Tag: Brody Brecht

After hearing ‘Nico is getting close,’ both Ragaini, Keagan Johnson absent on Week 3 depth chart

After saying it’s a possibility that wide receivers Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini could return, neither was listed on the two-deep.

After another performance where Iowa struggled mightily offensively, reinforcements would be a welcome sight. Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said as much after the Hawkeyes mustered up just 150 yards of total offense and one touchdown.

“Hopefully, getting some players back would help us, but, you know, we can’t count on that. We’ve got to play with the guys we have and see if we can do a better job,” Ferentz said.

After Ferentz said that both wide receivers Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini were possibilities to play this week versus Nevada, neither one was listed on Iowa’s depth chart to start the week.

It’s obviously not Iowa’s only offensive problems, but it’s fair to look at the situation and see how several skill players being out has exacerbated the Hawkeyes’ issues.

“It’s certainly a factor. It’s not an excuse, but it is a factor if you do the math on it. We’ve got I think by my count, three guys that were out pretty much from the start of camp that play outside on the perimeter. Not so much Nico’s was during camp, and then Diante Vines got hurt during camp, too. He was doing really well, so you take those two guys, (Brody) Brecht was out, Keagan Johnson has been out. That’s four players that last December I would have told you we were counting on,” Ferentz said.

While the Hawkeyes ponder whether or not Spencer Petras will remain the team’s starting quarterback or if somebody else will get a chance, everyone in the black and gold is hoping Iowa’s aforementioned top skill players return in a hurry.

Though Ferentz didn’t offer a specific timeline, it does seem like Brody Brecht, Keagan Johnson and Nico Ragaini could be back soon. He updated both Brecht and Ragaini’s statuses while answering if Iowa might consider some schematic changes.

“I’m not sure that’s going to help us right now. You know, really, we just need to find some ways to move the football and score it. I’m not sure that’s going to be going to a gimmick or wholesale change. You know, I mean, as I said earlier, we’re two weeks into it now, we should have a better idea of what we can do and what we can’t do and where the hotspots are and try to compensate for that, and then hopefully we’ll get some personnel back, too. I think, you know, Nico has a chance this week. Hopefully, Brody Brecht this week three, so maybe we can get him involved. Hopefully, that’ll be part of the solution here, but we don’t have a quick fix right now,” Ferentz said.

Nico Ragaini was Iowa’s third-highest in receiving yardage last season with 331 yards. Brecht is a 6-foot-4, 217 pound redshirt freshman out of Ankeny, Iowa, that the Hawkeye coaching staff is excited about.

Meanwhile, Keagan Johnson still hasn’t played in 2022 either. He was Iowa’s top receiving yardage leader last season among wide receivers with 352 yards on 18 grabs. After a strong true freshman season, there’s plenty of excitement about what the Bellevue, Neb., native could wind up as in Iowa City.

Ferentz was also asked in the postgame media availability if Johnson had a chance to return this week.

“I think it’s a possibility. He improved for the first time I can say that. He’s improved this past week and gave us maybe a little room for optimism. I think Nico is getting close. I don’t know if he is there. We’ll know more as the week goes on, so those two guys are definitely possibilities. Vines is going to be a while,” Ferentz said.

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‘It’s not going well for him right now’: Iowa set to ‘reassess everything,’ including starting QB

After just one touchdown through two games, Kirk Ferentz said the Hawkeyes will “reassess everything,” including the starting quarterback.

After Iowa was only able to muster up 150 yards of total offense and one offensive touchdown against Iowa State, it sounds like it’s officially time for the Hawkeyes to perhaps make some personnel changes.

Starting quarterback Spencer Petras had another rough outing, throwing for just 92 yards on 12-of-26 passing with a lost fumble and an interception.

Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz was asked why stick with Petras as the team’s starting quarterback at this point.

“I guess to me, both these games he’s still not getting enough help to really do a fair assessment. He hasn’t been perfect obviously. Nobody has. We’ve got a lot of moving parts right now on offense, and then we’re shorthanded a little bit at a couple positions. We’ll keep working through it, we’ll talk about it tomorrow, you know, and see what happens moving forward,” Ferentz said.

