The Wildcats had all the injured quarterbacks they needed on the training table, but true freshman Derell Jenkins joined them anyway after breaking a bone in his left hand Saturday.
In last week’s game against Indiana, Jenkins played for the first time this year, joining the fray for just one series and losing his redshirt season.
Against Iowa, Jenkins played five series. He didn’t complete any of his passes and threw two interceptions. He sustained the injury to his non-throwing hand early in the fourth quarter while tossing his second interception.
Jenkins’ injury puts him in the company of fellow quarterbacks Alexander Webb and Brett Basanez. The Cats lost Webb in the second game of the year when he suffered a season-ending lacerated liver against Texas Christian on Sept. 7. Webb earned a medical redshirt for the season.
Brett Basanez, Northwestern’s starter, fractured his left fibula in the Cats’ game against Minnesota on Oct. 10. Basanez has played the last two games with the injury, but his limited mobility brought Jenkins into action last week.
By the end of Saturday’s game, both Basanez and Jenkins were on the sidelines. Sophomore Tony Stauss quarterbacked the last few series.
NU coach Randy Walker said the Cats will know more about Jenkins’ status later in the week.
Run for the roses: NU had the unfortunate luck of playing both Iowa and Ohio State this season. But the only two teams with perfect Big Ten records will not meet this year.
The Hawkeyes (10-1, 7-0 Big Ten) play their final game of the season next Saturday at Minnesota, while the Buckeyes (11-0, 6-0) play at Illinois next week and finish the season at home against rival Michigan.
If both teams win out, they will get a share of the Big Ten title.
“It’s a darn shame they aren’t going to play,” Walker said. “It would be a heck of a ballgame because both are very good teams and they’re good in different ways.”
In the fourth quarter of the Hawkeyes’ 62-10 win over Walker’s Cats, the biggest cheers came when the scoreboard revealed Purdue had a 6-3 lead over Ohio State. The Buckeyes came back to win the game in the final minutes and control their own bowl destiny.
If Ohio State and Iowa both win the rest of their games, Ohio State will play in the national championship game on Jan. 3, while Iowa will have to wait for its bowl invitation.
But if the Buckeyes lose a game and Iowa wins the Big Ten, the Hawkeyes will likely head to the Rose Bowl.
But Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said he isn’t thinking that far ahead.
“The Minnesota series has always been a great rivalry,” Ferentz said. “We’re going to prepare for this game like we have every other game.”
bye, bye, bye: The Cats will have plenty of time to figure out what went wrong against Iowa. The team has a bye this week before finishing its season Nov. 23 at home against Illinois.
Walker said the team will have light practices on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. He won’t hold practices Wednesday — a normal practice day — or Saturday.
“We’ve gone 11 straight weeks now, and we have a lot of young players who got pounded on pretty good,” Walker said. “We’re close to the edge in terms of being able to handle the physical nature of this game.
“That’s part of being young — players are not as strong or big or as physical as we need to be yet. We’re going to try to let them heal up and feel better.”
The team will have a regular week of practice next week beginning on Sunday.
Inches to go: David Wasielewski’s 26-yard field goal snapped a string of seven consecutive misses. … The Cats have dropped their last nine Big Ten road games starting with a loss to Iowa in 2000. … Junior Kunle Patrick has caught a pass in 33 straight games, which ties a school record and is the longest streak by a non-senior in the nation.
