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IOWA CITY — The notion that Jewel Hampton is perhaps Iowa's hungriest football player has been wrong all along.
The sophomore running back missed the 2009 season after suffering a torn ACL during a summer workout last June. He rehabbed and he sat. During spring practice, Iowa coaches kept him in bubblewrap.
Then, this summer, Hampton was arrested for public intoxication. So, he sat last week while the No. 9 Hawkeyes (1-0) opened the 2010 season. Barring a meteor, Hampton will run the football for the first time in 19 months and 14 games on Saturday when Iowa hosts Iowa State (1-0).
He's not hungry.
“I guess you could say that's an understatement,” Hampton said. “I think I'm starving by this point. I've been out of it too long and I'm looking forward to get back in it.”
But Iowa has a running back. A pretty good one, too.
Sophomore Adam Robinson carried 24 times for 109 yards and three touchdowns in the Hawkeyes' 37-7 victory over Eastern Illinois last week. It certainly won't hurt to have two able and hungry running backs for this week's state rivalry game.
As far as a game plan for who gets what series and how many carries, sounds as though Iowa coaches haven't gotten that far.
“We don't map anything out, typically. At least I can't remember going in,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. “We know both guys are going to play. We'll see how the game goes. It's good when you have confidence in a couple guys, and we do.”
Hampton's 2009 didn't end, officially, until a week or so into camp. A partially torn ACL worsened to the point of surgery. Hampton was poised to be ”the guy.” His absence thrust Robinson and Brandon Wegher into the pit.
Robinson thrived, leading the Hawkeyes with 834 yards with 4.6 yards a carry. Wegher left the team in August, two days into training camp. His absence for personal reasons continues, Ferentz said.
This leaves one running back who's never had a clear shot at No. 1 and who was moved to safety briefly during '09 spring practice and a starving running back. Oh yeah, they're roommates, too.
Hampton and Robinson share an apartment with wide receiver Marvin McNutt and defensive back Jordan Bernstine. Robinson lives in the upstairs room. The guy who does the dishes when no one else will is Bernstine.
So, who's the messy roommate?
“I guess we're all pretty tidy,” Hampton said. “We don't like a messy house.”
Who hogs the remote?
“Everybody has their own TV in their own room,” Hampton said. “So, there's no disrespecting over that.”
Who's the smelliest?
“I don't think any of us are smelly,” Hampton said. “That's not really attractive to the opposite sex.”
As far as which running back the roomies use when it comes to EA Sports' NCAA '11, Robinson doesn't play video games and Hampton has played NCAA '11 only once. He's kind of busy.
“I do remember one time I came downstairs and Jordan said he was using me and I was having a good game,” Robinson said. “I imagine Jewel would use himself, which is natural. If I played video games, I'd probably use myself, too.”
The fridge at the house of running back this week will have more Gatorade in it than usual. Iowa coaches expect Hampton to run hot this week, literally. They've already started preparing to keep the 5-foot-9, 210-pounder hydrated.
“We're worried about him dehydrating, seriously, during the course of the week,” Ferentz said. “Sometimes in first games, guys play the game before it comes and then they're out of gas 20 plays into a game and that's not good. We're going to watch him really closely this week. Remind him about his nutrition, hydrating, so he has something in the tank in the second half.”
Neither running back really seems to care a whit about who gets what on Saturday. You might want to pass that off as coach-speak coming through a player's mouth, but consider the beginnings of these two. Iowa pulled Hampton away from Ball State, his only other FBS offer.
“Yeah, that was a knock down, drag out,” Ferentz joked. “We beat ourselves to get Adam. We almost screwed it up internally.”
Yes, Robinson was a grayshirt recruit initially. He was put on full scholarship before the 2008 fall camp and then redshirted. And yes, for a couple of weeks during spring 2009, Robinson was a safety. He was called into Ferentz's office and asked to try it. A couple of days before the spring scrimmage, he was called back into Ferentz's office and switched to running back.
“I was like, ‘whew,'” Robinson said.
Hampton and Robinson seem to work pretty well in an apartment. No one fights over the remote. No one brings smelly feet back to the apartment. They might occasionally dump their dishes on Bernstine.
Will the fit continue on the field? They're similar size (Robinson is 5-9, 205), strength and speed. They're the same, but different.
“He's more of a shifty guy,” Hampton said. “I'm more of a power guy, kind of, sort of.”
If it doesn't work, they know where each other lives.
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