The Story of Next Man In

Dec. 26, 2004

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Editor’s Note: The following was written by Emily Badger and first appeared in Sunday, Dec. 26, editions of the Orlando Sentinel.

Even before Marcus Schnoor tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Albert Young tore his ACL, and Jermelle Lewis tore his ACL (the other one, not the one he tore last year), and Sam Brownlee and Marques Simmons sprained their ankles, Iowa’s football team had the unofficial locker room mantra of “next man in”.

It’s kind of a weird slogan to live and play by. It suggests a philosophy of depth and adaptability, as opposed to something more menacing about, maybe, muscling through pain, or eating opponents alive.

But the saying, adopted a few years back, turned out to be so appropriate this year at running back that its message was downright eerie.

“We’ve been at the next, and the next, and the next man in,” said Carl Jackson, the Hawkeyes’ running backs coach, wearing a weary grin that could only come from surviving to this late-December date with the Capital One Bowl looming.

Iowa had to dig so deep into its depth chart this year that Damian Sims, a freshman from Boca Raton the coaches had planned on redshirting, wound up with 17 carries for 45 yards. Sam Brownlee, the fifth guy in line at the start of the schedule, led the team by the end of the regular season with 214 yards.

How Iowa managed to win nine games when its leading rusher had fewer yards all season than many offenses produce on a single Saturday is a small miracle that speaks volumes about the rest of the Hawkeyes’ personnel and their faith in that slogan.

“Drew Tate has carried this team on his back,” Simmons said of Iowa’s quarterback.

Tate, a sophomore, wound up passing for 2,499 yards and 18 touchdowns. His receivers developed into an overnight strength, along with a defense rated among the nastiest in the Big Ten. The entire team altered its look after the running back corps – expected to be a major asset going into the season – ducked out for surgery.

The whole scenario was about as bad as anything Coach Kirk Ferentz has ever seen.

“And hopefully never will again,” he said. “The percentages say that we won’t. There’s no way you can prepare for a season like that, and there’s not much you can do. You really can’t sit around and cry about it. We just tried to put a plan together to help us move the ball any way we could.”

Lewis, a senior, was supposed to be the starting tailback. As a sophomore he had rushed for more than 700 yards, a figure he was slated to double in the years to come. Then he tore his ACL the following spring. Last season he missed most of the first eight game before slowly wading back into the lineup for a few carries at a time.

By the time Iowa played Florida in last year’s Outback Bowl, Jackson estimates Lewis’s kneed had recovered to about 90 percent. He had 12 carries for 45 yards in that game.

Simmons, meanwhile, was sitting out his NCAA-mandated redshirt season after transferring from Nebraska back to his home state to play for the Hawkeyes.

He had redshirted his freshman year in Lincoln as well, and in three seasons of college football, he’d spent twice as much time playing a spectator as he had a tailback and had totaled only 13 carries for 56 yards.

When Simmons came out of spring practice this season, he wasn’t even listed on the depth chart.

Then, in the first two games this fall, Schnoor, a junior with mounting experience over the past two years, and Young, a promising freshman, both injured their knees. Three weeks later against Michigan State, Lewis was in the second quarter of a breakout game – he already had 94 yards and a touchdown on three carries and three receptions – when hi other knee gave out on him.

It happened on the end of a 28-yard reception, the longest of his career.

“That’s the hardest thing in coaching, when you see young guys get hurt, guys that have worked extremely hard and all have high hopes and goals,” Ferentz said. “When you have injuries, that kind of pulls the plug on everything.”

Simmons took over for Lewis in the Michigan State game and scored twice. He started the following week against Ohio State, having only months before not cracked the depth chart. Then on his fourth carry he heard a pop in his ankle that sounded an awful lot like a broken bone. He missed the next four games with a bad sprain.

“It’s really frustrating, I finally had that opportunity to be what I wanted to be, and the circumstances didn’t let me,” Simmons said. “I was that next guy in, then all of a sudden, after a few plays I get hurt.”

Brownlee took over the job from there during a stretch when fullback Champ Davis also tore his ACL. Brownlee had a scare of his own when he sprained ankle the second-to-last week of the season took him out after the first quarter. But he returned for the finale against Wisconsin, just as Simmons was stepping back onto the field.

Iowa won that game, its seventh in a row. Somehow, in the midst of all the backfield turmoil, the Hawkeyes managed to win out for a share of the Big Ten title and an invitation to the Capital One.

“Things worked themselves out,” Brownlee said. “But you can’t really stop and think about that during the season.”

Iowa’s last loss, the Hawkeyes’ second in a row, was on Sept. 25 at Michigan, and deep in the throes of the injury rash. That was also the week they fell out of just about everyone’s poll.

“I’m proud because after that Michigan game, people threw us out like we were done for,” Simmons said. “Just to run the table and do what we’ve done is something to be proud of.”