Credit to Graves ... credit to how he's be utilized on the D ... credit to the coaching of Bell and Niemann. But for such a young guy to already be having 2.5 TFLs and 2 sacks through action in limited reps in 3 games! That's impressive!
Graves ... impressive production for a TR FR DT
- Thread starter ghostOfHomer777
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He needs to play over Stec. Stec has done nothing since filling in for Black.
Graves had a lot more snaps than Stec against Rutgers.
I think that will be the trend. We’ve got 10 plus guys that could fill the 4 DL spots but Van Ness and Graves are just wreaking havoc when they are in the game. It’s a nice luxury to have
I also want to see Van Ness crashing it from the end. Really hopeful Pittman is close to meaningful snaps.
Stec's getting his "sea legs" if you will. However, how much he plays will be dependent on his tape (and how he improves).
Graves has let himself lose his feet a little too often. But, on the flip side, he's been so high effort ... and he's a strong kid ... so the motor has been getting him on plays.
Anyhow, Graves is certainly putting him into position to earn increasingly more reps.
Pittman has played in two game thus far this year. He was seeing snaps as early s 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter against Rutgers. He looked decent in his action against Nevada too. He doesn't look "there" yet to me ... so I understand why other guys are currently ahead of him. However, he's further along than I was expecting. I think that we'll see him continue to put himself in a position to contribute this year ... but I think that next year, he'll be a regular in the rotation.
I was surprised at how much action Llewellyn saw too ... the Hawks played something like 12 D-linemen in the game against Rutgers.
Max is going to be a good one. He’s a got a really explosive first couple steps which is really half the battle off the edge.
Keeping the pitch counts down for the d-linemen is huge. For a game like this Saturday against Michigan, PP can ask guys like Van Ness or others to take on more snaps if they haven't had a heavy workload previously. It will help as we go through the season.
It's the difference between one guy who is under 6-0 tall and another who is 6-4, 275 with explosive athletic ability. Stec's story is great, the fact he is a good rotational player is a testament to what hard work and effort gets you. But Graves is a future NFL lineman most likely. That shows up when you watch the games. Iowa is handling Graves just right. A few more snaps each week.
3-4 years ago, when I heard about Graves, he was being throttled down at his high school practices to avoid injuring his teammates, it was then I went on the record, telling anyone who would listen that Graves will be a generational type talent from small town Iowa.
His size, work ethic, athletic ability, smarts, energy and passion for all things, especially football; Iowa has themselves a future hall of famer.
His size, work ethic, athletic ability, smarts, energy and passion for all things, especially football; Iowa has themselves a future hall of famer.
Don't know about HOF'er, need a lot of breaks/things to go right for that to happen. He's going to be exciting to watch develop. Especially because Iowa has other good linemen and he will be able to let his talents shine.
Great post and thread, I was thinking this as well, he looks natural as TR FR on DLine which is rare, that sack in 2nd half was impressive and athletic. Seems like a violent player and reminds me a lot of of Jared DeVries from the 90s but faster and maybe a tad more athletic. We got a good one here!
Graves and Coop from tiny schools in Iowa making a big impact early in careers, impressive!
Maybe Toss Hurkett in there too, it seemed his snap count is increasing too, what a trove of DL we have and yes, that will come in handy this weekend and later in season based on wear and tear.
The guys "on deck" pass the eyeball test too ... there I'm referring to Crawford and Allen. So yeah ... Iowa's DL definitely seems like it isn't lacking in the talent category.
A number of these DT-types have some size to them too ... Graves, Black, Pittman, and Allen are not small men.
I don't disagree ... however, I also think folks forget that Stec wasn't the most experienced guy either. He saw some snaps in clean-up duty and on special teams (I think) last year. This year, he's seen his role grow. Just as with most of our guys on the DL ... the more experienced they get ... the more consistently they play.
There's no doubt that Coach Bell wants his guys to be productive ... but he wants to make sure that they consistently do their jobs first.
Stec is a guy who will continue to get snaps ... both because he's earned them ... and also because it helps keep everyone more fresh. The fresher guys are ... the more effort they can give on an every-down basis. Also, the fresher guys are ... the more likely they are to remain healthy.
Reames has seen positional action this year too.
Coach Bell has been giving A LOT of guys snaps at DE this year. Evans, Waggs, Van Ness, Craig, Hurkett, Llewellyn, and Reames.
I'll need to watch our pass-rush downs more closely ... but I was Craig was seeing snaps on the inside on some of them.
Dochterman had a really good article on the Athletic before week 1 with 2 deeps. Said any other year Pittman and Llewellyn would be in the 2 deeps and mentioned how Graves could too eventually wind up in them in most seasons. Being that he is maybe one of the most talented true freshman DL in past 25 years up there with Devries and Epenesa.
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Every time I see a post about DL...I feel the need to mention Devries has the most TFLs in Big Ten history and he is the best DL we have seen in the last 40 years.
I remember the 98' game vs Michigan where the Tom Brady led team squeaked past us in a low scoring game but he was so dominate that game.
Michigan game was a pretty rough game for our DL. Illustrates that ALL of our guys need to continue to improve.
Of course, boy were there plenty of missed holding calls. Oof!
Of course, boy were there plenty of missed holding calls. Oof!
If you want a comparison/bar...Michigan starts a true frosh at DT...he had 3 solos, an assist and a sack against you yesterday...he was the guy (#55) who abused one of your lineman to sack Petras near the goal line...so true frosh contributions on the interior line isn't all that miraculous anymore...kids are coming in more physically ready than ever (btw, the kid I mentioned wasn't the only true frosh down lineman in our rotation yesterday...#8 is a true frosh also)
