Pre-Summer Offensive Line Outlook

Pre Summer Offensive Line Outlook


Something that has become a staple in the Ferentz era is quality offensive line play. Even in years where the offensive line isn’t supposed to be good in the end they still end up being a solid unit. Junior Riley Reiff will anchor a unit that boasts 58 career starts. Reiff has started 23 career games already, all in the last two years. The All-American candidate is one of the best in the Big Ten and the NCAA and will have a big decision after the season on whether he comes back for his senior season or not. Joining Riley as the other tackle will be Markus Zusevics, who started every game last season. He is overshadowed by Reiff, but Zus, as he is known as, is another in a long list of solid offensive tackles at Iowa. Joining Reiff and Zusevics as a starter of every game last season is James Ferentz. Let’s be honest, James was born and breed to be a center in this offense. He has learned the ropes from both his dad and his older brother, Brian. From the time that he was born he has been learning the zone blocking scheme and going into his junior season, he has proven that he knows it very well. In the zone blocking scheme the center is the most important position because he makes the line calls and essentially tells every other offensive lineman who he is blocking on that play. Joining the three incumbents will be guards Adam Gettis and Nolan MacMillan, who between them have 9 career starts. Last season both Gettis and MacMillan were hampered by injuries and look to regain their starting spots now that they are healthy. While those two will be the front runners for the guard positions, don’t sleep on Brandon Scherff making his way into the starting lineup. Along with Scherff, the other backups looking for playing time will be tackles Andrew Donnal and Brett Van Sloten, guards Woody Orne and Drew Clark, and center Conor Boffeli. Junior college transfer Dan Heiar would have figured into the mix of offensive lineman; however he is still recovering from a car accident this spring and may or may not be back with the team. If in fall camp Iowa can get a top five and stick with that unit for the majority of the season they will be one of the best units in the Big Ten as well as the nation.

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+