Penn State Game recap Offense

QB- Stanzi still didn't have a great game, but he wasn't missing receivers like he has in the past. He was putting the ball where his receivers should have come down with the ball. His one interception was off of his receiver's hands and then kicked into the air. He managed the game really well and towards the end of the game his clock management was great, he was constantly taking the play clock inside five seconds before snapping the ball. Overall grade B

RB- Adam Robinson and Brandon Wegher have really come on as running backs. As fans we all wondered how they would perform against better competition. They were able to find holes in the Nittany Lion defense and more importantly they were able to pick up the blitzers. I thought that as the game went on, the running backs seemed to be running harder and taking advantage of a worn down defense. One thing that both of the running backs does is the run hard and finish runs going forward. Overall grade A-

WR/TE- Over the first three weeks the receiving unit played well. However they played an average game against Penn State. There were several drops and in the big games, like this one was, you can't have those. They did do a very good job of blocking and you have to give them the benefit of the doubt when Moeaki didn't play and DJK and McNutt both played sparingly. Overall grade B

OL- This unit continues to impress me. They played against a defensive line that was supposed to be better than them. They were opening up big holes all night for the running backs and aside from a few blitzes, they really gave Stanzi time to find his receivers. In my opinion, Riley Reiff has outperformed what anyone thought that he would do. The level of his play opposed to Bulaga's is not that big of a drop. Overall grade A-

Penn State Prediction Review

Penn State wins if- They force turnovers. If they can turn Iowa over a couple times and get a lead it will force Iowa to abandon their run game and if they abandon their run game, they also lose the ability to run play action passes. Penn State needs to get Evan Royster going in the game, whether it is running the ball or catching the ball out of the backfield. Penn State's defense needs to apply pressure to Ricky Stanzi, who hasn't been pressured that much yet this season.

Iowa wins if- Second half Ricky Stanzi plays the whole game. Here are Ricky's stats so far this season by half:

1st half: 27 of 55 for 281 yards, 3 iNT 2 TD completion % of 49.2% Effic Rating of 93.09
2nd half: 33-45 for 363 yards, 0 INT, 3 TD completion % of 73.3% Effic Rating of 163.09

If Ricky can perform well and protect the ball, there will be plays to be made in the Penn State secondary. Iowa needs to dominate the line on both sides of the ball, like they have done all season so far. If the defense can keep Daryl Clark in the pocket and force him to make plays from there, it is a good thing. Ryan Donahue could play a huge factor in the game in changing field position.

Score Predictions:
Iowa 20 21
Penn State 17 10

Predictions:
Iowa forces 2+ turnovers 4
Penn State misses at least 1 FG 0
Lee doesn't play for Penn State He didn't
DJK and Moeaki play for Iowa DJK played and Moeaki suited up
Stanzi has 2+ TD's 0
Iowa is held to under 100 yards rushing 163
Stanzi throws for 250+ yards 135

Penn State Preview

When Penn State has the ball-
Daryl Clark will be the best quarterback that Iowa has seen so far this season. He has the threat of leaving the pocket and making plays with his feet, which isn't new to Iowa, but he is an experienced quarterback that probably won't make mistakes. Their wide receivers are young, but talented and fast, the question will be what they can do against an experienced Iowa secondary. Royster is a very talented running back, but has been underutilized so far this season. Where he can really hurt Iowa in the passing game, where he is very talented as a pass catcher. Their offensive line is extremely young, they will have their hands full with the Iowa defensive line.

When Iowa has the ball-
It will be strength against strength, Iowa's running game against Penn State's front 7. Iowa will be without Bryan Bulaga, but will have the same starting offensive line as they had last week. Penn State might have the best linebacker corps in the nation, but may be without Sean Lee, who has a knee injury. They will have Bowman back in the lineup for the first time since opening weekend, but he probably won't be 100%. IF both of these players are out, it is a huge advantage to Iowa. Penn State's secondary is young and untested, so it will be interesting to see how the do against an above average passing game of Iowa.

