Kafka hamstring update

Pat Fitzgerald and Mike Kafka are optimistic that the Northwestern senior quarterback’s injured left hamstring will be good enough to go in Saturday’s game at No. 4 Iowa. They spoke at Monday’s noon news conference.

“He’s feeling better today than he did yesterday,” Fitzgerald said. “He felt better Sunday than he did Saturday. We expect him to go through some things tomorrow in practice. He’ll be day-to-day, but at this point we expect Mike to play.”

Kafka is listed as either/or at quarterback with redshirt freshman Dan Persa, who played the final 2.5 quarters against Penn State on Saturday. Ordinarily in NU parlance, that means the “OR” (in this case Persa) has the better chance to start. But Kafka, the Big Ten’s leader in total offense, isn’t necessarily subscribing to that view. He says he “kind of tweaked my hamstring” a little bit, though he went down to the turf almost immediately after juking a Penn State defensive tackle.

“My mindset’s going in that I’m going in and playing,” Kafka said. “It feels pretty good. Tomorrow I’ll run around a little bit on it and see how it feels and kind of take it day-by-day. And Wednesday do a little bit more where on Saturday it feels pretty good.”

LW