By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – One grew up down the road in Williamsburg, the other in Melbourne, Australia.

One is a fifth-year senior, the other a true freshman.

One returns punts and kicks for the Iowa football team, while the other punts for the Hawkeyes.

Kaden Wetjen and Rhys Dakin are different in many ways, but what they have in common is that each is a key piece to Iowa’s success on special teams.

Wetjen, who came to Iowa as a walk-on, has developed into one of the top return specialists in the Big Ten as he showed in Saturday’s 40-14 victory over Northwestern by returning a punt 85 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Dakin, who had the daunting task of replacing 2023 Ray Guy Award winner and fellow Melbourne native Tory Taylor, punted eight times on Saturday for a 44.8 average, with four of his punts down inside the 20. He kept the Wildcats buried near their own end zone for much of the second quarter.

Dakin’s performance was similar to how Taylor punted for the Hawkeyes as Iowa dominated field position in Saturday’s game.

“Obviously, Wetjen with the punt return. Rhys did a really nice job with his punting,” Kirk Ferentz said in his post-game press conference.

The speedy Wetjen had come close to taking a few punts and kicks to the house since becoming Iowa’s top returner last season.

He expressed confidence this past Tuesday about soon taking one the distance, and then he would go on to do it four days later.

“Good blocks, I made a couple guys miss and got to the sideline and tried to tight rope,” Wetjen said. “The unit got me there. All credit to them.”

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Injury report: Iowa played without graduate linebacker Kyler Fisher in Saturday’s game due to an illness.

“I don’t want to say he called in, but he came in sick yesterday morning,” Kirk Ferentz said. “It was not any better today. We know it’s not Strep. They eliminated that. Hopefully, he’s feeling better right now. He was hurting. I expect he’ll be back Monday, but I’m not a doctor.”

Redshirt freshman cornerback John Nestor also missed the Northwestern game due to an injury.

“He has a soft tissue thing,” Kirk Ferentz said of Nestor. “We’ll see that how that comes back.”

Fifth-year senior tight end Luke Lachey started Saturday’s game and had three catches for 17 yards. But he didn’t finish the game due to what Kirk Ferentz described as a minor injury.

“Luke was available for emergency,” Kirk Ferentz said. “I think he’ll be okay. Fingers crossed.”

Lachey missed the final 11 games last season due to a lower leg injury.

The offense took another hit when freshman receiver Reece Vander Zee left the game with an injury.

“We’ll have to see with Reece,” Kirk Ferentz said. “He has a lower leg deal. I don’t even know how many snaps he got. It was painful, so he backed out of there.”

Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara also took a hard hit in the first half, and that apparently contributed to the decision to insert Brendan Sullivan early in the second quarter.

“He’s shook up,” Kirk Ferentz said of McNamara. “Hit the turf pretty hard. Took a pretty good shot from that guy. We’ll see what he feels like here.”

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Up next: Iowa will face Wisconsin on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium at a time still to be determinefd.