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.

Position Battles - Pass Catchers

As I continue to look through the spring version of the Hawks, I have come to the players that will catch a majority of the passes from Ricky Stanzi in 2009. The senior class of 2008 took away 2 of Iowa's top 3 pass receivers of the season. Gone are WR Andy Brodell and TE Brandon Myers. With their graduation the Hawks lost 37% of their receptions from 2008 and 41% of the receiving yards.

While Iowa lost those two players they do return Derrell Johnson-Koulianos who is going in to his 4th season as a WR and he grew leaps and bounds from his freshman season to his sophomore season. You can credit most of that to WR coach Erik Campbell who came to Iowa from Michigan and we saw the WR corps look much better in 2008 than they did in 2007. Derrell or DJK, as he is known in the virtual world of message boards, led the Hawks in receiving last season and isn't even close to hitting his peak as a WR. Currently he is on pace to break Iowa's career receptions and yardage records.

Beyond DJK there are not many experienced wide outs. Leading the pack of returners would have to be Treye Stross and Colin Sandeman. Stross will be a senior and Sandeman a junior. They know the offense and will be reliable options at WR. Stross has shown flashes of being a good WR, but is too often on the sidelines with an injury. If he can stay healthy, look for him to be lining up opposite DJK as the #2 WR. Sandeman came in and really should have redshirted as a freshman, but out of necessity had to play. He has been used sparingly in his first two seasons at Iowa. Look for him to have the inside track on the #3 slot and be in line to return kicks. Beyond these three the current roster looks bleak for WR's, Ben Evans, Shane Prater, & Paul Chaney will all push for reps but have a ways to go. Coming to Iowa City this fall will be heralded recruits Keenan Davis and Jordan Cotton. Both of these players will look to see the field this fall. Their situations will be similar to Jewell Hampton and Jeff Brinson last fall. Whichever player grasps the offense and performs better in the practices leading up to the start of the season will play and the other will redshirt. Look for Davis to play this fall as he has the most polished game as Cotton played a lot of RB in high school much like former Hawk Andy Brodell. If Davis can learn the playbook and most importantly show he can block in the open he could push Stross for the #2 slot.

Anyone who has watched the Iowa Hawkeyes since Kirk took the reigns knows that the TE's are used as much as any team in the nation. The Hawks are still waiting for 2005 prized recruit Tony Moeaki to reach his full potential. For the first couple of years in Iowa City, he was used more as a blocker, which allowed Scott Chandler to run the routes. Tony spent the majority of the last two seasons in slings and boots battling seemingly endless numbers of injuries. When healthy he has shown he can be one of the better TE's in Iowa history, but the big question is can he stay healthy. Behind Tony the Hawks have Allen Reisner, who has shown that he can play even though he is undersized for the position. In 2008 he averaged over 18 ypc, which is an extremely high number for a TE. One name that you haven't heard of yet is JD Griggs, a redshirt freshman from New Jersey. He has the size 6'5" to be a big target for Stanzi and from the pictures that I have seen, he has the strength.