coming in has the speed and hands to challenge for a starting position. I believe WR is the second easiest spot for a freshman to make an impact after RB. Iowa has to have some threat to keep the DB's out of the box.
I hope one of four frosh receivers
- Thread starter Hawk68
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My vibe is that Devonte Young is a guy who emerges this year at WR. Jerminic will likely continue to progress ... hopefully building off of a 300+ yard campaign in '16. I'm curious about what we'll see from Falconer, Easley, and the freshmen. Falconer was injured through the first half of '16 and worked his way into things through the latter portion of the season. If he has some good camps ... he could certainly work his way into significantly more playing time.
If I were to guess - I think that potentially up to 2 true freshman WRs will get to cut their teeth in '17. If I were to guess, my hunch is that Cooper and B. Smith will be the guys who earn the nod in '17. Cooper is like a combo of Martin-Manley and Hinkel ... whereas B. Smith might prove to be a man-coverage beater with the jump-ball. Of course, I don't really expect any freshman to get targeted too often ... but hopefully a guy gets reps with the upper teamers to expedite his development.
If I were to guess - I think that potentially up to 2 true freshman WRs will get to cut their teeth in '17. If I were to guess, my hunch is that Cooper and B. Smith will be the guys who earn the nod in '17. Cooper is like a combo of Martin-Manley and Hinkel ... whereas B. Smith might prove to be a man-coverage beater with the jump-ball. Of course, I don't really expect any freshman to get targeted too often ... but hopefully a guy gets reps with the upper teamers to expedite his development.
Any WR that can clear 6ft 8in High Jump... and it looks like he had room for more.... is my bet for a breakout freshman year....
This kid has a freakish athletic build. I absolutely expect him to see the field at times, especially in red zone situations ... And, hopefully our offense won't be so freaking complicated now where a freshman can come in and contribute.
With any luck, he can be like a McNutt 2.0 ... but only having the advantage of starting off as a WR from the get-go. Also, when McNutt was a WR, we didn't have the same depth at RB ... so a bit more pressure was on our WRs. I expect that Brandon Smith will be put in positions where he can help us ... but also where he can learn and grow.
Depends on the position you are talking about, WR is a spot in which Freshman can and often do in fact come in and contribute
I think it is well documented that we have WR production issues. I for one think Brandon Smith will be a major contributor. It is not like it is a new concept- Dom Douglas and DJK stick out immediately as contributing early and often
DJK contributed as a RS FR. He entered the picture at the exact same time as James Cleveland (Cleveland was a RS FR too). Both of them were about on par with one another ... and neither were lighting it up too much more than Paul Chaney Jr. (Chaney was a RS FR too).
Young guys can definitely contribute ... but they're rarely very consistent. Cleveland dropped too many balls ... but he was, overall, our most consistent performer in '07. Sandeman executed many of the responsibilities of a WR with some consistency ... though he wasn't targeted much. It's crazy to think that in '07 we relied heavily upon 3 RS FR, 1 TR FR, and a RS SO (Stross) to complement our TEs in the passing game. That was also the year when Brandon Myers first emerged.
A more likely scenario is to see something more akin to a McNutt-like breakthrough or a Keenan Davis-like breakthrough. In '08, McNutt switched over from QB to WR because it was apparent that Stanzi was the heir-apparent at QB. He saw some reps that year ... but his development propelled him to a great breakthrough year as a RS SO in '09. Keenan Davis was clearly a talented guy who middled a little through his first two seasons ... learning the ropes. Then, in '11, as a JR, he had a really nice breakthrough year. Too bad the whole O switched on him in '12 ... he likely would have put up another year of great production had it not changed.
Following that same sort of pattern was VandeBerg himself ... he learned the ropes in '13 and '14 and then really burst on the scene as a JR and put up the same sort of numbers as the other 2 guys I referenced.
If you look at the current roster, at WR, we have J. Smith and Falconer ... both whom will be JRs in '17. They're at a prime-time in their career for one of them to really take the next step. Similarly, D. Young will be a SO ... and that came off a TR FR season where he saw A LOT of high-quality reps.
The good news is Brandon Smith contrasts the WRs who are already on the roster ... so that likely gives him a decent chance to jump into the scene right away.
I think so. He's still in the picture. He had more touches in '16 than Falconer did.
Hmm that's interesting, can you name the last Freshman WR who wasn't forced into action that came in and contributed ?
It depends what you mean by contributed. Usually when Iowa plays freshmen at WR ... they're not top reads for the QB. Consequently, they don't get many targets. Frankly, I was rather surprised at how many targets VandeBerg got in '13 ... he was weaker back then and had a harder time securing catches after getting hit (there were several balls that he almost caught over the middle that were dislodged by hits). Jerminic Smith had pretty nice production in '15 as a true freshman. In both of those cases, Iowa was simply trying to develop depth at WR ... they weren't "forced" to have to play those guys.
In '07, Iowa had a pair of redshirt freshmen be big contributors (Cleveland and DJK) ... but they were really forced to the forefront due to the injuries of Brodell and Moeaki. In '06, Cal Davis and Herb Grigsby were slated to be two of Iowa's top WRs ... but Cal suffered a lower-leg injury (a blown achilles IIRC) and Grigsby wasn't terribly tough ... and he essentially disappeared as a consistent option. Thus, Iowa's top WRs ended up being Douglas and Brodell. Brodell was a little slower to develop ... but that was presumably because he was a bit newer to the position (he was an ATH who converted to WR).
