By Courtney Baumann
Spring football is a time when everything, according to everyone, is A-OK. Coaches continually assure everyone the team is a “work in progress” and they have “a long way to go” but “progress is being made.”In the case of the Iowa football team, the Hawkeyes had 15 practices to get a feel for new coaches and a new offensive system.
All the work the team puts in during March and April culminates in the annual Spring Game, in which coaches and fans have the opportunity to see the new team for the first time at real game speed.
Unfortunately for Iowa, that Spring Game wasn’t impressive on very many fronts.
In an Iowa-on-Iowa scrimmage, it is hard to tell whether the offense struggled because of its own issues or because the defense played so well. From my point of view, it looked to be a little bit of both.
Perhaps the most concerning part about the Spring Game was the play by Iowa’s quarterbacks. Junior Tyler Wiegers and sophomore Nathan Stanley combined to throw 3 interceptions and only 1 touchdown.
Unofficial statistics by the Big Ten Network had Wiegers throwing 11-of-19 for 94 yards and two of those picks, while Stanley only passed for 17 yards and a touchdown on a 6-of-16 night.
Although Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz acknowledged that the team would “be in trouble, period,” should the 2017 season start without another round of practices, he noted that fall camp should allow for the quarterbacks to improve greatly before the first game.
Considering what we saw on April 21, I’m not so convinced.
While incompetent may be a harsh word to use, neither Wiegers nor Stanley looked up to the challenge of filling C.J. Beathard’s shoes.
A positive is both quarterbacks got time under the lights in front of a crowd, because neither had much experience with that. In 2015, Wiegers threw just 4 passes in a game. Stanley threw 9 in 2016. That’s it.
The crowd was nowhere near what either quarterback will see once the season rolls around, though. Around 16,500 fans walked through Kinnick Stadium’s gates for the game — less than a quarter of the average attendance Iowa pulled during the 2016 season.
While the quarterback situation — which is still a neck-and-neck competition between Wiegers and Stanley heading toward fall camp — is not ideal, it is encouraging to see two young running backs willing to step up behind senior Akrum Wadley. Toks Akinribade and Toren Young both looked strong on the field and have the possibility of filling in the hole LeShun Daniels Jr. has left.
On the flip side, the Iowa defense, particularly the secondary, looked strong. Jake Gervase, the free safety who replaced Brandon Snyder after the latter suffered an ACL injury, grabbed all 3 interceptions, running one back 59 yards for one of the three touchdowns Iowa scored on the night.
If what we saw in Kinnick was an improvement from where the Hawkeyes were just over five weeks ago, it was obvious that the month and a half of practice was vital for the team.
Iowa has a little more than four months to fix the loose ends that made themselves apparent last weekend. To have a chance of putting together a winning season in 2017, it definitely needs the time.
