Kids Day Scrimmage Thoughts

    

   Well it's about that time to start up College Football Season again. Yesterday I got the chance to see the Hawks in action at their annual Kids Day Scrimmage. The bad news about the scrimmage was that a lot of the main guys I wanted to see sat out of the practice. I probably didn't get to see what the offense will exactly look like with a lot of the wide receivers sitting out yesterday. Derrick Willies the star of the Spring sat out so that was a little disappointing because I really wanted to see what type of impact he can make on this offense. The Hawks only had three tight ends available yesterday they were Krieger Coble, George Kittle and Peter Pekar. So with that said I still was able to see a very stout defense that played extremely well. Some of that could be contributed to the offense being a little short handed.

       Offensively like I said earlier during the scrimmage a number of guys that will be playing in 2 weeks didn't play. Weisman and Bullock didn't play during the scrimmage at all and both of these guys will see the field a lot this season. The running backs on the day were Jordan Canzeri, Leshun Daniels, Akrum Wadley, Johnathon Parker, and CJ Hilliard. The Iowa offense did have a couple of injuries FB Adam Cox tore his ACL and Damond Powell had a Sports Hernia surgery so he will likely be out for the Non Conference portion of the schedule. The first team offensive line was of course LT Sherrf, LG Sean Welsh, C Austin Blythe, RG Jordan Walsh, RT Andrew Donnal the good thing is we do have some experience on the line at least with the starters the only guy without much playing time is Sean Welsh who is a Red shirt Freshman. Now depth wise is where things get interesting on the line we have a number of guys that don't have a lot of experience if anybody up front gets banged up. I know what you have all been waiting for quarterbacks who played? Jake Rudock looks to be the Number one QB he took all the snaps with the first team offense the interesting thing is that there has been talk about possibly playing two QBS this season.  The scrimmage saw a lot of 1's VS 1's. The starting offensive unit yesterday at WR was Martin Manley, Jake Hillyer, and Tevaun Smith so the team was missing a number of Wide outs that could contribute rotating in was Matt Vandeberg.

     
       As in most scrimmages the defense usually has the upper hand because they know what the offense is going to do on most plays. The first team offense really got off to a slow start as they went 3 and out the first two drives of the scrimmage. Rudock played okay nothing great but good enough to keep the starting QB job he was 15 for 26 with 169 yards also had a nice TD pass to Martin Manley on a skinny post he hit KMM who ran 58 yards for the touchdown. The Hawks threw the football a lot on. I really think we need to see these WR's step up they have shown glimpses but not that consistent play Iowa will need to be a major factor in the Western division. Jake Hillyer had 1 catch for 2 yards, Vandeberg one catch for 11 yards, and KMM 4 catches for 68 yards like last season Martin Manley was one of the main targets in the passing game. The one thing Rudock does so well is progression to go from his number 1 target to maybe his safety valve. He doesn't have the strongest arm but he does make very good decisions. Now the passing game should get a big boost when Derrick Willies and Andre Harris are playing. There has been a lot buzz about both of these guys becoming impact players for the offense. Looking at the running game the main ball carriers were Jordan Canzeri, and Leshun Daniels both of them looked very good at times Jordan showed of that speed to the outside a couple of times but he only had 4 carries during the scrimmage. Daniels looked like a guy poised to make an impact he was a lot better in the zone running scheme reading his blocking to find the hole. On the day he ran the ball 10 times for 32 yards. Running back is one of the positions where Iowa has a lot of talent and depth. The tight end that continues to impress me is George Kittle he has the ability to make some big plays if they can get the right matchups he had 5 catches for 98 yards he was lined up as a WR most of the game. The first team offense was a little short handed but I believe this offense can be very good.

