Here is a very long analysis of Iowa that I sent to a Pitt friend of mine. Feel free to share it or amend it as you see fit. Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors. I'm far from a football coach, so some of what I say may even be stupidly incorrect - feel free to shame me and show no mercy!
Iowa Offense:
QB – You’ll remember we played two QBs in the Pitt game last year. CJ Beathard was our backup, and that baffled many of us Hawkeye fans. He seemed to have “it”, the team seemed to respond better to him being on the field, and his arm strength is better than Jake Rudock. Yes, that is the Jake Rudock that graduated from Iowa and used the transfer rule to go to Michigan, where Jim Harbaugh has him starting (and I think Michigan fans are wondering the same thing Iowa fans were last year). At any rate, CJ can make all of the throws, and as we have seen glimpses of, he makes plays with his legs as well. At Iowa State last weekend, he was 15-25 for 215 yards and had 3 TDs passing. He also ran 10 times for 77 yards, with a long of 57. If there is any criticism of CJ, it is that he sometimes throws the ball TOO HARD on shorter/intermediate routes, and the Hawkeye WRs aren’t always capable of handling it. Note that if Beathard goes down, our next QB has only taken about 10 snaps in mop up duty and is not at all ready for prime time. He is a redshirt freshman named Tyler Wiegers and I haven’t a clue if he’s any good.
RB – we thought we were stacked here. LeShun Daniels is the starter, but he has already gotten a little dinged up (I think it’s his ankle) and didn’t play in the second half at Iowa State. If Daniels can play, he’s your typical B1G back – able to take a pounding, but still shifty enough to hit the holes. He doesn’t appear to have breakaway speed, but he is very strong and very quick initially, and has been reliable with the football. Jordan Canzeri is our #2 back, and he’s a bit smaller than Daniels. Canzeri is more of a speedster who can run away if he gets in the clear, but he’s not likely to excel if asked to run between the tackles all day long. He isn’t big enough to take the pounding of that, nor can he move the pile like you’d want him to. We’d rather throw screens to Canzeri and let him get in space. RB #3 is currently suspended for reasons unknown. RB #4 is actually one of the best looking, Akrum Wadley… this guy is quick, has a good burst, and likely tops out pretty well, but we don’t get to see him aside from mop up duty as he has fumbled 4 times in 36 career carries. As it stands right now, he better be ready to go against Pitt because we might need him. Gulp, hope he can hang onto the ball if he has to see the field.
WR – our offensive weakness lies here. Tevaun Smith is our best WR and I think has borderline NFL talent. Matt VandeBerg is rapidly rising and is seemingly Beathard’s safety blanket. He has good hands and can beat teams deep, but he shouldn’t particularly “scare” anybody. Iowa’s biggest issue with the WRs is none of them consistently get open and if CJ doesn’t have all day, he is forced to check down or take off running, or get sacked. Jacob Hillyer is a 6-4 212 senior who can occasionally make a play, but no need to really key on him or even be worried. There are some other promising younger guys, but for the most part our WRs only work when we have the running game established and the safeties are forced into the box or trapped by play action.
TE – Our best TE is hurt for the first half of the season, but the two we have playing are both 6-4 and around 240-250 and are both upper classmen. They do what you need TEs to do with blocking, and occasionally catch a crossing route, but for the most part Iowa’s current offense doesn’t seem to look for the TE all that much. It isn’t a weakness at all, but it COULD be a position of strength if targeted.
OL – we kind of tend to give Ferentz the benefit of the doubt here, and it seems to have worked out yet again. Going into the year, both tackles from the 2014 team have gone to the NFL and we’re replacing them with very unproven younger players. Meanwhile, the guard play from 2014 wasn’t up to par for a Hawkeye OL. The new tackles are both sophomores, and both weigh 300 pounds and are about 6-5. Boone Myers and Ike Boettger are their names, and I have to say both have impressed me so far. I think they have a way to go to be the next NFL prospects, of course, but both pass blocking and run blocking seem to be working out. The guards were a weakness last year, but sophomore Sean Welsh seems better this year and Jordan Walsh is now a senior. They are pushed hard by a freshman from Ohio named James Daniels, who gets playing time to keep everybody fresh at the guard position. Center Austin Blythe is the “stud” of the line and is probably going to get NFL attention. He’s a senior and I think he’s invaluable, although if he were to go down, I’ve seen some chatter that freshman Daniels can come in and things could shift around such that we’d still have experience across the interior of the line. I’ve spent a lot of time on this position, but I’ll sum it up as follows: Surprisingly serviceable given the losses from 2014, but not very deep should the injury bug strike us.
Iowa Defense:
DL – Tackle Carl Davis is now in the NFL but I swear to you 6-4 310 junior Jaleel Johnson has stepped in and filled his shoes. The tackle position in Iowa’s defense is designed to hold ground and occupy 2 men if possible. Any forward push is icing on the cake, and Johnson gets forward push. He was jumpy in the Iowa State game and got caught offsides a couple times, but he’s really good. The two ends, seniors Nate Meier and Drew Ott are just beasts. Ott projects as a legit NFL player going 64- 272 and he’s got a motor, but he hurt his arm in the first half of the Iowa State game and was in a sling the rest of the day. Evidently he will be available Saturday night, but I am still struggling to figure out how (perhaps a big brace?). He really is a game-changer coming at the opposing team’s LT, so if he is playing that’s big for Iowa’s defense.
LB – a glaring weakness in the 2014 team, but then again when all three LBs from the 2013 team went to the NFL, we had to suffer a year of “new guys”. They took the wrong angles many times and got exposed in 2014, so the fact that they are all back only means they are a year older… however, in the fall, Ferentz moved a senior into the first team and demoted a sophomore back to second team. So far this year, the DL has been good enough and the opposition weak enough that we’re still not totally sure about the unit. At least they have experience now, but if facing a team with a quick running back and an OL that sets the edge, we’re probably going to have some issues. Still an unproven and unknown unit on this defense, I’d say.
DB – Junior CB Desmond King is the closest thing we have to a “shutdown” corner, and I’ll buy it as far as Big Ten WRs are concerned. Can he cover Boyd? Well, that’s not going to be easy, but I hope so. Greg Mabin is opposite him and he’s now a junior. The two CBs are above average for the B1G, I’d say. Safety Jordan Lomax is a senior and he’s very capable in coverage. I don’t know as much about the other safety, Miles Tayler, as he is just a sophomore. Should King and/or Mabin go down, the quality of the CBs falls off, but Sean Draper is a senior that has played plenty and can come in to help in a nickel or in our “Raider” third down package where the DL and LBs all stand upright and move back and forth to disguise who is coming and who is dropping back in coverage. It is a neat defensive package that tends to confuse QBs as only 3 guys will pass rush and the other 8 drop into coverage.
Iowa Special Teams:
K - Marshall Koehn is a senior who booms the ball through the end zone on kickoffs. He’s also been progressing nicely on FG attempts. He has the leg to go as far as 50 I’d say. Of course, if there is wind or any elements, I don’t know how far KF would trust him. But he’s progressed through the system and is finally a senior, so I think we can “expect” him to be his best and most reliable this year.
P – Dillon Kidd is a senior, but he’s nothing special as far as I’m concerned. Iowa’s punting has been really bad for a few years now. All I can say is this year we changed formations from a pro-style to the 3-man “shield” and that SHOULD allow for better coverage. I can’t say for sure given we haven’t had to punt all that much this year, but as far as I can remember, nobody has done anything meaningful yet with a return. Whether that is due to small sample size or truly improved coverage, I have no clue.
