Hawkeyes talk about Rhabdo

Iowa opened its doors to the media yesterday and let them interview some of the veteran players prior to the Hawkeyes' 5th spring practice. It was the first time that players were available post-Rhabdogate. Shaun Prater, one of the Rhabdo13, openly talked about his bout with rhabdo. The best news is that he has fully recovered, he's healthy, he's back practicing hard (the first four practices were just half-reps but Wednesday's was a full go), and has put the whole thing behind him.

He did provide some additional insight into the potential cause of the rhabdo outbreak. What it boils down to in Prater's mind is over-competitiveness after a 3-week break. The players were all trying to best eachothers' times and trying to set a record for the 100-squat workout (the previous record was 8 minutes). Prater personal goal was to beat that 8-minute mark. Here are some quotes on the possible root cause:

• "Honestly I think the 3-week layoff"
• "Possibly we all took it too far"
• "It's a drill where players are trying to be competitive and break that mark"

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2011 Spring Update

Secondary shakeup

Spring practice is always a time when the depth chart is malleable. The coaches are throwing in different bodies and seeing what sticks. The big shakeup right now is happening in the defensive backfield with Micah Hyde. Hyde was one of the starting corners last year, but is now being tried at free safety. Ferentz mentioned this as a possibility when he addressed the media to start spring practice.

The move makes sense. Both safety spots were wide open at the start of spring with Tyler Sash leaving early for the NFL and Brett Greenwood who graduated. Hyde is built a little bit more like a safety than at corner and is likely the position he will be looked at if he makes it to the NFL. His move also frees up a corner spot, where there is a little bit more depth at than safety. The man stepping up to take that spot right now is B.J. Lowery who played some last year as a true freshman. Greg Castillo may also be in the mix.
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Links For Iowa welcomes walk-on Gavin Smith

JUCO Gavin Smith to walk on

Iowa picked up its sixth known walk-on with CB Gavin Smith. Smith is originally from Iowa City and life-long Hawkeye fan. He has played for Iowa Central Community College the past two years. He finished his sophomore season (which is just 7 games) with 32 tackles and 4 INTs (1 returned for a TD). He wasn't really recruited by the Iowa coaches, who don't usually look too hard at JUCO guys, but Smith sent them his tape from college and they were impressed enough to offer him a spot as a walk-on.

The other walk-ons:

• S - Brandon Boerm
• FB - Adam Cox
• K - Marshall Koehn
• LB - Travis Perry
• FB - Mark Weisman

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Links For Iowa gets some good advice

More 3-4?

I will play a base 4-3 this year, just like every other year under Ferentz and Parker. However, we may start seeing a little more 3-4 thrown in there largely to combat the ever expanding presence of ultra-quick slot receivers that scurry around the field in so many spread offenses.

Iowa has long used linebackers to cover receivers and it has, for the most part, worked. However, there have been plenty of occasions where it didn't work and those occasions were becoming more common last year. Iowa's linebackers really struggled in coverage against the more experienced quarterbacks running a spread offense. And never was it as apparent as against Missouri in the first half of the Insight Bowl.

Against the pass, expect Iowa to work in some 3-4 on passing downs, especially if that passer is Gabbert’s caliber. Iowa will continue to rush four or more (but mostly four) probably 90 percent of the time, so we’re not talking wholesale philosophy change, just a tweak that would put more speed on the field.

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Ferentz Spring 2011 Presser

To kick off the start of Iowa's spring practice, Ferentz held a press conference Wednesday afternoon. The content was mostly the usual stuff--injuries, position breakdowns, etc.--with the exception of a few (and hopefully final) words on rhadbo and a couple of shots at the media.

