BREAKING: JAMES BUTLER OUT THROUGH IOWA FOOTBALL BYE-WEEK

Well folks, the question has been answered.

Kirk Ferentz had his weekly Sunday conversation with the folks at Hawkeye Sports, and made the announcement that grad-transfer running back James Butler will be out through the bye week, thanks to an elbow injury suffered in the 3rd quarter of yesterday’s 31-14 win over North Texas. TD;DR tweet from Jeremiah Davis below, as well as a link to the Sunday Conversation video/article.

The bye week, of course, is October 14th, meaning that the earliest Butler will return to action will be October 21st in Evanston.

Many people, myself included, were surprised yesterday to hear Kirk Ferentz say that both Wadley and Butler “didn’t think” the injuries were serious, and suspected that Butler would miss some time, so this isn’t surprising. But it’s still disappointing.

Here’s what HawkeyeGameFilm had to say about the injury, FWIW:

Thankfully, holding Akrum Wadley out in the second half seemed mostly precautionary from everything I’ve read, so we should be good on that front next week, which means

BUTWAD IS DEAD, HELLO YOUNG WAD. Youngley?

Neither of those have nearly as nice of a ring to it as BUTWAD, but I really liked what I saw from Toren Young yesterday, and expect him to see the bulk of Butler’s carries during his absence.

I really liked what I saw from Ivory Kelly-Martin, too. Young and Kelly-Martin combined for 2 touchdowns and 150 yards on 30 combined carries in relief for BUTWAD. Young in particular stood out to me, because like LeShun Daniels before him, can act as the 3rd-and-short bruiser compared to Wadley’s 1st and 2nd down speed and magical footwork. And to think Young’s only a redshirt freshman! And that IKM is a true freshman! I mean, look at this!

This stable of running backs could certainly do some damage, and with Butler sidelined for the next month, I have no doubt we’ll see all three in a heavy rotation.

Go away, AIRBHG!