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.

ISU game analysis- Offense

QB- What would the score had been if Rick Stanzi had a good game? It would have been ridiculous. Stanzi missed a lot of open receivers almost all of them high. There have only been a couple of times this season that Stanzi has hit a receiver in stride and allowed the receiver make a play with the ball in his hands. Stanzi did throw 4 TD's, but he missed at least two other TD's. He threw two INT's that were poorly thrown. He needs to play better as Iowa gets into the meat of their schedule. James Vandenberg came in at the end of the game and showed his arm strength as he tried to drive the ball between the 1's on Nordeman's jersey. Overall grade: C

RB- Coming off of the performance last week against UNI the RB unit needed a big performance. Adam Robinson started the game and Brandon Wegher got his first significant carries as a Hawkeye. Both backs ran the ball well and more importantly blocked well. Wegher showed that he might be the featured back sooner rather than later. Both backs run the ball hard and never seem to be taken down by the defender that makes first contact. Wegher showed great field vision making cuts and moves that made him look like a seasoned veteran. Brett Morse had a great game blocking and showed that he can also be a receiving threat. Overall grade: A-

TE/WR- Another stellar game for the receivers of Iowa, you have to see the correlation between Erik Campbell coming on as a coach and the emergence of Iowa's receivers. They all run good routes. block well, and make the plays when they are called on. It was good to see DJK get some early reps and Keenan Davis pop his touchdown cherry. Moeaki is a stud, his blocking was awesome on Saturday, I saw several times that he made the key block on running plays. Overall grade: A

OL- With Bulaga out the Hawks were figured to have trouble with blocking, but they played light years better than they did the previous week. Riley Reiff filled in for Bulaga and will be a stud when he gets a chance to play. Look for him to be on an NFL roster in four years. Vandevelde and Calloway were both back in the starting lineup and it showed. There was a great pocket all day long around Stanzi, they only gave up one sack and that was on a well called blitz on a naked boot leg. The run blocking left some to be desired, but Iowa State had 8 players in the box all day long and were daring Iowa to throw it. Overall grade: B

Overall offensive observations:
Iowa wore down the ISU defense.
They score should have been a lot worse, Stanzi missed wide open targets
The running game looked a lot better in the second half.
The run blocking will get better with all the projected starters playing
This is the deepest passing game in the Ferentz era, hopefully they don't lose any players for not getting the ball very much.

Offensive Line

In the Kirk Ferentz era there has always been a constant and up until a couple years ago it was line play. That all changed last year when the Hawks got great offensive line play. The unit really gelled last season and executed the zone blocking scheme to perfection in paving the way for Shonn Greene to win the Doak Walker award. Even more than the rushing yards the Hawks were able to gain, the best thing the line did was keep their QB upright, something they had problems with in '07. Gone from last year's starters are Rob Bruggeman and Seth Olsen who will both be in NFL camps this fall. While they are huge losses for Iowa, there are several players waiting in the wings to fill their spots. Iowa will return both of their tackles for next season, junior Bryan Bulaga and senior Kyle Calloway. The fact that Stanzi's blindside will be protected by one of the nation's best should give him a sense of safety when in the pocket this season. Hawk fans better enjoy this season with Bryan Bulaga as if he plays as well as he did last year, the NFL could come calling with a high draft pick in hand. Let's hope that Bryan takes the path of former Hawk Robert Gallery and stays for his senior season. That is of course all speculation so let's get back to the break down. While Calloway and Bulaga provide solid "bookends" the pages will be new in the O-Line. Returning will be co-starters for most of the season last year Rafeal Eubanks and Julian Vandevelde, who both spent time at LG last season with Julian taking over full time for the last part of the season. Expect Vandevelde to be at one guard spot for the season opener. At the other guard an old, but familiar face was recently seen playing at, Dace Richardson. Dace returns to the field after spending much of the last two years out of football due to injuries. If Dace can lock in on the other guard spot, the Hawks will have the luxury of having solid duo's on either side of center. And speaking of center the Iowa staff will have to replace Bruggeman who really was the straw that stirred the drink last year for the group. Recent photos have shown Stanzi taking snaps from Josh Koeppel, the soon to be junior from Iowa City. When he came to campus the staff was really high on Koeppel, let's hope that he can fill the big shoes that Bruggeman left behind. As a whole the line has the potential to be as good as the '02 line if they gel together like that one did. They will all have to be on their game as their are several players waiting in the wings to get onto the field. Rafeal Eubanks has spent time at both G and C in his three seasons on the field so he can fill in at either of those positions. Riley Reiff has made the switch to the OL permanent and if he fills out his frame, will bring a mean streak that the OL has been missing since Gallery. As Coach Williams used to say at Simpson, "We need some pricks out there." Another Hawk to keep your eye on is Casey McMillan, the red shirt freshman to be is two years removed from being the Montana player of the year and is still waiting to get his time on the field. Dan Doering is still at Iowa and is still battling injuries this spring, but when healthy he can step in and play either guard or tackle and be very serviceable. I would say James Ferentz, but I have a feeling that he won't be donning the pads for entire season due to his recent run in with Iowa City's finest. If they stay healthy the O-Line will be one of the strengths of the Hawks in '09 and will have very capable backups to boot.