Plus the $50 million they owe the university and the house settlement.
***Iowa Pregame Thread***
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
I looked at their depth chart for the first time just now. Just glanced at it really. No returning starters at LB and they all seem to be in the 6’1”-6’2” 230/235# range.
I know their defense is good. Sometimes it’s elite. I know they have some studs on the DL (ie Graves) and some in the secondary (ie Nwampka…who should be a stud anyway), but what do Iowa contributors think about the LB position? Seems like a position group we should be able to pick on with our TE’s. At least on paper.
I know their defense is good. Sometimes it’s elite. I know they have some studs on the DL (ie Graves) and some in the secondary (ie Nwampka…who should be a stud anyway), but what do Iowa contributors think about the LB position? Seems like a position group we should be able to pick on with our TE’s. At least on paper.
Nwankpa is far from a stud. Their secondary is weak compared to usual.
Llewelyn or however you spell it is very good on the DL.
If we can get to the second level running that opens it up for a lot of things.
I understand the sentiment about Nwampka. It’s why I have “who should be a stud anyway” in parenthesis.
What about their LBs though? Seems like a potentially huge mismatch in our favor.
The EIU defense took a huge step back last season, and many thought that was going to be a strength of the team because they had so many returning starters from the year before. Those players are now gone, and they will be starting all new LBers this season, half their Dline returns along with half of their DBs, which were weak last season. They have good players, but many have not seen a lot of snaps, especially at the LB position. Nwampka was totally over rated coming out of SE Polk, he played horrible most of the season last year and was bench at least once.
From Twitter there were quite a few fans that left unimpressed with the LBs as a whole.
I got that sense from the Iowa Everywhere podcast; the current LB group hasn't seen the field enough to know exactly what they have. Doesn't seem that they have a 'dude' in that group as they have in prior years.
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I think their entire back 7 is down compared to what they’re used to.
Their LBers are young and not many snaps played, they are going to be good next season, but it's going to be a struggle this year. Just like it was for us last season when injuries wiped out our LB core.
Will be curious to see how that impacts the aggressiveness of their D-Line/LB's this year. We'll obviously see the same base defense, but their front 7 has been pretty aggressive vs our offense the last few years.
Sharar looked good out there. Harrell did not impress. I anticipate a lot of Cash with Lutmer. Brahmer is a matchup nightmare regardless who gets that assignment. If you’re Iowa you let them target the tight ends until 3rd down and the red zones then try and bracket them and undercut a few throws and get some tipped passes for INTs.
Problem is Becht has been exceptional making the right reads and making them quickly which greatly diminishes those chances.
I expect your TEs to have big days.
It was my biggest concern heading into the season. Especially against ISU, with Becht and it being in game 2.
The talk all offseason was how is Iowa State going to replace 2 NFL wide receivers, but didn’t hear how Iowa is going to replace 2 All-Americans in K. Johnson and J. Higgins.
Re: the whole ‘pressure’ conversation - I remember having a bad gut feeling before the 2021 game. Felt like all the pressure was on ISU, between the lofty expectations and the lackluster performance against UNI. Meanwhile Iowa had a surprisingly good first two games and presumably would be playing looser. That feeling bore out to be true on gameday.
I don’t have near the same feeling this year, beyond the normal rivalry game jitters. Could we lose? Sure, it’s an instate rivalry known for close games and weird ****. But this team is playing with so much confidence and a level of poise I haven’t seen much from MC’s teams this early in the year.
Keep a level head and execute, we’ll be in good shape.
I don’t have near the same feeling this year, beyond the normal rivalry game jitters. Could we lose? Sure, it’s an instate rivalry known for close games and weird ****. But this team is playing with so much confidence and a level of poise I haven’t seen much from MC’s teams this early in the year.
Keep a level head and execute, we’ll be in good shape.
The tough thing about Brahmer is that there’s Burkle running around as well. How many teams have two guys that can cover pass catching TEs? As long as they stay healthy, it’ll be a big year for them.
To me a win here means if we win the conference at minimum we get a home playoff game. Lose and we are a 9-11 seed behind a slew of P2 teams.
I saw a stat somewhere that through 2 games, Iowa State has run only 4 plays with less than 2 Tight Ends. With Noel and Higgins are gone, ISU is modifying their offense to use their strengths. The offense will have a different feel than prior years. It will be interesting to see how Iowa defense responds as the quarters defense really doesn't bode well for a TE seam passing game
