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BTN Guys: Iowa will challenge Wisc for the west

Sounds about right and, again, just makes that Big Ten opener vs. Wisconsin @ Kinnick the biggest game of the regular season, one of the biggest in recent years as far as implications for the Big Ten title and beyond. The Hawkeyes need to roll through the non-con and come into the Wisky game the way they did OSU last year. Can't wait for Sept. 22.

BTW: Loved the mention of some new formations for the offense. Iowa has the talent, now it's up to KF and BF and KOK to use it effectively. The potential is exciting.
 
I saw that DiNardo is not fully sold on Wisconsin this year. Whether narrow or wide the Gap between Iowa and Wisconsin must be bridged and I believe the time is now. Our non conference will give us a glimpse at our teams capabilities this season. Getting the passing game humming going into week 4 is imperative. I'm excited to see how thing turn out with Wisconsin. Circumstances are in our favor with the game at home and some key players down for Wisconsin. They will still be ultra tough, but if we can manage their defense even marginally better than in the past few years we'll stand a very good chance of putting ourselves in the drivers seat for the West.
 
Sounds about right and, again, just makes that Big Ten opener vs. Wisconsin @ Kinnick the biggest game of the regular season, one of the biggest in recent years as far as implications for the Big Ten title and beyond. The Hawkeyes need to roll through the non-con and come into the Wisky game the way they did OSU last year. Can't wait for Sept. 22.

BTW: Loved the mention of some new formations for the offense. Iowa has the talent, now it's up to KF and BF and KOK to use it effectively. The potential is exciting.
 
I saw that DiNardo is not fully sold on Wisconsin this year. Whether narrow or wide the Gap between Iowa and Wisconsin must be bridged and I believe the time is now. Our non conference will give us a glimpse at our teams capabilities this season. Getting the passing game humming going into week 4 is imperative. I'm excited to see how thing turn out with Wisconsin. Circumstances are in our favor with the game at home and some key players down for Wisconsin. They will still be ultra tough, but if we can manage their defense even marginally better than in the past few years we'll stand a very good chance of putting ourselves in the drivers seat for the West.
marginally? gonna need more than that ;).
they will put some points up vs us.......
 
marginally? gonna need more than that ;).
they will put some points up vs us.......
Probably will need more. I'm hoping Kinnick magic is in full effect, and that guys they have lost will have an effect, but we will need more than that. I'd love to see our defense confuse and shut them down the way they have done to us.
 
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Between what I've been doing myself in terms of breaking down the Hawks and in terms of what I'm reading .... I'm having an awful hard time tapping the breaks.

Somebody, please knock me back to reality. I'm not being so crazy as to think that we're going to be a play-off team this year ... but I genuinely believe that we could be 9-3 sort of team who could legitimately push for the division title (and maybe the B1G as a whole).

Yes, a lot will still hinge on our LB play, our punting, our OL-development, our WR development ... and on how each new player punts the ball. But there is just so much to like about the '18 squad ... it's hard not to give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
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Between what I've been doing myself in terms of breaking down the Hawks and in terms of what I'm reading .... I'm having an awful hard time tapping the breaks.

Somebody, please knock me back to reality. I'm not being so crazy as to think that we're going to be a play-off team this year ... but I genuinely believe that we could be 9-3 sort of team who could legitimately push for the division title (and maybe the B1G as a whole).

Yes, a lot will still hinge on our LB play, our punting, our OL-development, our WR development ... and on how each new player punts the ball. But there is just so much to like about the '18 squad ... it's hard not to give them the benefit of the doubt.
As discussed the unknowns are the Back 7 and the OL. Will they perform well enough to allow our units of strength to win games? IDK. I'm looking for Ojemudia to take major strides at Corner. I don't know if he has the same stuff as Josh Jackson but he is mentally focused and serious about being a top performer. After him we have considerable inexperience tho Hankins is coming on.
I Believe the OL is going to do better than some expect. LB may perform better than expected as well, but we cannot overlook the lack of game experience.
I have said numerous time that Chemistry, Leadership along with ready talent could bring a great season. Maybe better than 9-3. In the 2nd Camp vid. Dallas Clark point out that he sees some serious talent on this team. He also implores the squad to BELIEVE. This team can transcend the inexperience at certain position groups to be very good. Will they? Bring on the season so we can find out!
 
