The Blue Board

Damn you guys are writing theses ITT. Good job!

Yea, that was an interesting recruitment. He looks very fast, but you need to be more than a burner at this level. I doubt we see much of him till '13.

OL?

The others have done a great job, taking all there is to say.

Fitz is primed to have a great year with Rawls backing him up and Smith coming in on third down situations.

Our starting tackles should be the best in the Big Ten, and our starting OL will be a strength of the team. But if one of our starting OL gets hurt... Yikes. Walkons, true freshmen, and Chris Bryant make up our second team OL. At the moment, we have SEVEN scholarship OL. In the fall we'll add Kalis, Braden, Magnuson, and Bars, but we'll still only have eleven scholarship OL all year. That's not good.

Iowa Hawkeye's:

Jordan Canzeri 5-9/180 RB SO Troy, N.Y. (Troy HS)

Canzeri was supposed to be a starter next year with the obviously known departure of Marcus Coker and the I assume lesser known departure of #2 RB, FR Mika'il McCall. He as some of you may already know tore his ACL less than a week into camp so he's out this year unless we have a repeat of the 2004 season where we had Fred Russell leave early for the NFL, 3 ACL tears, a guy named Shonn Greene fail to qualify, and the other 1-2 backs were never really healthy all year. Of course even in a repeat of the 2004 season, Canzeri would have to be back by the short end of his rehab time. Luckily for us he has a RS year left and will most likely use that.

De'Andre Johnson 5-8/200 RB RS-SO Miami, Fla. (Monsignor Pace)

Johnson came here with a fair amount of hype out of Florida, however he tore his ACL early in his Senior year of high school and possibly more than just his ACL because I saw quotes from Kirk Ferentz saying Johnson still seemed to be feeling the effects of the tear throughout his RS year. This past season he saw very minimal PT with 18 carries - 79 yards - 4.4 ypc - 0 TD's - 12 yard long. He's very thickly built (he actually won the Florida state shot-put title as a JR) and wouldn't be surprised if he's closer to 210 lbs and he reportedly runs around a 4.4-4.5 40 yard dash. I expect him to get more PT this year since another thing I've heard is that he initially had troubles with fumbling during practices the last 2 years, however Ferentz said in one of his spring pressers that neither Johnson or Damon Bullock have fumbled once this spring.

Damon Bullock 6-0/195 RB SO Mansfield, Texas (Mansfield)

Bullock didn't RS last year, started the year at WR but switched back to RB after Mika'il McCall was injured and Marcus Coker's bowl game suspension. He's supposed to have some very good ball skills catching out of the backfield and is more of a darting runner than a burner. He's a little bit undersized and probably starts fall camp ahead of Johnson on the RB depth chart in fall camp, but probably #2 RB to incoming FR and Army All-American Greg Garmon (6-1 - 200 lbs - 92 grade - 4.4 40) who will likely be the #1 RB this coming year. I expect Bullock to still get between 50-100 carries this year if he stays #2. Bullock had 31 carries - 114 yards - 3.7 ypc - 15 yard long as well as a few catches and kickoff returns, may be looked at as a 3rd down back early in the year depending on how well Garmon does in camp.

Andre Dawson 6-2/207 RB JR Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Iowa Western CC)

Surprisingly wasn't recruited by Iowa out of high school but was highly regarded by a number of recruiting services, ended up signing and I think RS-ing at the University of Northern Iowa, transferred after that season to Iowa Western CC and is walking-on at Iowa this season. I don't really know much about him but he's considered by most to be a darkhorse candidate to compete for serious PT this year given his size and year. Reportedly ran a 4.5 40 in high school and with his size, you can see why he might compete for PT as long as he can hold onto the ball.

Greg Garmon 6-1/200 RB FR Erie, Pennsylvania

As I've said, he is an Army All-American and also played in the US vs. the World Game. Has very good top-end speed with a 4.4 40, consensus 4-star recruit, is an all around player who can catch the ball out of the backfield, split out wide, run around you, or run through you. Garmon survived non-Hodgkins Lymphoma as a kid and is a very good student, if anyone can beat AIRBHG (Angry Iowa Running Back Hating God), it is Greg Garmon. Should be #1 RB to begin the year and should have a very good season, that being said, I don't expect him to be a feature back as a FR so some of the other guys I've mentioned will have the opportunity to step up and earn PT.

Barkley Hill 6-0/210 RB FR Cedar Falls, Iowa

More of a physical, down-hill runner than speed back who will likely RS this season unless depth changes. Hopefully will be a smaller, but faster version of Marcus Coker who runs with a lot of toughness and strength. Runs around a 4.5-4.6 40 and sub-11 second 100 meter dash, could become a very good compliment to Garmon in a few years.

Nate Meier 6-2/235 RB/FB FR Tabor, Iowa

Very physical runner who seems to have deceptive speed on film. Starting out as a RB but I think he's more likely Brad Rogers eventual replacement at FB since Rogers will be a JR this coming season. Will either RS or be a short yardage back most likely this season with a RS being more likely unless we struggle on 3rd-short and goalline situations this year. Played 8-man football in Iowa, leading his team to a State Championship this past year.

