Success in college football begins with line play on offense and defense. The offensive line should be a team strength next year. We have stockpiled a # of 4star lineman who will be ready to play and add depth. A strong offensive line means we'll be able to run the ball and protect the QB. Bullock, Weisman, Garmon and Rogers will all be back and Canzeri/Hill/Dawson will be eligible too. All the Tight ends of significance return. All the wide receivers return except Davis who was hurt/inconsistent for the most part. Our QB will be juco all american Sokol who most observers claimed out played Vandenburg thruout fall camp. An improved offense means better defense by default as the defense won't be on the field with no rest all game long. Our defensive line will be improved. Cooper & Trinca-Pasat flashed ability as did Davis and lots of young guys got playing time. We withheld a couple 4star lineman - Faith Ekakitie & Jaleel Johnson - who with a year under Doyle lifting and learning our schemes should be ready to step in. All the linebackers and their back-ups return. We have a talented young core group led by Lowery & Law returning in the secondary. Our punter returns and the best kicker in the BigTen returns in Meyer. We found a talented return guy in Cotton. It's reasonable to assume all the players will return bigger/stronger with off season growth. I'd also assume they'll be hungry to improve after this season. We always have a couple unknowns who blossum in their junior/senior seasons too. Even with a tougher schedule, 7-8 wins would seem possible. We need to win early. Winning breeds confidence which spreads thruout the team.
I feel eliminating this senior class will automatically result in improvement. Look at this leadership group of seniors who have played their last game as Hawkeyes - McMillan, Nielsen, Sawhill, Staggs, Swanson, Ferentz, Hyde, Gimm, Gaglione, Castillo, Bigach, Sleeper, Tobin, Mossbrucker, Vandenburg, Davis, Donatell, and Weinke. Who would you want back from that group? Hyde and maybe Ferentz, but only if he could add about 15 lbs. of muscle offseason. Eighteen seniors whose voices will no longer be heard = better team chemistry.