Pre-Summer Offensive Backfield Outlook

Spring practice is over, the spring semester of classes is over, and it is now Chris Doyle time. Summer workouts have started and incoming freshman have started to arrive to prepare for their first year of collegiate football. Today I will take a look at what Iowa’s offense will look like this fall.

Quarterback-
When you graduate one of the best quarterbacks in your schools recent history, you can expect a drop-off in play. Ricky Stanzi graduated after being the starter for 2+ years and the heir apparent is James Vandenberg. Two years ago we got a glimpse of what James could do when he almost led the team to a victory at Ohio State with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line. In his first career start Vandenberg gave Iowa fans hope for the future, however the following week against Minnesota James again looked like a freshman only completing 46% of his passes and seeming lost recognizing the blitz. On the bright side, Vandenberg in my opinion throws a better ball than Stanzi, he has more velocity and can fit the ball into spots that Ricky couldn’t. The things that he has to work on most this summer would be making the touch pass, something that the Iowa offense relies on. Vandenberg’s backup is going to be a toss-up, coming out of spring it was a co-backup in A.J. Derby and John Weinke. Neither of the backups has ever seen snaps as collegiate players and are still virtually unknown. Both came to Iowa with plenty of accolades, albeit in different areas, Weinke being more of a drop back passer and Derby as run/pass threat. Who wins this battle is a pretty big deal, if Weinke wins, you could see Derby move positions or at least get some time at special teams, where he could put his athletic ability to work. If Derby wins out, you could see Weinke transfer to get some playing time. Incoming freshman Jake Rudock comes to Iowa from Florida, where he led his team to the state title. Barring a bevy of injuries he will be the scout team quarterback during his redshirt season.

Running Back-
Remember last season at this time when we were all trying to figure out how the carries would get divvied out with the three experienced running backs Iowa had coming back? All three of them are no longer with the team and a true freshman, Marcus Coker, set an Iowa bowl record for rushing yards in the Insight Bowl. Coker will be the #1 back going into the season without a doubt, but even that should be worrisome. We have yet to see how durable he is; he missed part of fall camp last year with a broken collar bone and who knows if he will be able to carry the ball 250+ times like Iowa likes their running backs to do. What he did show last year is knowledge of the one-cut Iowa offense and the ability to get upfield quickly and eliminate negative plays. For a true freshman he also showed an above average ability to block in the passing game and in limited attempts the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. As far as the backup running back goes it will be determined in the fall. On campus now you have walk-on Jason White, who has one career carry and redshirt freshman De’Andre Johnson and Marcus Binns. Johnson was the talk of the message boards last season after performing quite well at the kid’s day open practice. He was coming off of an ACL injury his senior season of high school and used his red-shirt last season. He averaged 6.7 yards per carry as a sophomore and junior in high school before missing his senior season. He is the kind of player that could come in and be a change of pace back for Iowa. Binns is the brother of defensive end Broderick Binns and was also a talented high school player, rushing for over 2,800 yards in three years. Coming this fall as freshman will be Jordan Canzeri, Damon Bullock, and Mika’il McCall. Of these three look for McCall to have the best shot at playing as a true freshman, but it will all depend on whether or not the coaches feel they can trust the player to hold onto the ball and be able to block. We have seen in the past that Coach Ferentz will keep a player off the field if he doesn’t think they can do anything asked of them.

Fullback-
This is a position that has for the most part disappeared in the spread offense fad that is spreading across the college football landscape. At Iowa it is nothing more than a glorified offensive guard. You will be asked to block and block some more and maybe get a handful of carries over the course of the season. Iowa graduated last season’s starter, Brett Morse, and last year’s backup, Brad Rodgers, hasn’t medically been cleared to resume football activities. Rodgers is a converted running back and has seemed to be a team player, moving to the unrecognized role of fullback. He has the ability to run the ball from the fullback position and that is something Iowa hasn’t seen in quite some time. If Rodgers can’t go this season, look for one of the following guys to move into that position: Jacob Reisen, Scott Covert, Matt Myers, or Mark Weisman. Reisen is a converted linebacker, but in high school he scored touchdowns on 20% of his carries, so he is experienced with the ball in his hands.