Iowa Football: Where's The Beef?

BREAKING: The Iowa offense is really bad. Like really bad. I know: this is not exactly shocking news, right? It is the dominant storyline of this season for Iowa and it pretty much has to be -- Iowa has an outstanding defense and great special teams, but the entire season is being torpedoed because the Hawkeyes can't even put together a below-average offense, but rather one of the worst in modern Big Ten history.

There are many (many) problems with the Iowa offense: subpar quarterback play, a depleted wide receiver corps, lousy play design, and even worse play-calling, to name a few. But one of the biggest (and most consistent) issues with the offense comes down to the biggest guys on the field: the offensive line. Iowa's big uglies have been scarily inconsistent this season, with the miscues significantly outnumbering the good plays. So why is Iowa's offensive line so bad this season? Three reasons loom large: recruiting misses, retention issues, and poor (or at least slow) player development. Those problems all boil down to coaching and Iowa's highly paid staff simply hasn't been getting it done up front the last few years.

Let's take a look at the last few recruiting classes to see where things have gone awry. 

CLASS OF 2018

Several members of this class are key senior leaders on this year's Iowa team (Kaevon Merriweather, Noah Shannon, Seth Benson, John Waggoner, Nico Ragaini, er, Spencer Petras) -- but not on the OL, where none of these guys are still on the Iowa roster. Granted, not having Linderbaum is a good problem to have in a way -- he's not here because he was so exceptional the previous two seasons that he was able to leave college early and go to the NFL. That's a very good thing for him personally and should be a good thing for the program in the big picture (it's another great example of Iowa's ability to find and develop future star OL). But it does leave Iowa in a bad spot this season, as replacing Linderbaum has been challenging. 

Jenkins left Iowa in 2020 after minimal time in the program. Ince played in 11 games in 2019 and all eight games in 2020, starting the final six at left guard. He earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors that season and was poised to be Iowa's starter at left guard in 2021. Injuries derailed his season and he ended up transferring away from Iowa last spring. A healthy Ince may not have been a star, but he could have been a steadying presence on Iowa's line this season. 

One other concern about this class: Iowa recruited only two offensive linemen in a class of 23 players. That number increased to three after Linderbaum switched from defense to offense, but still: it seems like handicapping yourself right from the start to only add 2-3 offensive linemen per class. That increases the pressure to retain (and develop) those players and puts more pressure on future classes to help make up the numbers. 

CLASS OF 2019

This class was expected to be the backbone of Iowa's offensive line. That... hasn't happened (and isn't going to happen, at this point). Justin Britt's case feels like bad luck more than anything else. Britt started three games in 2021 and saw action in several others after returning from an injury; he was set to be one of Iowa's starting guards entering the 2022 season and able to provide some level of experience to an otherwise very young and inexperienced line. Unfortunately, he suffered a season-ending injury shortly before the season began. 

Unfortunately, Britt's currently the best case from this OL class. Endres is still on the Iowa roster, but is not in the two-deeps and has not seen game action in 3+ seasons. Not a great sign. Fenske played in one game for Iowa and transferred after the 2020 season. Ironically, he's at Colorado, who has one of the only Power 5 offenses about as inept as Iowa's offense, though Fenske has yet to see much action for the Buffs this season. Miller, whose commitment gave us hopes for four years of Better Than Ezra jokes, left Iowa after the 2020 season and transferred to (sigh) Nebraska, where he saw action in three games in 2021 (but none so far in 2022). 

So, to recap, of the seven offensive linemen that Iowa added in the 2018 and 2019 recruiting classes -- players who should ideally be the upperclassmen backbone of this year's Iowa offensive line -- only two are still on the Iowa roster. One of those two has never played and the other is currently out for the season. Not great. 

CLASS OF 2020

The absences of so many guys from Iowa's '18 and '19 recruiting classes means that this class is the relative graybeards in the OL room. But this class also had a very abnormal start to their college careers; they signed with Iowa shortly before COVID hit and their true freshman season the weird, abbreviated COVID campaign in fall of 2020. They've only had a few relatively normal spring/summer practice sessions as well. So none of that has been optimal in terms of development. This class has seen a lot of playing time this season, but since that's partly out of necessity they've also been taking their lumps. 

While Nick DeJong continues to be listed as the starter on the (even-more-worthless-than-normal) depth chart, Elsbury seems to have moved into the starting lineup. He made his first start last week against Illinois. Richman has emerged as Iowa's starter at left tackle, while Logan Jones has been the starting center all season. Volk is on the Iowa roster as well, but has yet to see much (or any) action. In Jones, Iowa is trying to duplicate the magic trick that turned Tyler Linderbaum from an undersized defensive tackle into a world-devouring center. The early returns have been rocky, but it's also probably not fair to expect Jones to be a top-tier performer at a new position after just six games. 

The hope is that the lumps that Elsbury, Richman, and Jones, who are all sophomores in terms of eligibility, are taking now will pay off in the form of improved play as they become experienced juniors and seniors in the seasons to come. Time will tell on that front, though it doesn't seem unreasonable to hope for more consistent play from them by the end of this season as well.  

