I've found myself kinda straddling the fence on this topic ... largely because I'm one who tends to err on the side of Chuck's logic ... however, I kinda feel burned from how things transpired last season.
To give a little background/context ... if you remember, even with Linderbaum, our OL play was largely a disappointment in 2021. It was easy for me to shrug that one off ... we had some unexpected personnel turnover, we had a new position coach, we were pretty young at the position, and we dealt with an above-average amount of injury-adversity at the position.
So with my aforementioned "excuses" in hand ... I found myself taking the view entering the '22 season that the OL play could get any worse. Of course, as a whole, it REALLY DID get worse! Of course, to be fair, that judgement of the OL is based on the unit as a totality. In terms of individuals ... I saw individual growth by most of the players. However, Iowa's brand of OL is premised solely upon having some of the guys improve ... an OL is only as good as its weakest link (or links). Furthermore, out of fairness to the OL ... the exited summer/fall camp as a triage unit ... so it's really hard to play strong, tough, aggressive ball when a lot of your guys are less than 100% from the get-go. Furthermore, the closest thing to a real veteran/leader for the unit was Richman ... but the poor guy was just a RS SO. On the OL, veteran leadership can really supply a "steadying hand" for the young guys ... it helps cultivate confidence as a unit and helps accelerate the development of the younger guys. So what happens when the unit lacks such a veteran presence? ... a season like '22 happens, that's what!
A lot of Iowa fans are throwing Barnett under the bus ... and, perhaps, deservedly so. However, even following past precedent, Philbin's impressive OLs didn't happen overnight ... the OLs of the '01 and '02 seasons had to be built from the ground up! I've stated it many times before ... but I clearly remember fans lamenting the loss of Philbin and crucifying Morgan as the OL coach ... which, with the benefit of hindsight ... is just amusing considering that Morgan ended up becoming a fantastic OL coach for us. While fans here might not like to admit it ... but when Brian took over the OL-coaching gig from Reese ... that was one of the very few OL-coaching transitions where we saw little to no drop-off. Of course, the '12 season was a disappointment ... but between the changeover in schemes and the injuries to Scherff and Donnal ... I don't really hold the '12 season against Brian.
Anyhow, will we see some payoff from Kirk's patience with Barnett? Will Barnett be starting to catch his groove and be getting his guys up to the point where they're holding up the Iowa standard on the OL? It took years before the Morgan-coach OLs really started clicking. What will be the timeline for the current units? I know that (some of) the fanatics here have little patience ... but perhaps there are merits to longer-term thinking?
While many Iowa fans like to throw Brian under the bus ... and, as in the case of Barnett, maybe some of it is deserved ... many of those same fans seem to rationalize away how Iowa's Os were pretty darn efficient in '18 and '20. Certainly, Brian needs to demonstrate that he can simplify the schemes more for his "dumb-dumbs" ... but that is part of the reason why Jon is there.
Anyhow, if guys can be healthy on the OL ... are they finally experienced and confident enough to execute consistently at a high level? Can we get a guy to emerge at RT who can truly "hold down the fort?" Logan admitted that he spent a big hunk of last season "not knowing what he was doing" ... and, damn, did it show! However, between an improved understanding of what he's doing, combined with the experience from a year of play and having an experienced guy like Feth competing with him (along with hopefully a healthy Mylinski competing with him) ... might we see positive steps forward at C?
I honestly DO believe that the pieces are in place for the OL to now make some significant strides. I think that the experience gained by young guys like Dunker and Stephens are a key part of that equation. However, I think that seeing the elevation in leadership, demonstrated by upperclassmen like Richman, Parker, Feth, DeJong, and Jones are another part of it too. The development of Colby might prove to a a microcosm of the OL. If we can see Connor regain the aggressiveness and spark that we saw from him as a TR FR ... then there is plenty of reason for hope. Last year we obviously saw some regression with his move out from OG to OT ... however, upon moving back to OG, some of the "bleeding" was quelled. What will we see in '23?
As a parting shot, whether folks here agree with the following claim or not ... I still feel that it is a fair characterization. I truly believe that Petras and Brian got a vote of no-confidence from (some of) our receiving targets over the prior 2 years. With that vote of no confidence ... I believe that it ultimately sunk the confidence of our entire offensive unit. Usually, when that sort of situation transpires ... you see a reshuffling of coaching staffs ... wherein hope springs eternal, and players hold out confidence that the new staff will guide them to improved play. Truth be told ... I think that much of this is purely cosmetic and psychological. The biggest "problem" is with players who don't take accountability for themselves.
Of course, to the aggravation of many an Iowa fan ... we didn't see a shuffling of the offensive staff. However, instead, we saw some aggressive moves to the portal that COULD potentially reignite confidence on the offensive side of the ball. Obviously, just having McNamara at the helm instead of Petras ... there won't be that same pall spread over the O. Furthermore, with McNamara at the helm ... the new pass catchers will be HIS guys. All already has great chemistry with McNamara. TE play, for Iowa, was one of the few bright spots from last season. Anderson and Brown weren't around to experience the frustration of yet another Petras overthrow. It's easy to keep WRs happy just as long you manage to the distribute the ball to them. Petras failed to do that ... and lost the faith of (most of) his guys as a result.
I believe that Iowa has a winner at RB (Kaleb) ... and a damn fine group of TEs (Lachey, All, Ostrenga, etc). When healthy, Ragaini has demonstrated some consistency. If we can get some other WRs to truly emerge and present themselves as threats to opposing Ds ... then we're looking at an Iowa O that could pose some challenges for opposing Ds.
Go Hawks!