Connect with us

Iowa

Questions and Answers, with Black Heart Gold Pants, the Iowa Hawkeyes’ SB Nation site

Published

on

Questions and Answers, with Black Heart Gold Pants, the Iowa Hawkeyes’ SB Nation site


On New Year’s Day, Tennessee plays Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. Fun fact: The Vols’ first ever bowl-game win came in 1939 when UT — coached by none other than General Robert Neyland himself — beat Oklahoma 17-0 in the Citrus Bowl.

The two teams have squared off just three times prior, with the most recent coming in 2015 (2014 season) when the Vols beat the Hawkeyes 45-28, with Josh Dobbs and Jalen Hurd accounting for a combined five touchdowns.

Part of what makes bowl season so much fun is that you get matchups like this, with UT in the SEC and Iowa in the Big 10, that normally wouldn’t happen. Then sometimes there’s an added bonus, like when you have the chance to see two teams that couldn’t be much different stylistically.

The Hawkeyes finished the year 10-2 while having scored 16.6 points per-game, which ranked them 128th out of 132 teams nationally. On the other end, the Vols finished 32nd in the country by putting up an average of 31.6 points per-contest (stats via TeamRankings dot com). The Hawkeye’s defense finished fourth nationally, allowing just more than 13 points per-contest and allowed more than 300 yards of offense just five times.

Advertisement

Stats are great and useful, but since these two teams don’t play each other with any regularity, we enlisted the help of our friends at Black Heart Gold Pants — the SB Nation home for all things Iowa — for some extra insight into Monday’s matchup.

1.) Alright — since Iowa doesn’t play in the SEC, I’d say a lot of Vol fans aren’t very familiar with the Hawkeyes. Hit us with a player or two that Vol fans should watch out for on each side of the ball.

I’ll start with the defensive side of the ball given there’s a lot more noteworthy going on on that side of things. Cooper DeJean is the superstar of the group and a unanimous 1st Team All-American, though he won’t be playing in the Citrus Bowl. Without him, Phil Parker’s defense takes a notable hit and even more importantly, the special teams play takes a serious step back. Beyond DeJean, though the defense has plenty of talent. At safety, Xavier Nwankpa is the only 5-star prospect on the roster and he’s good to show off that athleticism at least a couple times on Monday. But if you don’t know who is who, you might find yourself first wondering if #29 is that 5-star kid as Sebastian Castro, who plays Iowa’s hybrid LB/S position (they refer to it as “cash”), typically appears shot out of a cannon, coming from off the screen to practically running through it to blow up plays in the backfield. He’s been able to play very freely by the incredible dependability Iowa’s seen at linebacker this season with All-American Jay Higgins and All-Big Ten running mate Nick Jackson.

On the other side of the ball, things are… less exciting. Virtually all of Iowa’s most talented skill players have been injured for the season and the resulting passing game has meant there is very little to call out there. It is worth noting, though, that Ohio State transfer Kaleb Brown seemed to find his role late in the season and is clearly the most dynamic athlete the Hawkeyes have had at WR in years. Beyond him, though, the most notable names are in the running game where Iowa has played a three-headed monster much of the year. Kaleb Johnson entered his sophomore campaign the talk of the town after rushing for 779 yards on 5.3 YPC a season ago. But a lingering ankle injury has meant Johnson ceded a lot of reps to Leshon Williams, who leads the team in rushing at 804 yards on the season. Williams has better initial burst than Johnson but lacks the home run speed to break away the way we saw Johnson a year ago. That hasn’t stopped him from pulling off some big ones this year, but it has limited his upside a bit. Look for Iowa to mix in freshman Jaz Patterson as more of a scatback with those two.

2.) Iowa sits at fourth nationally, allowing just more than 13 points per-game. What’s the secret there? Sleeping pills in the opposing team’s Gatorade?

The secret to Phil Parker’s annual success with the defense is simplicity. There is no secret as to what Iowa will do on defense. You’re going to get a base 4-2-5 defense running a cover two shell with some man underneath with limited use of blitz pressure. Every player that steps foot on the field for Parker’s defense knows exactly where to be and is rarely caught out of position.