Spring Injuries:

• Marvin McNutt - shoulder/hand surgery, out for spring
• Steve Bigach - shoulder surgery, out for spring
• Tanner Miller - shoulder surgery, out for spring
• Shane DiBona - shoulder surgery, out for spring
• Austin Vier - back injury, out indefinitely
• Brad Rogers - heart problem, out indefinitely
• Tyler Nielsen - broken vertebrae, practicing with no contact
• The Rhabdo13 - will be eased in over first 4 practices

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Today, Ferentz presser and the rhabdo investigation

Rhabdo investigation findings to be announced today

President Sally Mason will be presenting the findings of the investigation into the cause of the 13 rhabdomyolysis cases today at the Iowa Board of Regents meeting. The meeting starts at 8:30 and continues until 5:00. The findings are the last item on the BOR meeting's docket and is noted that it "will be given before the closed" of the meeting. So my guess would be that we won't hear about the finding until around the end of the work day (which I think is good news, because the KF presser will then be less likely to be overrun by rhabdo questions). If you are really dying to follow along with the BOR meeting, their site offers a link to stream the audio. The agenda does note that there will be a closed session in the afternoon, but I don't think the findings will be part of it. So you should be able to listen in as Mason presents.

It is convenient timing for Iowa to have the findings come out the same day as the start of spring practice and the Ferentz presser. I don't believe that this was done purposefully. The BOR meeting has been schedule for a long time, and this investigation was ordered by the Regents. So it makes a lot of sense that Mason is presenting the findings today. It is convenient though, because I would assume most of the Iowa sports media will be in Iowa City today covering Ferentz, not in Ames covering the BOR meeting. So whatever the findings may be, the story could get slightly covered up by the enthusiasm for the start of spring ball.
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Links For Iowa has its own Pro Day

Iowa Pro Day

Iowa held its first of two Pro Days yesterday with representatives of all 32 NFL teams in attendance. The session was closed to the media (as is everything with Iowa), but there has been some information leaking out of individual performances and hawkeyesports.com has a bunch of photos.

NFL.com has some stats from some of the Hawkeyes notable players and says that Stanzi and Clayborn both improved their draft stock. Here are the listed stats:

• Adrian Clayborn: vertical jump - 35.5", broad jump - 9'6", short shuttle - 7.08, 225 bench - 17 reps.
• Ricky Stanzi: 40-yard dash - 4.93, vertical jump - 34", broad jump - 9'7", short shuttle - 4.56, 3-cone drill - 7.23, 225 bench - 16 reps.
• Christian Ballard: 40-yard dash - 4.70, vertical jump - 34", broad jump - 9'7", short shuttle - 4.56, 3-cone drill - 7.23, 225 bench - 16 reps.
• Karl Klug: 40-yard dash - 4.81, vertical jump - 29.5", broad jump - 9'5", short shuttle - 4.60, 3-cone drill - 7.01, 225 bench - 21 reps.
• Julian Vandervelde: 40-yard dash - 5.09, vertical jump - 30", broad jump - 9'0", short shuttle - 4.44, 3-cone drill - 7.14, 225 bench - 25 reps.
• Tyler Sash: 40-yard dash - 4.61, vertical jump - 33", broad jump - 9'4", 225 bench - 14 reps.

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Iowa Spring Practice starts this week

Iowa is gearing up to start spring practice on Wednesday. While the 3 weeks of practice is as locked down as any other Iowa Football practice, it does mean that we'll get the Spring Prospectus (hundreds of pages for your reading pleasure), a Ferentz presser, a bunch of pictures on hawkeyesports.com, probably some coverage of a practice from the BTN, and of course the spring "game." It also aligns with Iowa's 2 Pro Days which are today and April 4.

Iowa Spring Game/Open Practice

When: April 16, 2011 - 12:00 pm
Where: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, IA
Parking: Typically they open up the adjacent lots
Price: This event is usually free

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Links For Iowa: Gotta get down on Friday

Brad Banks to start for Barnstormers

It was announced yesterday that former Iowa quarterback and Heisman runner-up, Brad Banks, will be the starting quarterback for the Iowa Barnstormers as they open up their 2011 season against Pittsburgh on Saturday. Banks has been playing football in Canada since he led Iowa to a Big Ten Title and a trip to the Orange Bowl. His return to Iowa should help generate some buzz for the Barnstormers. This first game is in Pittsburgh, but they return home to Des Moines for a game with Spokane on March 25. I've always wanted to go to a Barnstormers game and now with Banks starting I think I might have to go.

