Great pick-up. Our defensive line is designed to tie up the OLine to allow our LBers the freedom to make tackles. The LBer position is critical.
BOOM: Iowa lands Virginia transfer Nick Jackson
- Thread starter Eliot Clough
- Start date
All bullshit aside it hit me like a lead balloon, four or five years ago myself but in reality *today* I had it as….
Here, hear…and just now I figured out why it did it! If you hit too many periods afterwards, it changes itself…DOH!
That Explains some odd texting shit I haven’t figured out… lol!! I’m having a good night
*edit
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Aaron Graves is going to be a star, All Big Ten level lineman and Cooper and X are probably going to be at that level as well.
Jackson won't "replace" Matt but he will certainly and significantly diminish the loss. We lose NFL players every year and the defense is always solid to great. We have reached the actual reload point on defense.
Jackson won't "replace" Matt but he will certainly and significantly diminish the loss. We lose NFL players every year and the defense is always solid to great. We have reached the actual reload point on defense.
OMG I apologize to the entire Hawkeye world for that senior moment. I really meant the All Big Ten future NFL linebacker, not the coach with the shitty dental work.
Oh lol. You meant Jack Campbell. LMAO. I was racking my brain trying to figure out who this Matt was.
I'm not convinced we'll see much of a drop off. On the line, more time for Graves and some of the other up and coming young studs along with return of Shannon, Lee, and Evans. No issues there. The Dbs, exit Merriweather, enter Xman. Castro and Schulte will be fine. CDJ on one side and Harris on the other. TJ Hall will be ready by the start of the season. We'll be really good on the backend as usual. With Jackson and Higgens, watch out for future stars from that group of Sharar, Harrell, Sullivan, and Twedt
i do wish this were true but i’ve seen horrors at lb though not of late. certainly hopeful that we’ll put solid to excellent backers on the field and have some depth to boot.
If memory serves, we got about 11 or 12 deep @linebacker one year… might’ve even been 2010… and that still was a really good defense, but they were young & inexperienced @LBer, I think James Morris was starting by the end of the year in his first year… I may be remembering this wrong hell I don’t know!
But yes, there have been seasons where injuries really paid a toll, even @TE, not so much over the last several years though!!
I have consistently said for 5+ years now. This defense gets deeper and better every year. Our ability to identify talent on defense at every level is astounding! No matter what it is ranked… And we’re probably about that good at TE now too!
Yes, Graves and Logan Lee will be very strong at DTackle and maybe get some time at DEnd in certain passing downs depending on their speed rush action
Iowa has an elite defense and is an NFL factory for training and developing defensive players. Every top defensive player should consider themselves fortunate to get a chance to play on the Iowa D. So I am not surprised at all.
The offense is the complete opposite and that's a problem. Even a mediocre O and Iowa is a Top 10 team.
And we all know the reason why things are this way.
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Great choice young man, you can definitely make the NFL as a Hawk LB!
The spotlight is not so great on the O side as a team sometimes but on the D? That's all the pundits talk about!
I don't think I can understate how good the Iowa D has been the last several years. It's literally to the point if you start on the Iowa D you are getting an NFL shot. For a college program that's elite.
No, look at Hawks in the NFL on both sides of the ball in the NFL dope. Last I looked we were like 8th in the country for most players in the NFL.
2022 NFL Rosters — Which Schools Have the Most Players in the NFL? - THE TRANSFER PORTAL CFB
We took a look at the 2022 NFL rosters to explore which schools and conferences have the most players in the league.
thetransferportalcfb.com
Losing great players on D ... no doubt.
It's an interesting thing to consider the following though ...
- Merriweather was a guy who subbed out when we went to 4-3 in '21 ... and Belton would slide over to SS. Credit to Merriweather for continuing to develop and putting up a strong SR campaign.
- '22 was only Van Ness's second year seeing game reps. Prior to '22 he mainly just had experience at DT for us. So while Van Ness was an important contributor for us, strangely enough, he still wasn't even close to being a veteran player.
- No doubt ... both Moss and Campbell were multi-year starters. Highly productive, important players for the D. However, despite individual greatness ... the LB group needed to pivot after Jacobs got injured. Similarly, while Moss locked down the right side ... Iowa's depth at corner was critically thin. Harris was obviously out for the season; Roberts got injured again (and apparently got disillusioned); Deasfernandes was injured and missed most of the season, DeJean was just a FIRST YEAR starter at CB (after sliding over from CASH/SS), and only remaining depth was a TR FR (Hall) and a walk-on (Heinz).
The interesting thing about Van Ness in '22 was that he was splitting time between DT and DE. This was all coming during a year when Logan Lee was touting how Iowa's DL could go as deep as playing 12 quality guys. An absolute ton of those guys return for the '23 season ... and they're now a year more experienced. It's exciting to think about how much improvement guys like Craig, Hurkett, and Graves can make. Furthermore, it's become pretty common fare for Iowa's D-linemen to put up their best season in their final year. As we look at the '23 season, it should be the final season for Evans, Lee, and Shannon. Furthermore, if Craig can put up a whale of a campaign ... he could find himself in a position to have a decision to make after the '23 season.
