I was planning on doing a recap of every Iowa Hawkeye football game during the 2009-2010 season (that's right, Jan 1 bowl game here we come). Sadly the UNI game left me less than enthused and the "I State" game spoke for itself. Luckily Arizona provided to be more of a challenge than "I State" did and less resistance than UNI did.
I'll start by looking at the offense. Coming into the season I had very high hopes for the passing game as I knew the running game would take a hit with Jewel Hampton being hurt early in the summer and Ricky Stanzi really came on strong in the latter part of 2008. It also helps to have a great receiving corps like Iowa has. That being said, Stanzi needs to figure out how to be a lot more accurate in the first half of the game. He is like night and day (or day and night would be more accurate) during the game. First half he is off but he turns it on in the second half. I think it helps that the offensive line has started opening holes for the running game so that the pressure doesn't fall completely on Stanzi. It was nice to see Brandon Wegher go over 100 rushing yards against "I State" and then Adam Robinson get over 100 yards against Arizona. Our running game seems to be hitting its stride just in time for Big Ten season. If Stanzi can start connecting on passes in the first half (and keep it going into the second half), and the offense can limit turnover to, let's say, none per game I think they will be unstoppable. The line needs to get some sort of continuity but that will come (fingers are crossed).
As the story has gone the last 10 years special teams have been key to Iowa victories. Daniel Murray is starting to show the he can consistently make field goals making Trent Mossbrucker stay on the sidelines. It's my hope that TMoss takes a redshirt this year so that he will be around an extra season after Murray is gone. The kick off coverage has been less than stellar this year, as have the kick and punt return teams. It's hard to believe that Iowa has not had a kickoff return for a TD since the 2002/2003 Orange Bowl. I have a feeling that it will happen sometime this season. The punt coverage has been really good this year, in part to the great punts by Ryan Donahue. He has to be the best punter in college football right now. He has been very consistant this year, with both accuracy and distance. So far Donahue is the team MVP.
The best unit is undoubtly the defense. They held a team averaging over 300 rushing yards per game to 148 rushing yards (85 came on two plays). The longest rush of the day was 58 yards, but helped by an Arizona WR holding Shaun Prater and the Linesman not knowing how to call a penalty (the first dozen or so rows of sections 130 and 129 let him hear about it all game after that). Thankfully the defense buckled down and kept Arizona from punching it in from the 1. 3 points is a lot easier to take than 7, or even 8. I still think the defense gave up 0 points when it mattered. The first 7 came from Stanzi throwing a pick-6, the 3 came from the non-call on the long run (credit the points to the officials), and the last 7 was in garbage time. Player of the game was Adrian Clayborn; he was destroying that poor left tackle for Arizona. Iowa's moto for defense is 6 seconds of hell. Clayborn must not have gotten the memo because he was giving Arizona 3 seconds until he was making a play. Best play was when Clayborn chased down Arizona's RB from behind and brought him for a loss. It wasn't a straight ahead run either, it was a run to the outside, opposite Clayborn. I have to give a mention to the secondary as well. Tyler Sash (The Vulture) made another great play on his 4th interception of the year and the rest of the defensive backs played extrememly well (thank you to Shaun Prater for being off suspension). The linebackers also played a good game but I don't think they were needed to often and the line was controlling the flow of the game.
I am very happy with a 3-0 start to the season. UNI was a close one and I still think they are a top 30 Division 1A team. Weird things happen when Iowa goes to Ames, yet it was like the good old days when Iowa could do no wrong and "I State" could do no right. Arizona seemed like an unknown since we haven't played them in a fairly long time. It felt good to walk out of Kinnick knowing Iowa dominated the game (it wasn't nearly as close as the 27-17 final showed).
To be 4-0 heading into a two game homestand would be ideal. Winning at Penn St is a challenge for almost every college football team except for Iowa. Coach Ferentz seems to own Coach Paterno and Penn St. The game is set for Saturday night and there will be a "White-out" in Happy Valley. No doubt Penn St will be looking for revenge for last year's loss in Iowa City, but Iowa will also be wanting to show that it wasn't a fluke and that they are for real.
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