Monday, September 14, 2009

AZ 2 Deep Changes

Bulaga is back at LT. Welcome back big guy!!! Vandervelde might be full time at RG after playing a lot against ISU. Vandervelde was projected to play limited vs ISU but with Bulaga being out that changed things. Richardson at LG makes that left side very tough. This is an outstanding OLine now!

LT - Bulaga, Reiff
LG - Richardson
C- Eubanks
RG - Vandervelde
RT - Calloway

Eubanks came out some plays due to dehydrated and Koeppel played very well in his spot. Robinson and Wegher will be sharing the RB duties. I expect Wegher to get more carries in the 1H than what he did last week. They are a nice 1-2 punch!

Again not much has changed on Defense. Lowe started for Castillo at LC last week as Castillo was a little banged up during the week. Lowe played a fantastic game and gets the start again at LC. Prater is back off suspension so he might take over for Lowe. If not I expect Prater to get a lot of playing time.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

A look at the OLine for Week 2

Calloway is back from suspension which is huge! That makes both Tackles are back from last year. Julian Vandervelde is cleared to play. It sounds highly unlikely he will start or play a lot. So we are looking at the following OLine on Saturday:

LT Bulaga
LG Gettis
C Eubanks
RG Richardson
RT Calloway

I am thinking Gettis gets the nod over Doering this week. Doering was a top OL coming out of HS in 2005 class. Iowa fans have had big hopes for him but he has been hampered by injuries every year. Coach has stated he has been impressed with Doering in spring and summer but he looked awful at times at RG. It could change in practice this week but this is how I see it.

Then when Julian is ready to go in to play, this is where the Oline gets to be stout!!!!

LT Bulaga
LG Vandervelde
C Eubanks
RG Richardson
RT Calloway

Barring injury, I expect this to be the starting lineup for some time. Some don't like Eubanks at center but I thought he did an alright job. They just need more practice and game time together to work out the kinks that caused a couple sacks last Saturday.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Latest 2 Deep vs ISU

Only changes are on Offense where Calloway makes it back at Right Tackle. This moves Richardson back to his normal Guard spot but they don't know whether it will be RG or LG. So either Gettis or Doering will be benched this week. The only other change is at RB where Adam Robinson gets the start ahead of Paki O'Meara. Adam had a solid game after a slow start. It seemed he was hitting the line to fast and not allowing the holes to open up. After a couple series, he finally slowed it down and got some nice runs out there. Paki didn't do a whole lot on the day but he did have one huge mistake. After Iowa gets a fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half, he fights for some extra yards and gets stripped of the ball. That cost Iowa at least a FG as it would have been 3rd and 10.

In other news, Vandervelde sounds like he might have a chance to play this week as he was dressed for the UNI game but didn't play. Ferentz is back also but he is down the 2 deeps a ways. Prater is still on suspension this week but will be back for the Arizona game. We definitely need him back as UNI picked on our CBs playing opposite of Speivey.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Who is out for the Hawks tomorrow???

CB Prater, OL Calloway, and OL Ferentz are all suspended due to off-season arrests. RB Hampton and CB Bernstine are out for the season. OL Vandervelde is back practicing but missed most of camp. Coach made it sound like he will not play this week and probably not next week. WR Sandeman has been injured a lot of camp also and sounds doubtful.

UNI is missing their #1 and #3 RB plus their best WR...

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The RB Situation

Lets start by stating the obvious, Jewel Hampton is out for the year. That leaves us with Paki O'Meara as the only RB with experience. Paki wasn't a big time recruit. He was a walk-on that worked his tail off to get where he is today. Kind of like Dallas Clark did and we all know how that turned out. Paki hasn't shown a lot of flash the past two years but he has shown two things... He takes care of the ball and runs North-n-South. Word in camp though is he has shown a lot more this year. So we will see what kind of Paki went get on Saturday. I am believing it is the new and improved Paki with over 100yds rushing.

Second Team is redshirt freshman Adam Robinson out of Des Moines. Adam had back to back 1,000yds rushing seasons at Lincoln High School but Iowa was the only major to offer him. It looks like we might have found another diamond in the rough. Adam has really impressed the coaching staff this camp. I have a feeling if it wasn't for Paki's experience that Adam might be starting on Saturday. But who cares who starts this weekend, Adam will be getting a good share of snaps on Saturday.

Third Team is a mix of redshirt freshman Jeff Brinson and true freshman Brandon Wegher. If Jeff wouldn't have missed a lot of camp due to an ankle injury, he might have been the starter. I have heard over the pass two years that he is the closest to Shonn Greene that we have. He is a punishing back and has delivered some vicious hits running scout team against our first team Defense. Jeff might not see much action this weekend due to missing so much of camp but we should at least see some glimpse of what he has. Brandon was a four star, highly recruited last year with 3,200yds rushing last year. He is supposedly quick and fast and is supposed to be a damn good return man for both punts and kick offs. As of Tuesday, Coach stated that Paki would still be the kick return man if they played today. I see that changing on Saturday since Coach stated that Brandon will play and not redshirt. Coach doesn't like having his starting RB as a KR man. I suspect Brandon will be the third man in on Saturday and get a decent look with maybe 10 or so carries.

The rest, we have two true freshman in Brad Rogers out of OH and Josh Brown out of FL. Brad is just a huge true freshamn RB close to the 230lb mark. Josh moved from CB/S to RB during camp. Many believe with the depth we have at the Freshman mark and with Jewel having 3 more years of eligibility going into 2010 that he might move back to CB/S. It will be very interesting to see if either of these two play this year or redshirt.

Even without Jewel, our running game will be just fine. It wasn't all Shonn last year! He had some big holes to run through by those OLinemen. This could be the best OL that we have ever had at Iowa when they all get healthy and off suspension. It will be interesting to see how they do against UNI without Vandervelde (due to injury) and Kuempel (OWI suspension). When these two get back in action, look out!!!