Finally, Iowa is utilizing another layer with its offense

Finally, Iowa has added another layer to its offense.

Much of the criticism directed at the Iowa offense this year, besides the typical bashing of quarterback Spencer Petras, has been centered around offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s scheme and play calling.

Many see his offense lacking innovation and creativity, which is a completely fair assessment. In an age where we are seeing a mix of new, exciting offensive philosophies in football, Iowa’s offense has lagged behind in a bygone era.

While the rest of the college football landscape is a full menu of options, the Hawkeyes have been a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a styrofoam bowl.

Against Northwestern this past week, though, fans saw something new from the offense. More correctly, they saw the reintroduction of something that should’ve been used from game one.

Scott Dochterman of The Athletic wrote a feature on Iowa’s heavy usage of jet sweeps this past Saturday, and how it greatly impacted their best performance of the season.

On Saturday, the Hawkeyes (4-4 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) not only showed it was possible to do so; they proved it. Iowa blended motion on traditional zone runs and receiver sweeps with multiple passing plays. From the first offensive play to the last, Iowa used jet motion on nearly one-third of its plays. Of the Hawkeyes’ 65 snaps, they ran jet motion on 20. In a 33-13 win against Northwestern, Iowa totaled nearly half of its jet motions this season. – Dochterman, The Athletic.

Used very sparingly throughout the season, jet sweeps actually found success for the Hawkeyes this season. Per Dochterman’s research, in the Hawkeyes’ seven games prior to Northwestern, receivers ran four times for 27 yards and running backs had carried 11 times for 108 yards with jet motion. On passing plays accompanied by jet motion, Iowa had seven completions for 44 yards.

As Iowa mined that well more extensively this past weekend, it proved to be fruitful. The strategy was extremely effective against the Wildcats.

Against Northwestern, Iowa running backs gained 51 yards on 10 pre-snap jet motions. The receivers gained 43 yards on three jet sweeps, and quarterback Spencer Petras completed 5-of-7 passes for 49 yards with pre-snap jet motion. – Dochterman, The Athletic.

This is actually not a new layer for the Iowa offense, it’s just something that has sat in the attic over the past few years gathering dust. In 2019, Iowa used it to great effect with Ihmir Smith-Marsette. However, we saw the discontinuation of the jet sweeps and wildcat formation after some mistakes.

This is something I’ve been begging for since the offseason, and it just puzzles me as to why it’s taken so long to use. Arland Bruce IV showed last year in his limited playing time that he was an overall threat who could create with the ball in his hands. He would be perfect for the role, and it would just help out everything.

I took inspiration from the 2020 Los Angeles Rams‘ offense, specifically from a breakdown YouTuber Brett Kollman did on their offense and how they fantastically used jet sweeps. Kollman does a lot of great football breakdown videos. He’s definitely a must-subscribe.

In 2019, the Rams’ rushing attack fell off a cliff compared to the seasons prior. Of course, we sadly had to witness the sharp decline of Todd Gurley, but every back on the Rams struggled mightily. The next year, however, Rams head coach Sean McVay implemented a ton of jet motions and sweeps into the offense. It gave the rushing attack a massive boost. Seriously, the Rams rushed for 519 more yards in 2020 than the year prior.

The motion at the snap can create a lot of confusion amongst the defense. The defense now has multiple things they have to worry about, and it can really free up the run game. It also helps when you have playmakers on the outside as well. It really helped a Rams offense with Jared Goff at the helm.

Iowa has a similar problem with its offense. Petras isn’t the Big Ten’s best, and doesn’t have the mobility to scramble and make plays happen on his own. Teams are able to crash down on the running backs. Adding jet sweeps and motion at the snap could be an easy addition to the offense that could help all involved. It worked in the past, and as we saw this past Saturday, it can help an Iowa offense in desperate need now.

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