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.
Showing posts with label Darian Cooper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darian Cooper. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Pre-summer defensive line outlook
Recently the fact has been circulating on the message boards that no college team has more defensive lineman in the NFL than Iowa does. To me that is an astounding fact given that Iowa runs the kind of defense that they want the lineman to plug holes and allow the linebackers to flow and make plays. What it has a lot to do with is the fact that Iowa has great coaches and when a player leaves Iowa he is fundamentally sound and knows how to play the game the right way.
The three starters that the Hawkeyes lost from a season ago amassed an astounding 483 combined tackles, 90 tackles for loss, 42.5 sacks, and 38 quarterback hurries. Bottom line is that the players that left from last year’s team produced when they were on the field. Gone is Adrian Clayborn, Karl Klug, and Christian Ballard, who were all drafted into the NFL.
In a lot of ways, the 2011 defensive line will resemble the 2005 one that had to replace Matt Roth, Jonathan Babineaux, Tyler Luebke, and Derreck Robinson. Most of those players were unknown, but turned out to be Kenny Iwebema, Bryan Mattison, Matt Kroul, and Mitch King, who have all cashed NFL paychecks. Point being, just because you don’t recognize their name now, doesn’t mean they won’t be great players.
Defensive End-
It is never a good thing when you lose one and half starters (I consider Ballard ½ because he started at DE half the time last year) and it’s no different for Iowa. Returning for Iowa will be Broderick Binns (6-2, 261), who by all accounts had a down year after a promising sophomore campaign. As a sophomore he accumulated 58 tackles and 6 sacks, while last season he only tallied 36 tackles and no sacks. With this being his last season, it is put up or shut up time for a player that has shown flashes of great play over his career.
Looking to break into the starting lineup opposite of Binns will be LeBron Daniel (6-2, 250), the Ohio native will be going into his final season in a Hawkeye uniform looking to make the most of his chance to finally start.
Behind Daniel is more unproven players in senior Joe Forgy (6-4, 260), junior Joe Gaglione (6-47, 250), sophomores Dominic Alvis (6-4, 250) and Scott Covert (6-2, 240) , and redshirt freshman Mike Hardy (6-5, 270). Of these players Alvis has been singled out by defensive coordinator Norm Parker as a player he thinks will make an impact. Along with Dominic I think Mike Hardy could make an impact in his redshirt season.
Defensive Tackle-
Returning as the full time starter for Iowa will be Mike Daniels (6-1, 280), or Diesel, as his teammates call him. Daniels is a guy who burst onto the scene last year and instantly won the affection of the Iowa fans with his high motor and energetic celebrations. Mike started in 8 games last season and accounted for 40 tackles and 4 sacks.
The starting position next to Mike will be up for grabs in the fall, Thomas Nardo (6-3, 270) and Carl Davis (6-5, 310) figure to be the front runners. Nardo is a veteran looking for his chance to make an impact while Davis will be a redshirt freshman who is maybe the biggest defensive tackle Iowa has had in several years. This could be a situation where Nardo will get the start to begin the season, but I fully expect Davis to be in the starting lineup before the end of the season.
Behind the three other defensive tackles will be junior Steve Bigach (6-3, 272) and red-shirt freshman Louis Trinca-Pasat (6-3, 250) and Donavan Johnson (6-3, 265). Don’t be surprised if the redshirt is also burned on incoming freshman Darian Cooper (6-1, 290). The high touted high school teammate of Marcus Coker chose Iowa over the likes of Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State. Cooper, like Carl Davis is coming to Iowa with a Big Ten ready body and could contribute in his first season on campus.
The three starters that the Hawkeyes lost from a season ago amassed an astounding 483 combined tackles, 90 tackles for loss, 42.5 sacks, and 38 quarterback hurries. Bottom line is that the players that left from last year’s team produced when they were on the field. Gone is Adrian Clayborn, Karl Klug, and Christian Ballard, who were all drafted into the NFL.
In a lot of ways, the 2011 defensive line will resemble the 2005 one that had to replace Matt Roth, Jonathan Babineaux, Tyler Luebke, and Derreck Robinson. Most of those players were unknown, but turned out to be Kenny Iwebema, Bryan Mattison, Matt Kroul, and Mitch King, who have all cashed NFL paychecks. Point being, just because you don’t recognize their name now, doesn’t mean they won’t be great players.
Defensive End-
It is never a good thing when you lose one and half starters (I consider Ballard ½ because he started at DE half the time last year) and it’s no different for Iowa. Returning for Iowa will be Broderick Binns (6-2, 261), who by all accounts had a down year after a promising sophomore campaign. As a sophomore he accumulated 58 tackles and 6 sacks, while last season he only tallied 36 tackles and no sacks. With this being his last season, it is put up or shut up time for a player that has shown flashes of great play over his career.
Looking to break into the starting lineup opposite of Binns will be LeBron Daniel (6-2, 250), the Ohio native will be going into his final season in a Hawkeye uniform looking to make the most of his chance to finally start.
Behind Daniel is more unproven players in senior Joe Forgy (6-4, 260), junior Joe Gaglione (6-47, 250), sophomores Dominic Alvis (6-4, 250) and Scott Covert (6-2, 240) , and redshirt freshman Mike Hardy (6-5, 270). Of these players Alvis has been singled out by defensive coordinator Norm Parker as a player he thinks will make an impact. Along with Dominic I think Mike Hardy could make an impact in his redshirt season.
Defensive Tackle-
Returning as the full time starter for Iowa will be Mike Daniels (6-1, 280), or Diesel, as his teammates call him. Daniels is a guy who burst onto the scene last year and instantly won the affection of the Iowa fans with his high motor and energetic celebrations. Mike started in 8 games last season and accounted for 40 tackles and 4 sacks.
The starting position next to Mike will be up for grabs in the fall, Thomas Nardo (6-3, 270) and Carl Davis (6-5, 310) figure to be the front runners. Nardo is a veteran looking for his chance to make an impact while Davis will be a redshirt freshman who is maybe the biggest defensive tackle Iowa has had in several years. This could be a situation where Nardo will get the start to begin the season, but I fully expect Davis to be in the starting lineup before the end of the season.
Behind the three other defensive tackles will be junior Steve Bigach (6-3, 272) and red-shirt freshman Louis Trinca-Pasat (6-3, 250) and Donavan Johnson (6-3, 265). Don’t be surprised if the redshirt is also burned on incoming freshman Darian Cooper (6-1, 290). The high touted high school teammate of Marcus Coker chose Iowa over the likes of Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State. Cooper, like Carl Davis is coming to Iowa with a Big Ten ready body and could contribute in his first season on campus.
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