Penn State wins if-
They force turnovers. If they can turn Iowa over a couple times and get a lead it will force Iowa to abandon their run game and if they abandon their run game, they also lose the ability to run play action passes. Penn State needs to get Evan Royster going in the game, whether it is running the ball or catching the ball out of the backfield. Penn State's defense needs to apply pressure to Ricky Stanzi, who hasn't been pressured that much yet this season.

Iowa wins if-
Second half Ricky Stanzi plays the whole game. Here are Ricky's stats so far this season by half:

1st half: 27 of 55 for 281 yards, 3 iNT 2 TD completion % of 49.2% Effic Rating of 93.09
2nd half: 33-45 for 363 yards, 0 INT, 3 TD completion % of 73.3% Effic Rating of 163.09

If Ricky can perform well and protect the ball, there will be plays to be made in the Penn State secondary. Iowa needs to dominate the line on both sides of the ball, like they have done all season so far. If the defense can keep Daryl Clark in the pocket and force him to make plays from there, it is a good thing. Ryan Donahue could play a huge factor in the game in changing field position.

Score Predictions:
Iowa 20
Penn State 17

Predictions:
Iowa forces 2+ turnovers
Penn State misses at least 1 FG
Lee doesn't play for Penn State
DJK and Moeaki play for Iowa
Stanzi has 2+ TD's
Iowa is held to under 100 yards rushing
Stanzi throws for 250+ yards

Arizona Game Recap

DL- Domination, that is the word that describes the performance of the defensive line last weekend. The individual stats won't jump off of the paper at you, but as a unit, they do what they have to do. They only got two sacks, but the number of QB pressures and QB hits also takes its toll. Adrian Clayborn had a great game tallying 6 tackles and a sack, with two great tackles where he ran down the back from the backside. Overall grade: A

LB- There is nothing bad to say about the linebacker corps of Iowa. They know their assignments and execute them almost flawlessly. Jerimiah Hunter made a huge play on a fake field goal in the 3rd quarter. The unit as a whole could still button up their tackling. Overall grade: B+

DB- The best DB's in the Ferentz era? I think that they could be. I would be willing to say that Prater and Spievey are the best CB duo for sure. They are good enough that you Norm could have the ability to put both of them on an island and still have the two deep zone. Tyler Sash is just a ball hawk, seems to play the cover two zone to a T. He has 7 INT's in his last five games and just missed his second multi-interception game in as many weeks. Overall grade: A

Defensive Notes-
Iowa gave up three big running plays, 75, 39, & 34 outside of those plays they had 22 rushes for 50 yards

ST- Murray will be the kicker for the rest of the season barring injury. He looks good and is getting good height on his kickoffs and allowing his coverage time to get down field. Donahue is a stud, averaging 51 yards per punt in the game with two getting downed inside the 20.

Arizona game- Offensive analysis

QB- For the third straight game it was a tale of two halves for Ricky Stanzi. He started out hot on the first drive taking the Hawks on their opening drive for a touchdown. He ended the drive 2-5 with one of the completions being a great one handed catch by Marvin McNutt on a ball that was behind him. On the second drive he threw the pick six on an out pattern that seemed to be late and in the air forever. There was also a play when Stanzi missed a wide open Reisner, who turned to the outside and the ball was thrown to the inside. We don't know who made the wrong move, but it looks like Stanzi made the bad throw. Ricky redeemed himself in the second half with a great throw to Reisner over the middle for a long gain. In the second half he calmed down and made the throws that he had to make, converting several key third day throws. He finished 20-32 for 205 yards and the 1 INT. Overall grade B-

RB- Adam Robinson started at tailback and has gotten better each week. He runs the ball hard, catches the ball out of the backfield and blocks. He had a huge third down run on a draw play when Iowa was probably just setting up the punt. He is getting much better with running the zone play, which is a staple in the Iowa offense. Adam finished the game with 18 carries for 101 yards. Brandon Wegher also carried the ball on Saturday and like most true freshman he is having his growing pains. He does look very good in goaline situations leaping over the pile. Overall grade: B+