Then, as a follow up, Ferentz was asked point blank if Petras is the team’s sure starter in game No. 3 against Nevada.

“No, I didn’t say that. I just said today he played the whole game. In my judgment, it was the best way to continue through this game, and, you know, gave it some thought, but I felt like it was our best opportunity. We’ll reassess everything tomorrow,” Ferentz said.

With the Hawkeyes mired in an offensive desert, Iowa’s 24th-year head coach was asked why he hasn’t been the type of coach historically to quickly yank quarterbacks in general. Ferentz said part of that approach has been rooted in his quarterbacks having established reputations.

“I would agree with that comment or that statement if in fact that quarterback has built up some credit, you know, he’s got an account going. We’ve been around Spencer three years now. This is his third year playing as a starter, so we’ve been around him, seen him do a lot of really good things. And as a person, as a young man, he’s stellar. He’s been really good,” Ferentz said.

With that being said, ultimately, it’s just not working right now for Iowa, and that means that all options are on the table.

“He’s got all the attributes you’re looking for, but it’s not going well for him right now. It’s not going well for anybody on the offense quite frankly. If making a change is the best thing, then we’ll consider it. If not, we’ll just keep pushing forward, see what we can do,” Ferentz said.

Last week, Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz wasn’t completely letting Petras off the hook based on poor offensive line play.

“I felt like after watching the tape, the majority of that game, we had ample opportunity in the pocket to deliver the ball and do what we needed to do as far as making the read and getting the ball out to the correct guy on time. So, is the protection perfect? No, but if you’re waiting around for perfect protection, you’re not going to be happy with it ever,” Brian Ferentz said.

And the promise was that Iowa would play the best player, whomever that ultimately is.

“And the reality is, we’ve seen both quarterbacks play. Both guys have played well. Both guys probably have had times in their career they wish they had back — with Spencer we can look as recently as a few days ago. But the reality is they both demonstrated that they can do it. And what we need to do is find consistency at that position. I can just assure you that what we’re going to do is we’re going to continue to go with the guy, whomever that is, whenever that is, that’s going to give us the best chance to win football games,” Brian Ferentz said after the South Dakota State game.

Now, the questions are more pronounced than ever. Is Petras really Iowa’s best option at quarterback? Or, what are Alex Padilla and Joey Labas not doing to get opportunities to play?

“It’s really not that. The best way I can phrase it is we have a lot more exposure to what’s going on with our players on a daily basis. You get to see them on Saturdays, obviously you get to interview them, talk to them and all that, but we see them on a daily basis, and this goes back to the spring and last fall, as well.

“It has been our estimation that Spencer is the starter, and wanted to give him that chance again today. We’re sitting here right now, clearly we have to do better, and we’ll reassess everything this week,” Kirk Ferentz said.

Ultimately, the bottom line is Iowa needs more offensive production. As such, all options have to be on the table.

“We’ll assess all that tomorrow. Obviously the statement made about points scored, we’re not going to win moving forward if we can’t score more points than that, and we have a really good defense. But you’re not going to win a game, 7 points, 10 points a game, as a rule,” Kirk Ferentz said.

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‘Just doing what we need to do’: Arland Bruce IV outlines how to fix Iowa’s offensive ‘week one jitters’

Iowa wide receiver Arland Bruce IV reflected on the Hawkeyes’ “week one jitters” and said the fix is “just doing what we need to do.”

Iowa didn’t inspire much hope in its season opener that all of the offensive issues that plagued the program a season ago have magically been fixed. Instead, it felt and looked like the offense had gotten worse.

Sophomore wide receiver Arland Bruce IV isn’t hitting any panic buttons, though.

“Yeah, you know the first week everybody’s going to struggle at times. There’s times that you guys probably didn’t even notice where I messed up. It’s just about everybody doing their job. I just feel like with week one jitters, everybody sometimes messes up and doesn’t really complete their job like they’re supposed to and doesn’t get the task done. It’s not really about the coverage at times. It’s just a matter of us doing what we need to do first and not worrying about what the defense is doing, so it’s just figuring out what we need to do first,” Bruce said.

