FanHouse MarvinMcNutt

While it doesn't really come as a shock, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz announced today that Jewel Hampton (blocking, right), the man tasked with taking over Shonn Greene's running back job, will miss the entire 2009 season with a knee injury. While the exact injury Hampton suffered was not disclosed, Ferentz confirmed that Hampton will have surgery and is likely to redshirt this season.

Hampton's injury seriously dims Iowa's hopes for improving upon last season's success. Hampton was Greene's backup last season and was the only running back on the roster with significant game experience. Former walkon Paki O'Meara (pictured. with ball), who has played a little, moves into the starting spot, though it is likely Ferentz will use multiple backs.

O'Meara isn't the only Hawkeye who must now step up his game.

He's a sneaky one, that Kirk Ferentz. He seems almost Mister Rogersish with his low-key demeanor and his dry sense of humor. You'd have a much easier time believing he was the chair of the English department at some small liberal arts college, not a coach in a BCS conference.

Let it be said, however, that the man is now responsible for not one but two of the cockiest decisions I've ever seen a head coach make. The first happened four years ago, when he took an intentional safety against Penn State, effectively telling Joe Paterno "You're not going to get the ball in field goal range." Ferentz put the Hawkeyes' fate on the backs of his defense, and they responded. They picked off Michael Robinson on the very first play.

The second happened in today's Iowa-Indiana game. It's hardly a secret that Ferentz has been on every hot-seat list from coast to coast and in all four corners of the Internet. Iowa fans in the know, however, have been aiming the poison arrows at Ken O'Keefe, Ferentz's offensive coordinator and long-time friend. (O'Keefe gave Ferentz his first job in coaching, at a Connecticut prep school.) Ferentz has heard his critics, and today he answered them.