SIAP. Looked through threads and didn't see anything. He's been super impressive. Hooker looked good out there though too.
Was Gervase hurt?
- Thread starter mplshawkeye21
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Yeah...outplayed once Hooker got a shot. Good problem to have honestly...they're both damn solid.
Opportunity for improvement and Hooker took advantage today. Great to see. Worst case, competition improves them both
He hurt the Hawks with his play. Taylor too. Those guys were bad on the TD run the NT back had by taking bad angles then whiffing on the cut backs.
Iowa needs to be playing Hooker and Stone if Gervase and Taylor are going to be whiffing on tackles or trying to make highlight hits.
Iowa needs to be playing Hooker and Stone if Gervase and Taylor are going to be whiffing on tackles or trying to make highlight hits.
Too early to say how solid or not Iowa is at safety. I'm not sure I would call safety play a strength at this point. It's rarely if ever one guy's fault if the other team scores, but on UNT's long TD run Gervase had the best shot at getting the ball-carrier and didn't do it. Hooker is an impressive athlete and appeared to be in the right place during the game.
Next week Iowa needs its safeties to play well. There will be times Barkley is in the open and safeties tackling is the difference between a 15-yard gain and a first down and a touchdown.
As a former safety myself I must say Gervase has been borderline bad. Got torched by Butler for last clone TD last week. Also whiffed on open field tackle which sprang Montgomery for his 36 yd run. Yday whiffed on NT rb's 50 yd TD. Taylor has been bad as well. Safety play this season = needs big improvement
Gervase played well against Wyoming but had a rough game against ISU and didn't look so good against North Texas either. I think some overrated his abilities based off of scrimmage/camp performance. That's not say he's terrible or can't improve. He's still incredibly inexperienced and will be needed as the season goes on. Not giving up on him just yet. Taylor, on the other hand, is what he is. Still likes to go for the kill shot and rarely wraps up. Probably leads the team in missed tackles over the last year and a half. Likely won't see much improvement from him as the year goes on since he's a senior with a ton of playing experience. He will continue to play because he at least seems to know where he needs to line-up and puts himself in position to make plays. Also, because his backup is a true freshman. Bad safety play leads to giving up big plays in both the running game and passing game. Really need to improve here as the season goes on.
Imho, The most concerning thing about the Butler TD was not Gervase's decision making---it was his top end speed or lack of it. I think Gervase probably has nice ball skills to get into position and make INTs.
Saying Gervase has been solid or impressive shows a lack of football understanding.
Taylor has been unimpressive since his sophomore year. Not sure if losing Lomax has caused him issues or what the story is but the kid has looked bad his senior year. Bad week vs Penn state and we need to give someone else a look.
Hooker and Stone's Hudl highlights stood out above most to me- their anticipation of where play was going, and terrific closing speed followed by a violent finish. Those two guys were made to be safeties.
The problem with the Butler TD is he took a bad step ... whereas Butler was already near full-speed going the opposite direction. That isn't a top-end speed problem ... that's a problem that few people have the acceleration to make up the distance that results from taking a bad step like that.
Part of the "art" of being a great safety is taking "good" steps, being well-positioned, and taking good angles. You do that ... then linear-speed can typically be easily compensated by fast, disciplined play.
If we clean up the issues at safety I think we'll have a really good defense. I hope we figured out the personnel issues to a degree with Hooker - would be nice if some things are tried schematically too - playing some cover 1 might be a good solution considering we've had good play so far from the corners. Gives us an extra guy in the box to stop the run at least. Gotta stop something...
Hooker has looked pretty solid to me. I really believe he is an upgrade.
I don't want to see Taylor and Snyder there together. We don't need two dudes going for the kill shot. Snyder can hit hard but he can also be the guy who goes all out, doesn't wrap up, and ends up on the ground while the runner is still going.
I don't want to see Taylor and Snyder there together. We don't need two dudes going for the kill shot. Snyder can hit hard but he can also be the guy who goes all out, doesn't wrap up, and ends up on the ground while the runner is still going.
Perhaps, but we don't know yet. I am not convinced Iowa has enough speed in the back 7 to be a good defense. Wyoming is just plain bad, they got beat 49-13 at home by Oregon. Allen was 9-24 for 64 yards.
We will start to get some answers Saturday. Penn State is the real deal on offense.
Yep, I saw them all. I do not think Brandon Snyder is very good. I don't hate the guy, I obviously want him to succeed. I guess we will agree to disagree on this.
Agreed, they both need to tackle better in the open field. I was hoping Miles would have a great senior year, but his tackling needs to be better.
Hmmm...not quite as confident. Was in the front row watching Iowa warm up and Snyder of course was in street clothes. Walking fine, however when the team would huddle up and run to their individual drills, he would run too, but to my untrained eye still a hitch in the giddy up and he's maybe running at 75%
Hooker should have just won the competition battle. Gervase is not very good in pass coverage and has missed multiple tackles due to poor pursuit angles. Time for the next generation to take over.
Gervase had been in the system longer ... so he knew the calls longer. While Gervase may have had the "lead" as a starting safety ... we never knew the margin of that lead.
If you've closely watched how the depth chart has been "juggled" ... after Gervase's excellent 1st game performance ... Hooker then got listed as the #2 SS. I remarked upon the change because it suggested to me that he was being groomed to replace Taylor after he graduates. The implication that was apparent, at least to me, was that the coaches must really like Amani.
This perspective got further validated since we saw that Amani has earned a role in some of our nickel and dime packages - we saw this against ISU.
My guess is that Gervase's lead over Amani likely had been eroding. Given that Amani got a lot of work last December during bowl prep as our top nickel back (due to injuries) ... that tells me that Phil liked his cover skills and believed that he's adequately fast. Consequently, I'd infer that against UNT ... Phil probably felt that the UNT WRs had less of a match-up advantage against Amani ... so he decided to give him a shot. Amani was then in "sink or swim" mode ... and, overall, he acquitted himself sufficiently well to have earned the shot to prep as the starter against PSU.
Since they're all working towards a common goal ... I'm sure that both Gervase and Snyder are working hard to help Hooker prep for the PSU game. A big opportunity on a big stage ....
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