Much like the defensive line, the linebacker corps at Iowa will consist of a lot of new names and faces this fall. Last season saw the linebackers decimated by injury, the plus side with so many injuries to upper classmen was that a lot of young players saw significant playing time. Much like the other units on the defensive side of the ball, linebacker has been a position that Iowa has been able to replenish year after year without losing too much, production wise.
Middle Linebacker-
James Morris (6-2, 215) returns for his sophomore season after producing more as a freshman than anyone not names Morris thought he would. Morris stepped in to the starting role after injuries left the Iowa coaches with little option but to burn his redshirt. To say that he made the best of his opportunity is an understatement. In the short time as the starter, Morris proved to have a knack for finding the ball and making plays when he got there. Behind Morris will be Senior Bruce Davis (6-0, 232), a player that has been in the Iowa system for four years and hasn’t seemed to be able to avoid the injury bug in his time on campus.
Weakside linebacker-
Gone will be three year starter Jeremiah Hunter and in his place will be a trio of sophomores vying for the starting role. Christian Kirksey (6-2, 215), Anthony Hitchens (6-1, 215), and Shane DiBona (6-2, 230) look to be the front runners to replace Hunter. Kirksey is a player who learned the ropes as a special teams player last year, Hitchens is a converted defensive back and DiBona saw action last year at linebacker when Hunter was injured. Whoever comes out of this pre-season battle will have to be on their game as the two that don’t start will be looking to earn playing time all season. This could be a position that sees a rotation based on what type of offense they are playing, DiBona seems to be a little stronger against the run while the other two seem to be better in pass coverage.
Strongside linebacker-
Returning from a broken neck will be senior Tyler Nielsen (6-4, 235), who is looking to turn in a solid senior season. While the starting job is essentially his to lose, sophomore Dakota Getz (6-4, 235) will be nipping at his heels to find his way to the field.
The best thing about this unit is their versatility, both weakside and strongside linebackers can be interchanged. With the young depth that this unit has, don’t be surprised if you see more 3-4 defense this season.
Showing posts with label Bruce Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Davis. Show all posts
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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
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
Monday, July 6, 2009
Weekend of News
So usually the holiday weekend brings nothing much in the way of Hawkeye news, but this year was anything but. Jewell Hampton, who projected to be Iowa' opening game starter at tailback is reported to have injured his knee on Friday. The official diagnosis is not in yet, but rumors are rampant that it is a ligament tear and that he is done for the year. While this is bad news, I don't think we will have 2004 redux when Sam Brownlee led the team in rushing, for a couple reasons.
1. IF and I say if this is a season ender for Jewell, the good news is that he still has his red shirt year, so you don't have to worry about asking the NCAA for a medical red shirt, which can sometimes be tricky.
2. The injury occurs early enough that Iowa can plan around it, imagine if this had happened in late August? And if it is the dreaded ACL, then Jewell should have plenty of time for surgery and rehab and be 100% for fall ball 2010, or sooner if his rehab goes well.
3. Jeff Brinson isn't bad at all. Going in to last season it was said that both Jewell and Jeff were pretty equal in the abilities to help Iowa as freshman, I can't remember what gave Jewell the edge, but had Shonn Greene not exploded onto the scene we might have seen two true freshman running backs for Iowa last year play. Jeff is a player that coming out of high school spurred a last ditch all hands on deck recruiting effort from in-state power Florida State, to remain committed to play for the Hawks. Make no doubt about it, he has the talent to play in the big ten and be successful.
4. Brandon Wegher is already on campus and should be ready to contribute right away. Did the coaches want to have to use him as much as they probably will have to? No, but he has the skills to be effective with the ball in his hands and if he can pick up the blocking responsibilities, then he could see significant minutes this year.
5. What were we saying last year at this time? "Who is going to run the ball for us this year?" We knew that Shonn Greene was coming back, but nobody thought that he would have the kind of season that he did.
I am not saying that we are going to catch lightning in a bottle again, but I don't think we will go back to 2004 were we completely changed the playbook with our 5th string tailback either.