The game Parker plays is betting his defense can avoid giving up the big play long enough with his guys playing mistake free longer than an offense can string together plays without a mistake of their own. He’ll happily give up 3-8 yards through the air with regularity to avoid giving up anything over the top while committing to stop the run. When opponents get impatient and take their shot, that tends to be when we see turnovers, sacks or offenses getting stuck behind the chains and then it’s game over.

Advertisement

3.) All kidding aside, the two games Iowa’s lost this season were also the only two games in which it allowed more than 20 points to the opposing team. Is there anything to that, is it just a coincidence or does it have more to do with the two contests being against Penn State and Michigan?

There’s certainly something to be said for the two best team’s Iowa faced all year putting up the most points. Obvious answer is obvious. But those two games also played out very differently and if Iowa had any pulse on offense, neither of those teams would have topped 20 points.

PSU did exactly what what Phil Parker bets nobody is willing to do: they stayed patient ALL game and never once took a shot. They averaged 4.5 yards per attempt in the passing game with the longest play of the day coming on a 19-yard run. But Iowa’s offense was so inept, they couldn’t string anything together to give the D a break and ultimately, the Nittany Lions used 99 plays on offense to put up 31 points and benefitted from four Hawkeye fumbles (one of which set up PSU inside the redzone).

Michigan, quite simply, didn’t do anything to beat Iowa’s defense. They ultimately scored 26 points (well below their season average), but they managed just 213 yards of total offense – the lowest total in nearly a decade. For anyone that watched the Big Ten Championship Game, things ultimately hinged on two plays that gifted Michigan 14 of their 26 points. One was an uncharacteristic punt return allowed which set up the Wolverine offense inside the five and the other was a pass that was blown dead and ruled incomplete on the field but ended up giving Michigan the ball inside the ten again because it was a Wolverine player who walked over after the play and picked up the dead ball to return it to the official.

If Tennessee is looking to score points on Monday, the PSU model is the one to attempt emulating.

4.) Critics may point to the Hawkeyes’ conference as part of the reason they’re 10-2. But via Teamrankings dot com, the Hawkeyes have played the 46th toughest schedule in the country. Beating an SEC team in a New Year’s Day Bowl would help dampen the “weak conference,” narrative, but do Iowa fans feel slighted at all when folks bring up that argument? I mean… a team can only play the teams it’s scheduled, right?

Yes! And no. I mean, nobody in the Big Ten West is going to sit here and tell you the Big Ten West is any good. It’s not. But at the same time, watching the rest of the country this season and early on in the bowl season, that doesn’t mean anyone else is much better. Just different.

Advertisement

The West has evolved to match the two programs who have owned it. Iowa and Wisconsin are not schools that thrive on reeling in skill talent from the coasts or the south. But both are great at identifying and developing talent in the trenches and the result has been a division focused on physicality, winning with defense and running the ball.

So yeah, the offenses in the division are genuinely bad. But the defenses are genuinely good. And as of this writing, the division is 2-0 in bowl season.

5.) I saw yesterday that linebacker Jay Higgins is returning for another season. I’m just so happy for you.

Aside from the 155 tackles, four TFLs, one sack, one interception, one PBU, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, what does his return mean for that defense? And any advice on how to block that guy?

Higgins is a tremendous story as a guy who committed to Iowa and sat and waited his time. His size stopped him from having better offers out of high school and likely was going to hurt his draft stock despite the AA performance this season and thus his decision to return. But his leadership and tenacity this season has been tremendous after sitting his entire career behind former 1st rounder Jack Campbell.

The real key with blocking Higgins, though comes down to blocking the front four straight up. Despite playing the season without 1st Team All-Big Ten DT Noah Shannon, the front four has grown stout as the year has gone on and fellow DT Yahya Black has developed into an NFL prospect himself. He’s got a huge frame and often eats multiple blockers in the run game, which has been critical in getting Higgins, as well as the aforementioned Castro and Jackson, free runs at ball carriers.

