Everyone knows this team is bad. 3-3 after 6 games. An expected 4 touchdown beatdown coming up in the next game. But just how bad does this team compare with the rest of the Big 10? Back by popular demand, IowaLaw will show you:
WRs: (F). Perhaps the story of the year in the Big 10 is how Iowa's 5th string WR last year, Charlie Jones, leads the entire conference with 50 receptions and 7 tds...for Purdue. How are the mighty receivers performing who Brian Ferentz thought were better than Jones? Ragaini and Bruce rank 48th and 50th in receiving yards. Johnson doesn't want to play for the Hawks and has just 2 receptions on the year. Tracy ranks 22nd in the conference in receptions...for Purdue. Unfortunately, the Iowa WR corp is the laughing stock of college football. Kelton Copeland, the WR coach, gets a lot of good press, but if he didn't have the foresight to see this train wreck coming from a mile away and pull some kids out of the transfer portal, he should at least be questioned on the lack of development by 5th year guys like Ragaini, who had better stats as a freshmen than he does as a senior, and the lack of development by Brecht & Bruce after 2 years in the system.
TEs: (B+). Iowa knew TE would be the strength of the offense. That's why the brain trust running the show made sure to hit the transfer portal hard to bring in just 1 transfer to bolster the 85 man roster...a TE. While LaPorta has had an up and down year (he leads the team in both drops and catches...and gets double the targets of anyone else), he currently stands as the Big 10 tight end leader in receptions and yards at 30 for 270. His yards per reception, however, are abysmal, as he catches a lot of balls at the line of scrimmage short of the sticks and doesn't seem to have a high football IQ. Lachey has looked great at times and seems to catch everything that comes his way, but he doesn't see many targets. He has 9 catches for 157 yards, which is double LaPorta's yards per catch. Say what you will about Iowa's abundant use of tight ends, but there have been zero catches by any other tight end, including the grad transfer...at TEU.
QB: (F). After playing 100% of Iowa's snaps, 3 year starter Petras ranks dead last in Big 10 passer rating. He's 13th of 14 in completion percentage (54%) and yards per game (157th). With a "body of work" like that, "what's the upside" of naming a new starter at Iowa for the first time since 2019? I'll let the QBs coach answer that question.
RBs: D+. Iowa is a run first, grind em out offense, right? Well, the Hawks don't have a single back who ranks in the top 20 in the Big 10 in yards per carry. That means most teams have 2 backs better than anyone on Iowa's roster this year. There are 8 backs in the conference averaging 6 yards per carry or more...all but 1 are freshmen and sophomores and will be back next year. Iowa's top back, Kaleb Johnson, averages just 4.6 yards per carry. As Iowa's "big play" back, he ranks 28th in the conference in "long rushing plays." Then there's Iowa's #1 back at the start of the season, Gavin Williams...the heir apparent to Goodson, ranks 34th in the conference in yards per game and 33rd in yards per carry. Ouch.
OL: (F). Ya know how Kirk is an "OLine Guru" and Brian is somehow one too based on osmosis? Well, despite having quite a few 4 star recruits in the 2 deeps, the Hawks rank 13th in sacks given up at 18 (the top 1/2 of the conference give up 10 or less). Iowa is dead last in the conference in rushing yards per attempt and dead last in rushing yards per game with just 82. By comparison, Minnesota averages 3x more rushing yards, at 245 per game! If the OL coach can't develop the 4 star recruits he was gifted when he took over, how is he going to develop lower rated guys? George Barnett needs to go, and it's not even a close call.
Kicker: C-. Rather than go to the portal to replace their all-world kicker last year, anointed super star special teams coach Woods elected to rest Iowa's fate on a couple under classmen walk-ons to go into hostile stadiums and make game winning kicks. Well, the Hawks have lost two games by a field goal where a field goal was missed, and the squad ranks 8th in the conference in field goal percentage at 70%. Not terrible, by any means, but had Iowa not hit 87% of their field goals last year, that team would have probably lost 2 additional games and been 8-6 rather than 10-4. What a difference a good kicker makes when the margin of victory at Iowa is so slim. As for kickoffs, the Hawks are in the middle of the pack, with a decent number of touchbacks but nowhere near what they were in years past.