Tickets to Iowa-Nebraska will be hard to find

This isn't exactly news. Nebraska is known for its huge fan-base that not only sells out Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, but will buy thousands and thousands of tickets for games on the road too. Add on to that with the fact that this is a border rivalry, the first year of Nebraska in the Big Ten, and that this game has some extra cachet now that it has been moved to Black Friday. So, it isn't surprising that tickets to the game will be hard to find. Iowa's share of the tickets will likely go to the large donors (and family members of players and coaches) and the rest of us will have to turn to the secondary markets. With Lincoln relatively a short drive for many Iowa fans (just under 4 hours away for me), I'd still expect a lot of fans trying to get tickets or maybe just showing up to tailgate.
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Links For Iowa loves Ricky Stanzi

Love it or leave it, Ricky Stanzi #1

At least one site thinks Ricky Stanzi is the number one quarterback in this year's NFL draft. Fantasy Football Metrics have declared Stanzi as the top QB based on their own formula. It was Stanzi's Wonderlic scored of 30 that sealed the deal. A 30 is a very solid score for a QB on the Wonderlic. FFM says that 25 is the magic number for an NFL quarterback and that each of the past 10 Super Bowl winning QBs have had a Wonderlic score of at least 25.

Stanzi joined a rather exclusive QB list that includes only 14 other QBs of all the ones we have studied (based on advanced passing metrics, strength of competition played, key physical "measureables" and NFL Combine data). These 14 College QB's were ones that had no statistical or physical "red-flag" measurements in any category of our research that we felt were key in projecting them to the NFL based on all of our data history.

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Links For Iowa: It's Pi Day!

Jewel Hampton to Southern Illinois

Jewel Hampton has officially enrolled in classes at SIU and joined the football team. He has already started taking classes so will be able to participate in spring practice. Hampton decided to transfer from Iowa in December. It was a mutual decision by Hampton and the Iowa coaches as things did not go in the right direction after Hampton's impressive freshman year. He suffered two season-ending knee injuries in back-to-back years and was also arrested for public intox/under-age in a bar and served a 1-game suspension.

SIU is an FCS school, so Hampton won't have to sit out a year. The Salukis main focus with Hampton right now is making sure he knee is healthy and that he will be ready to play this fall.
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Returning Offensive Stats by Game

I couple of weeks ago I looked into some statistics around returning players. It left a kind of bleak picture for 2011 as there is a large amount of production that Iowa must replace next year, especially on offense. One thing I noticed in the Insight Bowl, however, is that there were a lot of younger players stepping up and making big plays. It also would make sense to me that younger players have a larger potential to improve throughout the season have a bigger impact. So, I wanted to look a little bit deeper into a couple of offensive statistics to see how players returning in 2011 performed throughout the year. I didn't look at passing yards, because it was basically all Stanzi the entire year...so I just did Rushing and Receiving Yards.
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Iowa-Nebraska game moved to Friday

A big change was announced to the Iowa football schedule yesterday. Iowa and Nebraska will square off on the Friday following Thanksgiving for the at least the next two years.

Here's the word from on high:

When the Universities of Iowa and Nebraska meet on the football field this fall as Big Ten Conference rivals for the first time, the game will take place on Friday, Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving.

The Hawkeyes and Cornhuskers announced Monday that both the 2011 contest, in Lincoln, and the 2012 game, in Iowa City, will be played on Friday. The teams will meet in Kinnick Stadium on Nov. 23, 2012.

This is somewhat of a surprise coming from the Iowa Athletic Department as under Ferentz, the football program has been very "traditional." However, given that things is the have been moving more in the non-traditional direction for the conference (and thus Iowa) it's not that surprising. There are more night games, conference games after Thanksgiving, a new conference championship game, etc... So a Friday game doesn't seem like such a far stretch.

