Countering Morehouse RE: DTs

[ghostOfHomer777]

Again it's not about if we have players in time that can be the next solid starter or great player but about are they the next solid starter or great player starting with game 1? We don't have time to figure it out with this schedule. There's no margin for error this year.

I agree that there is a slim margin for error. We have some depth at DE. We seemingly have some depth at LB. However, any more injuries in the secondary ... and we're potentially in a world of hurt. If Bazata is hurt enough to be rendered ineffective ... then that is certainly a significant blow too.

However, I'd add that even great players have to start somewhere. Furthermore, talent often times impresses us the most late in their careers. Did any FAN see Bruggeman's season come in '08? Before he was the Ameri-stanzi ... Ricky had to start somewhere. Before Clayborn was in full beast-mode ... we benefitted from his solid play as a SO (in '08). Before Babs was a dominant DT for us ... his first starts were at DE in '02 ... and he had just converted there from FB.

Maybe Reiff proves to be the next version of Klug? ... maybe even an IMPROVED version of Klug?

Maybe Lattimore is the next version of Christian Ballard ... but with a true and deep love of football.

Maybe we see flashes of beast-mode out of guys like Simon (DE) and Jones (WILL LB) in the raider package?

What if Manny not only meets expectation but exceeds it? What if Gervase doesn't lose a step from Snyder?

It's way to early to assume that this D doesn't have talent on it. Heck, from what I've gathered from interviews of Ferentz ... the way he talks, it sounds like he knows a secret about Anthony Nelson that is going to get unleashed on opposing Os through the coming years.

And, of course, I haven't even mentioned the 5-star elephant in the room ...

 

[cmhawks99]

I agree that there is a slim margin for error. We have some depth at DE. We seemingly have some depth at LB. However, any more injuries in the secondary ... and we're potentially in a world of hurt. If Bazata is hurt enough to be rendered ineffective ... then that is certainly a significant blow too.

However, I'd add that even great players have to start somewhere. Furthermore, talent often times impresses us the most late in their careers. Did any FAN see Bruggeman's season come in '08? Before he was the Ameri-stanzi ... Ricky had to start somewhere. Before Clayborn was in full beast-mode ... we benefitted from his solid play as a SO (in '08). Before Babs was a dominant DT for us ... his first starts were at DE in '02 ... and he had just converted there from FB.

Maybe Reiff proves to be the next version of Klug? ... maybe even an IMPROVED version of Klug?

Maybe Lattimore is the next version of Christian Ballard ... but with a true and deep love of football.

Maybe we see flashes of beast-mode out of guys like Simon (DE) and Jones (WILL LB) in the raider package?

What if Manny not only meets expectation but exceeds it? What if Gervase doesn't lose a step from Snyder?

It's way to early to assume that this D doesn't have talent on it. Heck, from what I've gathered from interviews of Ferentz ... the way he talks, it sounds like he knows a secret about Anthony Nelson that is going to get unleashed on opposing Os through the coming years.

And, of course, I haven't even mentioned the 5-star elephant in the room ...

I think Anthony Nelson is an All Big Ten player waiting to happen and I mean this year. I think there's a reason they're talking about moving Matt Nelson inside and his name is Anthony!!!!

And Parker Hease is on his way to being one of the most ho-hum 4-year starters in Iowa history. His trajectory is very much like Drew Otts and the way he got forced into action as a freshman?! Honestly if he can get that first step off the line that Ott showed as a junior and at the first of his senior year, look out!!!

I wasn't posting here hardly at all back then but I mentioned to Marc Morehouse that I thought Parker and Josey shared a ton of similarities and had similar athleticism coming from similar small town Iowa roots!

If Simon and Gholston can add any kind of speed off the edge or in the raider package even in limited snaps that just increases the effectiveness of the rest of the unit!

Like I said there are holes but there's also a lot of young, big, athletic people that appear hungry and ready to step in and honestly outside of the linebackers this defense is still fairly young! Which I think it is also paramount that we have such experience in the starting linebackers and also that we appear to have some real talent behind them, so again my "big" concerns still reside with quarterback and safety!

Every team has to fill holes; either we can or we can't there's no reason to overthink it a month plus before we even play a game.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

I think Anthony Nelson is an All Big Ten player waiting to happen and I mean this year. I think there's a reason they're talking about moving Matt Nelson inside and his name is Anthony!!!!

And Parker Hease is on his way to being one of the most ho-hum 4-year starters in Iowa history. His trajectory is very much like Drew Otts and the way he got forced into action as a freshman?! Honestly if he can get that first step off the line that Ott showed as a junior and at the first of his senior year, look out!!!

I've been trying to dig up the quotes from Ferentz that I keep on alluding too about Anthony Nelson ... but have failed to this point. However, to paraphrase his comments, he always mentions how Anthony has a "natural" aptitude as it relates to rushing the passer ... furthermore, the comment that really shocked me was that despite the fact that Anthony graded out pretty highly by PFF and he was just a RS FR ... Ferentz has stated that Anthony was just scratching the surface as a RS FR. Ferentz went on to suggest that he's going to be one heck of a player for us by the time he is an upperclassman. The only other players who I've heard Ferentz be so effusive about recently were Scherff and King. Scherff won the Outland Trophy and King won the Thorpe Award.

