We beat them last year without their best offensive player, and they played a quarterback that never saw another meaningful down for them the rest of the year.
Foles and their offensive is going to give us fits this year. Again, last year we barely beat UNI... barely beat Michigan State, barely beat Indiana, barely beat Michigan, and lost to Northwestern.
We are going out on the road early in the season with a relatively green offensive line. I don't know what Iowa has done in our non-conference Ferentz era that makes ANYONE think that we shouldn't be worried about @ Arizona.
I'd say @ Arizona is a toss up.
Something that some folks are forgetting is that Iowa beat Arizona last year with some of the following issues hurting us too:
- Iowa was without one of its best Ferentz-era TEs (Moeaki)
- Iowa was without one of its best Ferentz-era OTs (Bulaga)
- We had only JUST settled on having ARob and Wegher get the majority of RB-touches (both FR in just the 3rd game of their young careers)
- Calloway had only come back the prior game and had missed plenty of time in fall camp
- Vandervelde played but still was coming off of his injury. Also, due to injury, he missed most all of fall camp.
- DJK and Sandeman were still both coming off of hammy injuries
- The UA game was Prater's first game back from his 2-game suspension. It was also his first career start
All the same, Iowa still dominated the game.
In some respects, it was good that Iowa dominated the game but didn't dominate the scoreboard. As a result, the Wildcats will not enter the 2010 game seething due to an embarrassment from the prior year. For those who recall, that was a HUGE motivating factor for ASU in 2004. They were embarrassed from their '03 performance against Iowa and they wanted revenge.
One thing that some of the superstitious folks out there aren't considering is that the '04 ASU game was Drew Tate's first away game of his career, in a hostile environment, on a big stage. Not only did Iowa's D end up playing with poor technique ... but the O ended up laying a huge freaking egg.
In stark contrast, Stanzi is a wily veteran SR who has led the Hawks to victory in MANY big games in hostile environments.
Another contrasting point is that while the '04 DL was awesome, it also wasn't a very deep unit. The backups really didn't see much of any reps and the few who did see action were RS FR.
Now, when you look at the '10 DL, not only are the starters awesome ... but we also have some talented upperclassmen backups. I'm very confident in what Daniel and Daniels bring to the table for the Hawks. Furthermore, I also anticipate that Iowa will have other guys capable of stepping up in a "next man in" basis.
Lastly, the '04 Iowa vs ASU game featured an Iowa D that was better at stopping the run than defending against the pass. If you look at Iowa's secondary, Paschal was in just his first year as a starter and our CB duo were both rather undersized and slow. Not shockingly, Iowa was rather exploitable against the pass. Anyhow, the '04 game matched the strength of ASU's O versus the weakness of Iowa's D.
In contrast, the '10 Iowa vs UA game features and Iowa D that has a great track record against the pass and is clearly improving against the run. The Iowa CBs are no longer short and slow. The Iowa secondary is now much better equipped these days to execute press coverage when needed. However, more importantly, Iowa's D tackles well. What folks don't necessarily acknowledge about Arizona's O is that it relies heavily upon yardage AFTER the catch. That is precisely something that Iowa's D has been good at minizing. Thus, even if Foles can dink and dunk his arse off ... that still could give Iowa's D plenty of opportunities to get TFLs against the run, sacks, or force a turnover.
While I'll happily concede that the Arizona game is a game that the Hawks could lose ... I also believe that the Arizona game is one that Iowa will likely win. Am I "worried" about the UA game .... sure I am ... but I also get worried about pretty much every one of Iowa's Big 10 foes ....
