Iowa Special Teams
Keading is gone and will be missed this year, His replacement is a redshirt frosh with a very strong and accurate leg, but he is a freshman, Kyle Schylker, he was known for kicking 60+ yrd fgs in high school but so for this year hes been off to a shakey start, but Keading got off to a shaky start to. He has the potential and the leg to be a good one. Right now his is kicking the low off the tee and had 2 blocked, needs to get it up and he will be fine.
Punting game is still intact from last year. David Bradley returns for his senior season as our punter. Our special teams will be good, as long as our fg kicker starts getting the ball up.
Also Sean Considne returns who already has 7 career blocked punts and we have one blocked punt so far this year.
IOWAS DEFENSE
Defense is lites out. They are comparing this defense to the Buckeyes defense of a few years ago. Maybe even better. No one will run against us and we will make you one dimensional. Junior Line backers Abdul Hodge and Chad Greenway are Studs, Greenway has 2 picks this year and was named national Defensive player of the week in week 1 with 2 picks, 12 tackles and a td. Matt Roth anchors the defense line ALONG with Jonathon Babeneux. All four of them will play in the NFL. We also have some very good run stoppers in the middle with Derrick Robinson, Tyler Lubke and some young studs providing depth on the D line and gaining experience. This is probably the best Front 7 in the country . Our D-Backs we have 3rd year starters at the corners with Jovan Johnson and Antwan Allen, but watch out for Juco Transfer Wallner Bellus #10 to make his way into the starting line up over allen sometime in the near future, Word is he has all the skills to be a shut down corner. We lose Bob Sanders at safety, he will be missed, but Considine and Pacheil are holding it down just fine so far.
IOWAS OFFENSE
Offense, a young Line, may take a while to jell, but they will and when they do watch out. Drew Tate at QB, redshirt frosh from Baytown Texas, holds all the passing records in Texas H.S. football, many say he plays like a young Bret Farve. He has a riffle, he has good feet and is very quick and accurate once he settles down. He will run and get you the first down and he will take on a linebacker. Ferentz hasn't let him air it out yet, been playing vanilla against Kent St and ISU, working on the o line for run blocking.
At running Back we have Jermelle Lewis returning senior and Marcus Simmions a very quick and impressive transfer from the Hated Huskers. Both were suspended during game one, but are ready to go now.
Receiving Corps, we have a lot, Holloway and Hickle are the experienced seniors, Hinkle is playing 100% healthy finally, has been impressive thus far. Also returning after academic problems is Clinton Solomon (#88), he has all the tools to be an NFL receiver, he will tall and a great goal line weapon, will catch everything thrown to him. Matt Melloy is a great possion receiver great hands, had 2 td catches in game one, he is injured right now but should be back soon. Also the speedy James Townsend from Jersey (#8), haven't used him yet this year but he runs a 4.2 and will stretch the Field once we open up our passing game. At tight end we have a soph converted 6'7 wr who is gonna be a weapon, Scott Chandler, the brother of last years QB Nathan, they say he can be a Todd Heap type of tight end. Our offense is very talented, just waiting for the O'Line to come along and we will be very good. Scary good with that Defense, we haven't shown much on offense yet, just playing vanilla and basic, I don't know is Ferentz will open it up this week or not, usually he saves it for the Big 10, so I expect us to be hitting on all cylinders by the time the Mich game comes along barring any major injuries this week. Also we are expected to get two starters from last years offensive line back from injuries by the time the Michigan game rolls around, but who knows. The injury bug has bitten us a little this year, people will look and see we lost 2 rbs, but in reality them were our 3rd and 4th string rds who had to start and play because of the suspensions to Lewis and Simmons.
MY THOUGHTS ON THE GAME
It will be interesting playing in the Big House again. If our offense doesn't turn the ball over and puts some points on the board, our defense is talented enough to keep Michigans offense down, we may just pull off another surprise in the big house. Then watch out because this team will get confidence might go on a roll. .
Expect a low scoring close game a defensive struggle, probably some down to special teams play, who doesn't make a mistake and who hits there field goals!
GO HAWKS
