Your 2018 Starters! Do we have what it takes to win the West?
- Thread starter Franisdaman
- Start date
Yea he's got the size and can add weight alright. He'll end up much bigger than yer typical backer. I think OL is fast quickly becoming the more pressing concern. Might as well keep him practicing at center.
Duwa is already past 265. He has an OL/DL body-type ... but with "smaller-guy" quickness and explosiveness.
Per Chad of HawkCentral, now that Daniels has chosen to leave, redshirt sophomores Cole Banwart and Spencer Williams could be vying for this crucial Center spot.
Thoughts?
I am more concerned about our back 7 on defense and our punting. Hope the coaches figure it out.
I wouldn’t say back 7. Just linebackers. I fully expect the back 4 to be a strength. I am much more concerned about the OL than the defensive backfield.
While our scoring defense was very good in 2017, our rushing defense was not. I expect that to improve in 2018.
thanks for your insight; i hate losing Jackson, but he had to move on
do you think they have enough talent to figure out the starting 5 where they can not only compete but BEAT Wisconsin at HOME?
I may be sensing some sarcasm, but here are my worthless opinions that may or may not be correct.
The talent? Sure, I would guess they have the talent. They had the talent in 2017, but it didn’t equate to a good, or even above average OL. They had at least four kids that I would bet money will be drafted some day. Unfortunately, two them had never played a down of college football coming into the season.
Can they beat Wisconsin at home? Of course they can, but the OL is probably going to need to come together a little quicker than I’d expect them to.
I wasn’t sure, because I have no actual insight. I do have 55% confidence in my opinions.
At Ohio State THEY don't need to develop players because they get all-americans who don't need development.
But at Iowa our all-americans need development apparently.
lol
The excuses are pathetic and predictable. If Brian identified weaknesses he should've schemed to his strengths. But he didn't. He ran a skinny kid into a wall like his name was Weisman. He let a statue stand in the pocket and get shaken. Nothing prevented Brian from experimenting with different schemes and different players. He's just like his father: "We do what we do and don't focus on other teams' weaknesses or our strengths. And we sure as heck don't try and catch people off guard. That would be cheating."
smh
Brian most certainly went outside the normal Iowa box.
It may not have been enough for you or I but he did and most of it worked pretty well.
I think he learned some things this year and we'll see more next year.
Your bittner attitude towards the coaches is lame, old and flat out a misrepresentation of the truth.
That wasn’t an excuse. Where are you getting that from? Like I said, unfortunately two players had never played a down. That is Iowa’s fault for missing on the tackles position for a couple of classes.
Advice to others posters. Never click on show ignored posts. You end up reading stuff posted by jackasses like Bittner, who I must have wisely ignored at some point.
When putting together a line-up right now, in early January we tend to forget one reality in college football: injuries.
I like the safety situation where we have 3 guys that can and have started. One of them will probably get injured during the year so it would be nice to have 3 capable guys.
At the beginning of 2017 we assumed the OLine would have 2 3-year starters at tackle. Didn’t really work out that way.
I like the safety situation where we have 3 guys that can and have started. One of them will probably get injured during the year so it would be nice to have 3 capable guys.
At the beginning of 2017 we assumed the OLine would have 2 3-year starters at tackle. Didn’t really work out that way.
We absolutely have the talent. OL play does need to take a step forward and one thing that will help that is the coaches confidence in Stanley. Our coaching game play was never to put the game in our sophomore qb's hands. We wanted to impose the will of our offensive line and teams knew it. I also love Wadley and what he brought to the table but I do think Toren Young and Ivory Kelly-Martin are fits for our game plan. Losing Daniels will be some big shoes to fill but I think Iowa does it next year well. Offense will be improved.
Defensively, LB will be to toughest spot to fill. The good news here is we will be doing it with upperclassman (more than likely). We have plenty of LBs who have been waiting in the wings for 3-4 years. I do not see this position taking a step forward this year, but with a proven DL and several returning DBs as long as our LBs are serviceable we will win a lot of games.
Special Teams will be were we win or lose games. Kick off should be good. Kick return should be good. Punt return and Punt will need to take the biggest step forward next year. We gave up field position way too many times last year because of our inability to field punts. As bad as punt return was, punting was worse.
In conclusion, we have the talent to make a serious run next year, but our special teams needs to drastically improve!
