Breaking Down the Hawkeye Defense

        Hi all I'm back with another post about the Iowa Hawkeyes upcoming 2012 season. We all know the offense took a hit this week as Barkley Hill tore his ACL. This post is going to break down the defense position by position and look at who can be the impact players for us on defense this year. First of all we have a new defensive Coordinator in Phil Parker who seems to be a little more aggressive wanting to play more tight man to man and blitz more. We won't know this for sure until we see the Hawkeyes play against Northern Illinois at Soldier Field.

         First of all the key to this defense will be how much of a push we get from the defensive line. This will help the linebackers and the secondary if we get good pressure with the front 4. We have a lot of talented players on the defensive line they just don't have a whole lot of experience. Dominic Alvis is the top returning guy and he's coming off surgery on his shoulder last year. Carl Davis is another guy who has very little experience due to the fact that he hasn't been able to stay healthy so far during his career at Iowa. He's healthy now and could be that big Defensive Tackle in the middle that can stop the running game for opposition because he should be pretty hard to move without a double team. They guy that has really impressed has been Louis Trinca Pasat who has come on really strong to claim the other defensive tackle spot next to Davis. At the other end position we have Steve Bigach and Joe Gaglione as the guys who are battling for that spot, both have experience and could play very well at that position. On the bench we do have some good depth on the defensive line with Darian Cooper a very talented RS Freshman plus Mike Hardy, Melvin Spears and Riley McMinn all will see some time this season on the line. We also could see some freshman as Jaleel Johnson appears to be impressing and could get some time. That's 9 guys right there that will be extremely important for this football team this season without the pressure from the defensive line we may have some trouble against those spread teams that stand back and throw the football. I'm excited about this group because I feel they have all took steps in the right direction especially the starters who have emerged but everyone one of these guys needs to play a role for this team to be good.

             I think you can make an argument that this is one of the best linebacking core's in the nation. We have 3 guys that all have experience and should be a very good unit. I think James Morris who had kind of a rough year last year will return to form this season and really stand out on this team at middle linebacker. Christian Kirksey looks like a player poised for a breakout season and this could really be it for him he has all the speed plus good coverage skills to really take his game to the next level. The other starting linebacker is Anthony Hitchens he hasn't played as much as the other 2 but he did get a lot of experience last season when Tyler Nielsen was hurt. Hitchens is that speed linebacker a lot like Kirksey who can do a number of things against the pass and the run. I think this unit right here could be one of our fastest linebackers we have had in a long time. All of these guys look like they should have great seasons. We don't have a whole lot of depth with a bunch of young guys after these 3 Quinton Alston has been pretty good during practice, Cole Fisher, Jim Poggi and Travis Perry are all young linebackers plus Marcus Collins who has already made some big hits on special teams. All of these guys should be capable of playing at a very high level. I think this linebacking core could be the best in the big ten this year they are that talented.

              You can make an argument that this is the best secondary Iowa has had in a long time. We have 2 shut down corners in Micah Hyde and B.J Lowery, who both can be very good players. Hyde has been around for a while and should continue to play very good defense on one side of the field for us. Lowery has been a nickle corner but now he will get his shot to show what he can do with Prater's departure to the NFL B.J has all the skills to be a great shut down corner. He has size and toughness since he played with a cast on his wrist all last season. These 2 corners have a chance to be very good and should make us a very tough defense to pass on. At the Safety position we also have 2 very good players potentially Tanner Miller played free safety last year and played pretty well, he has a lot of experience coming back this season. He has the chance to really break out and be the next very good Iowa Free Safety, he has good ball skills and will will come up to tackle you. The guy that most Hawkeye fans are excited about is Nico Law this guy has been getting compared to the intensity that Bob Sanders brought if that doesn't excite you I don't know what will. The coaching staff has had to hold him back in practice a bit because he has been hitting his teammate too hard. I really think this guy has a chance to be a major difference maker because I think he can play up towards the line of scrimmage and wreak havoc like Jordan Bernstine did last season. The thing he still has to work on is being too excited to make a big hit and then not covering the area of the field he needs to be but he is only a sophomore and should improve on this. This secondary has a chance to be outstanding this season and really be a team that can shut down offensive teams. I'm not as worried about spread teams this season because this secondary should be able to play with every team we go against. We also have a lot of depth with returning guys Torrey Campbell, and Greg Castillo plus Jordan Lomax who would of been the 3rd corner but he had shoulder surgery and is out for the season. Campbell hasn't played a whole lot yet but has a lot of speed I wouldn't be surprised is we see him back returning kicks this season. Castillo doesn't always impress you but he is a consistent player that usually gets the job done he isn't going to do anything spectacular, he is just solid. John Lowdermilk, Colin Sleeper also are back plus Tom Donatell who has been challenging Law for that Strong Safety position. The 2 new comers that seem like they are going to play are Sean Draper and Kevin Buford both Freshman who have really impressed the coaches so far and could be eying that 3rd corner spot. Overall I think this secondary has a chance to be the best in the big ten we have the corners to shut people down and the safeties to make big hits.

