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The Iowa athletic department Friday news dumps are the gift that keep on giving, as the football team announced just a few minutes before its open practice that projected starting linebacker Aaron Mends will miss “significant” time due to an injury he sustained in practice this week.
Senior LB Aaron Mends will miss an extended period of time due to injury. The injury occurred during Iowa’s final week of spring drills.
— IowaFBLive (@IowaFBLive) April 20, 2018
Mends played in 13 games a year ago, recording two solo tackles and three assists. #Hawkeyes
Earlier this week, defensive coordinator Phil Parker slotted Mends as a starting outside linebacker. Mends is also the player I was most looking forward to seeing as a new starter this year. So this is fine.
With the injury to Mends, Nick Niemann is likely slotted to take his spot. Niemann, Amani Jones and Kristian Welch started the spring game at linebacker as I’m writing this.