Hampton Out For Season Opener, Maybe Longer

Uh-oh....

Iowa will be without sophomore running back Jewel Hampton in its season opener against Northern Iowa.

After upsetting a knee injury previously sustained over the summer, Hampton has missed significant practice time and is officially out for Saturday's game against Northern Iowa.

To twist the knife in the gut of Hawkeye nation a little bit more, Coach Kirk Ferentz told ESPN that Hampton's status for the entire season is still up in the air.

Ouch! This is not good news for Hawkeye fans.

Hampton, who last year amassed the most rushing yards ever by an Iowa freshman (463), gives the Hawkeyes the best shot at having a solid rushing attack. No, he's not Shonn Greene, but he's probably the closest Iowa has to a player of Greene's caliber.

All hope, however, is not lost.

Saturday's starting role has been handed to Paki O'Meara, the junior Iowa native from Cedar Rapids. O'Meara has limited experience with career stats of 21 touches, 62 yards, and two touchdowns, but those numbers could be deceiving to opposing teams. According to Ferentz, O'Meara has been one of the better looking players in summer practices.

Adding some even more needed depth now that Hampton may be out of the picture will be Jeff Brinson and Adam Robinson, both are red-shirt freshmen.

Brinson, from St. Petersburg, could produce some nice numbers for the Hawkeyes if he steps up and plays to his potential. An all-state selection his senior year and two-time all-Suncoast selection, Brinson rushed 567 times for 4,925 yards and 67 touchdowns at Northeast High School.

Robinson has impressed many during this summer's practices and is listed second behind O'Meara in Iowa's two-deep depth chart.