IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa junior linebacker Ben Niemann is trying his best to treat this game week just like any other week, but the unusual circumstances won’t allow it.

Niemann and the Hawkeyes will open Big Ten play on Saturday at Rutgers where Niemann’s father is in his first season as defensive coordinator.

Jay Niemann is part of Chris Ash’s new staff at Rutgers. Jay is spending this week devising schemes to contain the Iowa offense, while his son is preparing to face the Rutgers offense.

“I’ve seen a couple of his interviews and what he said is true; he said it’s not like he’s the offensive coordinator scheming against me or anything like that,” Ben Niemann said of his father on Tuesday. “So that definitely helps. If that were the case, that would kind of be a little awkward, I guess.”

Ben Niemann said he talks with his father frequently during the course of a week and expects this week to be no different, although, they’ll probably avoid talking about football-related topics.

“We talk a lot during the week, usually a couple times,” Niemann said. “The last time I talked with him was after the North Dakota State game. But I’m sure I’ll talk to him again before we plays them.

“Obviously, it’s not going to be Xs and Os or that type of thing, other than football relate, just outside stuff, how life? That type of thing.”

The challenge for Ben Niemann is to block out all the distractions. He already has enough on his mind with Iowa trying to bounce back from a 23-21 loss to North Dakota State this past Saturday and with playing a Big Ten opener on the road to keep him busy.

“I’m just trying to treat it like every other game,” said Niemann, who starts at outside linebacker. “There’s a different dynamic to it, obviously. But I can’t really focus on that. I’m just trying to focus on preparation, like I have for every other game, just getting better every day.”

Ben and his father thought they would avoid this circumstance at least for a while with Iowa and Rutgers being in different Big Ten divisions.

However, the crossover game came sooner than expected.

They realized that shortly after Jay Niemann was hired at Rutgers.

“He didn’t think we were going to play each other at first just because of the opposite sides,” Ben Niemann said of his father, who used to be the defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois before moving to Rutgers. “And then probably like a couple minutes after he took the job, we looked and we had the crossover game. We kind of talked a little smack at first. But now it’s here. We’ve got to go for it.”

Ben Niemann was asked Tuesday how he thinks his mother, Lou Ann, will handle the awkwardness on Saturday with her husband representing one team and her son the other.

“Obviously, she wants her kids and her son to do well, but her husband is on the other side, too,” Ben Niemann said. “So she’s kind of split. So she’ll probably be cheering for both teams, I guess, the same with the rest of my family that will be there.”

Ben also was asked what he thinks his mother will wear to Saturday’s game, which will start at 11 a.m. and be televised by ESPN2.

“We’ll see what she breaks out,” Ben said. “My guess is it’ll probably be nothing Iowa or Rutgers related, just general clothes.”

Competing against his father won’t be the first time that football has put the Niemanns in an awkward situation.

Ben also switched his commitment from Northern Illinois to Iowa despite his father being the defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois at the time.

“That was kind of rough time honestly, just because I had the opportunity to play for my dad, but I didn’t know how long he would be at Northern Illinois and Iowa is a great program,” Ben said. “Once I visited here, I couldn’t really turn it down. So he was happy for me. And he’s just always said he’s happy that I’m playing at a place like under a man like coach Ferentz.”

Ben was referring to Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, who still vividly remembers the day Ben switched his commitment to the Hawkeyes.

It was kind of bittersweet for Ferentz.

He was thrilled to have Ben on board, but didn’t like the circumstances.

“You know how you remember phone calls you’ve had in your life? I remember a lot of them, but I know exactly where I was,” Ferentz said of when Niemann called him about committing to Iowa. “I was in Nashville visiting my daughter and her husband, and I can’t tell you where we were going, but we were in the car, and I talked to Jay, and I felt awful. I mean, it was a really painful conversation in some ways, just because I know as a coach how special it is to have a son on the team. That’s a pretty good deal.”

“On one hand, it made sense for him to come here. On the other hand, it was kind of like I was asking for his daughter’s hand in marriage in some ways, except I was stealing something. Weddings are happy. But I felt like I was – but he was unbelievable about it, and he’s a tremendous person. He and — both Mr. and Mrs. Neimann are just outstanding people, and she’s a great coach’s wife. Yeah, it all worked out and everybody is happy, but it’s a tough conversation.”