Also, I think that too many fans overlook Hesse. The kid was a versatile athlete coming out of Waukee. He jumped in as an undersized guy backing up Ott in '05 ... before the young guy knew it ... he was effectively stuck as our new full-time starter because of all of Ott's injuries. The fact that our D didn't get gashed with such a young player manning the edge speaks volumes about Hesse and about how well Ott helped to prep him for games. Hesse, when healthy, was more disruptive in '16 ... however, without Ott's guidance ... he was also a little more undisciplined too. With the benefit of all that summer film study ... I think that Hesse will be able to make really nice strides in his game. He'll potentially gain an extra half-step ... and, more importantly, he'll make fewer mental mistakes. That equates to faster, cleaner play.

 

[cmhawks99]

I've been trying to dig up the quotes from Ferentz that I keep on alluding too about Anthony Nelson ... but have failed to this point. However, to paraphrase his comments, he always mentions how Anthony has a "natural" aptitude as it relates to rushing the passer ... furthermore, the comment that really shocked me was that despite the fact that Anthony graded out pretty highly by PFF and he was just a RS FR ... Ferentz has stated that Anthony was just scratching the surface as a RS FR. Ferentz went on to suggest that he's going to be one heck of a player for us by the time he is an upperclassman. The only other players who I've heard Ferentz be so effusive about recently were Scherff and King. Scherff won the Outland Trophy and King won the Thorpe Award.

Also, I think that too many fans overlook Hesse. The kid was a versatile athlete coming out of Waukee. He jumped in as an undersized guy backing up Ott in '05 ... before the young guy knew it ... he was effectively stuck as our new full-time starter because of all of Ott's injuries. The fact that our D didn't get gashed with such a young player manning the edge speaks volumes about Hesse and about how well Ott helped to prep him for games. Hesse, when healthy, was more disruptive in '16 ... however, without Ott's guidance ... he was also a little more undisciplined too. With the benefit of all that summer film study ... I think that Hesse will be able to make really nice strides in his game. He'll potentially gain an extra half-step ... and, more importantly, he'll make fewer mental mistakes. That equates to faster, cleaner play.

Agreed and in fact I'm expecting big things from him his last two years..Ott really escalated his last two years and I think Hesse has that kind of ability, might even have a little more hip fluidity!

I think even I have taken him for granted a little bit and I believe the average Fan expects AJ to come in and take over that slot and I have to tell you if AJ Epenesa overtakes Parker Hesse as a starter anytime in the next two years, it will be indicative of the fact that AJ is not only an All-American but probably a future top five or 10 draft pick!

 

[Teenage Dirtbag]

Very good info. I am starting RAGBRAI tomorrow...anyone know of a good topical cream for the groin area?

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Very good info. I am starting RAGBRAI tomorrow...anyone know of a good topical cream for the groin area?

There's a plant that looks almost identical to poison ivy - find it and rub it all over your groin area. I guarantee that it will take your mind off of any pain or soreness from the bike ride.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Another perspective to address Morehouse's concerns is to consider past precedent. While Hume would question such a framework for understanding, given the continuity under Ferentz ... I'd surmise that it is still applicable.

Almost every transition I can think of at DT at Iowa, under Ferentz, has been pretty uneventful. Very few instances of catastrophic poor play that significantly hurt the D. There have been times when insufficient DEPTH on the DL had hurt the team ... but that is different than a personnel transition from year to year.

- In '11 - Nardo ended up being a surprisingly solid contributor. It was only his injury and the lack of depth at DT that later hurt the D. The bigger issue in '11 was that the transition on the DE led us to lose contain too often.

- In '09 - many thought that the wholesale replacement of King and Kroul would be impossible - after all, those guys had each been 4-year starters. Furthermore, Iowa's depth at DT had been pretty depleted. We had an short, undersized guy by the name of Mike Daniels and an undersized guy by the name of Karl Klug who had suffered from prior back-issues. What happened? Christian Ballard slid to the interior (because Daniels still had a little more to develop) and Klug stepped up as the starter beside him. Fortunately we were seemingly deep at DE because of guys like Chad Geary and Broderick Binns. Of course, Binns stepped up and played DE when Ballard slid to the interior.

- In '02, we actually had a surprisingly significant transition on the DL. Cole slid to the interior from DE and Clauss stepped up from a top back-up to a starter at DT. Babs started getting some his first playing time at DE and Hodges went from a pretty productive back-up to a starter. The DL play, as a whole, was quite good ... however, we lost contain against Wallace in the ISU game far too often. While it was tough for most defenses to contain his mobility, that's still the responsibility of DEs ... so again, that illustrates where a transition arguably cost us a game.

- In '12, we saw one of the few instances where we had an exceptionally rocky transition at DT. Of course, part of that was attributable to attrition on the DL (because of Kaz) and part of it was also attributable to it being Morgan's very year coaching the DL.