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I saw that DiNardo is not fully sold on Wisconsin this year. Whether narrow or wide the Gap between Iowa and Wisconsin must be bridged and I believe the time is now. Our non conference will give us a glimpse at our teams capabilities this season. Getting the passing game humming going into week 4 is imperative. I'm excited to see how thing turn out with Wisconsin. Circumstances are in our favor with the game at home and some key players down for Wisconsin. They will still be ultra tough, but if we can manage their defense even marginally better than in the past few years we'll stand a very good chance of putting ourselves in the drivers seat for the West.

Boy, I cannot agree more with this post. This is the year for Iowa to reassert themselves over Wisconsin. This game is very important for the Iowa program imo. Time for Iowa to take that next step.
 
There was a time WAYYYYY back in 2016 when Iowa was the prohibitive favorite to win the west and challenge for a B10 title. I think the Cleveland Plains Dealer survey of reporters had us winning unanimously. Wisconsin was an afterthought (especially because their schedule was brutal that year). At that point, Iowa was the class of the west.

We are not that far removed from then. Wisconsin is really good...but they are not head and shoulders better than we are. As bad as we played against them last year, there were things we could have done if we could have gotten out of our own way. It is going to take a great effort by the Hawks, but Wisconsin is not walking out of Kinnick with a win this year without really earning it, much like PSU last year. The bad news for Wisconsin is that I think last years PSU team was better than this years Wisconsin team, and this years Iowa team looks like it is going to be significantly better than last years version on offense, and I don't think they will miss much of a beat on defense, even with the losses of Jewel and Jackson. The D-line is going to be better. The safeties are going to be better. The Corners are more evenly distributed (we were weak opposite Jackson last year) and better than people realize. And, even though losing Jewel is going to hurt, Jones is a beast in his own right and our LBs will not be as much of a step back as people are afraid they could be.

Defense stays stout...offense steps up.
 
O Line and Punting will decide our year. O Line needs to set up consistent running game to give our D some rest and our youngish WR corps needs extra pass blocking time to get open. I say that as WR expectations are low so not a lot of downside. While LB features brand new starters, there is some program and mop up experience and given our scheme should be solid while maybe not spectacular.
 
As discussed the unknowns are the Back 7 and the OL. Will they perform well enough to allow our units of strength to win games? IDK. I'm looking for Ojemudia to take major strides at Corner. I don't know if he has the same stuff as Josh Jackson but he is mentally focused and serious about being a top performer. After him we have considerable inexperience tho Hankins is coming on.
I Believe the OL is going to do better than some expect. LB may perform better than expected as well, but we cannot overlook the lack of game experience.
I have said numerous time that Chemistry, Leadership along with ready talent could bring a great season. Maybe better than 9-3. In the 2nd Camp vid. Dallas Clark point out that he sees some serious talent on this team. He also implores the squad to BELIEVE. This team can transcend the inexperience at certain position groups to be very good. Will they? Bring on the season so we can find out!
Some aspects remind me of the weakness of the 2002 D ... we had to replace 2 big-time contributors at LB (Doezal and Meyer), Pagel had some injuries issues if memory serves, and we had to replace both top starters at CB (because Sapp was shown the door for off-field issues). For those who recall - the '02 Hawks were really tough against the run - but teams passed for a ton of yards against us.

The back seven for the Hawks featured some impressive guys like Barr, Steen, and Sanders ... but Sanders was still a work-in-progress against the pass (though he definitely improved) ... and our CBs were really quite short and quite inexperienced. For substantial stretches of time, we were forced to start 2 freshmen at CB (Johnson and Allen).

Another interesting contrast between the '18 D and the '02 D was that while the '02 D was loaded with talent ... they still feature a lot of new guys as starters. Hodges and Babs were new starters at DE, Cole shifted to DT from DE, and Clauss was a new starter at DT. Although Roth proved to be a supremely productive back-up DE that season ... he was still a young, new player (a TR SO). While the '18 DL might not feature quite as much high end talent (at least, according to Kelvin Bell) ... the DL features more depth (and they're not lacking for talent either). Furthermore, the '18 DL returns 3 guys who have prior experience as full-time starters (Hesse and the Nelsons) ... and another guy who has a half-season of starts (Lattimore). And, oddly enough, many fans are most excited about a guy who hasn't even yet seen a career start (A.J. Epenesa). So that already paints quite a picture of our DL ... and it doesn't even account for Brincks, who is a guy who continues to earn effusive praise from his peers. It also doesn't include Reiff, who was reputedly one of the most disruptive DTs during the open-scrimmage OR Golston, who is a guy who seems to have really won over Coach Morgan.
 
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