WR/TE- Colin Sandeman had his official coming out party last week, he got the start opposite Trey Stross. Iowa's depth at this position is something that we haven't seen for several years. 7 different players caught a pass from Stanzi, with Sandeman leading the way with 5 grabs. Paul Chaney saw his speed utilized with three different rushing attempts in the game. Reisner filled in admirably for Moeaki, but his blocking isn't even in the same realm. The problem that plagued the Hawks for several years and that seems to be corrected this season. Overall grade: B+

OL- For the first time this season Iowa had the same starting lineup from one week to the next and it showed. The line fought a losing battle all day due to the fact that Arizona was stacking the box and out-numbering the blockers. Despite that fact, they were still able to pave the way for near 150 yards rushing and Rick Stanzi had plenty of time to throw all day long. Iowa may not play a faster defense all season than they did against Arizona. Riley Reiff's progression has been remarkable and the gap between him and Bryan Bulaga is not as great as some people thought. Dace Richardson continues to look good coming off of missing the majority of the last two seasons. Eubanks had a poor game, getting beat a few times and also having a holding call. Overall grade: B+

Arizona Prediction recap

Predictions:
Iowa forces 3+ turnovers 1
Stanzi has at least one pass completion for 40+ yards Long of 34
Iowa running game is held to under 150 yards, but Stanzi throws for more than 200 133 rushing 205 passing
Arizona will have a big defensive or special teams play, possibly a TD Pick 6 in the first quarter
Murray kicks 3 FG’s 2/2 FG's
Binns racks up 2+ sacks 0

Score prediction: 23-10 Actual 27-17

Iowa vs Arizona prediction

When Arizona has the ball-
Their offense will be more like Iowa’s than the first two of Iowa’s opponents. They would have had an All American caliber TE playing, but he is injured and not playing. They will deploy more of a power running style as the main RB, Grigsby, is one of the top rushers in the nation so far this season. This will be an excellent test for the Hawkeye defense that matches up much better against Arizona than they have against UNI and ISU. The defensive line will finally be matched up against an offense that won’t have so much mis-direction and wide open alignments. One thing to note is that Arizona’s QB will be starting his first road game in college and this week was quoted as saying that he wasn’t worried about it because he played against some big crowds in college. I think that he is underestimating the 70,000 that will pack Kinnick Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

When Iowa has the ball-
Iowa will probably be without Bulaga and Moeaki this week as both are going to be game time decisions. If that is the case it really hurts Iowa’s running game. Reiff can fill in for Bulaga at an all right level, but the run blocking drops off significantly from Moeaki to Reisner. Look for Iowa to run a lot away from the TE and possibly employ more three and four wide sets to run out of. Arizona’s defense is fast, but they don’t have a whole lot of size up front, look for Iowa to start with the running game to set up the play action pass.

Score Prediction: Iowa 23 Arizona 10

Predictions:
Iowa forces 3+ turnovers
Stanzi has at least one pass completion for 40+ yards
Iowa running game is held to under 150 yards, but Stanzi throws for more than 200
Arizona will have a big defensive or special teams play, possibly a TD
Murray kicks 3 FG’s
Binns racks up 2+ sacks

ISU game analysis- Special Teams/Coaching

K- It looks more and more like Murray will keep this job all season and Mossbrucker will red shirt. Nothing to speak of here, he made his PAT's and had no FG attempts.

P- Donahue is a weapon for this defense. He only averaged 39 yards per punt, but 3 of his 4 were downed inside the 20 and that leaves a long field for the opposing offense.

Returns- Chaney had a long punt return snuffed out by a block in the back and his other one was for only 2 yards. He brings some explosiveness to the return game and hopefully we will see him get into the open soon. Kick return wise Spievey got the only return of the day for 20 yards, if the defense keeps playing like it did last week we won't see too many of these again this season.