6.) Tennessee has a lot of question marks going into this bowl game. The offense is breaking in a new QB, while losing two of its three best RBs, and trying to reconfigure an entire new secondary. How are things going over there? Anything concerning, or is it just business as usual?

I want to say it seems like business as usual over here, but to be honest “business as usual” this season has largely meant learning a new critical piece to the offense has been injured this week and that hasn’t popped up as of yet. For all the talk of Iowa’s miserable offense, a lot of it comes down to the fact they lost starting QB Cade McNamara (the former Michigan QB who beat out Joe Milton at UM prompting him to transfer to Tennessee) early in the year and then proceeded to lose both starting tight ends (which would be akin to the top WR in most modern offenses) Luke Lachey and Erick All for the season before WR Diante Vines missed time and six of the top seven offensive linemen had to miss time throughout the year.

Advertisement

In short, the offense has been a walking MASH unit for three months now with the aforementioned DeJean also going down to injury ahead of the final regular season game at Nebraska. Outside of the OL, none of those guys are going to be walking out of the tunnel on Monday so in that sense, it is business as usual.

7.) I don’t usually do predictions, but if you’d like to throw one in, go ahead. No pressure — I don’t need a final score or anything, but if you have a general vibe or feeling about the game, let it fly.

A week ago I would have said I predict this is a miserable watch for virtually everyone involved, but that Tennessee simply had too much offensive firepower for Iowa to hang around. However, the news on Milton strikes me as a bigger deal than I suspect it feels like to most Vol fans simply because it seems like we’ve seen this movie a bunch of times at Iowa.

I know it feels like this should be a walk in the park. The Hawkeyes can’t score points and it seems laughable to think that some basic, bland defense with a bunch of 3-star kids from midwest is going to be able to hang around . “They haven’t seen speed like this before”. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard/read/been told that as an Iowa fan I could probably afford to quit my day job. The handful of times it’s been true, it’s been at the hands of playoff-caliber teams.

This one feels eerily similar to the Music City Bowl a season ago where Iowa had a miserable offense with a backup QB who couldn’t do anything and was facing an SEC opponent with talent on the offensive side of the ball. I understand Tennessee is not Kentucky and this year is not last, but a true freshman QB against Phil Parker’s defense is good for at least two “uh-oh” moments that will give Iowa chance. I’m not bold enough to call for the outright win, but I’m to the point where I think the Hawkeyes can cover the 7.5 points. And as always when Iowa is involved, smash the under.

Tennessee 17, Iowa 13

Advertisement

Thanks to the folks at Black Heart Gold Pants for the assist here. I might be wrong (I’m wrong a lot), but anybody picking this to be a walk in the park for the Vols could be in for a rude awakening come game time.



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Iowa

Updating Iowa State rankings in college football polls ahead of UCF matchup

Published

on

Updating Iowa State rankings in college football polls ahead of UCF matchup


play

The latest college football polls have been released, and Iowa State keeps moving up.

Iowa State improved to 6-0 after beating West Virginia 28-16 on Saturday in Morgantown.

Advertisement

The Cyclones are now set for a matchup at home vs. UCF on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Iowa State rankings update

Where did Iowa State land?

On Sunday, Iowa State checked in at No. 12 in USATODAY US LBM coaches poll. Previously, the Cyclones were No. 13.

Iowa State climbed up to No. 9 in the newest AP Top 25 college football poll. Last week, the Cyclones were No. 11.

US LBM Coaches Poll

Here is a look at the new US LBM college football coaches poll top 25.