            Overall I believe this defense will carry the Hawkeyes this season and really put us in position to be one of the best teams in the big ten. With the schedule the way it this team is talented enough to win 10 games or more but the key to this team will be the back 7, it is one of the best we have had in a combination of both we have a good secondary and great linebacking core. The key to this team will be how the defensive line does this season if they take the next step forward this defense could be on of the best in the nation if they don't than the Defense could be average. I think if the Defensive line can get pressure this defense will be very hard to score on especially if we play strong man to man defense and blitz the speedy linebackers we have. I'm very excited about this defense and we will find out how good this team will be in there first game vs Northern Illinois. In my next blog I will preview the Northern Illinois game and give you my prediction for the first game of the season.

Andy

Breaking Down the Hawks Offense

    We are in extremely young team but I believe this team has a lot of potential to be very good this season. The schedule sets up nice for us like I showed you and my last post. I think the offense has the potential to be very good with James Vandenberg at QB. He threw for over 3 thousand yards last year and should be even better in his senior year. There are plenty of question marks on offense and most of them surround the hawks skill positions as we really don't know who will play running back or who will be our 3rd receiver. Defensively this could be the best back 7 that we have had in a while the linebackers are experienced and all have good speed. The Secondary could be the best we've had in a while with very good cover corners and hard hitting safeties this defense could be very good, but there is one big question mark right now which is the defensive line. IF we can get the defensive line to play well I believe this could be a very special year. Now without further a do I'm going to break down the position one by one.

OFFENSE

QB James Vandenberg:  At Quarterback we have a very good passer in Vandenberg he has a chance to have a huge season. I believe we will be more of a passing team out of the shotgun this season due to the new offensive coordinator Greg Davis. We should have an uptempo offense and James has shown that he can be lethal throwing out of the shotgun. I think the offense could look a lot like the one we had against Pittsburgh last year in the 4th quarter. I think if Vandenberg has a big year this team could be very good if he doesn't play well and has trouble with pressure again the team may not reach there potential.

RB The biggest question on the team is who will play running back and how many people will play running back. Right now we have 3 guys that seem to be above the rest in Damon Bullock the starter right now, and 2 freshmen Barkley Hill and Greg Garmon. Right now Bullock will get the first crack and he is a versatile running back that can run and catch the ball out of the back field. The two Freshmen have a lot of potential with Barkley Hill who from watch some of his videos reminds me a little bit of Adam Robinson. Greg Garmon is the break away threat of the two running backs but the key to getting on the field as a freshmen which both will do is who can pick up the blitz the best because that is going to be a huge key to the offense giving Vandenberg time to throw. I'm not as worried as a lot of people about the running back position because I think someone will either emerge or as a collective group they should be pretty good with the versatility of each player. 

WR. We have 2 good receivers in Keenan Davis and Keyvonte Martin Manley. Both have the ability to be very good receivers for us next year. This is Keenan's time to really step up and become that number 1 receiver threat because he is going to be one of the focus's of the defense against us. This is also a year where we will find out more about Martin Manley and what kind of talent he has plus we will need him to step up and be a very solid number 2 receiver. Now here's where one of our question marks is who will be the number 3 receiver from what I have read and heard after seeing the big ten network preview it looks like Don Shumpert will be that 3rd guy for us. We also have Jacob Hillyer who is a big tall receiver that could create match up problems, Jordan Cotton who I thought looked pretty good in the spring game and Steven Staggs another solid option. We also have a number of freshmen that could get some time at the position so it could very interesting to see who starts against Northern Illinois. I think this Wide receiver group could be very good if Keenan can really become that number 1 and we get a 3rd guy to really step up. We lost maybe our best receiver ever in McNutt so we have a lot of numbers to replace. This group is talented enough to have a very good season as a group. I really think Keenan will step up and have a tremendous year next season if he can stay healthy.

