Another less-than-surprising departure on Tuesday: Freshman halfback Mika'il McCall has announced he will not return to the Iowa Hawkeyes next season. No word yet on where he will transfer.
Though Jason White got the depth chart spot, the true freshman McCall was the de facto second-string halfback for the season opener. When Marcus Coker faltered and fumbled early, McCall entered and sparked the Iowa offense. He ran for 61 yards on 9 carries, and then, as he really started to gain traction, McCall took a nasty hit. Broken ankle. By all indications, his season was over.
The rumors started in late October that McCall was coming along faster than expected. By mid-November, McCall was dressed on the sidelines. He reentered the running back rotation -- well, whatever rotation there was -- at Purdue. He entered in the second quarter, deep in Purdue territory. On his first carry, he ran for three yards. On his second carry, he fumbled. He didn't get another carry for Iowa that day or, as it turns out, ever again. The next week, Kirk Ferentz announced that McCall had been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. McCall didn't play the last two regular season games and didn't make the trip to Tempe. While the team was gone, McCall posted to his Facebook account that he was openly shopping for a new school. Yesterday, that was confirmed.
The last Iowa halfback recruit to make it through four years of school without leaving or getting kicked off the team was Damian Sims. He joined the program in 2004. McCall joins an illustrious list including Jevon Pugh, Shonn Greene (left for the pros, but also was thrown off the team before that), Jewel Hampton, Nate Guillory, Dana Brown, Jeff Brinson, Adam Robinson, and Brandon Wegher. There were ten halfback recruits between Sims and Marcus Coker/De'Andre Johnson who left early, and Coker is still suspended (though is saying he will return) and Johnson isn't even sniffing the field. Now there's one after Coker/Johnson who has joined them. This offseason, like last offseason, like every offseason, halfback is a mess, and there's no end in sight.