Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, August 10, 2015
With Camp Rantoul at Illinois in our rear-view mirror, the BTN cruiser chugs west toward Iowa City, Iowa, for Hawkeye camp.
[ MORE: View our tour schedule | Get all of our tour coverage ]
This shapes up as an interesting season for Iowa. Kirk Ferentz is in his 17th season at the helm-and he could use a big season coming off last year?s 7-6 mark. The Hawkeyes are 11-13 in the Big Ten the last three seasons and have lost at least five games each season since 2010.
Iowa faces several issues as it looks to move up the food chain in the Big Ten West.
Here are three things I?ll be looking for at practice on Tuesday morning.
1. Playmakers. Are there any on this offense, which has been stuck in neutral for too long? Iowa lacks a big-play ability to stretch defenses. Too often, the Hawkeyes need too many plays to score. More explosiveness is needed. Is Tevaun Smith a No. 1 wideout? The entire receiving corps needs some oomph. More is needed from the running backs, too. How do Jordan Canzeri and LeShun Daniels look?
2. C.J. Beathard. With Jake Rudock off to Michigan and redshirt freshman Tyler Wiegers a very unproven backup, it?s Beathard or bust for the Hawkeyes. That is a bit scary, since Beathard never has been the ?guy.? He has a bit of riverboat gambler about him, not afraid to take a shot downfield after watching Rudock time and again opt for the safe check-down throw. That high-risk bent can pay off-but it also can be disastrous if Beathard pushes the envelope too much as a gunslinger. He needs to balance taking shots down field while not forcing things.
3. Tackles. On both sides of the ball. Iowa lost its starting offensive tackles (Brandon Scherff and Andrew Donnal) and starting defensive tackles (Carl Davis and Louis Trinca-Pasat). Scherff, Donnal and Davis all were NFL draft choices. Boone Myers is the new left offensive tackle with Scherff gone. Ike Boettger is at right OT. Jaleel Johnson, Faith Ekakitie and Nathan Bazata are options at defensive tackle. How do the new ?big fellas? look?
***
| About Tom Dienhart | BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart is a veteran sports journalist who covers Big Ten football and men's basketball for BTN.com and BTN TV. Find him on Twitter and Facebook, read all of his work at btn.com/tomdienhart, and subscribe to his posts via RSS. Also, send questions to his weekly mailbag using the form below and read all of his previous answers in his reader mailbag section. |