      Second team offense was led by QB CJ Beathard once again you can just see the talent. He has just a cannon for an arm but still have trouble going through his progressions. At times he does a really nice job stepping into the pocket to make a throw than other times he will hold the ball too long. He was 13 for 28 for 172 yards. He made the 2 best throws of the day with a couple of back shoulder throws down the field to walk on Tight end Peter Pekar. Although he didn't throw a TD pass he put the team in position to score touchdowns. The running back that impressed me was Akrum Wadley he had very quick feet showed a good burst to the hole. I think Wadley would definitely have a chance to play if it wasn't for the talent in front of him he ran the ball 10 times for 39 yards and a TD. Another running back that got the chance to play was Johnathon Parker he is a very small running back a lot like Fred Russell the former Iowa running back. He is more of a scat back that we will try to get on the outside. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Wadley or Parker back to return kicks this season. They are both Red shirt Freshman and although Parker wasn't able to do a lot during the game if we can find a way to get him in space he could make some things happen. The wide receivers on the second team were Riley McCaron who didn't have a reception but made a great catch down by the pylon on a throw from Beathard but he couldn't get his feet down. Derrick Mitchell Jr. one of the guys I was looking forward to seeing is still transitioning to the WR position he looked a little lost at times came up with 2 catches for 15 yards. Andrew Stone was the third WR for the second team offense and he did a really nice job finding the holes in the zones. He ran very good routes catching 4 passes for 33 yards. Again the second team may of had some more playmakers if Andre Harris and Derrick Willies were playing in this game. The tight end that made the most of his opportunity was Peter Pekar he was making all the plays and hauled in 3 passes for 47 yards.

       Tyler Weigers the True Freshman QB led the 3rd team offense as a true freshman I thought he looked pretty sharp. He was 4-6 with 68 yards completing a deep pass to Trev Hadachek.  Although they didn't get to play a lot during the scrimmage I thought the running backs looked pretty good CJ Hilliard showed a nice burst to the hole running the ball 10 times for 24 yards and a fumble. . The key to this offense is staying healthy up front, the receivers becoming more consistent, and Jake Rudock has to take better care of the football he can't throw 13 interceptions like last season. The interesting thing was I didn't see any QB read from the offense last season we saw that a little. I'm still intrigued to see what the coaches mean by they want to play two QB's I guess we will find that out in two weeks when UNI comes to town.

        Now its time to take a look at the defense from Saturday, they are led by a big defensive line that should cause a lot of havoc up front. There are a couple of position battles one is the other cornerback on the opposite side of Desmond King Saturday Sean Draper started at corner. The other one is Linebacker Travis Perry and Josey Jewell rotated at the Outside linebacker position something I found very interesting because I thought Perry would be that starter. It looks like most positions on this defense are set but there are some interesting things at the Free Safety position was Jordan Lomax with John Lowdermilk at Strong Safety. I think Lomax could be a very good safety he played corner last season before an injury and should have good instincts to make some plays in the secondary. The defensive line should be dominant this year Carl Davis is extremely hard to move he clogged up the middle of the line all day. A few times he just pushed Blythe back into the back field and made the play. The linebackers don't have a lot of experience but it appears that Quinton Alston will be the starting middle linebacker and Reggie Spearman will be one of the starting outside linebackers. There were a couple of times the defense was confused one where Spearman and King both took the wide receiver leaving Canzeri by himself in the flat luckily Rudock threw the pass over Canzeri's head because he likely would of had a huge gain. The secondary is a question mark this season last year we gave up a lot of big plays with Lomax at Safety now hopefully his speed from the cornerback position coming over to safety will allow us to limit some of those big plays. The players that were most impressive on Saturday Nate Meier was getting pressure on Rudock at 6 ft 2 244 he is taking the next step to become a very good pass rusher.

The defensive line was getting pressure on the QB sacking them 9 times but the first team defense was only able to get 3 sacks. The young guys looked really good I got a chance to see true Freshman DE Matt Nelson the 6 ft 8 DE looked like he could be a star when he puts on weight he is a little small right now but with his frame he has a chance to be very good. Josey Jewell was very impressive at linebacker he all over the field and had the biggest hit of the day blowing up Drake Kulic in the backfield than hitting CJ Hilliard. Ben Nieman another linebacker was really impressive he had 2 sacks and was all over the field I would guess if Iowa is running the Raider package again he will be on it. The Secondary has some young talent and a lot of those guys were playing on the second team defense Malik Rucker was the starter on that team plus he also rotated in with the starting unit. Miles Taylor was the back up Strong Safety he is another true freshman that will likely see the field this season, Anthony Gair backed up Free safety for the second team. The third team defense gave me a chance to see a lot of the younger players in the secondary Josh Jackson, Marcel Jolly, and Solomon Warfield. There is a lot of talent on these second and third teams which should be good for the special teams units.