According to Bruce, therein lies the fix.

“Like I just said, just doing what we need to do. Getting the job done. Everybody doing their own job, not worrying about what the person next to you is and trusting that your brother’s going to do the right thing,” Bruce said.

It echoes some of the sentiments his quarterback Spencer Petras shared about the Hawkeyes’ struggles running the football and just the overall takeaways from a day where Iowa mustered just 166 yards of total offense and zero offensive touchdowns.

“Yeah, I think it was pretty representative of just the whole day offensively,” Petras said of the run game struggles. “Without having watched the tape yet, I bet all of our bad plays were probably one guy away from going. Run game that can be. It’s one guy in a run play, it’s one guy in a pass play. Whatever that may be, so the trick is just, you know, we’ve got our first game, we’ve got our first win. Now, let’s get back to who we are, because that wasn’t representative of who we are offensively.”

After a performance that brought out the boo birds on multiple occasions, Bruce had this to say in response to the fans voicing their displeasure.

“At the end of the day, it just matters what the people in this facility, in this building, on this team think, so I don’t really think too much of it. I mean, we all know that we left some on the field, but that’s why we’re going to get in the film room, get back at it tomorrow, look at what we could have done better and what we did good,” Bruce said.

Of course, plenty of those boos were directed squarely at Petras. Dating back to the mid-October loss last season versus Purdue, the San Rafael, Calif., quarterback now has just one touchdown pass against eight interceptions in his last six games of serious playing time.

Granted, seven of those eight interceptions came in two games against Purdue and Kentucky. Still, there was Bruce on Saturday afternoon to help swat away any criticism of his team’s starting signal-caller and to assign some of the blame on himself and the rest of his offensive teammates.

“Like I said, we all made mistakes today. I’m sure Spencer probably thought he left some stuff on the field, but there’s also some things that he probably did great. Same with me. I got a penalty. I caused a penalty. It’s just things where we leave on the field and it’s just procedural penalties and just not lining up where we’re supposed to be. Just little things like that. Like I said, it’s always the basics and the little things. We get those right and we’re going to be fine,” Bruce said.

As Iowa turns its attention to its arch rival in the Iowa State Cyclones, the Hawkeyes will once again be doing so minus two of their top three wide receivers. Neither Nico Ragaini or Keagan Johnson were listed on the two-deep.

It sets the stage for Bruce to be Iowa’s primary difference maker at wide receiver. Obviously, it would be great for the Hawkeyes to find some help from the fellow receivers on the two-deep: Alec Wick, Jack Johnson and Brody Brecht.

“Yeah, that’s the great thing with college football. I mean, we probably have 12, 13 games left. Those guys are obviously going to be back in the next few weeks. The guys that we had in today I think did a great job and it was their first time getting game experience, so I think moving forward we’re going to be just fine,” Bruce said.

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Why Iowa’s wide receiver group will survive, and even thrive, after Charlie Jones’ departure

Let’s analyze the Hawkeyes’ receivers after the departure of Charlie Jones and see why the group won’t just survive, but thrive post-Jones.

Yeah, Charlie Jones left the Iowa Hawkeyes unexpectedly and went to Purdue. So what? It happened. It’s over. No point in crying over spilled milk. Time to move on from his contributions to the Hawkeyes and take a look at the receiver group that can, and will, pick up that slack.

As Hawk Central discussed, the receiver group really can be sorted into three groups. More or less, it is the known contributors of Keagan Johnson, Arland Bruce IV, and Nico Ragaini in one group. After that, we find a group that could best be described as having the talent and potential yet just awaiting the opportunity. That includes sophomores Brody Brecht and Diante Vines along with incoming freshman Jacob Bostick.

Last, but certainly not least, and even more so in Iowa, there are walk-ons that could blossom. That group includes Jackson Ritter, who has seen time, Kaden Wetjen, who chose Iowa over scholarship offers, Jack Johnson, and Alec Wick.

Johnson, Bruce IV, and Ragaini will continue their ways of being the main guys in the offense. Johnson and Bruce IV saw significant playing time as last season went on and that may have been the writing on the wall for Jones to depart.