Coverage- Iowa kept the dangerous Leonard Johnson in check, holding him to an average return of 17 yards. The punt coverage unit only allowed three return yards, so once again last week they did a great job of covering kicks. Shout out here for Bruce Davis who covered the ill-advised onside kick attempt by Iowa State in the first quarter. Who needs a hands team?

Coaching- One of the better called games for both O'Keefe and Parker. Had Stanzi hit his open receivers there would have been a lot more points on the board. Parker was the puppet master of Austin Arnaud, you would have thought that he knew what plays were coming and he called defenses that baited Arnaud into throwing into coverage. Seemed that Kirk also had the team ready to play on Saturday, they came out and withstood the early ISU emotion unlike the past couple of trips to Jack Trice

ISU Game Analysis- Defense

DL- Once again the D-line played a solid game, against teams like UNI and ISU you aren't going to see a whole lot of stats from the line. I thought that they put good pressure on the Cyclone quarterbacks all game long and basically had their way with a larger offensive line. What concerned me was the amount of rushing yards ISU got in the game. Part of that was due to the scheme that ISU uses, that zone read running play coupled with the wider OL splits will cause the vanilla Iowa defense fits all season. Binns led the charge with 9 tackles and Klug had the only TFL for the DL. Overall grade: B

LB- After last weeks poor performance the linebackers stepped it up this last week. However they still missed too many tackles. Most of the time it was the basic fundamental of not wrapping up the ball carrier. The LB play on the option was for the most part good, I thought that their decision to make Arnaud carry the ball was well played by Edds most of the game. In pass coverage the LB's did all right against a bevy of crossing patterns, but still showed room for improvement. Overall grade: B

DB- Well after saying that the safeties played a sub-par game against UNI, they brought their A game against ISU. Sash and Greenwood both had multiple INT days with Sash being Arnaud's second favorite target with three grabs. The entire defensive backfield had a stellar game, William Lowe got the start at the corner opposite Spievey and was hardly picked on at all. It appeared that Iowa played more man coverage on Saturday than they normally do and they played it exceptionally well. Everyone wants to talk about the bad passes Arnaud made, but there was little room to get the ball to his receivers as they couldn't get any separation from the Iowa DB's. Overall grade: A

Defensive notes:
Team did a great job of gang tackling
Arnaud still does not know that Iowa plays a cover 2
Looked shaky against the run at times
6 TO's is going to win you a lot of games

ISU game analysis- Offense

QB- What would the score had been if Rick Stanzi had a good game? It would have been ridiculous. Stanzi missed a lot of open receivers almost all of them high. There have only been a couple of times this season that Stanzi has hit a receiver in stride and allowed the receiver make a play with the ball in his hands. Stanzi did throw 4 TD's, but he missed at least two other TD's. He threw two INT's that were poorly thrown. He needs to play better as Iowa gets into the meat of their schedule. James Vandenberg came in at the end of the game and showed his arm strength as he tried to drive the ball between the 1's on Nordeman's jersey. Overall grade: C

RB- Coming off of the performance last week against UNI the RB unit needed a big performance. Adam Robinson started the game and Brandon Wegher got his first significant carries as a Hawkeye. Both backs ran the ball well and more importantly blocked well. Wegher showed that he might be the featured back sooner rather than later. Both backs run the ball hard and never seem to be taken down by the defender that makes first contact. Wegher showed great field vision making cuts and moves that made him look like a seasoned veteran. Brett Morse had a great game blocking and showed that he can also be a receiving threat. Overall grade: A-

TE/WR- Another stellar game for the receivers of Iowa, you have to see the correlation between Erik Campbell coming on as a coach and the emergence of Iowa's receivers. They all run good routes. block well, and make the plays when they are called on. It was good to see DJK get some early reps and Keenan Davis pop his touchdown cherry. Moeaki is a stud, his blocking was awesome on Saturday, I saw several times that he made the key block on running plays. Overall grade: A