TE This could be the position where we cause most of our match up problems. We have a lot of talent at the tight end position. CJ Fiedorowictz should have a huge season look for us to use him a little big like the Packers use Jermichael Finley lining him up on the outside against shorter corners and throwing the fade to him down at the goal line. CJ will cause a lot of match up problems for defenses because if you put a linebacker on him he is too fast and if you put a corner on him he's too big and strong. This should be the year he emerges as the next great Iowa tight end. The other tight end spot should be Zach Derby who is also very solid and played very well last season. They also have some talent behind them with Ray Hamilton and Henry Krieger Koble and Jake Duzey. This could be are deepest position on the team this season on offense and should be very good. 

OLINE The offensive line is going to the most important part of this team this season because if turn into a team that passes the ball a lot Vandenberg will need time to throw the football and that lands on the shoulders of the offensive lineman. With Brandon Scherff moving to left tackle we seem to have put together a decent line with Matt Tobin, James Ferents, Austin Blythe and Brett Van Sloten. This line is very deep and 3 of the 5 have gotten decent playing time plus we are lead by possibly the best center in the nation James Ferents. I'm excited about all of these guys and think this could be a very special offensive line. We also have a lot of depth with Jordan Walsh, Drew Clark, Nolan McMillan, Connor Boffeli and Tommy Gaul. This line will be extremely important to the success of this offense because if we can't run the ball we are going to be leaning heavily of Vandenberg to throw a lot.

The Offense as a whole has a lot of potential to be a very good group but there are still big question marks that need to be answered in camp before we play Northern Illinois. I think this could a year where Vandenberg has a monster year. I think that the receiving core as a whole will be very good we just need someone to become that 3rd threat on the offense. I'm excited about this offense and think it could be very special but we will have to wait till Northern Illinois to see how good this offense can. My next blog I will break down the defense, key positions and how good I believe this group can be. 

Thanks

Andy

NEW Season almost here

Hey I don't know about any of you but I'm super excited for the new season to get here. This is a season that could be very interesting for the Hawks. We have a lot of new coaches at key positions with Greg Davis taking over as our offensive coordinator and Phil Parker taking over at Defensive Coordinator. We also have  new coaches at offensive line in Brian Ferents and Linebacker in Lavar Woods. There are a lot of unknowns on this football team which is why it is hard to predict exactly how good of a team this could be.

SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent*	Result		Record
Sept. 1, 2012	at Northern Illinois (ESPNU)	2:30 pm CT | Tickets
Sept. 8, 2012	Iowa State (Big Ten Network)	2:30 pm CT | Tickets
Sept. 15, 2012	Northern Iowa (Big Ten Network)	2:30 pm CT | Tickets
Sept. 22, 2012	Central Michigan	TBA | Tickets
Sept. 29, 2012	Minnesota	11:00 am CT | Tickets
Oct. 13, 2012	at Michigan State	11:00 am CT | Tickets
Oct. 20, 2012	Penn State (Big Ten Network)	7:00 pm CT | Tickets
Oct. 27, 2012	at Northwestern	11:00 am CT | Tickets
Nov. 3, 2012	at Indiana	TBA | Tickets
Nov. 10, 2012	Purdue	TBA | Tickets
Nov. 17, 2012	at Michigan	TBA | Tickets
Nov. 23, 2012	Nebraska (ABC)	11:00 am CT | Tickets

We play a fairly easy schedule in the beginning of the season which should be good for this younger team. The game vs Northern Illinois at Soldier Field should tell us a lot about this team as a whole be Northern Illinois is a good football team and should provide a good opening test for the Hawks.The next 2 games are rivalry games first we play Iowa State at home a game that won't be easy as we all know the Clones always play well against us. Of the first 5 games I will be disappointed if we aren't sitting at least 4-1 if not 5-0. 

Our Big Ten Schedule is fairly good as the toughest games I believe we will play are @ MSU, @ UM, @ NU and Vs Nebraska. These 4 games right here could determine how good of a record this team will have. Right now there a lot of question marks surrounding this team. I believe the schedule is set up nice for us but this all depends on how good James Vandenberg can be this coming season. 

In my next blog I'm going to breakdown every position on the team and look at who will be playing at the key positions for the Hawkeyes so stay tuned for that.

Thanks 

Andy Jennings