Defensively, LB will be to toughest spot to fill. The good news here is we will be doing it with upperclassman (more than likely). We have plenty of LBs who have been waiting in the wings for 3-4 years. I do not see this position taking a step forward this year, but with a proven DL and several returning DBs as long as our LBs are serviceable we will win a lot of games.
Special Teams will be were we win or lose games. Kick off should be good. Kick return should be good. Punt return and Punt will need to take the biggest step forward next year. We gave up field position way too many times last year because of our inability to field punts. As bad as punt return was, punting was worse.
In conclusion, we have the talent to make a serious run next year, but our special teams needs to drastically improve!
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9 wins minimum.
I don't give a f*** if you have to go pull 22 all star football players from Iowa City Regina's 6th grade school team. I don't give a f*** who you put on the field.
9 wins minimum.
I don't give a f*** if you have to go pull 22 all star football players from Iowa City Regina's 6th grade school team. I don't give a f*** who you put on the field.
9 wins minimum.
Should we be concerned as Chad Leistikow of the Register?
Chad LeistikowVerified account@ChadLeistikow Jan 5
I think the loss of James Daniels tempers expectations for the 2018 Hawkeyes. OL now a serious concern, along with LBs. Plus, notable inexperience at skill positions on offense (RB, WR) & defense (CB).
Hard core. Someone give this man two dozen wings and we’ll sit back and watch.
In 2015, Myers and Boettger were first year starting OTs. Welsh was solid in '14 as a RS FS .... but missed spring camp due to depression ... and it wasn't at all clear what we would be able to expect from him as a SO. We had precious few who had experience to help give us much faith in our depth.Should we be concerned as Chad Leistikow of the Register?
I think the loss of James Daniels tempers expectations for the 2018 Hawkeyes. OL now a serious concern, along with LBs. Plus, notable inexperience at skill positions on offense (RB, WR) & defense (CB).
As we enter '18, we will benefit from 3 returning starters and a 4th guy (Reynolds) who the coaches seem to view as a co-starter. Also, we have at least a few other guys who seem slated to return (Paulsen and Ferguson) and who have some game experience.
Obviously the OL would have been much better off had Daniels stuck around. But that doesn't mean that the OL cannot still develop into a pretty good unit. Frankly, if guys on the OL can remain pretty healthy ... I'm upbeat about the group.
The WR situation is already worlds better than where it was at the same juncture last year. How many scolarship guys did we have on the roster who were healthy for last spring camp? Fast forward to this spring .... and there will be plenty of guys in the room. Look even further to June .... and we're looking at an even more competition to drive the WRs forward. More importantly, Copeland is no longer a new face on the coaching staff. He will have even more time to meld minds with O'Keefe and Brian ... and that will only help to improve the cohesion of our still-developing passing game.
We got a flavor of what to expect in the running game ... from what I've seen ... I'm pretty excited about who we have (and the breadth of their respective skill sets).
As for CB .... the overall experience of the group has definitely taken steps forward. A few years ago Ferentz mentioned how Phil is the absolute best DB coach he's been around. That comment was devoid of any hyperbole. If a guy isn't demonstrating the focus, effort, and attention to detail that Phil expects of his guys ... Phil will let another guy have a chance. More often than not ... we end up seeing high-level DB play as a result. Given that the staff has appeared to be pretty pro-active about CB recruiting .... I expect that we'll ultimately be okay at the position.
Right now, the only high-level of concern I have relates to our LBs. However, even then, I trust that we have the requisite raw talent on the roster. The only concern relates to getting the talent to play fast .... and hopefully with enough consistency.
C. Lattimore really came on the last 1/3 of the season. Doesn’t really make any difference who starts. Wouldn’t be surprised to see 4-6 players at DT getting reps. A lot of situational combinations in the War Chest.
Easley isn't getting beat out by one of the younger guys next year, unless one of them becomes really really good.
Usually a DT candidate requires physical development ... Nixon already has pretty nice size. At least on tape, Nixon looks like an even more explosive version of Jaleel ... maybe with not quite the power (yet ... we'll see what Doyle can do with him).
Kirk is on record saying that he hopes that Nixon can enter the rotation at DT. There are several reasons why he might hope that ...
- It could drive the competition forward
- It adds a little more "beef" on the DL
- Given that we have 2 other DTs, Linderbaum and Shannon, in the recruiting class ... it would be nice to make sure that the DT situation has some staggering with the personnel in terms of eligibility.
