Iowa's latest wave of tailback attrition has very ominous timing

Iowa's running backs haven't always been magnets for catastrophe under Kirk Ferentz – he's overseen six 1,000-yard seasons by four different backs in 11 years, including Shonn Greene's NCAA-best, 1,850-yard effort in 2008 – but when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong. The year before Green's outburst, he was sent home as an academic casualty before the season; the year after, his successor, Jewel Hampton, tore his ACL for the second year in a row in the preseason and didn't play a down in 2009. Back in 2004, five different backs missed significant time to injury – the top two both went down with season-ending injuries in September – leaving a sixth-string walk-on as the only healthy option for a significant chunk of the season. Hawkeye fans have stared into the tailback abyss, and its face is "probable starter Paki O'Meara."

This wasn't supposed to be one of those years. After weathering Hampton's injury last year with solid seasons from true freshmen Adam Robinson (right) and Brandon Wegher, Iowa opened preseason camp with one of the deepest, most battle-tested backfields in the Big Ten. But it couldn't be that easy, and from the start, it wasn't: Wegher left the team for murky personal reasons in August, Hampton's season ended with another ACL injury in the third game. Robinson soldiered on as the starter until running into recurring concussion issues and a bout of "academic indigestion" that cost him the first quarter of the Ohio State game down the stretch.

Hampton, Robinson and Wegher were all out of commission for the season-ending loss at Minnesota, and as of this afternoon, it sounds like all three may have put on the Hawkeye uniform for the last time:

In the span of four days, the Iowa football team lost two running backs and ruled a third ineligible for its bowl game.

Hawkeye officials issued a statement Monday confirming tailback Jewel Hampton is seeking a transfer. Officials also announced that fellow running back Adam Robinson would miss the Insight Bowl on Dec. 28 after "failing to comply with team expectations and policies."

On Friday, it was revealed that running back Brandon Wegher had been released from his scholarship and would transfer.

Wegher's transfer comes as no surprise, considering he spent the entire season away from the team; Hampton's exit was pretty clear on Sunday, too, when he changed his Facebook status to "Former Hawkeye!!! wats next????" Robinson's suspension for the bowl game, though – despite being medically cleared, according to Ferentz – came as enough of a surprise for Vegas to take the line for the Hawkeyes' Insight Bowl date with Missouri off the board. Robinson can apply for reinstatement to the team at the beginning of the new academic term in January. His role in the bowl game will be assumed by true freshman Marcus Coker, the second-leading rusher.

Ferentz and athletic director Gary Barta are expected to hold a press conference to answer questions Tuesday morning. The more uncomfortable queries there will be the ones delicately probing for a connection between the sudden wave of departures and receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos' arrest last week on seven misdemeanor drug counts for allegedly keeping a well-stocked house full of pot, coke and pills.

Sources told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that Iowa officials have asked multiple players to undergo drug tests in the wake of Johnson-Koulianos' arrest. If that has nothing to do with the latest round of attrition, on the heels of a three-game losing streak to close the regular season, this is a case of some really terrible timing.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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