Ethan Petrik

IOWA CITY — Big shoes. The Hawkeyes tasked with replacing Jay Higgins, Nick Jackson and Kyler Fisher in Iowa’s linebacking corps have big shoes to fill.

However, last week head coach Kirk Ferentz said their task does not make them special. It just makes them more like their successors.

“Higgins had big shoes and Nick did when he got here,” Ferentz said. “That’s part of football if you’ve had good players.”

Iowa’s linebacking legacy, particularly at Mike linebacker where Jay Higgins, Jack Campbell and Josey Jewell have earned three unanimous first-team All-America selections and two second team All-America selections in the last 10 years, lends itself to having big shoes to fill. Linebacker coach Seth Wallace often refers to the tradition as “The Standard.”

The Standard,

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