He may have been passed up by those two. Ragaini has been a consistent receiver for Iowa the last three seasons. Combined, the three contributed 69 receptions for 767 yards and seven touchdown grabs in 2021 and those numbers should only increase. This group will be more than fine.

Brody Brecht and Diante Vines have the luxury of a year in Iowa’s system and an understanding of the playbook. As it’s very well known, experience is important regardless of position on a Kirk Ferentz team.

Vines was a sparkplug in the open spring practice as he reeled in a long touchdown from Alex Padilla. Vines could join Johnson and Bruce IV as the next young receiver to have his number relied upon.

Bostick joins Iowa as the only incoming scholarship wide receiver. That alone shows a lot about his talent and what the staff thinks he can bring to the table. In no world would it be surprising for one or multiple of these receivers to prove themselves and provide some significant outputs to the Hawkeyes’ offense.

Lastly, but certainly not least, is maybe my favorite group: the walk-ons. This group is not just a bunch of guys who were good in high school. There is serious talent here.

Starting with Jackson Ritter, he’s seen live action and even contributed. He is no stranger to the field and the staff’s trust in him with his experience could be relied on if anyone goes down or he steps up, which he is more than capable of.

Kaden Wetjen comes to Iowa from Iowa Western where he spent two years. He averaged 25 yards per catch. Yes, that is correct. Seriously, 25 yards per catch.

He has big-play ability and one would be naive to think he chose to join Iowa as a walk-on over scholarship offers from Central Arkansas, Southern Illinois, and others. Wetjen believes he can play at this level and as has been shown many times before, Iowa is a place where walk-ons come to be great.

Alec Wick and Jack Johnson round out the receiving group. Johnson redshirted last year after a high school career that saw him earn All-State honors. Wick also redshirted. His senior year saw him haul in 75 receptions for 1,401 yards and 16 touchdowns. These two aren’t any walk-ons. They can play.

So, yes, Charlie Jones did leave. But, there is every reason to believe this group doesn’t need to reload. The Iowa Hawkeyes receivers have rebuilt. Rebuilt themselves stronger, more experienced, and ready to take the next step in 2022.

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Trio of Iowa Hawkeyes honored by Collegiate Baseball

Outfielder Keaton Anthony and pitcher Brody Brecht were named Collegiate Baseball freshman All-Americans.

The future is bright for Iowa baseball.

On Wednesday, University of Iowa’s Keaton Anthony and Brody Brecht were named Collegiate Baseball Freshman All Americans. They are the 10th and 11th Hawkeyes to earn the distinction and it is the third time an Iowa team has featured multiple players in a year as freshman All-Americans. It is the first time a duo has received such honors since 2017.

It is no surprise to see Keaton Anthony on the list. The Hoschton, Ga., native is the second-ever Hawkeye to earn the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award. The outfielder finished with a .361 batting average and reached safely in 50 contests. His inaugural season featured 22 doubles, 14 home runs, 55 RBIs, and 46 runs scored. His 14 home runs are the most by an Iowa freshman since 1999.

Brody Brecht was a standout on the mound in his first season, finishing with a 3.18 ERA in 17 appearances. In 22 2/3 innings, the reliever held batters to a .158 batting average and struck out 44 hitters. He allowed just 13 hits and eight earned runs, surrendering just one extra-base hit.

Iowa starting pitcher Adam Mazur also picked up recognition as a second-team All-American from Collegiate Baseball last Thursday. The redshirt sophomore made it a second consecutive season that a Hawkeye pitcher earned an All-America distinction, becoming the ninth player to earn All-America honors under Iowa head baseball coach Rick Heller.

The Woodbury, Minn., native posted a 7-3 record with a 3.07 ERA in 15 starts. Mazur allowed just 60 hits and 37 runs (32 earned) over 93 2/3 innings, while fanning 98, limiting hitters to a .178 average and walking just 30.

The Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and first-team all-league selection led the league in batting average against, ranked second in innings and strikeouts, third in wins and fourth in ERA. In league games, the right-hander paced the Big Ten in wins (5), ERA (2.59), innings (55.2), while ranking fourth in strikeouts.

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