It makes a ton of sense for Nebraska, who has been playing these Black Friday games against their rival for the past 20 years. When Nebraska-Oklahoma was a big deal, the teams faced off on Friday from 1990-1995. Then came the Big 12 and Oklahoma was replaced with Colorado, but the game remained on Friday.
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2011 Iowa Football Roster and Schedule

Iowa Football Roster Iowa Football Schedule

With spring practice just a few weeks away I decided it was time to roll the blog forward to the 2011 season. I updated the main schedule and roster pages as well as the ones in the sidebar.

Quick Thoughts on the Schedule

This is the first year of the 12-team B1G TEN. Iowa, in the Legends, will play Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Northwestern every year. The other annual game will be against Purdue as Iowa's cross-over rival. Iowa's other two cross-over games are actually quite favorable with Penn State and Indiana (which means no Ohio State or Wisconsin).

The non-conference schedule sets up nicely and gives Iowa a good shot at a 4-0 start to the season. Tennessee Tech and Louisiana-Monroe should be easy enough. Iowa State could provide a good test in Ames...though the Cyclones have a lot of reloading to do, especially on offense. Pittsburgh has been going through a coach carousel this off-season so could still be adjusting to a new coach so early in the season.
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More negative news

Yesterday was not a good news day for the Iowa Football program. The two negative stories were both extension of the recent incidents that have shed Iowa in a bad light. The first was another story about the rhabdo cases and the second was about crime and college football that highlighted the number of arrests Iowa has had recently which builds on the recent drug-related charges of DJK and Adam Robinson.

Cyrus Kouandjio comments on the Rhabdo incident

In an interview with Sporting News, Cyrus Kouandjio said that he was high on Iowa before the rhabdo cases which changed his mind. Here's the actual quote:

Q: If you would have had to sign in early fall, who would you have gone with then?

A: At first I really, really, really wanted to go to Iowa. I even told my best friend that I was going to Iowa. But when everything went down with them with the workouts and all, that was different. I had a bad vibe when I went there. Alabama may be far from home, but Iowa—living-style wise—it’s just out there and just not me. I wouldn’t have been able to thrive in that environment. I love their coaches and I love their team, but it was really just out for me.

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Season Tickets: Renew now at higher price

Iowa is now accepting season ticket renewal orders for the 2011 season. If you had season tickets last year, then you have until April 29th to renew your seats. When you go to renew your tickets you'll notice that you'll be paying a little bit more this year. Iowa increased the price per ticket by $2 bringing the season total up from $360 to $374.

Here's a price per game breakdown from The Gazette:

• Tennessee Tech - $57
• Pittsburgh - $57
• Louisiana-Monroe - $57
• Northwestern - $65
• Indiana - $65
• Michigan - $70
• Michigan State - $65

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Links For Iowa welcomes walk-on Brendon Boerm

McNutt out for spring

Marc Morehouse had a short post about some of the off-season surgeries for some Iowa players. The headliner is Marvin McNutt who had surgery on his thumb and shoulder. He'll be out for spring practice. Shane DiBona and Tanner Miller also had shoulder surgery and will likely be out this spring.

McNutt's absence will leave a huge opportunity for some of the less experienced receivers to get valuable practice time this spring. This will be vital to Iowa's offensive success in 2011 as behind McNutt, the next 4 leaders in receptions and receiving yards from last year (DJK, Reisner, Robinson, and Sandeman) are all gone (wide receivers Paul Chaney and Don Nordmann are also gone). This will leave Keenan Davis, who had just 11 catches for 131, as Iowa's leading returning receiver for spring practice. And, he'll be the only receiver with a collegiate catch. Next in line will likely be red-shirt freshman Kevonte Martin-Manley. After that, who knows? Jordan Cotton had some hype out of high school, but has yet to see the playing field. After that it's just walk-ons.
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