Advertisement
  1. Texas
  2. Oregon
  3. Penn State
  4. Georgia
  5. Ohio State
  6. Miami (Fla.)
  7. Alabama
  8. LSU
  9. Clemson
  10. Tennessee
  11. Notre Dame
  12. Iowa State
  13. BYU
  14. Texas A&M
  15. Ole Miss
  16. Missouri
  17. Kansas State
  18. Indiana
  19. Boise State
  20. Pittsburgh
  21. Illinois
  22. Michigan
  23. SMU
  24. Army West Point
  25. Nebraska

Schools Dropped Out

No. 16 Oklahoma; No. 17 Utah

Others Receiving Votes

Oklahoma 81; Arizona State 49; Navy 37; Utah 31; Vanderbilt 26; Syracuse 13; UNLV 12; Iowa 12; Texas Tech 9; Liberty 9; Washington State 8; Memphis 4; Louisville 4; James Madison 3; Tulane 2

AP Poll

Here is a look at the new Associated Press college football poll top 25

  1. Texas
  2. Oregon
  3. Penn State
  4. Ohio State
  5. Georgia
  6. Miami (Fla.)
  7. Alabama
  8. LSU
  9. Iowa State
  10. Clemson
  11. Tennessee
  12. Notre Dame
  13. BYU
  14. Texas A&M
  15. Boise State
  16. Indiana
  17. Kansas State
  18. Ole Miss
  19. Missouri
  20. PIttsburgh
  21. SMU
  22. Illinois
  23. Army West Point
  24. Michigan
  25. Navy
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:

Vanderbilt 68, Nebraska 62, Arizona St. 39, Oklahoma 36, Washington St. 32, Iowa 29, Texas Tech 18, Syracuse 13, Arkansas 13, Utah 7, Louisville 6, Southern Cal 5, Liberty 2, UNLV 1.

Reach Eugene Rapay at erapay@gannett.com and follow him on X/Twitter @erapay5.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Iowa

Becht, Hansen lead No. 11 Iowa State over West Virginia 28-16 for first 6-0 start since 1938

Published

on

Becht, Hansen lead No. 11 Iowa State over West Virginia 28-16 for first 6-0 start since 1938


Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht believes the Cyclones have yet to hit their peak during their best start in 86 years.

Carson Hansen rushed for three scores, Becht threw a touchdown pass and No. 11 Iowa State beat West Virginia 28-16 on Saturday night.

The Cyclones (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) opened the season with six wins for the first time since 1938.

“I feel like we haven’t even played our best game yet as a whole — special teams, defense, and offense,” Becht said. The goal is “finding ways to get better each and every single week, and our mindset is just 0-0 and trying to win that next game.”

Advertisement

Iowa State forged a first-place tie in the league with BYU and idle Texas Tech.

The Cyclones broke open a close game by scoring two touchdowns after intercepting West Virginia’s Garrett Greene in the second half.

Becht found Eli Green on passes of 12 and 34 yards on consecutive plays to set up the Cyclones at the West Virginia 17. A third-down holding call on West Virginia cornerback Ayden Garnes gave Iowa State first-and-goal at the 3, and Hansen scored on the next play for a 21-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Jontez Williams made his third interception of the season on West Virginia’s next drive, and Iowa State took over at the Mountaineers’ 34. Hansen ran for 20 yards on the ensuing drive, capped by his 2-yard scoring run for a 28-10 lead with 4:42 left.

Hansen, a sophomore who also scored on an 11-yard run in the second quarter, finished with 96 rushing yards, one shy of the career high he set last week against Baylor. He ran for a total of 67 yards during an injury-filled freshman season.

Advertisement

“For him to consistently play the way he has the last couple of weeks, it’s awesome to watch,” Becht said.

West Virginia (3-3, 2-1) was held to 148 rushing yards against the league’s top defense after amassing 389 yards on the ground a week ago at Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers were hurt by several high snaps that threw off their timing and runs parallel to the line of scrimmage that lost yardage.

“In the second half, when it was winning time, we didn’t win,” said West Virginia coach Neal Brown. “We struggled to get into a rhythm.”

Becht completed 18 of 26 passes for 265 yards, including a 60-yard scoring toss to Jaylin Noel in blown coverage in the second quarter.

Becht’s father, Anthony, was honored on the field after the first quarter for his induction into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He played tight end for the Mountaineers from 1996-99 and 11 seasons in the NFL.

Advertisement

“You couldn’t ask for a greater night for his family,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.

