QUality of units by year

[AreWeThereYet]

Quality of Offensive Line - by Year

2002
2008
2009
2003
2001
2004
2011
2005
2010
2006
2007

The two best lines where from 2001-2004 than again in 2008 – 2009.
There was a gradual drop off when Reese Morgan took for Joe Philbin. This drop off continued and injuries didn’t help things in 2006. Drew Tate spent much of that year running for his life.

The 2007 offensive line was as green as this year’s defensive line. That year they were down to giving walk on Travis Meade multiple starts at guard. In 2008 that line matured to be one of the best run blocking lines at Iowa just in time for Greene to make his Doak Walker run. 2009 was the deepest bunch of talent. Plagued with multiple injuries they needed all the extra players. The 2010 line started out well but bogged down toward the end of the year with injuries on the interior line. The 2011 line really wasn’t as good as the sum of its parts. I think the predictability of Iowa’s offense also hurt things. Iowa’s line couldn’t just square up and beat the opposition.

I kind of expect the 2012 line to be similar in quality to last year’s line. They lack the experience of last year’s line, but last years effort was hardly impressive. I am also hoping that Davis will shift to an offensive style that isn’t quite so dependant on excellent line play.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Anyone want to give a try. How about defensive line

 

[PJHawk]

Your 2003 ranking is way too high which I'm assuming is just based on Robert Gallery. Other than RG it was all new starters with walk-on Pete McMahon, injuries (Ferentz, David Walker) playing a role along with having a true freshman moving into the starting lineup at OSU (Mike Jones).

 

[WinOneThisCentury]

I disagree with your assessment of the 2011 offensive line. You had a back, Coker, who needed a seeing eye dog to find a hole and never "housed" anything. Every time I watched him I never felt he got the most yards possible out of the play. Contrast that to Shonn Greene, where you felt he got every yard out of every carry...and then some. Coker had almost 1400 yards right? Put Alabama's Richardson in our backfield last year...what's the yardage total?

If you have the Nebraska game on tape, watch the offensive line play for Iowa...they were hammering Nebraska...Coker was terrible.

 

[hogeye]

I am not sure how you are ranking this...the 2004 team was the worst rushing offense we had maybe ever fielded (certainly in the KF era) and they gave up 40 sacks on the year. That line also gave up the most yards per sack in recent B10 history. Granted, it was a 2 loss season, but I wouldn't necessarily correlate the success directly to how well the OL played.

 

[MoseSchrute]

I disagree with your assessment of the 2011 offensive line. You had a back, Coker, who needed a seeing eye dog to find a hole and never "housed" anything. Every time I watched him I never felt he got the most yards possible out of the play. Contrast that to Shonn Greene, where you felt he got every yard out of every carry...and then some. Coker had almost 1400 yards right? Put Alabama's Richardson in our backfield last year...what's the yardage total?

If you have the Nebraska game on tape, watch the offensive line play for Iowa...they were hammering Nebraska...Coker was terrible.

It really did seem like he regressed in '11 as compared to the latter part of '10.

 

[hawkeyegamefilm]

If you have the Nebraska game on tape, watch the offensive line play for Iowa...they were hammering Nebraska...Coker was terrible.

One of Coker's biggest faults was he wasn't good in space. His lateral agility was pretty poor and he rarely was able to shake a guy 1 on 1 in space, especially when cutting back. Teams started having their backside CBs chase down the line in run support instead of having them play contain or stay back. Coker wasn't able consistently hurt teams for being so aggressive so they kept it up. Part of that was due to Iowa's predictable play call cycles and part due to teams like Neb and MSU having good run support corners.

Overall the 2011 line was a pretty decent unit. Not sure where I'd rate them in the whole Ferentz era but they were better than statistics will tell you.

 

[trj]

One of Coker's biggest faults was he wasn't good in space. His lateral agility was pretty poor and he rarely was able to shake a guy 1 on 1 in space, especially when cutting back. Teams started having their backside CBs chase down the line in run support instead of having them play contain or stay back. Coker wasn't able consistently hurt teams for being so aggressive so they kept it up. Part of that was due to Iowa's predictable play call cycles and part due to teams like Neb and MSU having good run support corners.

Overall the 2011 line was a pretty decent unit. Not sure where I'd rate them in the whole Ferentz era but they were better than statistics will tell you.

This. ISU pretty much put the blueprint out there and everyone else pretty much followed.

McCall going down in that Tennessee Tech game was huge.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Sorry, I checked this earlier today and nobody was around but me and the crickets.

Judging the offensive line is pretty subjective I must admit. Quality of starters helps but is only part of the story. Are they getting it done? Only two of these years stand out as truly exceptional 2002 & 2008. 2009 stands up as the deepest line at Iowa, and also with the amount of adversity overcome. 2006 & 2007 stand out as the only bad offensive lines. The rest of the years had strengths and weaknesses. 2010 & 2011 should have been better based on talent.

The 2004 line couldn’t run block worth a damn, but a team without a running back isn’t exactly depending on run blocking. Their pass blocking improved by leaps and bounds until they were quite proficient at giving Tate time.

2005 ended up being a decent year for offensive stats, so I wouldn’t rank it too far below 2011. In neither 2005 or 2011 could the offense compensate for a weak defense that gave up a lots of yardage between the 20's. I think 2011 had much more talented players and defending a rather immobile Vandenberg is more of a challenge than defending Tate. 2010 should have been much better but soft interior blocking and injuries weakened the line in the second half of the season.

The 2003 line was the most lopsided I can ever remember. Chandler was pretty much of a statue out there. Opposing defenses spent half their time playing find Freddy in among Iowa’s line. It also helped that Brian Ferentz made better line calls than perhaps any other center. I believe McMahon played right guard most of the year. I can’t remember who played right tackle. The right side of the line improved a great deal over the course of the year. I’m not sure they are ranked way too high though unless you want to say they are nowhere near the quality of the three lines listed above them

 

[PJHawk]

The 2003 line was the most lopsided I can ever remember. Chandler was pretty much of a statue out there. Opposing defenses spent half their time playing find Freddy in among Iowa’s line. It also helped that Brian Ferentz made better line calls than perhaps any other center. I believe McMahon played right guard most of the year. I can’t remember who played right tackle. The right side of the line improved a great deal over the course of the year. I’m not sure they are ranked way too high though unless you want to say they are nowhere near the quality of the three lines listed above them

BF was hurt for the last half of the season and Eric Rothwell played center. Sam Aiello played right tackle and yes I agree that by the end of the year, especially the Outback Bowl, Big Pete and Aiello kicked butt.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

BF was hurt for the last half of the season and Eric Rothwell played center. Sam Aiello played right tackle and yes I agree that by the end of the year, especially the Outback Bowl, Big Pete and Aiello kicked butt.

Thanks, I couldn't remember a few of the details from that year.

 

[311hawk]

I disagree with your assessment of the 2011 offensive line. You had a back, Coker, who needed a seeing eye dog to find a hole and never "housed" anything. Every time I watched him I never felt he got the most yards possible out of the play. Contrast that to Shonn Greene, where you felt he got every yard out of every carry...and then some. Coker had almost 1400 yards right? Put Alabama's Richardson in our backfield last year...what's the yardage total?If you have the Nebraska game on tape, watch the offensive line play for Iowa...they were hammering Nebraska...Coker was terrible.

thought the exact same thing. HUGE holes all day in that game.