OL- With Bulaga out the Hawks were figured to have trouble with blocking, but they played light years better than they did the previous week. Riley Reiff filled in for Bulaga and will be a stud when he gets a chance to play. Look for him to be on an NFL roster in four years. Vandevelde and Calloway were both back in the starting lineup and it showed. There was a great pocket all day long around Stanzi, they only gave up one sack and that was on a well called blitz on a naked boot leg. The run blocking left some to be desired, but Iowa State had 8 players in the box all day long and were daring Iowa to throw it. Overall grade: B

Overall offensive observations:
Iowa wore down the ISU defense.
They score should have been a lot worse, Stanzi missed wide open targets
The running game looked a lot better in the second half.
The run blocking will get better with all the projected starters playing
This is the deepest passing game in the Ferentz era, hopefully they don't lose any players for not getting the ball very much.

Arizona 2-Deep Notes

The two-deeps are out for the Arizona game, here are some notes:

Bulaga listed back at LT, guess it wasn't a serious ailment
Wegher listed as the backup running back
No Keenan Davis
Spievey not listed as KR
Lowe listed ahead of Prater

Gut Check time in the Big Ten

So the Big Ten has gotten a bad rap the last couple of years and justifiably so. They haven't performed well in the big games and that is ultimately what matters in the eyes of the public. This weekend could do a lot to help the Big Ten's rep as they have some key out of conference games with other BCS schools:



USC @ Ohio State

Notre Dame @ Michigan

Fresno State @ Wisconsin

Iowa @ Iowa State

Purdue @ Oregon



Obviously the big game is USC @ Ohio State, but the other four are also important to the conferences overall rep. How do I think the games will turn out, I think the only Big Ten team to lose will be Purdue.



USC 24 Ohio State 32

Notre Dame 17 Michigan 24

Fresno State 10 Wisconsin 21

Iowa 28 Iowa State 16

Purdue 17 Oregon 28

Iowa State game preview

This is a rivalry game, so you might as well throw out all the trends, tendencies, and stats from last week. Both teams come in after non-impressive victories in their first games.

ISU on offense: How well do the Clones know this offense, the no-huddle semi-hurry up style? They looked good at times last week and bad at others. They have opened up their line splits which spreads the defense out more and gives the OL a better chance, I think they did this because they know they don't have a very good OL and needed to find an advantage. Robinson is a good back playing behind an average OL, so it really depends on their sets as to whether he has success against Iowa, if they spread out the Hawks he will have a better game than if they allow Iowa to keep 7 in the box. Arnaud will have a big game yardage wise, much like he did last year, so long as he takes what the Iowa defense gives him. Usually that means 8 yard outs and slants. Where he could really be a weapon is in the run game, if ISU goes 4-5 wide and then runs a QB draw they could have some success ala Brett Meyer a couple of years ago.

ISU on defense: The Cyclone defense was awful last year and at least in the first game this season didn't look much better. They are undersized up front and their back 7 missed a lot of tackles. They are opportunistic creating 2 turnovers, one of which was in their own end zone. They gave up over 200 yards rushing and almost that much passing against a inferior team. Johnson is a solid corner, but their defense has some work to do.

Iowa on offense: Last week was an awful performance for the Iowa offense, Stanzi was off on a majority of his throws and the line failed to open up many holes. Look for Iowa to stick with the run first pass second plan and hope that the OL gels more than it did last week.

Iowa on defense: The defense will be the key to this game, if Parker sticks to his base defense Arnaud will be licking his chops. Iowa showed more blitzes last week than any game in recent memory and could do that again, forcing Arnaud to make quick decisions. Look for the linebackers to perform better and the front seven to control the line of scrimmage.

ISU wins if: They stick to the wide open hurry up spread offense and not allow Iowa to substitute. Use the misdirection runs to help out the OL and give Robinson more running lanes. QB draw, Iowa has shown in past match ups that they don't defend it well. Their defense blitzes early and often, with Bulaga not playing, Iowa will have a makeshift OL that underperformed against UNI. If they can confuse the OL and Stanzi they have a chance to win this game. If ISU gets a lead early they force Iowa away from its bread and butter smash mouth clock eating style of football and it plays well for ISU.