Injury report: Ferentz said Tuesday that he expects almost everybody except for junior running back Derrick Mitchell to have a chance to play on Saturday.

That means Iowa could be at full strength on the offensive line if junior guard Sean Welsh and sophomore center James Daniels return to the lineup. Neither played against North Dakota State. Daniels also missed the Iowa State game the previous week because of a knee injury.

“I think right now just about everybody has got a chance outside of Derrick Mitchell,’ Ferentz said of third-string running back. “He worked a little bit today. I just can’t envision him being far enough along by the end of the week to be in a ballgame. So we’ll just play that one by ear.”

Senior quarterback C.J. Beathard had to leave the North Dakota State game briefly after being hit on the shoulder on a play in which he ran for a first down.

Beathard had the shoulder examined on Sunday and the x-ray was negative.

“It was just precautionary to make sure nothing was wrong with my shoulder or collar bone,” Beathard said. “It came back clean and I’ve been out there practicing and feeling good.”

No more travel woes: Kirk Ferentz will travel in style this weekend compared to the first time he took a team to play at Rutgers in 1991.

Ferentz was in his second season as the head coach at Maine. His team traveled 485 miles by bus from Maine to New Jersey to play at Rutgers where it got crushed 40-17.

“That was a long bus ride,’ Ferentz said Tuesday. “We stopped in Hartford on Thursday night and then shot in the next day.”

To say that Ferentz’s travel methods have changed since then would be an understatement. His new contract now stipulates he gets up to 35 hours per year on a private jet the UI has to have ready within eight hours of Ferentz’s request.

The Iowa team also flies to all road games that are beyond a certain distance, like the Rutgers game for example.

How times have changed.

“Yeah, I remember that, and then I remember nonstop on the way back,” Ferentz said of first trip to Rutgers. “We played them tough for about four minutes, and that was about it. It wasn’t a good day at all. I thought I was going to slip right through here without anybody bringing that up.”

Wadley’s homecoming: Junior running back Akrum Wadley is eager to put on a show for his family on Saturday.

The New Jersey native also wants to show that Rutgers made a mistake by not offering him a scholarship. Wadley grew up about 15 minutes from the Rutgers campus in Newark, N.J.

Rutgers has changed coaching staff since Wadley was in high school, but the chip on Wadley’s shoulder remains from being overlooked as a recruit.

Wadley was asked Tuesday if that serves as motivation heading into Saturday’s game.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s going down,” Wadley said.

Wadley has been hobbled by what he said Tuesday was a bruised knee. He wanted to play more against North Dakota State this past Saturday, but Wadley said he understands why he only had four rushing attempts.

Senior running back LeShun Daniels led Iowa with 14 rushing attempts against the Bison.

“I definitely did, but sometimes that happens,’ Wadley said. “LeShun was much healthier than me. I think the coaches didn’t want to risk it.”

Scarlet Hawkeyes: Jay Niemann is among several Rutgers coaches who either have ties to the Iowa football program or with the state of Iowa.

Rutgers head coach Chris Ash played football at Drake and also coached at his alma mater and for Iowa State. Ash was the co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2014 and 2015 before taking the Rutgers job.

He hired former Iowa offensive lineman A.J. Blazek to coach the offensive line for the Scarlet Knight. Blazek played center under Ferentz at Iowa in 1999 and 2000.

Ferentz told a story on Tuesday about Blazek showing up for his recruiting trip wearing cowboy boots and a hat in order to look taller.

"When he showed first up as a recruit, he had an Arizona baseball cap on," Ferentz said of Blazek. "I didn’t think that was real smart. And I’m pretty sure he had cowboy boots on, too, like we would never look at his shoes to figure out that he’s really not 6’4", one of those deals. You’ve got to give him credit for trying. The hat I can’t explain. I continue to tease him about that."

Ferentz spoke highly of Blazek as a player, person and coach.

"A.J. is an unbelievable guy," Ferentz said. "What a spirited player he was, you talk about attitude, unbelievable attitude.

"And our goal was to redshirt him. We weren’t able to do that the first season, but just a tremendous guy, and he’s an outstanding football coach."