      On the defensive line the guy I kept noticing was Faith Ekakite he was causing a lot of problems in the interior of the offensive line he was getting a very strong push into the backfield. Jaleel Johnson also stood out he was very tough to move on the second team defense. He did get into a scuffle with Boone Myers and wound up getting ejected for throwing a punch. Nate Bazata another guy that had a really good scrimmage his name was called on a number of occasions Saturday. Defensively this team has a chance to be one of the best units in the Big Ten. Some of the question marks were answered at Linebacker we have more depth than I originally thought especially with the way Ben Nieman played. Josey Jewell looking like a guy that can make an impact on special teams and certain situations defensively. I think the biggest question still lies in the secondary King is possibly the best corner in the Big Ten and Lowdermilk has experience at Strong Safety. Jordan Lomax wasn't a safety last season he played Corner so this will be a little bit of a transition although he looked very good on Saturday. The other corner between Sean Draper, Reese Flemming and Malik Rucker is the biggest question who will grab hold of that spot. The defensive line looks to be the strength of this defense. We have 3 new starters at linebacker and 2 new starters in the Secondary so there are still question marks but what I saw on Saturday has me excited about the potential of this defense.

       Special teams is one of the areas of this team that could be a weakness this season. The kicking game especially left a lot to be desired. This could be the first year I'm a little nervous about are field goal kicking we have been very good kicking in the past. The 3 kickers battling for the job are Marshall Koehn who was 2-6, Mick Ellis who looked like the starter at this time he was 5-5 on the day. The other true Freshman walk on Miguel Recinos was 3-5. None of the kickers really stood out so this is a situation we will have watch into the season. Koehn looked to be the long distance kicker as he made 2 43 yard field goals. Miguel Recinos made a 28 yarder and 2 38 yard field goals. Now it could of just been a bad day for the kickers but they were missing consistently from short distances, those  are kicks that have to be made. The kick return unit for the first team was Johnathon Parker and Akrum Wadley both the young running backs that have good speed to be dangerous. The punter battle is interesting too right now it appeared as if Dillon Kidd has the edge over the returning Connor Kornbraith. Kidd on the day punted 3 times for an average of 43.6 yards and Kornbraith punted twice for a 37 yard average. The wind was behind Kidd on a couple of his punts and in front of Kornbraith on his so the averages may be a little unfair. Kidd really punted the ball well he was kicking perfect spirals and looked like he could be the punter this season. Special teams is always important and could be a real factor this season. Field goal kicking and punting will be something to watch this season. Punting seems to be in better shape than field goal kicking right now. This could be a situation where we see more than one kicker get a chance in games. Hopefully one of the kickers will take control and win the job but if yesterday is any indication we do have some question marks at this position.

       Getting the chance to see the Hawkeyes yesterday has me really excited about how good this team could be this season. This team has the potential to win the Western division the offense has a strong running game and should be better in the passing game with the addition of some of the younger receivers. Defensively the defensive line should be dominant if the linebackers and Corners play up to there potential this could be one of the best defenses in the Nation. Special teams is my biggest question mark going into the season we could have a new punter and a new kicker. The return game will be interesting to watch with the loss of Jordan Cotton we will have two new guys back their with Parker and Wadley who are both very explosive players. Jordan Canzeri could be on the kick return unit also. All I know is this is the most anticipated Iowa season in a while the question will be can they live up to these expectations. Everything is in front of them they get Nebraska and Wisconsin at home which are the 2 teams we should be battling for the division title. We are just two weeks away from the home opener against UNI and I can't wait. Thanks for reading and as always

GO HAWKS