Iowa Pre-Game Thread

[Seeking6]

Maybe I'm really looking at their roster wrong. Can someone point to me where they have an outright advantage over us? I don't see any talent advantage they have over us.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Seeking6

[Leathernecks]

1 hour ago, Seeking6 said:

Maybe I'm really looking at their roster wrong. Can someone point to me where they have an outright advantage over us? I don't see any talent advantage they have over us.

I've thought that too. They definitely have us on the OL. I know they lost a few, but they are definitely ahead there. Other than that, I'm not sure. Probably running back depending on what Carr looks like. Goodson is pretty good. I like the athleticism of our defense to hold him in check though.

I really think this is a good matchup for us. I also think Hendershot will be a difference maker. In the bowl game 2 years ago, he carried us for a while until he got hurt. Iowa plays to avoid big plays, so I think he'll have a lot of opportunities. He seems to have taken last year's disappointing season to heart, and looks to have something to prove.

[IndyHoosier22]

2 hours ago, Seeking6 said:

Maybe I'm really looking at their roster wrong. Can someone point to me where they have an outright advantage over us? I don't see any talent advantage they have over us.

O-Line by a country mile. 
 

D-Line I am cautiously optimistic with our transfers but probably have to give that to Iowa too.

Edited September 2, 2021 by IndyHoosier22

[Reacher]

8 hours ago, IndyHoosier22 said:

O-Line by a country mile. 
 

D-Line I am cautiously optimistic with our transfers but probably have to give that to Iowa too.

That is why I think stopping the run and establishing the running game will be our keys to victory 

[btownqb]

9 hours ago, IndyHoosier22 said:

O-Line by a country mile. 
 

D-Line I am cautiously optimistic with our transfers but probably have to give that to Iowa too.

Hold on.. they replaced 3/5 of their starting OL and one of those replacements is out for the season.  

[Seeking6]

38 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Hold on.. they replaced 3/5 of their starting OL and one of those replacements is out for the season.  

That's what I was reading as well. Everyone points to their Oline...but couldn't the same point to ours with transfers in Carpenter and Powell with other guys back?

[btownqb]

 

few realize how much equipment it takes for an away game! 

[Leathernecks]

20 minutes ago, Seeking6 said:

That's what I was reading as well. Everyone points to their Oline...but couldn't the same point to ours with transfers in Carpenter and Powell with other guys back?

They did lose some, but they still return one of the best linemen in all of college football. That, and their track record put them decently ahead of us. We should have a better line than last year, but that isn't saying much until they show how much improvement they've made.

[IndyHoosier22]

Yep pretty much, our line simply wasn’t very good last year and I’d kill for a guy like Lindenbaum on our line.

Hopefully Carpenter and some internal improvement changes things, but I see no reason to evaluate us as being on par with Iowa in that area.  

[btownqb]

8 minutes ago, IndyHoosier22 said:

Yep pretty much, our line simply wasn’t very good last year and I’d kill for a guy like Lindenbaum on our line.

Hopefully Carpenter and some internal improvement changes things, but I see no reason to evaluate us as being on par with Iowa in that area.  

We aren't on par with them, but we aren't a country mile behind either. 

[OGIUAndy]

1 hour ago, btownqb said:

 

few realize how much equipment it takes for an away game! 

They leave the day before the game? I just assumed it was a couple. 

[btownqb]

3 minutes ago, OGIUAndy said:

They leave the day before the game? I just assumed it was a couple. 

this would be two days before the game.

[dgambill]

14 hours ago, Seeking6 said:

The respect is already there. I'm not win this Saturday or die time. Tons of football to be played. We are a top 20 team playing another top 20 team on the road. I think we are better....but Iowa has earned the respect because they've been here for a decade plus. We're still new.....but our season or program or LEO mantra isn't going to die on the first week of a season. 

Sorry....either I didn't convey my thoughts clearly enough or well anyways I was referencing this whole season. If we fall back to 4-8 or something like that....well that was my point. Plus it's easy to have this message of "LEO" when things are going good...if it get's tested when things go bad that will tell me a lot more about the program. Hopefully we don't experience the worst case scenario of a losing season.

[dgambill]

12 hours ago, IndyHoosier22 said:

O-Line by a country mile. 
 

D-Line I am cautiously optimistic with our transfers but probably have to give that to Iowa too.

And this is where most games are won and lost. I'm not totally going to concede both to them but their history of developing and being very strong here. Hopefully we have closed the gap or perhaps able to win our share of matchups to make the difference.

[Leathernecks]

7 minutes ago, dgambill said:

And this is where most games are won and lost. I'm not totally going to concede both to them but their history of developing and being very strong here. Hopefully we have closed the gap or perhaps able to win our share of matchups to make the difference.

I'm hopeful we are better able to help our OL this year. I thought our play calling didn't always do the best to put then in favorable positions. We were really vanilla in the run game, and Allen has talked about that being much different this year. Hopefully with Sheridan having a year as OC under his belt, and brining in McCullough we can put the OL in better matchups.

If the OL struggles again this year, I think there are going to be a lot of questions about Hiller and/or Sheridan.

[dgambill]

5 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

I'm hopeful we are better able to help our OL this year. I thought our play calling didn't always do the best to put then in favorable positions. We were really vanilla in the run game, and Allen has talked about that being much different this year. Hopefully with Sheridan having a year as OC under his belt, and brining in McCullough we can put the OL in better matchups.

If the OL struggles again this year, I think there are going to be a lot of questions about Hiller and/or Sheridan.