Rocco Becht said he wished he could have been there with his dad, “but I had bigger things going on trying to win this game.”

Jahiem White had an 8-yard scoring run and a 10-yard TD catch for West Virginia. Greene finished 18 of 32 for 206 yards.

Iowa State: The Cyclones answered the challenge on both sides of the ball in winning their seventh straight road game. Becht played smart and efficient, and the nation’s sixth-best scoring defense was stout again.

West Virginia: The Mountaineers many too many mistakes at key times and now have lost eight consecutive games to ranked opponents.

Advertisement

Iowa State might have a tough time moving up when the AP poll comes out on Sunday. The Cyclones were tied at No. 11 with Notre Dame, which beat Stanford 49-7.

Iowa State: Hosts UCF on Saturday night.

West Virginia: Hosts No. 18 Kansas State on Saturday night.

___ Get alerts on the latest AP Top 25 poll throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Iowa

Iowa football isn’t always pretty, but because of Kirk Ferentz, it has punched above its weight class

Published

on

Iowa football isn’t always pretty, but because of Kirk Ferentz, it has punched above its weight class


IOWA CITY, Iowa — In unseasonably warm air and beneath a blueish haze over Kinnick Stadium, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz took a moment to himself with two minutes left and his team wrapping up a 40-16 win against Washington.

Ferentz stood apart from his team on the sideline with his headset on as his offense huddled during the media timeout. On the video board, his picture appeared. Public address announcer Mark Abbott relayed that Ferentz was about to win his 200th game as Iowa’s head coach, passing Amos Alonzo Stagg for second in Big Ten history. The crowd stood and applauded, and Ferentz acknowledged them with a wave.

GO DEEPER

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz earns 200th career win as Big Ten coach

Advertisement

Tight end Luke Lachey gave him a hug, as did running back Kaleb Johnson. Backup quarterback Marco Lainez III shook his hand. With 33 seconds left, Ferentz walked to the TigerHawk at midfield, shook hands with Washington counterpart Jedd Fisch and completed an interview with Fox Sports. More subdued than emotional, Ferentz jogged off the playing surface, up the tunnel and into Iowa’s locker room where his players welcomed him with a water bottle shower.

Sunshine and 70-degree days — literally or figuratively — rarely have followed Ferentz into October in his coaching career, so the picturesque autumn setting was abnormal for college football’s longest-tenured coach. However, how Ferentz and the Hawkeyes responded to a 35-7 loss to Ohio State last week went entirely by script.

There are two defining characteristics through the highs and lows of Ferentz’s 26 years at Iowa: One, his players trust him and believe in him. The other truth is, no football coach — thus, no program — responds better to adversity than Ferentz and his Hawkeyes.

Ferentz’s entire career has revolved around continual improvement. And Iowa has gone very far following Ferentz’s ethos.

“He’s the same person every day,” said left tackle Mason Richman, who is in his fifth season. “He brings the same exact energies. You know exactly what to expect from him, no matter what the scoreboard says.”

Advertisement

Iowa rarely recruits five-star players and mostly signs three-star prospects. Only once in his career did Iowa finish in the top 15 in national recruiting, and that was in 2005. The Hawkeyes are a low-offer program because they heavily research character in recruiting. They want high achievers with good grades who were team captains in multiple sports. To Ferentz and his staff, those players invest themselves and improve others.

“I feel like we recruit the type of the right type of guys,” Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins said. “We just don’t have selfish guys in the locker room. So when you have good guys who understand what a team should look like, and then you also have a good leader, it’s easy to stand together. I just think this team, this program, anytime there’s adversity, we only get closer.”

Those types of players are built to handle challenges, and Iowa continues to have the right coach to navigate them through it. The examples in Ferentz’s era abound.

• In 2016, the Hawkeyes gave up 599 yards in a 41-14 massacre at eventual Big Ten champion Penn State. As a three-touchdown home underdog to No. 2 Michigan the following week, Iowa bounced back with a stunning 14-13 upset.

