Tag: 2022 Big Ten Football

Several Iowa Hawkeyes freshmen already starting to make an impact

Running back Kaleb Johnson and kicker Drew Stevens are the two prominent names, but there’s several other freshmen making impacts for Iowa.

If there are any bright spots on this middling 3-3 Iowa football team (we certainly need some good with Ohio State coming up this week), it is the youth carving out roles already.

We already know the impact sophomore Cooper DeJean has made in the secondary this year, looking like the next star Hawkeye defensive back. Multiple freshmen, though, have started to gain significant playing time early in the season.

According to Sean Bock of 247Sports’ Hawkeye Insider, his midseason Iowa redshirt tracker shows that six true freshmen have received game time this season.

Running back Kaleb Johnson, kicker Drew Stevens, and defensive backs Xavier Nwankpa and TJ Hall have all played in Iowa’s six contests thus far. Defensive tackle Aaron Graves has appeared in five games, tight end Addison Ostrenga in four and running back Jaziun Patterson has one lone appearance this season.

Johnson already has 50 carries for 232 yards with three rushing touchdowns. He finished with seven carries for 103 yards and a pair of scores from 40 and 55 yards out against Nevada. Then, versus Michigan, Johnson scored Iowa’s first points on a 2-yard touchdown run.

Kaleb Johnson has shown flashes of success as perhaps the Hawkeyes’ starting running back of the future, however, the struggles of the offensive line this season have really hampered any consistent impact he’s been able to have. Aaron Graves currently has seven tackles and Patterson has six carries for 20 yards.

Kicker Drew Stevens has probably seen the most success of the Iowa youngsters, staking his claim as the starting kicker. Stevens is 6-of-7 on field goal attempts this season, his first miss a 45-yarder coming in Iowa’s most recent 9-6 loss against Illinois. Despite the miss, special teams coordinator Levar Woods had a lot of positive things to say about the freshman kicker.

“As far as that goes, field goal units, I think Drew is coming along as a player,” Woods said. “He is definitely young. He has had — every game is really like a new experience for him in some way because he was a high school kid a year ago. Really less than a year ago. I think he has made a huge transition since spring. We’ve all kind of seen that. He missed a kick, his last kick, against Illinois, which I know is just eating at him, but to me that shows the guy is a competitor. He may be young. He may be inexperienced, but he is a competitor, and he has that drive inside.”

Both Nwankpa and Hall have received significant playing time on special teams so far this season. While many are anxious to see the five-star Nwankpa get on the field for Phil Parker’s defense, I’d like to remind them of Cooper DeJean’s career arc at Iowa thus far. A lot of his contributions his freshman year came on special teams, and we see how well he’s done in his second year.

It may not be the most glamorous on the stat sheet, but special teams is a great way for both Nwankpa and Hall to get their feet wet, to adjust to the speed of Division 1 ball. Their time will come.

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Iowa Can Still Win the Big Ten West… But it Starts This Week

The Big Ten West Division is still there for the taking. Iowa just has to decide this week against Illinois whether or not it wants it.

This is the crucial point of the season.

Once seen as a potential trap game in between two Big Ten juggernauts in Michigan and Ohio State, Iowa’s midseason clash at Illinois on Saturday night is the defining matchup of the season. How this game in Champaign, Illinois will largely dictate the rest of the season for the Hawkeyes.

It has not been a great start to the season for the Hawkeyes. Iowa is 3-2 after five weeks, splitting their two conference games. While above .500, the method in which they’ve won their games has instilled little confidence into a restless Hawkeyes fanbase. Iowa is currently ranked 122nd in points per game, only scoring 16.4 points a contest. The offense has been flat out horrendous.

Twice this season Iowa has been held under 10 points, that was the first two games against South Dakota State and rivals Iowa State. Both of those contests, mind you, were at home. Scoring a combined 14 points against an FCS opponent and a rival Cyclones squad that is sitting at 3-2 as well. Their only other two wins are over Southeast Missouri State and Ohio by the way.

You know it’s bad when the offense is seen as improved after scoring 27 points against two bad opponents. Let this sink in. Incarnate Word were able to put up 28 more points against Nevada than the Hawkeyes were. It has been atrocious all year on offense, and we were reminded of that once again last week with yet another embarrassing loss to Michigan.