CLASS OF 2021

As noted above, it's certainly reasonable to hope that Elsbury, Richman, and Jones go through their growing pains this season, and emerge from that crucible able to be key leaders on the offensive line for Iowa in 2023 and 2024. But the future of Iowa's offensive lines is also banking pretty heavily on the 2021 class. For one thing, it's simply a huge class in terms of numbers -- at five scholarship recruits, it's Iowa's biggest OL class in several years and thankfully all five guys are still on the Iowa roster. 

This class is already making its presence felt on the depth chart as well. Colby has emerged as the starter at right tackle, while Stephens and Dunker have been taking turns at right guard through the first six weeks of the season. Myslinkski, now healthy, has been situated as Iowa's backup center behind Jones. The only player in this class not on Iowa's two-deeps is Davidkov, who's been dealing with some injury concerns, if memory serves. 

Granted, a big reason that so many of these guys are already playing so much is down to injuries and attrition/development issues. The experiment to turn Jack Plumb (a class of 2017 recruit) from a high school tight end into a Big Ten offensive tackle has not really panned out. Stephens and Dunker have been able to play so much in large part because of Britt's season-ending injury. And, much like the 2020 recruits noted above, this group has definitely been taking a lot of lumps on the field as well this season. The enduring memory of Colby's play this season is probably the series against Michigan where he was absolutely abused again and again (and again) by Michigan's pass rush. That was rough. Stephens and Dunker have had some notable whiffs in pass protection as well.

There are still some reasons to be optimistic, though. For one, it's worth emphasizing that aside from Colby (who played in multiple games last season) this is the first game experience for most of these players. For another, this crop of OL recruits is easily the most highly-regarded one that Iowa has landed in the last five seasons, in terms of star ratings and offer sheets. Colby, Davidkov, and Stephens were all 4* recruits who had offers from several Power 5 schools, including some heavy-hitters like Ohio State, Michigan, LSU, and Texas A&M. Not every 4* recruit pans out, of course, but the odds of all of them being scrubs seems pretty slim. They deserve a bit more time to develop on the field and live up to those recruiting profiles. 

CLASS OF 2022

It is wildly unfair to expect true freshmen to be able to contribute in a meaningful way on the offensive line -- unless of course they happen to be absolute superfreaks like Tristan Wirfs (or, hopefully, Kadyn Proctor). Neither Dotzler nor Krogh are absolute superfreaks and consequently they're spending the 2022 season in the incubator. That's fine.

That said, a recruiting class where Iowa only takes in two offensive linemen does seem like it's asking for trouble down the road. Sure, a smaller class makes a bit of sense after taking a 5-man offensive line class in 2021, but two is a very small class, especially for a program like Iowa that's experienced quite a bit of turnover along the offensive line in recent years. We'll definitely have to keep an eye on things to see if this small class ends up biting Iowa in the future. 

So where does that leave things? There are several question marks for Iowa in the trenches and not much in the way of certainty. Injuries and attrition have forced a lot of players from the 2020 and 2021 classes into action, with very mixed results. Is that inexperience solely to blame for Iowa's OL woes, or are they also not getting the coaching and development they need from George Barnett, Iowa's offensive line coach. It seems like it's probably a little from column A and a little from column B.

It's difficult to expect so many players with limited experience to all hit the ground running and play at a high level. On the other hand, Iowa's OL play over the last two years has often failed to impress, with the exception of Linderbaum last year, who was largely a finished product in terms of being a superstar by the time Barnett got to Iowa. At some point that failure to produce has to fail on the shoulders of the coach(es). It also seems troubling that a lot of Iowa's problems on the OL appear to be very basic issues -- so many guys seem lost or unsure of what to do or where to be. Most of these guys have been getting heavy reps since approximately bowl prep last season, so it feels like they ought to have a little better sense of what the hell they're meant to be doing than we're seeing on a week-to-week basis. 

But if the immediate picture is a mix in terms of blame, the source of the big picture flaws seems a much clearer. The reason Iowa is forced to rely on so many young players this season is because of failures in player recruiting and retention by the Ferentzes with previous classes -- as well as their unwillingness to use the transfer portal to try and address those problems. There is no position group that occupies more of your on-field roster than offensive line; you need five of 'em on every single offensive play. And yet there have been multiple classes in recent years where Iowa only added 2-3 offensive linemen. That seems like a denial of reality; attrition is going to happen but you can at least try to prepare for it by having more bodies available. If you don't want to do that, then it seems prudent to look for replacement options in the transfer portal. Of course, that would require treating the transfer portal as a legitimate means of roster management, rather than something to be used only begrudgingly and with extreme reluctance.

The big other picture issue is also a flaw of coaching, and Kirk and Brian Ferentz in particular. If you have an offensive system (in particular, Iowa's intricate zone blocking scheme) that takes two years for most players to learn (or three years if you include the redshirt season that most players will use), then perhaps you have a system that is needlessly complex. (This issue doesn't apply to only offensive linemen, incidentally.)  It's long past time to revise the Iowa offense and part of that revision process should include developing a system -- and blocking schemes -- that are easier (and faster) for players to master . Doing so would make it easier to get new guys up to speed when other players are inevitably lost to injury and attrition; it would also make it easier to incorporate players from the transfer portal. Until that happens, the deck is going to continue to be stacked against the Iowa offense.