Brad Rogers 5-10/230 FB JR Toledo, Ohio

An "impact" blocker for FB who makes us noticeably more effective running the ball while he's in the game. Former RB in high school so he gives us an extra dimension and will probably see a few more carries than FB's usually get at Iowa. Blocks with a lot of force, but sometimes in the past he lowers his head and will miss blocks, as a JR I expect that to be worked out and us to implement more I-Form this year compared to last year when Rogers was out for a while with a heart condition.

that is crazy about Dawson. I didn't know things ended up that way for him. I remember we recruited him for a bit.

we spike their gatorade with bovine growth hormones.

Donnal was a big time name; part of that OT class in OH that included MSU's Burkland (Schofner at the time) and tOSU's Andrew Norwell.

I'm always impressed with Iowa's ability to develop OL, and they don't do it with giants a la Wisconsin. That's Ferentz's OL background for you . . . any concern with your OL coaching moving to DL?

Barnum is looking very solid from reports. Not sure about his pass pro, but his ability to get out and block in space has been impressive. Obviously loosing Molk hurts more than just from a on the field stand point, but Barnum is no slouch.

I think the biggest reason Morgan moved from OL to DL was that he's a very good teacher and very highly respected, I think Kaczenski moving to Nebraska might end up helping us instead of hurting us because Kaczenski doesn't seem to have done a "great" job of really developing players and getting younger guys ready to step in and play. Morgan meanwhile has a history of developing and readying players to play and very few players in Morgans groups have transferred out of here.

As far as (Brian) Ferentz at OL goes, I think he should do a good job. Obviously Brian was coached by Morgan and I assume Kirk will help out a little bit more than previously helping the group grow. But just from the fact that Brian coached alongside Bill Belichek in New England, you can tell that he's pretty well respected already as a coach and it's always helpful to have NFL contacts. I think he'll be ready for the job and with how young he is, he has a ton of time to learn and get better on one of the nations best staff's at developing OL. The OL will probably start out a little slow, but that may be more of a sign of youth/inexperience rather than Brian's inabilities.

With psu2013 slacking, I'll add my contribution again.

RB is a strength for us...provided Silas Redd stays healthy. He's without a doubt THE guy in the backfield. Not much to say about him that people don't already know - quick guy who is hard to bring down in the open field. Only thing he lacks is top-end speed. Bill Belton, former slot receiver, has moved to RB, and is seen as the ideal third down RB. He's obviously good at catching passes (former receiver) and is a dynamic athlete. How he holds the ball is very worrisome, but working with the RB's this spring should help that. Apparently Belton has impressed.

Former walk-on Derek Day is another guy who might get touches in the backfield. He's smaller, but compact and a hard worker. Don't know much else about him besides that. Zach Zwinak might get touches also as a bigger back. Haven't heard anything about Curtis Dukes, our former big back, as he seems to have dropped off the map. Not sure what the issue is.

The OL will be very interesting. Constantly underachieving in years past, we finally return to having a single OL coach in Mac McWhorter. Combining his expertise with Craig Fitzgerald in S&C, I'm confident we'll see a significant improvement in our OL this year, though the effects will really be seen a couple years down the road.

We have a few guys with starting experience, but the only guy who started significantly in previous years is Matt Stankiewitch at center. He's a decent guy, smart and able to hold the fort. He's not great, IMO, but he's not going to be a consistent liability.

At the other spots, we've got some battles going on. Mike Farrell and Adam Gress are currently taking the majority of first team reps at OT - they have been switching sides, but generally it's Farrell at RT and Gress at LT. Gress, a RS Jr., has reportedly impressed the coaches with his footwork, among other things. Farrell has done decently when playing sparingly in years past. Donovan Smith, RS Fr., is a kid that the staff is high on (as was the last staff), and has been pushing for first team reps. Don't be surprised to see him starting at RT or LT sometime this season. Kid is a natural LT, has great length. Main issue seems to be conditioning and moving from a lower competition level in HS to college.

At OG, we've got John Urschel and Miles Dieffenbach as the starters right now. Urschel had split starts last year in something of a surprise. He's an extremely smart kid (4.0 GPA) who is also solid. Not overpowering, and probably needs to get his weight up, but solid. Dieffenbach was something of a surprise. He was a natural center coming out of HS and seemed to have trouble putting on weight. No troubles now with Fitzgerald, and Dieff has held his own against RS Fr. Angelo Mangiro, who looks to be a starting OG sooner than later.

There are probably some other kids who could make strides, but those are the main players along the OL and at RB. In general, like I said, I expect to see a much more physical OL than previous years, though there will be some growing pains. Don't be surprised to see Silas Redd get around 1400 rushing yards, possibly 1500. And he'll probably double his career receptions at the least (currently at 13).

+1 for bumping a 30 day-old thread .

I think UM's starting OL is very good and they do return more starters than UW . . . but UW's track record is hard to ignore.