Iowa wins if: They punch ISU in the mouth early. ISU will come out with a lot of emotion, they saw Iowa almost lose last week and this is Coach Rhoades first time as a head coach against Iowa. If Iowa comes out and scores early and gets a defensive stop, they emotion will be gone and it could be a long game for ISU. The OL plays up to its potential, they will have the benefit of Robinson in the backfield, who plays better than Paki, and ISU looked shakey at best last week against the run. If Iowa can get the running game going, that opens up their play action pass attack which is one of the things Iowa always does well. Defensively, Iowa needs to stop the run, if they can make ISU one dimensional it allows Iowa to focus on shutting down the pass. Look for ISU to move the ball between the 20's but have to settle for FG attempts.

Predictions:
Arnaud will pass for over 300 yards, but have 2 INT's
Iowa will record 4+ sacks
Adam Robinson has 125+ yards rushing
McNutt will have 100+ yards as ISU will focus on Moeaki
Both teams will have 2+ turnovers
Iowa will take the ball first and put points on the board on their first possession
ISU will miss at least 1 FG
A special teams play will be the difference in the game

Iowa 24
ISU 13

UNI game recap- special teams and coaching

K- Murray looked okay, really hanging his kickoffs up in the air and allowing his coverage team to get down the field. Didn't get to see much FG wise, but if he keeps it up, look for Mossbrucker to red-shirt and save a year of eligibility.

P- Donahue was a star on Saturday, he won't get the accolades that he deserves because he doesn't go for yardage as much as he does height. It would be interesting how many punts he has returned this season. He only had one of his five punts returned on Saturday and that one went for -2 yards, four of his five punts were inside the 20

Coverage units were good on Saturday, the longest kick return was 19 yards with UNI averaging less than 14 yards per kick return. Bruce Davis did a nice job covering kicks as well as David Cato.

Coaching- I thought the defensive coaches called a good game for the most part. Saw more blitzes than I had seen in years from Iowa, even had a zone blitz with Clayborn defending a pass in the end zone. Thought that they needed to rotate more in the DL, could tell they were gassed on the last drive. Need to find a 5th DB so they can go to a nickle defense, I hate seeing LB's out on receivers all game long. Too many line stunts on run plays, really hurt the DL at times. Offensively there was no rhythm. In the first half it was the metaphoric bashing your head into the wall. O'Keefe basically said we are going to run the ball come hell or high water and it just didn't work. Without a big play back, you cannot have a TE, FB, and RB, that allows the defense to put too many players in the box. If he would go to a three wide set with a TE and single back, it would spread the defense out and open up running lanes, ie what opposing offenses do to Iowa. Clock management was horrible with Stanzi snapping the ball with more than 10 seconds on the play clock several times in the last couple minutes. Calling a pass on second down on their last drive and it being incomplete stopped the clock instead of 40 seconds rolling off or UNI using a TO if they had run it.

UNI game recap - Defense

DL- Considering that Iowa replaced two four year starters at defensive tackle, I thought that the line played a very good game. Playing against UNI is probably different than almost any other team Iowa plays this year, they run what some would call an unconventional offense. I noticed that the line really got a good push up front and for the most part controlled the line of scrimmage. They did get into trouble sometimes when they ran line stunts on running plays and on misdirections. Klug showed that he has a motor and is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. Ballard looked like a guy that was new to the DT position, he did well in 1 on 1 situations, but showed some struggles against double teams. The ends were solid and that was to be expected. Overall grade: B

LB- A unit that returns all of the starters from last season had a very sub-par game for the most part. Several missed tackles and just lacked play making on Saturday. Edds didn't look like the senior that he is, missing tackles and not taking good angles. Angerer played OK, but was beat in coverage for UNI's touchdown. Hunter played an average game, coming up with a huge FG block to end the game. Overall I expected more out of this group and hope this is a one game deal. Overall grade: C

