In an effort to give you the best picture possible of what the Buckeyes will be facing on Saturday against the Hawkeyes, I went to Iowa beat writer Marc Morehouse of the Cedar Rapids Gazette for some answers.
As all Q & A’s before it, this one adheres to all of the standards and bylaws set forth by the National Q&A Commission. I am the one asking questions and Marc is the one answering them.
1. I realize it was a billion years ago now, but how did Iowa keep Penn State out of the end zone?
The fourth downs Penn State faced in Iowa’s red zone were fourth-and-just-long-enough-to-make-Franklin-nervous. I’m not sure exactly and I’m too lazy right now to look them up, but I want to say like fourth-and-3 to 5. The red zone is just less field for this defense to cover. Iowa likes that phone booth. Really, it’s a read-and-react defense. It’s almost like an MMA fighter who does their best work fighting from their back. It’s been a solid red zone defense mostly through Kirk Ferentz’s 19 years.
2. Can you give us a breakdown of the offensive line? I assume this is the main reason why Akrum Wadley is averaging 4 yards per carry.
Iowa started the year with all of the OL dudes who helped it win the Joe Moore Award last season. Week 1: C James Daniels sits out with a knee or back injury. He says he’s fine now and he’s playing better, but still, it set him back a little. Week 2: OT Ike Boettger suffered a ruptured Achilles vs. Iowa State and the three-year starter and a senior is lost for the season. After two weeks of right guard Sean Welsh playing right tackle, true freshman Tristan Wirfs (6-5, 315) took over vs. Illinois and has held up outside of a deadly false start late in the fourth quarter vs. Northwestern. Weeks up to now: Boone Myers, Iowa’s three-year starter at senior at left tackle, suffered a high-ankle sprain in camp. He rotated in and out, but the ankle never fully healed and so he had surgery last week and might make it back for the bowl. Redshirt freshman Alaric Jackson has been the starter at left tackle all season. He’s big (6-7, 320), but he’s a freshman left tackle.
So, Iowa doesn’t have the OL it thought it would have and the back that might’ve had a chance to be one of those “stronger in the fourth quarter” backs, James Butler, suffered a hyper-extended elbow and just got back after missing a handful of games.
Not a lot of programs in the Big Ten can suffer the loss of a pair of senior three-year starting OTs. Iowa is trying and it’s a work in progress.
3. Quarterback Nathan Stanley has only thrown four interceptions this season and has made some tremendous throws. Assess his play in 2017.
Stanley has played ahead of his time. He really does have a strong arm. You hear that and football is not a radar gun deal, but there were two throws at Northwestern where DBs baited Stanley and he lasered the ball past them and to receivers. He’s had overthrows on plays that would’ve been TDs. He missed four of those and, hey, it didn’t come back and bite Iowa in the butt pads. So, live and learn.
Great arm, poised, good size (6-5, 230), seems extremely comfortable in the offense. I need to do the story on how this high-performing QB just sprouted out of Menomanie, Wis. I don’t think he even has one of those “passing guru coaches.”
He doesn’t have the playbook and leeway at the LOS that CJ Beathard had, but Beathard was a two-year starter. That should come. Also, he’s been victimized by drops the last two games. Painful drops. Last year, Iowa’s pass offense generated 1,919 yards, its worst output since 1982. Digging out of that is going to take some time.
4. What is the strength of the Iowa defense?
Front seven. In 2015, Iowa rode four pretty good D-linemen into the ground. DEs were hitting snap counts in the 80th percentile. That group ran out of gas and by the end of the season was hanging on for dear life. In 2016, Iowa played six D-linemen. This year, they’ve fully committed to playing eight and now nine. The dividend has been freshness. The group has held up and has gas in the tank heading into November. True freshman A.J. Epenesa gave Iowa that fourth DE to be able to pull this off. Iowa closed out Minnesota last week with a sack from DE Anthony Nelson. The D-line’s best players might be around 60 percent on snap counts.
And Josey Jewell. He sees the game like a Terminator. No, I’m not referencing that because he plays with machine guns. It’s more what the Terminator sees, the grid that assess threats, that’s where this is going. Extremely smart player, turkey farmer and native Iowan. He wears being a Hawkeye like skin. Those guys are worth their weight in gold doubloons, especially when they have the accidental and essential genetics.
5. What part of Ohio State’s offense will give the Hawkeyes the most trouble?
J.T. Barrett.
I think he’s running just enough, and definitely enough to get at Iowa’s defense. There’s all that fancy passing and, man, it’s beautiful. Will Urban want to grind clock or unleash the hounds? I could see a little of both, but Iowa’s secondary is on its sixth lineup in nine games. Injuries and demotions have kept things from solidifying. CB Josh Jackson has been the real deal. He leads the nation in both the legit passes broken up (15) and the mathy passes defended (17). He’ll probably have a decision to make at the end of his junior season. The safeties have been a work in progress. Sophomore Amani Hooker has grown his game and seems to be settling in. Jake Gervase lost his job and then Brandon Snyder, the kid who suffered an ACL in April made it back for Illinois, returned a pick 6 80 yards for a TD and then suffered a sprained the MCL in his surgically repaired left knee. It’s kind of been the Joad family season for Iowa and injuries. CB Manny Rugamba is back from an ankle injury. This might be Iowa’s best secondary combo, but it’s only been together for maybe two weeks.