Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz spoke to the media Monday with four days of fall practice already completed. Ferentz says every day of practice is key heading into the season opener in Chicago. “The good news I think we have a lot of healthy competition at a lot of different spots, that’s certainly a positive. We have a depth chart that’s been distributed, it’s pretty much something you’ll probably be able to throw out the window in a week or two because I think this is the kind of football team that is going to look different in the weeks ahead and heading and certainly as we go into September and October,” Ferentz says. “Obviously what we’re doing on the field right now is going to be very important.” This will be Ferentz’s 14th season and what he calls his youngest team.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that have been in the program, I think when they get the opportunity they’ll do a fine job,” Ferentz says. He says this will be a little like the 2009 season where many of the starters on the offensive line were new going in, but they did a good job. Greg Davis takes over as the offensive coordinator, and there will be a new face carrying the ball after turnover at the position. Ferentz says they’ll go with the players who are in camp, and so far they are coming along. “You know everybody looks good right now, but you’d expect that. Over the course of time usually the picture becomes a little bit more clear, and then the other obvious part, more important part of it, is how players perform in games,” Ferentz explained. “And that’s something you just can’t simulate in practice, its a different arena certainly. So the first hurdle is what do we get done in camp, who looks the best and we’ll try to get them line up correctly, and see how they respond once they go to Chicago, and that will be the next phase.”

One constant for the offense is senior quarterback James Vandenberg. “You know this is James’ senior year. I don’t want to overstate it for him or speak for him, but he obviously wants to play his best football this year as you would hope,” Ferentz says. He says Vandenberg got with the new offensive coordinator early on and was probably ahead of everyone in learning it. “Flipping it over on Greg’s side, how do you not love James Vandenberg? James is just an outstanding guy, so I think that has been a pretty good marriage certainly already.”

The defense will also have a new coordinator, but in this case, Phil Parker was already on the staff and moved up. Ferentz says it’s not as big a transition for the defense to the new coordinator because all the terminology is the same. The Hawkeyes open the season against Northern Illinois at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Iowa native Lolo Jones advanced to the semifinals of the 100 meter hurdles Monday, at the London Olympics. The Des Moines Roosevelt graduate won her quarterfinal round heat by posting the second fastest time (12.68 seconds) of the 50 athletes in the field. Des Moines Register sports columnist Bryce Miller, who’s in London, believes Jones has a good shot at winning a medal. Miller also watched Jones compete in Eugene, Oregon in June at the Olympic Trials where she narrowly qualified for the final spot on the U.S. team.

“I don’t think I would’ve said she had a shot to medal at the trials, but I’m rethinking that a bit now,” Miller told Radio Iowa. Sally Pearson of Australia, the ’08 silver medalist who’s ranked number-one in the world, posted the fastest time this morning at 12.57 seconds. Americans Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells also advanced to the semifinals. Harper won Olympic gold in 2008 after Jones was leading the race, but Jones clipped the second to last hurdle and stumbled to a 7th place finish. Miller said Monday, this is the healthiest Jones has been in over a year.

“She had surgery last August, a year out from the Olympics, and then she had a couple of hamstring injuries earlier this year,” Miller said. “So, they really went into the trials without training or working out significantly. To make the Olympic team with the (quality) field they had, that said something, and then today (Monday) she ran with even more confidence. You could tell talking to her and her coach, I think she truly is significantly healthier than she’s been (dating) all the way back into last summer.” Jones posted her best time of the season Monday. Miller said Jones and the other medalist hopefuls will run even faster, Tuesday.

“Who didn’t put the foot on the gas all the way during the heat races? I would imagine Dawn Harper, looking at her race, didn’t go at top speed because she won so easily. Kellie Wells was in the same situation. So, we’ll find out, but it was a good start (for Jones), there’s no doubt about it,” Miller said. Dawn Harper, like Jones, has ties to Iowa. Harper’s father and siblings live in Iowa City. The semifinal races for the 100 meter hurdles are scheduled for 1:15 p.m., Iowa time,  Tuesday. The final will take place at 3 p.m., Iowa time.