• Sitting at the midpoint of the 2008 season, Iowa was 15-16 over 2 1/2 seasons. Ferentz never wavered, and neither did his team. The Hawkeyes won their final four games to end that season, and then their first nine in 2009. They finished with their highest final ranking (No. 7) since 1960.

Advertisement

• In 2014, Iowa continued a slope of mediocrity by losing all four rivalry trophy games and finishing 7-6. The next year, dubbed “New Kirk,” Ferentz switched practices from afternoon to morning and became much more open in the public. The players responded in 2015 with a spirit of togetherness, leading to a school-record 12 wins. From that year onward, Iowa ranks tied for 10th among power-conference teams in victories.

• Two years ago, Iowa’s offense was among the nation’s worst in every category. After a 7-3 season-opening win against South Dakota State in which the Hawkeyes scored on two safeties and a field goal, linebacker Jack Campbell shot down any question that dealt with division. Campbell’s attitude set the tone for that season and it carried over to 2023, in which Iowa’s offense posted the Big Ten’s worst statistical numbers in nearly 40 years. Yet there was no sniping, let alone dissension. The team eventually claimed the Big Ten West Division crown.

• In 2004, Iowa started 2-2, including a 44-7 loss at Arizona State. Despite losing four scholarship running backs to injury, the Hawkeyes held it together with defense mixed with an occasional highlight-reel play. The Hawkeyes won their final eight games, claimed a share of the Big Ten title and won the Capital One Bowl with a 56-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play.

That 2004 team was honored Saturday before the second quarter to rousing applause. One of its stars, defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux, was Iowa’s honorary captain on Saturday. It was a team molded by adversity, and it charted an unconventional path of success. It even took a safety midway through the fourth quarter against Penn State in a 6-4 win. Ferentz gave the eulogy at his father’s funeral in Pittsburgh the day before that game.

Most teams would have crumbled in any of those situations, but Iowa never did.

Advertisement

Why? Ferentz.

“It’s definitely his leadership,” Higgins said. “He truly only cares about the guys in the locker room. When you’ve got a guy like that thinking you’re able to respond, it’s nice. He’s not gonna freak out. Doesn’t matter what the headline is. He’s not gonna come to the meeting room and read off the headlines. He keeps his voice, and we all respond off him. If he’s calm and he knows that we need to respond after a bad game or a tough situation, we’re all going to follow that.”

None of those anecdotes mean Ferentz is perfect. Far from it. Critiques are plentiful about his son, Brian, running his offense for seven years, especially when the final three were so rough. Brian remained in place until university president Barbara Wilson and athletic director Beth Goetz stepped in and dismissed him following the 2023 season. Other complaints about Ferentz’s game-day decision making are fair.

And in 2020, dozens of former players accused the program of racial insensitivity and bias, which was confirmed through an independent investigation. Instead of resisting necessary changes or stepping down, Ferentz opted for a new course. He accepted responsibility and sought counsel from former players, relieved longtime strength coach Chris Doyle and extended a leadership council to include more voices. Many arbitrary rules such as not using X or wearing hoodies in the football complex were vacated. Although some feel the changes didn’t go far enough — while others believed they went too far — there’s no doubt the program has become more welcoming to all players. Its attrition rate is among the lowest in the Big Ten, and it has won the third most games in the Big Ten since that season.

With Ferentz’s guidance, Iowa has punched well above its weight class.

Advertisement

Its recruiting rankings are closer to those of Illinois and Purdue than Michigan and Penn State, yet the Hawkeyes’ results are closer to the latter. Iowa finds ways to win where its peers fall short. It’s not always pretty and perhaps it won’t ever win the ultimate prize. But that Iowa remains anywhere near the College Football Playoff rankings most years is a credit to Ferentz.

“I appreciate him how much this program means to him,” Richman said. “When you get an appreciation like that, you’re less stressed out. With him at the helm, this place has a really special place in my heart and the hearts of many across the entire state.”

(Top photo of Kirk Ferentz: Matthew Holst / Getty Images)



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending