Offensive Line

In the Kirk Ferentz era there has always been a constant and up until a couple years ago it was line play. That all changed last year when the Hawks got great offensive line play. The unit really gelled last season and executed the zone blocking scheme to perfection in paving the way for Shonn Greene to win the Doak Walker award. Even more than the rushing yards the Hawks were able to gain, the best thing the line did was keep their QB upright, something they had problems with in '07. Gone from last year's starters are Rob Bruggeman and Seth Olsen who will both be in NFL camps this fall. While they are huge losses for Iowa, there are several players waiting in the wings to fill their spots. Iowa will return both of their tackles for next season, junior Bryan Bulaga and senior Kyle Calloway. The fact that Stanzi's blindside will be protected by one of the nation's best should give him a sense of safety when in the pocket this season. Hawk fans better enjoy this season with Bryan Bulaga as if he plays as well as he did last year, the NFL could come calling with a high draft pick in hand. Let's hope that Bryan takes the path of former Hawk Robert Gallery and stays for his senior season. That is of course all speculation so let's get back to the break down. While Calloway and Bulaga provide solid "bookends" the pages will be new in the O-Line. Returning will be co-starters for most of the season last year Rafeal Eubanks and Julian Vandevelde, who both spent time at LG last season with Julian taking over full time for the last part of the season. Expect Vandevelde to be at one guard spot for the season opener. At the other guard an old, but familiar face was recently seen playing at, Dace Richardson. Dace returns to the field after spending much of the last two years out of football due to injuries. If Dace can lock in on the other guard spot, the Hawks will have the luxury of having solid duo's on either side of center. And speaking of center the Iowa staff will have to replace Bruggeman who really was the straw that stirred the drink last year for the group. Recent photos have shown Stanzi taking snaps from Josh Koeppel, the soon to be junior from Iowa City. When he came to campus the staff was really high on Koeppel, let's hope that he can fill the big shoes that Bruggeman left behind. As a whole the line has the potential to be as good as the '02 line if they gel together like that one did. They will all have to be on their game as their are several players waiting in the wings to get onto the field. Rafeal Eubanks has spent time at both G and C in his three seasons on the field so he can fill in at either of those positions. Riley Reiff has made the switch to the OL permanent and if he fills out his frame, will bring a mean streak that the OL has been missing since Gallery. As Coach Williams used to say at Simpson, "We need some pricks out there." Another Hawk to keep your eye on is Casey McMillan, the red shirt freshman to be is two years removed from being the Montana player of the year and is still waiting to get his time on the field. Dan Doering is still at Iowa and is still battling injuries this spring, but when healthy he can step in and play either guard or tackle and be very serviceable. I would say James Ferentz, but I have a feeling that he won't be donning the pads for entire season due to his recent run in with Iowa City's finest. If they stay healthy the O-Line will be one of the strengths of the Hawks in '09 and will have very capable backups to boot.

Mistake

In looking over my analysis of the pass catchers, I realized that I completely forgot about Marvin McNutt. He will obviously be ahead of other first year receivers since he knows the offense already. I would say at best you are going to see him be a second or third option in the Hawkeye offense. If he ends up being a #1 receiver that more than likely means that something has gone horribly wrong with the Iowa season. However look for him to come up with a couple big catches in clutch situations for the Hawkeyes this fall. He could be a very good possession type receiver for the Hawks. My aplogies to my loyal readers for making such a mistake.

Position Battles - Pass Catchers

As I continue to look through the spring version of the Hawks, I have come to the players that will catch a majority of the passes from Ricky Stanzi in 2009. The senior class of 2008 took away 2 of Iowa's top 3 pass receivers of the season. Gone are WR Andy Brodell and TE Brandon Myers. With their graduation the Hawks lost 37% of their receptions from 2008 and 41% of the receiving yards.

While Iowa lost those two players they do return Derrell Johnson-Koulianos who is going in to his 4th season as a WR and he grew leaps and bounds from his freshman season to his sophomore season. You can credit most of that to WR coach Erik Campbell who came to Iowa from Michigan and we saw the WR corps look much better in 2008 than they did in 2007. Derrell or DJK, as he is known in the virtual world of message boards, led the Hawks in receiving last season and isn't even close to hitting his peak as a WR. Currently he is on pace to break Iowa's career receptions and yardage records.

Beyond DJK there are not many experienced wide outs. Leading the pack of returners would have to be Treye Stross and Colin Sandeman. Stross will be a senior and Sandeman a junior. They know the offense and will be reliable options at WR. Stross has shown flashes of being a good WR, but is too often on the sidelines with an injury. If he can stay healthy, look for him to be lining up opposite DJK as the #2 WR. Sandeman came in and really should have redshirted as a freshman, but out of necessity had to play. He has been used sparingly in his first two seasons at Iowa. Look for him to have the inside track on the #3 slot and be in line to return kicks. Beyond these three the current roster looks bleak for WR's, Ben Evans, Shane Prater, & Paul Chaney will all push for reps but have a ways to go. Coming to Iowa City this fall will be heralded recruits Keenan Davis and Jordan Cotton. Both of these players will look to see the field this fall. Their situations will be similar to Jewell Hampton and Jeff Brinson last fall. Whichever player grasps the offense and performs better in the practices leading up to the start of the season will play and the other will redshirt. Look for Davis to play this fall as he has the most polished game as Cotton played a lot of RB in high school much like former Hawk Andy Brodell. If Davis can learn the playbook and most importantly show he can block in the open he could push Stross for the #2 slot.