While hopes of making it to the Big Ten Championship may seem folly after a disappointing start to the campaign, the West Division is still ripe for the taking. The division is currently sitting in a seven way tie, pretty much every team with a 1-1 conference record through two weeks of Big Ten play. Entering Week Six, it seems that nobody has any real intentions of winning the Big Ten West.

It seemed at the beginning that Minnesota would finally stake their claim on the division, taking a much needed next step further under coach P.J. Fleck. The Gophers started the year off a convincing 4-0 with a big win over Michigan State. That feather in the hat looks increasingly less notable as the Spartans’ season progresses though.

Minnesota just lost their first game of the season last week to Purdue 20-10. The things that were bad about the Gophers in previous years returned. The Boilermakers are back to intriguing status after the upset, but have been massively inconsistent so far. So what you will about losing to a good Penn State team, you’d like to see a conference competitor do much more than beat Florida Atlantic by two.

Wisconsin and Nebraska are two teams in complete disarray as we approach the mid-way point. The Cornhuskers finally ripped the bandaid off a few weeks back, firing head coach Scott Frost. While they were dismantled the next week by Oklahoma, they did manage to beat Indiana this week… whatever that’s worth.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, finds themselves at the bottom of the Big Ten and without a coach. Long time head coach Paul Chryst found himself on the chopping block after a 34-10 loss to Illinois, ending an eight year tenure in Madison. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard will take over, but there is big trouble in Wisconsin. The Badgers have been embarrassed in back to back weeks by Big Ten opponents, falling victim to the Ohio State machine 52-21 the week prior.

It should be noted that Northwestern is there with their 1-4 overall record. That’s all the time I feel like devoting to the team that suffered losses to Southern Illinois and Miami (Ohio) and gained their only victory against Nebraska.

This leaves us with upcoming opponent Illinois. The Illini have appeared to be the most competent of the West Division squads so far, their only loss to Indiana. I will once again mention that a horrendous call went against Illinois that changed the game. Bret Bielema’s squad have won the rest of their games pretty convincingly though.

As you can see, for all of the woes Iowa has suffered so far this season, they’ve been equally replicated by everyone else in the division. Besides Illinois, who did lose to Indiana at the end of the day, everyone else seems to be derping their way through this year. The path to the Big Ten Championship is still visible, especially with the Hawkeyes’ Big Ten West slate still upcoming on the schedule.

This is the critical week, though. This is where we find out if there’s anything left to be gained from 2022.

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College Football News predicts comfortable Michigan win over Iowa in low-scoring affair

College Football News’ Pete Fiutak is predicting that Michigan will snap its losing streak at Kinnick Stadium in a defensive struggle.

This is the week Iowa fans have been waiting months for.

The last time these two met it was on Dec. 4, Lucas Oil Stadium the backdrop, and subsequently the witness, for a Big Ten Championship beatdown for the ages. Iowa’s defense was on fire, causing a bevy of turnovers every week and just making life hectic for opposing offensive coordinators. The team’s stock might not have been where it was a few weeks ago when the Hawkeyes somehow found themselves ranked second in the nation, but big wins over Penn State and Minnesota showed that they deserved to be there!

Michigan obviously thought otherwise, treating their black and gold opponents like a bug on their windshield, one that would not stand in their way to either the Big Ten Championship, nor the College Football Playoffs.

Winning 42-3 in a conference championship against one of the best defenses in the nation no less is pretty much as profound a statement you can make as a program. Michigan truly was back, and all of the Harbaugh naysayers who called for his job the past few years would have to flock back to the woodwork.

Now, almost a year later, these two teams meet in a much different venue, Kinnick Stadium, the host for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff and one of the most anticipated Big Ten matchups of the season.

Pete Fiutak. in his recent breakdown for College Football News sees this one going the way of the Wolverines, in a comfortable, low-scoring contest.

Michigan hasn’t given away a thing.

One interception against Hawaii, one fumble against Maryland. That’s been in for the turnovers. The team has been flagged a ridiculously low nine times, and it’s been able to get through any slight adversity by being methodical.

This is the game for the Michigan defense.

The offense will sputter and cough, and Corum will be bottled up, but it’ll be a slow and steady drum beat with just enough points to get by. The Wolverine D will hold up well with a great day against the non-existent Iowa passing attack.

