5 freshman to watch

Up until a couple of years ago, I had as good a chance of playing as any first year player at Iowa. Playing first year players wasn’t something that Kirk Ferentz wanted to do and he tried to avoid it at all costs. The last couple of years he has begun to play more and more true freshman, mostly on special teams. Below is a list of five that could make an immediate impact this season.

5. Darian Cooper – DL - #97 Cooper arrives to the Iowa campus at the right time as Iowa graduated three defensive lineman from last years team. Cooper has the size, 6-2, 280 to not get pushed around against most collegiate lineman. Since Iowa doesn’t run a complicated defensive scheme, he should be able to step right in and contribute. He had a chance to be ranked higher than 5, but a transcript issue kept him from camp for the first week and Coach Ferentz announced today that he has been battling injury.

4. Jordan Canzeri – RB - #33 Canzeri didn’t have much fanfare when he committed to Iowa, who beat out the powerhouses of Villanova and UCONN for his services. He put up huge numbers in high school, toting the ball 222 times for 2048 yards and 34 touchdowns as a senior. Jordan has incredible speed, but his lateral quickness might be his biggest asset. Canzeri is small in stature, only 185 pounds, but he should be a great change of pace back to Marcus Coker’s bruising style.

3. Ray Hamilton – TE - #82 Iowa has always used multiple tight ends under Ferentz and their depth at the position would lead one to believe they will do that again this year. Although Hamilton would probably be listed as #4 on the depth chart, I think that he has shown enough in fall camp to garner some reps as well as some time on special teams. If there is an injury to one of the three ahead of him, he could easily move up and contribute right away.

2. Torrey Campbell – CB - #22 There are a couple of defensive backs that could play as true freshman, from the limited pictures and exposure Campbell has seen significant reps. B.J. Lowery’s injury means that Campbell moves up the depth chart. He will most certainly get some reps on special teams and that is a position where a young player can make a name for himself, see Sean Consodine.

1. Mika’ll McCall – RB - #25 A lack of depth makes it almost a necessity that Iowa uses a freshman to spell Coker. Previously I talked about Canzeri being a change of pace back, McCall is more of a clone of Coker, at 6-0 215 pounds he has the size and skill set to get 10-12 carries a game and allow Coker to keep fresh legs for later in the season. McCall showed in the kids day scrimmage the ability to make one cut and go, which is a necessity in the zone blocking scheme that Iowa runs.