Anyhow, given the considerations above, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the DL-play could not be even better in '23.
When you look at corner ... you lose 1 elite corner in Moss ... but then you benefit from having DeJean now entering the '23 season will a lot more experience under his belt. What's more ... Jermari Harris is no schlep ... he had 4 interceptions and solid play in limited starting action back in '21. Most of the internal buzz I heard was hyping Harris as a guy who could have a decision to make after the '22 season ... however, given his injury, that buzz never came to fruition. ... not yet!
Most importantly, concerning the CB spot is that if there is any benefit to having all those injuries ... is that it helped to build some depth. If the '23 group of corners can enjoy some health ... then that should help it to AT LEAST hold serve compared to the '22 CB group. Lack of developed depth at corner (attributable to injuries) most certainly contributed to our losses in no fewer than 2 games this season ... namely against Illinois and Nebraska.
Compared to the '22 group ... the '23 group of corners should be a PUSH. So yes ... Moss is a decorated corner and we lose him ... however, better depth, the return of Harris, and the continued emergence of the star known as DeJean makes the changeover more seamless than folks might expect.
Now consider the situation at safety and cash in '22. We had to break in TWO brand new starters at CASH (DeJean and Castro) and we had to have a new starter at FS too. The lone returning starter was Merriweather ... a great team spokesman and ambassador ... but a guy whose play hadn't yet spoken for itself. When I look at the '23 group ... you see Castro as a guy who has done nothing but improve through every rep that he receives. Usually when there are breakdowns in the secondary ... a common culprit is poor communication ... and a lot of that lands at the feet of the FS. Thus, it was surprising as hell for the '22 secondary to have as few hiccups as it had (especially considering the injury issues at CB). While Quinn Schulte's play hasn't been flashy ... the lack of hiccups is a big credit to him. Last year was the first year starting for both Schulte and Castro ... both of those guys are likely to improve. Oh yeah ... Nwankpa! Not to get embroiled in hyperbole ... but it's very heartening to hear Phil's praise of Nwankpa in bowl prep. His play in the bowl did nothing to diffuse any such positive sentiments.
If we see any emergence at corner from TJ Hall or some other young guy ... that gives Phil the flexibility to put DeJean at CASH (which is arguably his best position). On top of that, it truly appears that Entringer has a chance to be an emerger. I don't know if I've seen that many seasons at Iowa where we've had athletes in the secondary of the caliber of Nwankpa, DeJean, and Entringer. To the credit of both Nwankpa and DeJean ... they've proven to be far more than just mere athletes ... those guys are FOOTBALL players (the ultimate compliment that can be conveyed in the hallowed halls of fort Kinnick). Hopefully Entringer will earn that designation himself.
Anyhow, my point being ... at cash/safety, I see the level of play continuing to rise.
If Higgins can continue to improve AND if Jackson can transition smoothly into our D ... the only real hole in Iowa's D is at OLB. However, even then, we have a number of LBs in the program who will be entering their 3rd year on campus ... guys who Wallace likes. Surely an OLB will emerge ...
You put all those parts together and imagine that Phil will feel comfortable leaning heavily upon the CASH-based D ... then there's plenty of reasons to suppose that Iowa's D could experience little let-down from last season.
I don't think anyone faults someone for wanting to play for the top defensive coaches. Plus, they get to massively pad their stats being on the field all the time
How you explain Cade, All and Jackson wanting to play for Kirk? Pretty good haul in the portal if you ask me.
Homer, that's an awesome and comprehensive writeup. certainly makes me feel a lot better about weathering the loss of some excellent players.
on a related note, as good and deep as last year's D was, we still managed to run into depth issues (at CB) as the season progressed and we paid for it. for 2023 which are the potential trouble spots for the defense from the depth perspective and what are phil's options to compensate? castro certainly is very intriguing as a piece in the middle but can he really serve as a everydown guy, particularly with his physical style of play, in that capacity through the entire season? and if he has to sitout, how does phil compensate (hopefuly not with a freshman tj hall equivalent
)?edit: as i re-read your post, you might have already addressed my questions somewhat...
I don’t have to because I’ve never claimed all the Iowa coaches are incompetent.
Cade has stated it was NIL, swarm has stated it was NIL. Iowa's TE/LB production speaks for itself. Anything else?
I know that google is tough, but before you speak up or have some dumbass "insider" comment otherwise, provide a link.
NIL Notes: Iowa's NIL infrastructure helps lure McNamara
Former Michigan QB Cade McNamara has decided to transfer to Iowa to finish his college career and the school's NIL infrastructure helped lure him to the program.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
Here is a rule of thumb pistachio, if it was bad for the program it was KFs fault, if it was a program positive, it was in spite of KF….
So in review everything good not KF, everything bad definitely KF…
I hope that clears things up for you!