There is certainly A TON that can be done in the play calling and game plan that can offset any weaknesses on the O-line etc. I also like I said am not conceding both sides of the line to them. They have matchups that are to their advantage for sure...and in general they have a great track record for having the advantage there...but that doesn't mean we can't find a few matchups of our own or scheme to beat them. That said if we likely try to just overpower them etc it probably won't work to our advantage. Find a guy or two to run behind, counters etc, and finding a weak spot on their line to exploit can be the difference. I think even though we should have a pretty high powered offense and a great secondary that this game will probably be an ugly slug fest...just need to execute, avoid turnovers and bad penalties, and convert big downs and in the redzone. I fully think we are capable of winning...but it won't be easy and I expect a low scoring physical affair.

[Leathernecks]

2 minutes ago, dgambill said:

There is certainly A TON that can be done in the play calling and game plan that can offset any weaknesses on the O-line etc. I also like I said am not conceding both sides of the line to them. They have matchups that are to their advantage for sure...and in general they have a great track record for having the advantage there...but that doesn't mean we can't find a few matchups of our own or scheme to beat them. That said if we likely try to just overpower them etc it probably won't work to our advantage. Find a guy or two to run behind, counters etc, and finding a weak spot on their line to exploit can be the difference. I think even though we should have a pretty high powered offense and a great secondary that this game will probably be an ugly slug fest...just need to execute, avoid turnovers and bad penalties, and convert big downs and in the redzone. I fully think we are capable of winning...but it won't be easy and I expect a low scoring physical affair.

I'm really interested to see what Jones plays like this year. I think his extra weight last year was a huge detriment to his play. I also think the OL knows all the talk about how they struggled last year, so hopefully they come out looking to make a statement.

Not sure what to expect from our DL. Sounds like the transfers have been looking good. With how much we blitzed last year, our DL almost turned into block eaters instead of pass rushers. Hopefully they can keep the Iowa OL from creating too many holes in the run game. We really need to keep Goodson from getting in too much space.

[Billingsley99]

I just have a good feeling about this one. I feel we dominate this game and open the eyes of the rest of college football that might still be sleeping on the Hoosiers. 

[btownqb]

19 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

I'm hopeful we are better able to help our OL this year. I thought our play calling didn't always do the best to put then in favorable positions. We were really vanilla in the run game, and Allen has talked about that being much different this year. Hopefully with Sheridan having a year as OC under his belt, and brining in McCullough we can put the OL in better matchups.

If the OL struggles again this year, I think there are going to be a lot of questions about Hiller and/or Sheridan.

Our OL was so bad we had to be vanilla or we would have been on our 7th string QB. 

[dgambill]

3 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

I'm really interested to see what Jones plays like this year. I think his extra weight last year was a huge detriment to his play. I also think the OL knows all the talk about how they struggled last year, so hopefully they come out looking to make a statement.

Not sure what to expect from our DL. Sounds like the transfers have been looking good. With how much we blitzed last year, our DL almost turned into block eaters instead of pass rushers. Hopefully they can keep the Iowa OL from creating too many holes in the run game. We really need to keep Goodson from getting in too much space.

I worry about the loss of Jerome Johnson from last year...seemed like he was making all the big plays from the DL for us. I agree...we blitzed a lot. Would rather get home with just 4. Guess we will just have to wait til Saturday to see how far we've come.

[Artesian_86]

Kinda funny.......I was looking over on Rivals, HawkeyeReport football message board and their hottest topic is the upcoming game versus Iowa St. There are 8 pages about that game. The two IU/Iowa pregame threads have been pushed to the bottom with only 4 and 5 pages.

I hope they're over looking us........cause we aren't them! GO IU!

[Victobmyboy]

1 hour ago, btownqb said:

Our OL was so bad we had to be vanilla or we would have been on our 7th string QB. 

That’s not why we lost our starter plus our O line wasn’t bad at pass blocking. Run blocking is a different story. Watch this video.  We had to be kind of vanilla as we had no fall camp or coaching contact. I look for our offens to be much better and more dynamic. We had spring and full fall camp. I look for Penix to be a passing juggernaut. He’s got weapons all over the field. We will probably use our passing to score very quickly and let that defense eat! 

 

[Artesian_86]

2 minutes ago, Victobmyboy said:

That’s not why we lost our starter plus our O line wasn’t bad at pass blocking. Run blocking is a different story. Watch this video.  We had to be kind of vanilla as we had no fall camp or coaching contact. I look for our offens to be much better and more dynamic. We had spring and full fall camp. I look for Penix to be a passing juggernaut. He’s got weapons all over the field. We will probably use our passing to score very quickly and let that defense eat! 

 

…..hungry dog’s gotta’ eat….

[Billingsley99]

2 minutes ago, Victobmyboy said:

That’s not why we lost our starter plus our O line wasn’t bad at pass blocking. Run blocking is a different story. Watch this video.  We had to be kind of vanilla as we had no fall camp or coaching contact. I look for our offens to be much better and more dynamic. We had spring and full fall camp. I look for Penix to be a passing juggernaut. He’s got weapons all over the field. We will probably use our passing to score very quickly and let that defense eat! 

 

Exactly.  In comparison Freeney and Mathis would probably have been great anywhere but when Peyton gave them the lead look out they became next level. I expect us to get up early on most teams and let the Defense have fun!!

[Victobmyboy]

1 hour ago, dgambill said:

I worry about the loss of Jerome Johnson from last year...seemed like he was making all the big plays from the DL for us. I agree...we blitzed a lot. Would rather get home with just 4. Guess we will just have to wait til Saturday to see how far we've come.

Ryder Anderson looks pretty good. He can get into the backfield. We can blitz from just about every spot. I look for us to win some match ups this year.