iowa preseason

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dylan64

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without instantly devolving into hog-eye rants, I wanted to inquire what everyone thinks about Iowa this upcoming season. In the early looks from various College FB websites, a lot of people are putting Iowa as contenders for the Big Ten title. I just don't see it.

But, I don't follow Iowa very much either, so I was wondering if anyone had any added insight into these lofty predictions. I think the loss of Shonn Greene (and a couple of OL?) is going to be much bigger for IA than they realize. Plus that DL should have some big question marks after losing their two DTs. Going into this preseason I thought htis might be a year that the Gophs could sneak a win in at Kinnick, but maybe I'm missing something.

Any opinions?
 

only title

they win is the one for most police bookings:D
 

A Hawkeye's perspective

I think people feel this could be a strong Iowa teams this year for a number of reasons. Most importantly, the defense should again be very strong. On defense, while losing two outstanding DTs, their back-ups have shown that they are themselves very capable. Karl Klug from up here in Minnesota had some outstanding play at DT last year. Mike Daniels and Cody Hundertmark are also pretty good for young guys. With our two best DEs returning, and Broderick Binns rotating in, the DL looks very solid once again. Still, when you lose two guys like King and Kroul, you can never be certain how it will play out. We also return all of our starters at LB, 3/4ths of our two-deep at CB, and everyone from our two-deeps at safety.

On offense, yes we lost Shonn Greene and two good linemen, but we return three starters and a ton of depth (including several players who have been starters). Depending on what the coach does to his son for this public intox charge, the depth could take a bit of a hit, but there are a ton of veteran linemen who aren't even slated to start. Many of them were very highly rated coming out of high school, and have been held back by injuries (Doerring, Eubanks, Richardson). Unless we are hit with the injury bug, the line looks very good--which will make Greene replaceable by Hampton and other backs. Add in the fact that Stanzi now has more experience under his belt at QB and that our receiving corp is coming back for the most part, and the offense could also be pretty good.

I don't necessarily see a B10 championship, especially due to an arguably tougher B10 schedule, but this is a veteran team that may well build on last year's modest success relative to the two previous years. It isn't a rebuilding year by any means.
 

I would pick them for #3 in the conference. (OSU -1, PSU - 2) Given the way they played the second half of last season they look like a legitimate contender but their road schedule is brutal (@ OSU, @ PSU, @ MSU, @ Wisc). With that kind of a schedule you need to be much better than your opponents and I just don't think they have the talent to do it.

We will definitely be underdogs in Kinnick.

Hampton looked like a good back but he isn't Greene. I don't think they are particularly deep at RB but they do have a good freshman coming in this year. They seemed to solve their QB problem mid-season when they inserted Stanzi and it totally turned their season around. Stanzi returns and will likely improve. Their line probably won't be as good this year but it will still be among the top 3 in the Big Ten. You just don't replace two 4-year starters at DT so their DL will likely take a step back--I think they were #1 against the run in the Big Ten last year so I'm just saying they won't be as good as that.

MplsHawk--Are you sure that you are going to have both of your DE's? I thought the one that punched the taxi driver could face jail time.
 

grunkiejr said:
MplsHawk--Are you sure that you are going to have both of your DE's? I thought the one that punched the taxi driver could face jail time.
Click to expand...

No, not sure at all. Depends on how that plays out I suppose as to his innocence or guilt. Assuming that Clayborn is guilty of something, but that it turns out to be some kind of altercation instead of an unprovoked attack, perhaps he won't be lost for the entire season. I guess I just don't know the facts there. Its a pity, as Clayborne seemed like a young man with his head screwed on straight--before this incidence that is.

Even if Clayborne is lost, Binns has been very impressive, so there is still potential there. I would rather have both of them available though.

I think that the OL could be better this year than last. We lose two starters, but have many veterans with starting experience waiting to again step into starting roles. Bruggeman was one of our best linemen last year along with Bulaga, but he was a first year starter. I think some of the fourth and fifth year guys are going to step up and play a similar role this year. With veteran T's and G's, if someone steps up and takes the reigns at C, then this line should be great.