First off, concerning 2022, Iowa's depth issues at corner were almost exclusively attributable to injuries. Were it not for injuries, Iowa's depth at corner likely would have been sufficient.Homer, that's an awesome and comprehensive writeup. certainly makes me feel a lot better about weathering the loss of some excellent players.
on a related note, as good and deep as last year's D was, we still managed to run into depth issues (at CB) as the season progressed and we paid for it. for 2023 which are the potential trouble spots for the defense from the depth perspective and what are phil's options to compensate? castro certainly is very intriguing as a piece in the middle but can he really serve as a everydown guy, particularly with his physical style of play, in that capacity through the entire season? and if he has to sitout, how does phil compensate (hopefuly not with a freshman tj hall equivalent
edit: as i re-read your post, you might have already addressed my questions somewhat...
For 2023, where are there potential depth issues?
To be honest, I'm a little bummed about Bracy leaving - because he gave us some valuable experienced depth at safety. On the flip side, with Hilson being a native Iowan ... I think that it likely means more to him to don the Hawkeye uniform. As Coach Bell often mentions ... native Iowans often play at a level well higher than most would expect (part of it likely attributable to the guys being even more apt to be fully invested to the program).
As I alluded to before, Entringer is a very exciting prospect at safety/CASH. Another name to keep an eye out for there is Rexroth ... he was a regular contributor on special teams and had been generating internal buzz (I'm always more apt to lend credibility to internal buzz I hear about, as opposed to fan or media generated buzz).
Anyhow, while I think that Schulte/Nwankpa/Castro will be one hell of a trio for us in the back-end at the safety and cash spots ... the experienced depth there is definitely lacking. The next level of defense there is Hilson, Entringer, and Rexroth. Past those guys, there are TR FR like Lutmer and Davis and a number of walk-ons.
At corner, lack of experienced depth could be an issue. Heinz demonstrated that he could at least be serviceable. TJ Hall is a guy who Phil likes a lot ... but whom is still developing. Deasfernandes is intriguing ... but is otherwise still an unknown quantity. I know nothing of Lee - other than he's maybe a little undersized. TR FR entering the picture who could put themselves in the equation include Nestor and Tate. I really like both of those guys ... so who knows if they can jump guys ahead of them?
At linebacker, the clear top two will most certainly be Higgins and Jackson. However, past those guys, it's clear that Fisher and Sharar are both guys who are also within the "circle of trust." From internal buzz, I've heard Harrell's name mentioned several times. Everyone else at LB is an enigma as far as I'm concerned ... Van Kekerix is reputed to be fast, Sullivan (when healthy) is physically stacked, Montgomery bleeds black-and-gold like the legacy recruit he is. Who of this enigmatic clan will be ready to contribute ... and do so at a high level?
I suspect that there is talent in the LB room ... I just don't know what to expect from the group past the top few guys.
On the DL, that's the only place I feel like there is the most "certainty." Not only are there A LOT of proven guys there ... but a lot of those guys are going to be team-leaders too!
If there are a rash of injuries on the DL ... my biggest worry would be depth at DE. And, mind you, my concern would be less about talent-level and more about the guy being disciplined and not losing outside leverage.
No it didn’t clear up anything all, what am I providing a link for….?
If we’re talking KF is the culprit for all things bad, I’ll give you the board as exhibit A, surely you can find that on your own, right?
While I'm happy about Castro's development ... and I feel like he's earned his position ... I think that he needs to keep on improving in order to keep a hold of the starting job.Homer, that's an awesome and comprehensive writeup. certainly makes me feel a lot better about weathering the loss of some excellent players.
on a related note, as good and deep as last year's D was, we still managed to run into depth issues (at CB) as the season progressed and we paid for it. for 2023 which are the potential trouble spots for the defense from the depth perspective and what are phil's options to compensate? castro certainly is very intriguing as a piece in the middle but can he really serve as a everydown guy, particularly with his physical style of play, in that capacity through the entire season? and if he has to sitout, how does phil compensate (hopefuly not with a freshman tj hall equivalent
edit: as i re-read your post, you might have already addressed my questions somewhat...
There are a number of personnel emergences that could give Phil some extreme flexibility - in terms of scheme. If we get a riser at corner ... then that affords Phil to position DeJean at CASH or Safety. If Entringer can be a riser ... much like a DeJean or a Nwankpa ... then could he be able to displace EITHER Castro or Schulte? (from my perspective, it would likely be easier to displace Castro than Schulte)
What are Phil's dime packages gonna look like?
Lastly, suppose that Sharar, Fisher, and/or Harrell step up at LB ... then against big personnel, we're more apt to go 4-3.
We could go 12 - 0 in the regular season this fall and something would still need to be better or someone fired.
Ok, not even going there with you. … You know I’m sitting here with my mouth open trying to decide what to say into this phone and I’m gonna go with **** it…..
I know Cade has mentioned NIL many times (of course that was the ONLY consideration Doh!) but the board reality, for guys that are a lot like you is….KF sucks and nobody would ever come here for him. I’m just gonna leave it right there for you. I wasn’t commenting on anything you said about the ****ing NIL…
If I did you can link it here………😜
Nor did I reference it!
No one has said a thing about how KF sucks, it is factual that Cade chose Iowa with a major factor being NIL, and the register article, states "he would not have come to Iowa without NIL." I have stated consistently I do not want Kirk gone. I know facts are not something you use in your everyday life.
