BY BRYCE MILLER — Des Moines Register

The mother of former Iowa running back Adam Robinson said he suffered “a meltdown” in early December related to concussions suffered while playing this season for the Hawkeyes.

Robinson spoke to media for the first time Sunday, following a season that included injury — and a drug-related dismissal from the team.

Sally Robinson, the mother of Iowa’s leading rusher, outlined changes in her son after concussions that started with a hit during the Oct. 30 victory against Michigan State.

“He told me he was feeling confusion, and some memory loss, and extremely fatigued,” said Sally Robinson, who indicated he was also dealing with a sinus infection at the time. “All he wanted to do was sleep.”

Robinson, who is hoping to show improvement off the field in an attempt to earn reinstatement with the Hawkeyes, said others indicated he acted differently after being injured.

“To myself, I felt like I was normal,” he said. “But I would have other people say, ‘Are you OK? You seem a little strange’ — and things like that.”

Dealing with concussions led to missing required hours at the athletic learning center, Robinson said — resulting in a suspension from Iowa’s Insight Bowl game against Missouri.

Robinson said he lobbied coaches to lessen the required hours as he dealt with his injury.

“When I was going through all the concussion-ary symptoms, I wasn’t necessarily able to get all of my study hours at the learning center,” he said. “I felt they should’ve backed off on my hours, especially when I was at the peak of having concussion-ary symptoms — headaches, things like that. that didn’t happen.”

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz benched Robinson for the first quarter of the Nov. 20 game against Ohio State for what he termed “academic indigestion.”

Robinson said Sunday that Ferentz was referring to concerns about the learning center.

Questions were raised about Robinson remaining on the field — and suffering his first concussion — during the fourth quarter of the Michigan State game with Iowa holding a commanding 37-0 lead.

“If they put me in the game, I’m going to play,” he said. “I’m not going to turn down an opportunity to play football. But that’s a coaching call — and I’m going to do what the coach says.

“He could’ve benched me, sat me and got somebody else in — but that wasn’t his decision. It is what it is. I guess it’s in the past, so you can’t really do much about it now.”

Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football