Michigan 26, Iowa 13. – Fiutak, College Football News.

Iowa sputtered out of the gates to start the season, the offense quite literally offensive to any onlookers those first two games. It has since improved over the past two games, 27 points scored in both contests which isn’t amazing but it is pretty good for typical Iowa standards.

Meanwhile, Michigan enters Kinnick undefeated, overcoming their biggest test yet in Maryland last week. Ranked fourth in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll, they face easily the biggest defensive test of the season in the Hawkeyes. It is assumed that the J.J. McCarthy-led offense is legit again, but this will be their chance to prove so.

Every Hawkeyes fan in Kinnick will have the hope that their team will come away with the victory, the Iowa defense exposing the Wolverines offense as overrated whilst the offense does just enough to capitalize. With all rationale and logic heading in, those hopes are most likely just that: hopes. The same argument of Michigan having yet to face a truly good opponent also rings true for the Hawkeyes as well.

The difference though is that Michigan looked fantastic against the teams they were supposed to look great against. Iowa instead has struggled to inspire any confidence in their offense, the biggest cause for optimism is the unit scoring 27 points against Nevada and Rutgers.

By all rational logic, Michigan should win this one in a classic Big Ten-style way, their talent simply too much for Iowa. You never know, though.

Games are not won on paper.

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Iowa Hawkeyes: Cooper DeJean is the highest-graded CB in the country this season

Cooper DeJean has made a gigantic splash for the Iowa Hawkeyes. His performance has him as the highest-graded CB in the country this season.

Welcome to the show, Cooper DeJean! The Iowa Hawkeyes sophomore cornerback has done nothing but take over games and excel through the first four weeks of the season in his first season starting.

With three interceptions through four games, a myriad of big hits, and plenty of disruptions in the passing game for opponents, DeJean is the highest graded cornerback in the entire country through the first four games per Pro Football Focus.

DeJean is excelling at cornerback but has also spent some time playing safety and filling in at Iowa’s “CASH” position which is best described as a mix of a linebacker and safety that can defend in the passing game while also come fill in on run plays.

He not only leads the Hawkeyes in interceptions with three, but leads in pass breakups as well with five. He has a nose for the ball. Not only does he defend the pass, though. DeJean is third on the Hawkeyes defense with 24 tackles.

One thing to keep an eye on after DeJean’s stellar interception return for a touchdown against Rutgers is the outside possibility of seeing him take some offensive snaps. He has offensive experience from high school and they are some gaudy numbers highlighting his sheer athletic ability.

Per the Iowa Hawkeyes official site, here is DeJean’s offensive background:

Holds school records for pass completions and passing yards in a season, career passing yards and passing touchdowns, receptions in a game, receptions and receiving yards in a season, touchdown receptions in a career, and total yards in a season . . . scored winning touchdown in final minutes of state title game as a senior . . . completed 199-of-331 pass attempts for 3,447 yards and 35 touchdowns as a senior, with nine interceptions . . . also rushed 131 times for 1,235 yards and 24 touchdowns.

DeJean’s output has exploded this year with the chance he has been given and he is running with it. Expect to see him around the ball a lot more and continuing to make plays as a cornerstone piece for this defense.

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Social Media Reactions to Iowa’s 27-10 Win Over Rutgers

Iowa dismantled Rutgers in its Big Ten opener. Here was how social media responded to the Hawkeyes’ big win.

Raise your hand if you went into tonight expecting a comfortable win!

All year, it has been difficult for the Iowa Hawkeyes. It was a pain for fans to get through the first two games of the year, the Hawkeyes offense seemingly uninterested in the opposing teams’ end zones, preferring the spotlight to be firmly placed on punter Tory Taylor. It was ugly splitting those first two games against South Dakota State and Iowa State, the Hawkeyes’ 7-3 week one victory over the Jackrabbits providing an immediate damper on the season.

Even in a game where the result was never in question, defeating Nevada 27-0, the weather made this one hard to get through… literally! The game took forever with countless weather delays.

There was none of that tonight though. No reliance on safeties to get you the win, no weather delays to prolong the pending victory, and no Sopranos crew on the sideline hassling the Ferentz’ to throw the game.

In a game many expected to go right down to the wire, Iowa won this one fairly comfortably 27-10. The offense looked better, especially the running game, the defense as stout as expected, and Tory Taylor once again put the team in the best situation to win with his leg.