DB- Returning three of four starters, the defensive backfield was though of as a strength for Iowa. Greenway seemed to be a step slow on every play, don't know what his problem was, but didn't perform well at all. Castillo looked like a freshman out there, playing the traditional Iowa CB position to a T, 15 yard cushion, make the tackle after they get a first down. He is just keeping the position warm until Prater is back. Sash showed some emotion and could be the emotional leader for the defense, he flew around and seemed to pick up the defensive intensity. Spievey is dominate, you won't see too many teams that throw his way, even when his guy made a catch, Amari was right there with him. Overall Grade B-

UNI Game Recap Offense

So since we had our second child last Thursday, I wasn't able to do a pre-game look at the Panthers. On top of that, the hospital didn't have the Iowa game on, so I had to wait until Sunday night to actually see the game. Now had the Hawks come through with one of the most improbable wins I have ever seen, I probably wouldn't have even watched the film, but here is my position by position breakdown.

QB- Stanzi came out with guns a blazing in the first half, he looked very sharp on the opening drive, but even on that drive his passes were in front or behind most of their targets. After that first drive Stanzi looked awful the rest of the first half, missing many open targets and making bad reads. In the second half he put a couple of drives together and started making better reads. Some of the positives that I saw were that he spread the ball around, hitting 7 different receivers with at least one pass, when it was crunch time he put the team on his shoulders and led them on a couple of scoring drives. Couple negatives, he tried to force the ball too much, showed a lack of maturity by not throwing the ball away when he was pressured outside the pocket. Overall grade C+

RB- Going into the game we knew that it would be a struggle going with what most fans considered the #3 and #4 options at the position. Paki O'Meara started the game and got the bulk of carries in the first half. He seemed to lack the burst that is needed to get through the hole on the zone play, a staple in the Iowa offense. He also fumbled on the first drive of the second half and wasn't heard from again in the game. O'Meara channeled his inner Marcus Schnoor getting tackled by the initial tackler several times, often the shoestring variety. Adam Robinson was second string and saw his first collegiate action for Iowa. He looked good at times, but other times looked like a freshman. He showed the burst that is needed by an Iowa running back (4.2 ypc) and also showed some strength, rarely going down on first contact. For only being a freshman Robinson showed that he could also take on defenders as a blocker. Overall grade: O'Meara D+ Robinson B

WR/TE- The one bright spot on the offensive side of the ball was the pass catchers. The wide receivers that started the game were McNutt and Stross with McNutt being Stanzi's favorite target early. Changing positions in the spring from QB to WR, McNutt looked like a seasoned veteran. Paul Chaney looked light years better than he has at any time at Iowa, his speed could be a weapon for the Hawks this season. Tony Moeaki looked like the player that Iowa thought they were getting four years ago. The leading receiver of the last two season barely even played, at some point we will find out what DJK has done to find his way into the doghouse. Overall grade A-

OL- Going into the season, all fans thought that the strength of the offense was going to be the line. The starting line for the UNI game was from L to R: Bulaga, Gettis, Eubanks, Doering, and Richardson. Normally, I would just break the line down as a whole, but in watching the game, the tackles played phenomenally. I don't even know if you heard the names of the two UNI defensive ends all game. The interior of the line on the other hand was the exact opposite. For being a 5th year senior, Doering looked like he was a freshman out there. The interior defensive line and linebackers owned the interior of the Iowa line and it was a problem the whole game. Gettis showed flashes of promise, but he is still young. Overall grade: T's- B+; G's and C- D

Coaching- There were times where you thought that Iowa was going to be different, opening with a pass and not a zone play. Even busting out a reverse early in the game. I liked how they brought in several different packages, however if they weren't able to get holes, I thought that they should have gone to a more spread out offense to keep the 8th defender out of the box. In the 4th quarter when Iowa was trying to run out the clock they went to a pass on second down and having an incomplete pass instead of running the ball and either taking up more time or forcing UNI to use a timeout. Overall grade: C+