Easley looks pretty seasoned, and he's had more success than anyone outside of Vandeberg, so he's my choice to emerge this fall.
I believe I read somewhere (perhaps it was something from Marc Morehouse) where Nick Easley was compared to Andrew Stone. I believe the comparison was drawn so as to measure possible expectations of Easley ... because Stone never saw many targets on the field as a Hawk. If you look at Stone's career IWCC, he was more of a possession receiver ... he was 5-11/175 ... and was competing against a plethora of other guys for that very same role (like VandeBerg, Hillyer, McCarron, and Martin-Manley).
In contrast, Nick Easley is a more strongly built WR (5-11/203) that averaged around 2 yards more per reception than Stone. Thus, Easley isn't necessarily just an example of Stone version 2.0. Furthermore, J. Smith, Falconer, and Young were each recruited more as outside WRs. In fact, VandeBerg has played at each of our WR spots ... so he could play on the outside ... or be more of an inside possession receiver too. If I were to guess, I'd think that Easley might be battling against Nash and Cooper for the same niche in the WR corps ... perhaps even against D. Young.
Thus, I guess that is my long-winded way of agreeing with you ... Easley definitely could work his way into the WR rotation because of his seasoning.
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Needs to improve speed.....
- brandon28255 has a tremendous ceiling! Major college football programs better wake up!
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Sorry but 4.77 is slow for a B1G WR he'll need to improve his speed.Needs to improve speed.....
- brandon28255 has a tremendous ceiling! Major college football programs better wake up!
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I may be way off, but I think our receivers may get "open" more often with BF and KOK.
Now, can the QB get them the ball, and can thy catch it?
Now, can the QB get them the ball, and can thy catch it?
Considering that we know very little about his running motion ... we still have no idea how fast he actually might be. If he's already well drilled about wasted motion and he still puts up a 4.77 ... then it would require a crap-ton of speed work in order to improve the sort of explosiveness needed to speed up more quickly. However, if he's a guy who isn't as trained in the fine-art of running the 40 .... it could be a smaller matter for him to cut time.
Jerry Rice had a 40 worse than that. Just saying. The kid is 6-3, high jumps 6-10, and has size 3X hands. He will get some jump balls. I think he us going to wow us all.
Thank you. Rice ran 4.9 and 5.0s when he entered college per NCAA News in 1984. Rice's words, "I didn't know how to run the 40." Don't worry about Smith's 40. He's special.
B. SMITH has great potential. He will be as good as our offense allows him to be (by getting him the ball). He is humble and has a workmanlike attitude. Was McMutt fast btw? Seemed like he had average speed.
My bigger concern in this matter is will our offense be able to pass the ball, protect the QB, and get into a throwing rhythm.
My bigger concern in this matter is will our offense be able to pass the ball, protect the QB, and get into a throwing rhythm.
You don't watch the combine do you? 4.77 is FAST especially when you KNOW where you are going and the DB doesn't. To argue speed with a slow guy is a never ending battle. The amount of legit 4.5 guys that are walking the streets is very very very low.
Years ago the POLO clothing line started putting smaller tag sizes on bigger clothes. If you were a tubby and wore size 38 pants the size 36 fit perfectly....and bang you loved POLO and would only buy POLO.
Same theory for these camps....get a faster time at camp A as an underclassmen than at camp B....you will be back to camp A and tell all your boys that camp B is "whack".
I have personally seen this more than once....4.77 is FAST period. If a HS kid is telling you or publicizing that he is a 4.4 guy it is probably not legit.
Morehouse is usually spot on but comparing Easley to Stone is way off base. Easley will make an impact...Stone has not.
I think that Marc had just been going off the fact that they both had gone to IWCC and that they both had comparable total career stats. The big differences are that Easley got more of his production in a single year, Easley had a higher yard per reception average, and Easley is simply a more strongly built guy.
I'm pretty sure Marvin Mcnutt wasn't much faster then that either, and I'd be glad to have the "NUT" lined up outside again! This kid is a freaky athlete with huge hands. He'll be a welcome addition day one.
Both of Brandon parents ran college track at ole miss and Mississippi state.. so I'm sure he is plenty fast enough.. the kid kept quiet about a lot of things. He had more offers then reported. And only went to 3 camps Iowa, fsu and bama..
If he can run routes and provide some separation we should be happy as we'd have an upgrade. He did have some difficulty creating separation in one of the camp video's last summer as I recall. Hope I'm wrong, but I don't see him as a major contibutor this year.
Tim Dwight was super fast where did his parents run college track ? Michael Jordan could jump super high how high could his kids jump ? The facts are he ran a 4.77 and you have no prove of other offers. Have ever seen this young man play live or just watching video ?
Iowa has five freshmen who appear on the radar in the future at WR. Hopefully, a player will arrive ready, like Matt VandeBerg, who went from possible greys greyshirt to contributor day 1.
Iowa has witnessed true freshman playing Day 1 under KF. Clinton Solomon in 2002 was the first to step forward, if I recall correctly.
Iowa has witnessed true freshman playing Day 1 under KF. Clinton Solomon in 2002 was the first to step forward, if I recall correctly.
We might need to go all Stanfd and line up 3 TE's and beef up our run game and then play action off of it all over the field
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