Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz was surprised there were no questions about injuries during Friday’s press conference at Kinnick Stadium.

“How far are we now? Half an hour or so? Nobody asked about injuries,” Ferentz joked.

For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that these were minor injuries – “four or five,” according to Ferentz – to players and one fairly serious injury to a coach.

Defensive coordinator Phil Parker underwent shoulder surgery on Thursday after being hit during a practice game.

“He showed up this morning,” Ferentz said. “He got hit a couple of weeks ago or a couple — it feels like a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week ago, less than a week ago — and, to make a long story short, I think he may have had injuries before then, but they needed to be taken care of. He had surgery yesterday. He showed up for practice today. I’m not sure if he was on this planet or not, but he was there watching.”

Assistant head coach Seth Wallace, who also coaches the linebackers, will oversee the defense if Parker is out for an extended period.

“He’ll probably be a little more stubborn than usual over the next few weeks, but I don’t think he’ll be here this afternoon,” Ferentz said. “We’ll see tomorrow. The most important thing right now is we’ve got to keep him out of harm’s way, try to keep him out of the way so he doesn’t do too much.”

As for the minor injuries to players, Ferentz said they were all soft tissue injuries. Running back Leshon Williams was the only player Ferentz said was out.

“The soft tissue thing that takes time is frustrating, but you can’t help it,” Ferentz said. “I was telling somebody the other day I woke up at 3:00 a.m., that was probably about five days ago… I just turned 69 and I wake up at 3:00 a.m. and I’m thinking about my hamstrings. There’s something wrong. You just don’t want to be like that. The golden years, right?”

EXTENDED PLAYOFFS: This season, the College Football Playoff will feature 12 teams for the first time.

Ferentz said the expanded opportunity to play for a national championship doesn’t change his approach to the season, but he likes the format.

“I’ll say one thing about the playoffs – I’m excited about it,” Ferentz said. “Excited is a strong word, but I’m excited about it.”

Ferentz did not like the previous format with four teams.

“I thought it wasn’t necessarily healthy for college football to go to four,” he said. “Last year is a good example. We were all asking, ‘Who’s 4. Who’s 5.’ We used to argue about who’s 2 and 3. I guess my problem with what we’re doing is that whenever that stupid show comes in October, the playoff show, you’re irrelevant if you’re not in the top-10 pick. I just personally think we’re missing the boat in college football.

“At least now I expect they’ll talk about 20 teams on the show instead of 10. That’s good. That’s healthy. I think the more teams they mention the better because there are so many good stories all over the country.”

Ferentz joked that if the Hawkeyes went deep in the playoffs, he would call former assistant Tim Polasek, now head coach at FCS championship contender North Dakota State, to ask him how to handle an extended season.

“He can tell me how he practiced during exam week and all that stuff,” Ferentz said. “I’m going to take some tips from him and play 18 games in a row. But hey, if we get the chance to play, nobody’s going to complain, I promise you that.”

QB DEPTH CHART: Iowa’s quarterback lineup included Cade McNamara at No. 1, Marco Lainez at No. 2, and transfer Brendan Sullivan at No. 3.

Ferentz said the lineup was meaningless because he had not seen Sullivan, who transferred from Northwestern in the spring, play in practice.

“We’re eight days into it now, so all I can say is he’s done a really great job,” Ferentz said. “He’s picked things up really quickly.”

Ferentz likes the experience of Sullivan, who appeared in 13 games in two seasons at Northwestern.

“He has the advantage over Marco in that he has played a lot,” said Ferentz. “I think he has started six times. I think he is a little further along in that respect. He has that experience, a little more confidence and determination in what he does.”

“I think the best way I can describe it right now is: It’s like all positions. We’ll make decisions here as we go along. But overall, the space is a lot more competitive than it was certainly at the end of last year, last December, and that was the goal, to create a space where there’s good competition. That’s what we want at every position, and some positions are a little better than others in that regard.”