I agree about King and Kroul. They will be hard to replace. I also worry about injuries to Klug. I believe he has had back (?) problems, so hopefully he stays healthy.

So how are things looking for the Gophers on the lines? Is the Notre Dame transfer Carufel (sp?) likely to start?
 


I think Iowa will probably play in a January bowl game in Florida again (something they've done 5 of the last 7 years).

I hope at some point we can do that.
 

MplsHawk said:
So how are things looking for the Gophers on the lines? Is the Notre Dame transfer Carufel (sp?) likely to start?
Click to expand...

Brewster said last year that Carufel was the best lineman in the program and he has been running with first team at RG all spring. The frequent thing that I hear about him is that he has a nasty streak on the field. Weber said that in HS he was the kind of guy that you hate on the other team but he loves having him on his team.

For the Gophers the defense is ahead of the offense right now. Not really a surprise considering it is 6 practices in and the defensive scheme is about 80% the same as last year and the offense is mostly new.

The Gophers are returning a lot of starters but it sounds like some players will lose starting jobs through competition. The d-line returns 7 of 8 in the two deep at DL but the one they loss was 2nd team All conference and our best pass rusher (Van De Steeg). It sounds as though the returners have made a lot of strides in the weight room. Anthony Jacobs (RsSo) and Cedric McKinley are practicing as 1st team DE's which would mean that Derek Onwauchi is lost his starting job. We return 2 starting LB's (MLB-Campbell and WLB-Lawrence) and have to find a third starter. Lawrence is a converted safety that they brought in to defend the spread. He was timed at 4.43 in the 40 this spring and has put on 10+ lbs which should help him stay on the field in running situations this year. Campbell is a prototypical Big Ten MLB and I think he missed the Iowa game w/ an ankle injury. The other SLB is an open competition and they have a RsSr that is a good run defender as a safety net in case the '08 recruits aren't ready yet. We may have lost Brock, one of our starting safeties, due to grades but he is back at Juco taking classes and he still may become eligible this fall. Wiscy transfer Royston is expected to take a starting safety job and 2-yr starter Theret and Soph Tim Dandridge are competing for the other. We return both starting CB's and our nickel back but Brewster has said he expects incoming freshman Michael Carter (Tyrone's cousin) to play some CB this year.

The offense returns 10 starters (only lose TE). The O will really revolve around the development of the OL under the new OL coach Tim Davis (previously at Wisconsin, USC, Miami Dolphins, Alabama). Our entire 2 deep for OL is back and we add RG Carufel & Juco RT Wills. A lot of guys have been moved around and Brewster keeps raving about Stommes who has stepped in at LT after being a back up under the previous coach; there is an article up on the ESPN blog about him now. Aside from the OL it sounds like Gray has been everything they expected in practice which solidifies the two deep at QB with Weber coming back for his 3rd year starting. We still need to find the man at RB. Last year Bennett looked great until he got hurt in week 2 and we had to rely on two freshman to carry the load. We have all three of them back plus Sr Jay Thomas should be fully healed from a knee injury the prior year. We add RsFr Kevin Whaley who sat out due to injury and Hasan Lipscomb, a true freshman that is our highest rated RB recruit since Maroney (fingers crossed he turns out similar). WR should be solid with Decker returning, the addition of #2 Juco WR in the country Hayo Carpenter and 5 talented sophomores getting all of the reps in spring practice.

We should be a more talented team with virtually everyone coming back and the addition of a good recruiting class to solidify depth. However, I have no idea what to expect record wise because our schedule is much more difficult. We lose Indiana & Michigan and pick up PSU & MSU in the Big Ten. Our ooc loses Northern Illinois, Bowling Green and Florida Atlantic and we pick up Cal, Air Force, and Syracuse.

Sorry, that was kind of long but that is pretty much everything you might want to know.
 

Thanks grunkiejr

Sounds like if the Gophers can adapt to the coaching changes quickly, they may be primed for a good year. The schedule is tough, but I think it sets up fairly well.
 

with that road schedule i will 1-3 on the road

and they will blow one at home

4-4
 



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