Iowa Fan, we need your breakdown of your team in this thread.

Cool site, watched part of last year's Outback Bowl.

 

This season, the hawkeyes painted a picture that changed over time. In September we had a young QB and a struggling offensive line...and then we began to lose RB's. Teams began throwing a lot of blitz packages our way. In October Tate found his groove. He and the receivers learned how to read blitz and make plays with extreeme pressure, he also demonstrated an inate ability to scramble, keep looking down field and complete passes when most QB's would not have.

The Iowa defense has 4 seniors on the line. Two of the 3 LBs are all conference and the DB's are pretty solid. We play a vanilla 4-3 defense nearly every play. Norm Parker, the defensive coordinator was previously at Vandy-as a d-coordinator..you may remember him. Down the stretch we beat teams like Minn and Purdue by forcing turnovers and scoring just enough points.

Honestly I think there is little difference between Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin and Iowa... Purdue seemed to come up shot vs the others but they are a very good team.

You've probably read about the classic 6-4 victory vs Penn State. I observed that PSU is very well coach and has very good athletes on Defense (classic penn state), the problem Joe Pa has is they had absolutely NO ofense. So we prevailed but Drew Tate was out of character, no rythm, he was rattled and showed a lot of frustration in that game - I'm glad he had that game because he'll need to know how to deal with speedy athletic defenders in the COB.

Minn, noted for it's ground game, ran the ball down our throat. When Ferentz was asked what happened he said: They have some outstanding linemen and they just executed really well today. I'll add that on one of the long Min TD runs their RB stepped out of bounds.. oh well.

As far as B10 being down this year, it seems to me that people say that anytime OSU or Mich lose 2+ games. But that does not mean that other teams are not good. I will say that there were not consistently prolific offenses in the big 10 this year.

We played pretty well vs Michigan but turned the ball over 5 times. Our players felt like we could move the ball on them and stop them consistently enough...if only they had a short field....etc. :dis:

cheers
nch

 

O-line - We played about 8 different guys this year because of injuries.. Iowa uses a zone blocking scheme which take a lot of drilling coordination to be effective. Half way through the season..they had not come togheter..Nobody outside the film room can say if they improved because by the time we hid mid season we were using the #6 tail back who's job was to simply hold on to the ball.

Receivers - No superstars. We play about 6 different people here. Solomon is a taller more classic wide receiver. Hinkle is a little guy who is tough with good hands..made some spectacular catches (see scotthawks's site for highlights).

Tight end - We play 3 different guys. Chandler is the "receiver" Jackson is the "blocker".

Running backs - By Jan 1 we should be healthy enough.. Marquese Simmons will get the nod, he was highly recruited by ND, Miami, Neb and Iowa... He went to Neb then transfered back.. He was 4 or 5 on the depth chart primarily because of his short tenure in the program. He showed a lot in the few saps he got before sustaining a sprained ankle vs OSU. Daminan Simms is a true Frosh out of FLA, shows promise but hasn't been in the weight program long enough.. a lot of speed and confidence. FB - we have two very good full backs

 

Thanks for the breakdowns nchawk.

 

I agree, Goldmember needs to take that stuff some place else.

 

Profile Defense

bear with me..you asked for it.

Iowa gave up an average of 16.9 pts per game (4th in the conference) and gave up 289 yds per game (2nd in the conference).

Line - DE Matt Roth, consensus 1st team all conference gets the most attention. He is a high energy brawler who has tremendous quickess. Hawk fans think he should make all american. 3 year starter, DT Johnathan Babinaux, also all conference was a former full back but converted to D line very quick. Two other d linemen are seniors who are starting this year for ther first time. They are steady players.

Linebackers - 2 of the 3 are all conference as Juniors, Very quick and physical.


DB's all pretty decent, no superstars.

gota go