WRs: (F). Perhaps the story of the year in the Big 10 is how Iowa's 5th string WR last year, Charlie Jones, leads the entire conference with 50 receptions and 7 tds...for Purdue. How are the mighty receivers performing who Brian Ferentz thought were better than Jones? Ragaini and Bruce rank 48th and 50th in receiving yards. Johnson doesn't want to play for the Hawks and has just 2 receptions on the year. Tracy ranks 22nd in the conference in receptions...for Purdue. Unfortunately, the Iowa WR corp is the laughing stock of college football. Kelton Copeland, the WR coach, gets a lot of good press, but if he didn't have the foresight to see this train wreck coming from a mile away and pull some kids out of the transfer portal, he should at least be questioned on the lack of development by 5th year guys like Ragaini, who had better stats as a freshmen than he does as a senior, and the lack of development by Brecht & Bruce after 2 years in the system.
TEs: (B+). Iowa knew TE would be the strength of the offense. That's why the brain trust running the show made sure to hit the transfer portal hard to bring in just 1 transfer to bolster the 85 man roster...a TE. While LaPorta has had an up and down year (he leads the team in both drops and catches...and gets double the targets of anyone else), he currently stands as the Big 10 tight end leader in receptions and yards at 30 for 270. His yards per reception, however, are abysmal, as he catches a lot of balls at the line of scrimmage short of the sticks and doesn't seem to have a high football IQ. Lachey has looked great at times and seems to catch everything that comes his way, but he doesn't see many targets. He has 9 catches for 157 yards, which is double LaPorta's yards per catch. Say what you will about Iowa's abundant use of tight ends, but there have been zero catches by any other tight end, including the grad transfer...at TEU.
QB: (F). After playing 100% of Iowa's snaps, 3 year starter Petras ranks dead last in Big 10 passer rating. He's 13th of 14 in completion percentage (54%) and yards per game (157th). With a "body of work" like that, "what's the upside" of naming a new starter at Iowa for the first time since 2019? I'll let the QBs coach answer that question.
RBs: D+. Iowa is a run first, grind em out offense, right? Well, the Hawks don't have a single back who ranks in the top 20 in the Big 10 in yards per carry. That means most teams have 2 backs better than anyone on Iowa's roster this year. There are 8 backs in the conference averaging 6 yards per carry or more...all but 1 are freshmen and sophomores and will be back next year. Iowa's top back, Kaleb Johnson, averages just 4.6 yards per carry. As Iowa's "big play" back, he ranks 28th in the conference in "long rushing plays." Then there's Iowa's #1 back at the start of the season, Gavin Williams...the heir apparent to Goodson, ranks 34th in the conference in yards per game and 33rd in yards per carry. Ouch.
OL: (F). Ya know how Kirk is an "OLine Guru" and Brian is somehow one too based on osmosis? Well, despite having quite a few 4 star recruits in the 2 deeps, the Hawks rank 13th in sacks given up at 18 (the top 1/2 of the conference give up 10 or less). Iowa is dead last in the conference in rushing yards per attempt and dead last in rushing yards per game with just 82. By comparison, Minnesota averages 3x more rushing yards, at 245 per game! If the OL coach can't develop the 4 star recruits he was gifted when he took over, how is he going to develop lower rated guys? George Barnett needs to go, and it's not even a close call.
Kicker: C-. Rather than go to the portal to replace their all-world kicker last year, anointed super star special teams coach Woods elected to rest Iowa's fate on a couple under classmen walk-ons to go into hostile stadiums and make game winning kicks. Well, the Hawks have lost two games by a field goal where a field goal was missed, and the squad ranks 8th in the conference in field goal percentage at 70%. Not terrible, by any means, but had Iowa not hit 87% of their field goals last year, that team would have probably lost 2 additional games and been 8-6 rather than 10-4. What a difference a good kicker makes when the margin of victory at Iowa is so slim. As for kickoffs, the Hawks are in the middle of the pack, with a decent number of touchbacks but nowhere near what they were in years past.