On defense, need a huge improvement at safety

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uihawk82

Well-Known Member
I observe that the hawks are losing way too many jump balls in the secondary. A couple situations against nebby and some more this year indicate that some better play at safety could help the win loss column.

It is interesting that over the last 7 years the back end of the offense at running back and defense at safety have not been manned with quite the success as in KF's first 7-8 years.

Again, this is probably a recruiting issue.

It just seems that recruiting needs to upgrade at these two positions and safety is as important as running back.

What do we have in the pipeline for these two positions?
 
It wasn't until after Norm retired that we saw Iowa give up the big plays with greater frequency. Rarely if ever saw an opponent hit the long ball. I can only think of 2 or 3 times. USC's 1st play in Orange Bowl, Dallas Baker of FLA in Outback Bowl (PI called on the play) and Posey of OSU in 4th quarter at Kinnick (but that was called back). So few that I can remember them. How 'bout that?
 
NCHawker said:
It wasn't until after Norm retired that we saw Iowa give up the big plays with greater frequency. Rarely if ever saw an opponent hit the long ball. I can only think of 2 or 3 times. USC's 1st play in Orange Bowl, Dallas Baker of FLA in Outback Bowl (PI called on the play) and Posey of OSU in 4th quarter at Kinnick (but that was called back). So few that I can remember them. How 'bout that?
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Well Phil Parker wants to play a more pressure, blitizing type of defense than Norm did and you need the great safety play to make up for mistakes in the secondary.

KF put a bunch of his early safeties in the NFL but it is slacked off. Hey we have some good athletes there who are playing as hard as possible but we still need an upgrade there.

All I know is we did give up a lot of huge plays this year.
 
We need significant improvement in recruiting most positions, but I agree safety was big weakness this year. Lomax took bad angles on too many running plays and seldom knocked down passes or made interceptions. He seldom made big plays. Neither did Alston. He we coverage on Abdulah on first NE score. Did he have an interception this year? Spearman is a DE not LB. The list could go on.
 
LB was our biggest weakness. Lowdermilk and Lomax were 1st and 3rd in tackles this season and that's way too many. Besides Alston our next best LB was around 9th in tackles.
 
We need to continue to get more athletic across the Back 7. Especially at SS and MLB. Those players are in the middle of the field and have demanding run game and coverage responsibilities. Lowdermilk and Alston were good leaders, program players. But they were average to below-average Big 10 athletes for those positions.

Both of those positions can be play-maker positions in this defense. We just need to find the right athletes and coach them up. I assume Anthony Gair and Miles Taylor will compete at SS and who knows at MLB? Perry, Spearman, Jewell, one of the freshman that are redshirting? Not sure we have potential play-maker to plug in.
 
Boyle from Dowling looks like the next Sean Considine to me. Smart, confident, athletic, a gamer. He just looks like a free safety. He'll be too good to keep off the field, but he'll have to wait too long for his chance at QB as long as KF and Rudock are here.
 
hwk23 said:
LB was our biggest weakness. Lowdermilk and Lomax were 1st and 3rd in tackles this season and that's way too many. Besides Alston our next best LB was around 9th in tackles.
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And Alston was selected to 2nd team all Big Ten. I don't get that at all. I guess because he was a senior? That's a participation award in my opinion.

And no way, at least this year, that Scherff was the best offensive lineman in the conference let alone one of the top 3 lineman in all college football.
 
Agree on LB being the biggest weak spot. I still have nightmares of UNI's running back going uncovered out of the backfield :eek:
 
Caddy said:
I'm sure there is a walk-on from farmville, Iowa waiting in the wings.
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We do, it's Brandon Snyder from Larchwood, IA. He is going to be the next great safety at IA. Just mark my words. The coaches are raving about him. Student of the game and works his tail off. Last i heard, he has been scout team player of the week 10 times. he has won it on Offense, Defense and Special teams. Brandon is following in the footsteps on Bo Bower and many others walk ons turned into stars at IA
 
And if he was covered, our LB's couldn't keep up with him athletically. It's a miracle we won that game.
 
I would like to see Flemming get a shot at FS. He isn't going to be a top 2 corner and he has the closing speed to play the position effectively. The question is (as it is with most of the defense), can he tackle well enough to play safety?
 
We need safeties that can not only take good angles and tackle in the run game but in particular can meet receivers downfield, get under control and get up to bat down passes on get INTs. We have lost a lot of jump balls the last few years. I aint saying it is easy because it is like being a great centerfielder. But need some speed, football smarts and some ups.
 
I forgot about Hill going to Mich. I hope Warfield has the talent.

I am afraid to think that we had better safeties sitting on the bench this year. I dont say they have to start but if they are not redshirting they need to see some playing time.

I think that is how you keep your team on top by having backups who are ready to start.
 
NCHawker said:
It wasn't until after Norm retired that we saw Iowa give up the big plays with greater frequency. Rarely if ever saw an opponent hit the long ball. I can only think of 2 or 3 times. USC's 1st play in Orange Bowl, Dallas Baker of FLA in Outback Bowl (PI called on the play) and Posey of OSU in 4th quarter at Kinnick (but that was called back). So few that I can remember them. How 'bout that?
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Side note, know. IMO, the beginning of the downfall of Iowa football occurred while Norm was the OC at Iowa, the 2008 season. Iowa's D under Norm was never any good against the pass. Never any good against spread offenses. Never any good against hurry up offenses. Seemingly, Norms's D was good at rushing the passer and being physical and became less and less a factor during and after the 2008 season. Since KF wanted the defense to win ball games, this caused Iowa's fortunes to slide, as well.
 
Gair should have been playing this entire year. It should have been Gair and Lomax. Two guys with good speed and size. You only have to watch the tape against UNI, Indiana, and Wisconsin to understand why. There were a lot of plays left on the field at safety.
 
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