After a very scary two-week stretch to start the season, we’re starting to see little chunks of improvement by the Hawkeyes each week. Nobody is going to favor them heading into Michigan next week, but the doom and gloom surrounding the program after that 10-7 loss to the Cyclone has somewhat started to dissipate. It was a much cheerier mode on social media, and here are the highlights from the Hawkeyes comfortable win over the Scarlet Knights.

Iowa Hawkeyes focusing on recovery ahead of Big Ten opener at Rutgers

Ahead of its Big Ten opener at Rutgers, Iowa’s players discussed adjusting their schedules following a late night against Nevada.

It is not very often that we see Big Ten football after midnight. The players in Kinnick Stadium certainly did not expect to receive their first taste of Sunday football against Nevada, especially with a 6:30 CST kickoff on Saturday night.

Mother Nature though had her own plans, hitting the Hawkeyes with multiple lightning delays. The pauses in the action pushed the finish of the game back hours later than anticipated, further postponing the Hawkeyes road to recovery ahead of their Big Ten clash against Rutgers.

Quarterback Spencer Petras, who didn’t get to sleep after the game until 3:30 a.m. and probably had a “couple cups” of coffee to push through the Sunday team meeting, spoke during media availability about the road to recovery after such a late game.

“Recovery is always critical, even more so now. Our opponents did get a jump on us. I think all of our sleep schedules are a little screwed up still. Again (though), no one cares. We’re still playing the game at 7:10 or whatever time it is. It’s our job to make up that ground and really recover and rest the best we can,” Petras said.

One of Iowa’s primary defensive leaders elaborated on how the Hawkeyes tried to catch back up on the rest clock.

“Coach slid the times (for the team meeting) back about an hour or two on Sunday, just to give us a little bit more sleep. But, obviously it doesn’t happen in one night. It’s going to be important that we stay on top of that this whole week, being able to go to bed on time, eat and drink the right things to fuel our bodies, I feel like it all starts with that,” Campbell said.

Campbell reiterated that this week is no different than any other week. A different road to recovery or not, “the little things are going to lead to Saturday.”

While still getting back into the groove of his sleep cycle, Petras reaffirmed to fans that he should be “very well rested” for the game against Rutgers, before restating that the goal for Iowa has not changed despite a tad rockier start to the season than expected.

“We have four team goals, and the last one is to win the Big Ten West and to win the Big Ten. You can’t win the Big Ten West without winning Big Ten games. Every game’s critical, every game’s important, but our end goal is to win the Big Ten and this is when we really start playing for that,” Petras said.

Iowa opens up their Big Ten Conference play at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, N.J., against the 3-0 Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

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Top 5 Big Ten Week 3 games and predictions

After a week 2 that saw some upsets in the Big Ten, the week 3 slate takes it up a notch with some big matchups. Here is the top five games.

Week 2 saw the Big Ten have a handful of teams stumble with some opponents that did not appear to be a threat beforehand. But, that is college football and the unpredictability makes it so special.

This week we see a handful of Big Ten teams draw primetime matchups that pit two teams from the Power 5 against each other for some of the first real tests of the season. Not only are the big matchups, the Big Ten is getting quite the amount of national coverage this week. They will have teams airing across Fox, CBS, ABC, and ESPN.

There are a few duds of games such as Iowa-Nevada, Michigan-UConn, Northwestern-Southern Illinois, and Wisconsin-New Mexico State. The fun part about these is that there is a decent chance we are back here on Monday talking about which one of these ended up having a boat load of points or saw a big time upset.

Nonetheless, let’s get into the top five Big Ten games in week 3 with a prediction of how each shakes out.

Iowa Hawkeyes facing Cyclones quarterback Hunter Dekkers fresh off stellar debut

Cyclones quarterback Hunter Dekkers impressed in his debut, giving hope to Iowa State fans. He faces his first big test in Iowa.

Much has been made over the past week about the Hawkeyes’ inability to move the ball through the air against FCS opponent South Dakota State, but their upcoming opponent and rival Iowa State had zero problems in week one.

Sophomore quarterback Hunter Dekkers was one of 20 quarterback debuts featured by Athlon Sports after week one. In the first week of the Dekkers era at Iowa State, the Hawarden, Iowa, native diced up FCS foe Southeast Missouri State in a 42-10 victory.

Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan wrote this of Dekkers starting debut.

Filling the void left behind by Brock Purdy isn’t easy, but the Hunter Dekkers era in Ames is off to a fast start. The Iowa native was nearly flawless in Iowa State’s 42-10 victory over FCS Southeast Missouri State, completing 25 of 31 throws for 293 yards and four scores. Dekkers also added 11 rushing yards and ranked third among Big 12 signal-callers in quarterback rating (196.2). – Lassan, Athlon Sports.

A lot of those in the media have talked about the pressure on Dekkers’ shoulders coming in to replace four-year starter Brock Purdy, almost to the point where his upside for the Cyclones gets lost in the shuffle. Purdy, now with the San Francisco 49ers, was a respectable quarterback, but wasn’t anything spectacular. He was a good college quarterback, and had his moment, but not one who would consistently take over in the big games. You knew what you were getting in Purdy, and he never reached the heights of his sophomore year again.

With Dekkers, the hope around Ames is that he can elevate the Cyclones to another level. They’ve finished inside the top 25 once in the past six years under Matt Campbell, finishing ninth in 2020. That’s the level the Cyclones want to get back to. Every other year they’ve been a mediocre team in the Big 12, finishing right around .500 in the conference.

The hope is that Dekkers can bring them back to that level, and while it was against an FCS opponent, he impressed in week one. He looked decisive, took what the defense gave him, but still was able to hit the deep ball. Week two in Kinnick against one of the strongest defenses in the nation will be the true test for the young lefty.

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‘He’s done a lot of good things for us’: Kirk Ferentz backing Spencer Petras heading into week 2

Don’t expect any quarterback changes heading into week two. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz remains confident in Spencer Petras moving forward.

Week one was a struggle for Iowa on offense. That much is clear as day to anyone who watched the game or just looked at the box score. Against South Dakota State, the Hawkeyes only mustered 166 total yards, just 109 of which came through the air.

It was a rough Saturday for senior quarterback Spencer Petras, throwing a pick and finishing with a 1.1 QBR. Head coach Kirk Ferentz, though, has shot down the mounting pressure to replace Petras at quarterback and give it a go with Alex Padilla or even Joey Labas in the battle for the Cy-Hawk Trophy, instead placing the focus on team execution.

“Yeah, I think it is full-fledged. In my mind it is, and every player builds a resume when they’re here through the way they practice and when they play. We see more practice than we do game competition.

“But I think he’s done a lot of good things for us, and he did some good things Saturday. Some things he could have done better. I think overall right now, I think our biggest challenge is just a little bit like last year, is just team execution right now, and I want to give him a fair assessment just like I would anybody that’s in there,” Ferentz said

Ferentz has been adamant ever since the 7-3 win over South Dakota State went final that Petras is the still the team’s starting quarterback moving forward this season. After the game, Ferentz stated that he doesn’t anticipate any changes at this point, and once again called on the entire team to get better, including the subject of debate.

The Hawkeye head coach’s words have so far been backed by his actions, Petras pretty much exclusively working with the first-team in practice. It should be noted though that while Padilla is working with the twos, he sees the same exact plays that Petras and the first team are working with.

“Not a lot. We’re running the same plays both groups — I imagine most people do this. Pro football is a little different, but we tend to work two offenses during the course of a practice.

“The twos get a lot of reps. Not as many as the ones, but they get a lot of reps. Alex is running the same stuff that Spencer is,” Ferentz said.

We’ll see if Ferentz’s confidence in his quarterback is well founded in Saturday’s clash against rival Iowa State.

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Jacob’s post-week 1 Big Ten Power Rankings

Our first full slate of games are in the books. Which way are Big Ten teams’ stocks trending and what are the post-week one power rankings?

Week one is in the books, and we have a bit of movement in the rankings. Most of the top teams in the Big Ten took the first week as a chance to gain roster cohesion and iron out the kinks against an inferior opponent. This worked for most, except one team and you better believe they plummeted in the rankings.

It was a great week for the Big Ten, the only two teams losing games were against fellow Big Ten competition. I would argue that two team’s “wins” against FCS opponents though are more akin to losses. Here are the post-week one Big Ten Power Rankings. For a side-by-side comparison, here are last week’s rankings.