The other big news from the weekend was the Jacody Coleman had left the program to move closer to home in Texas. While he wasn't projected to start this year, he has started in the past and you hate to lose a guy that brought the kind of intensity that Jacody brought to the team. He will most likely be replaced by Bruce Davis from Ohio, who was that state's defensive MVP his senior year.
1. IF and I say if this is a season ender for Jewell, the good news is that he still has his red shirt year, so you don't have to worry about asking the NCAA for a medical red shirt, which can sometimes be tricky.
2. The injury occurs early enough that Iowa can plan around it, imagine if this had happened in late August? And if it is the dreaded ACL, then Jewell should have plenty of time for surgery and rehab and be 100% for fall ball 2010, or sooner if his rehab goes well.
3. Jeff Brinson isn't bad at all. Going in to last season it was said that both Jewell and Jeff were pretty equal in the abilities to help Iowa as freshman, I can't remember what gave Jewell the edge, but had Shonn Greene not exploded onto the scene we might have seen two true freshman running backs for Iowa last year play. Jeff is a player that coming out of high school spurred a last ditch all hands on deck recruiting effort from in-state power Florida State, to remain committed to play for the Hawks. Make no doubt about it, he has the talent to play in the big ten and be successful.
4. Brandon Wegher is already on campus and should be ready to contribute right away. Did the coaches want to have to use him as much as they probably will have to? No, but he has the skills to be effective with the ball in his hands and if he can pick up the blocking responsibilities, then he could see significant minutes this year.
5. What were we saying last year at this time? "Who is going to run the ball for us this year?" We knew that Shonn Greene was coming back, but nobody thought that he would have the kind of season that he did.
I am not saying that we are going to catch lightning in a bottle again, but I don't think we will go back to 2004 were we completely changed the playbook with our 5th string tailback either.
The other big news from the weekend was the Jacody Coleman had left the program to move closer to home in Texas. While he wasn't projected to start this year, he has started in the past and you hate to lose a guy that brought the kind of intensity that Jacody brought to the team. He will most likely be replaced by Bruce Davis from Ohio, who was that state's defensive MVP his senior year.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Line Backers
Turning our attention to the strength of the Hawkeyes, the defense, starting with the LB's. The Hawks return all three starters from last year, a trio that amassed 246 tackles, 16 for a loss, and 7 interceptions. They are paced by MLB Pat Angerer, the Bettendorf product essentially came out of no where to anchor the middle of the Iowa defense. Pat had very injury plagued three seasons at Iowa before bursting on the scene and earning 2nd team All Big Team last season. Pat has a knack for finding the ball and was second in the Big Ten with 5 INT's last season. He was one of 42 players to be named to the Lott watch list for 2009. Starting at the Leo linebacker position will be A.J. Edds for the third straight year, while his 2008 numbers were down from 2007, I don't think there is an Iowa fan alive that wouldn't tell you that he was equally as productive. AJ will be one of the two seniors that are projected as starters for the 2009 squad. Jeremiah Hunter has the inside edge on repeating as the starting will linebacker next season. Jeremiah came to Iowa as a heralded recruit out of PA and until last season hadn't seen the field much. With Jeff Tarpanian going down with an injury in the preseason he stepped in and performed brilliantly. The thing that really stands out about the linebacker corps is that the rarely seem to be out of position. While they won't win any beauty contests, they play fundamentally sound and in Norm Parker's defense, that is all that is needed. Backing up those three will be Jeff Tarpanian at the will, who will push Hunter for playing time, however if Tarpanian can't stay healthy it will be a one horse race. Tyler Nielsen will back up Edds at the leo and the one downfall of having a three year starter ahead of him is that he has had very little playing time so far in Iowa City. Nielsen has played a lot of special teams and will probably do the same for this season. At middle linebacker is the only backup spot that is up for grabs, Jacody Coleman is supposedly red shirting and won't be available unless Angerer gets injured. Look for Bruce Davis to be the #2, he is a sophomore out of Glenville high school in Ohio. He was another diamond in the rough player that the Hawks snuck out of Ohio. Overall the LB corps the Hawks will put on the field in 2009 will be one the top two in the Big Ten and top ten in the nation. This is a position where Iowa has some depth and could weather an injury or two if they have to.
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