Anyone who has watched the Iowa Hawkeyes since Kirk took the reigns knows that the TE's are used as much as any team in the nation. The Hawks are still waiting for 2005 prized recruit Tony Moeaki to reach his full potential. For the first couple of years in Iowa City, he was used more as a blocker, which allowed Scott Chandler to run the routes. Tony spent the majority of the last two seasons in slings and boots battling seemingly endless numbers of injuries. When healthy he has shown he can be one of the better TE's in Iowa history, but the big question is can he stay healthy. Behind Tony the Hawks have Allen Reisner, who has shown that he can play even though he is undersized for the position. In 2008 he averaged over 18 ypc, which is an extremely high number for a TE. One name that you haven't heard of yet is JD Griggs, a redshirt freshman from New Jersey. He has the size 6'5" to be a big target for Stanzi and from the pictures that I have seen, he has the strength.

Position Battles - Running Back

Here we are another off season and another big question mark at running back. Going into last season, Iowa was staring down the barrel of having Paki O'Meara as their feature back. No offense to Paki, but he is not an every down Big Ten back. Then Shonn Greene showed back up on campus and rewrote the single season rushing records on his way to winning the Doak Walker Award as the top running back in the NCAA. The one good thing about Greene being the feature back was that he was not in good enough shape to take every snap and the Hawks were able to see what some of their other running backs could do in the Big Ten. Sophomore Jewel Hampton rushed 91 times for 463 yards in limited action for an over 5 yard per carry average. He had his best game of the year in mop up duty against Indiana rushing 22 times for 114 yards. For a true freshman he came in and turned more than a few heads. His strengths would be his speed and his ability to hit holes. What he is going to have to prove is his blocking ability and ability to carry the bulk of the carries. The other back that figures into the mix will be Jeff Brinson. Brinson redshirted last year and figures to be in the mix for some first team reps with Hampton. Brinson has the skills, rushing for just short of 2,000 yards as a senior in high school at Northeast High School in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He found the end zone 24 times as a senior and averaged over 7 yards a carry. Word out of Fort Kinnick was the Brinson was more than impressive running the scout team as a redshirt, so the Hawks could be looking at a running back controversy. Between these two the Hawks have a very solid 1-2 punch at running back. If anything happens to one of those two, you will have Paki O'Meara step in and be a very serviceable backup. Most of O'Meara's time will be spent on special teams, where he showed last season he can excel. After that you would be looking at true freshman Brandon Wegher, who comes to Iowa after a very successful career at Sioux City Heelan. Look for Wegher to get most of his reps on special teams as a returner, but don't be surprised if he ends up making a few plays while covering kicks as well.

At fullback the Hawks return both Wayne Leppert and Brett Morse who both helped pave the way for the Doak Walker award winner. Like any Iowa fullback neither touched the ball much after warm ups, but both are great blockers and will continue to do that for whatever back lines up behind them in the backfield in 2009.

Pre-Spring Practice

Over the next two weeks I will be assessing the depth chart in detail and by position. Starting today with the most pivotal position on the field, QB.

This is one of the positions that one would hope won't be up for grabs this Spring. Sophomore Ricky Stanzi played sparingly in the Hawks first four games and took the starting job for good in game 5 of last season. For the most part of the season he was told to hand the ball off to Doak Walker award winner Shonn Greene and get out of the way. At times last season he showed flashes of being a solid quarterback, throwing for over 150 yards 7 times on the season. He ended up being extremely efficient as he only threw 25+ passes 4 times in 2008. He showed lots of guts and reminded me of Drew Tate, the way that he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and avoid the sack and make plays with his feet. On the season he completed just short of 60% of his passes, which by itself doesn't sound that good, but after the 2007 season that Iowa fans suffered through, 60% is a welcome stat. For a good part of the season it seemed as if Rick was only seeing half the field, whether that was by design or just the inexperience of a sophomore quarterback in the Big Ten. What you have to remember is the Jake Christiansen had taken the lion's share of the snaps with the first team all spring and fall. A full off season of being the starter will do Rick's confidence the most good. He knows he is the starter going into the season and you have to hope that offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe will open up the playbook a little bit more and let Rick show us what he can do with a full compliment of plays. Let's just say that this Hawk fan is hoping that Rick has a better outcome than the last sophomore to start as QB. He is going to have to do better and stay healthy for that matter, behind Stanzi used to be Marvin McNutt, but late last season he made the switch to WR. Granted that if push came to shove Marvin would probably be able to move back if needed, but if he is moving positions, there is probably a reason for it. That leaves the backups as two untested and unproven redshirt freshman. While they are wet behind the ears, they came to Iowa with lots of expectations and talent. James Vandenberg came to Iowa after a record setting career at Keokuk high school, where he holds 12 different state records, including career passing yards and touchdown passes. The other redshirt freshman is John Wienke, a product of Tuscola, IL, who himself had a stellar high school career where he was named to the Elite 11 quarterback camp and only threw 9 INT's in 620 attempts. The only QB is Iowa's 2009 recruiting class in Micah Hyde out of Ohio, while it is not set in stone that Micah will play QB while at Iowa, he more than likely will spend the season running the scout team. That is a review of what Iowa returns at signal caller, check back to see other position breakdowns.