Some thoughts, news and notes from the Big Ten Network’s Iowa practice special

-Gerry Dinardo talked off the top of the show how Iowa is one of his favorite places to watch a practice; no one is more on task or on target than Iowa in a practice and no one gets more teaching out of a practice than Iowa.  Good praise coming from a former coach.

-16 third quarter points allowed by Iowa last year…I had forgotten about that…that’s halftime adjustments folks.

-Dinardo in his opening statement talked about the magazines coming out and people saying Iowa plays better under the radar. “Everyone plays better under the radar!” Dinardo said.

-DInardo talked about the non-conference schedule…”If you are going to compete for a Big Ten title, you have to know what kind of team you have before you get to league play. Playing Iowa State and Arizona will allow you to identify your problem before you get to the league.”

-Howard Griffith pointed out the challenge of the late start at Arizona. Saying he has played there, and night games in the heat was unbearable, both games being pushed back an hour and a half both times. Dinardo chimed in that traveling to the west is always an issue with your body clock.

-Rick Stanzi on the OL: “Those guys have done a great job. They know there are new faces but there is still some leadership there. They know what is going on and they have done a tremendous job stepping up. Whether its experience or not, you still have to get better and work towards that goal, regardless of if you are a three year starter of a first year player.

-They had a graphic on Stanzi’s stats from last year: In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters Stanzi had a TD-INT ratio of 11-14, with a completion percentage of 54.7% and a rating of 119.5. In the 4th quarter, he had six TD’s to one INT, completed 63.2% of his passes and had a rating of 184.3, which led all Big Ten quarterbacks in the fourth quarter. If you wonder how Iowa’s offense can get exponentially better this year, just see Rick eliminate some mistakes early in the game and it should happen. Also, Iowa had four wins last year when trailing after three quarters, tied for most in the nation. He has 31 career touchdown passes to 25 INT’s.

-DInardo commented over and over against about how solid Iowa is at quarterback, and he likes all of their feet.

-Stanzi threw a beauty to Marvin McNutt 40 yards in the air and McNutt made a one-handed grab. Very nice. Both analysts feel the receiving corps fits the Iowa offense…physical players. DJK did not practice that day.

-On CJ Fiedorowicz: “Are you sure he is a freshman?” commenting on his bulk.

-Dave Revsine asked “What did you think of Jewel Hampton?” Griffith laughed under his breath, then said “He is going to take this running game to a new level. He is so quick, and he is so patient as a runner as well.” Dinardo: “As advertised. He and Robinson are both good backs, but today, just the one day we are here, Hampton looked the best of the two.” They then showed video of Hampton running a zone play, and Griffith said “Press, press, press one cut, there you go.” That in a nutshell is how you are effective in a zone running scheme. Dinardo talked about how these backs make that cut over and over and over through the years, and how Iowa doing the same thing and making just the one cut makes it easy to go from practice to the game.

-On the offensive line, Griffith: “I really like this group a lot.” Dinardo: “All of these guys fighting for position have some experience, they are not total rookies. This program is a developmental program, where you do the same thing over and over again. They have played this song at Iowa before, where the linemen get better every year until they are called in the first round of the NFL draft.” They commented on Riley Reiff’s quick hands. DInardo” At the end of the day, this offensive line is going to be fine. Compare them to everyone else, they only have to be better than the other team they are going to play. I don’t know that we have seen any defensive lines they can’t compete against.” At the time the BTN was in Iowa City, they had already been to Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State, to name three schools with defenses that figure to be solid.

-Dinardo: “#93 Mike Daniels really jumped out.” Griffith, again chuckling, “Let me tell you what. You want to see a guy that is going to get off the ball quickly? He will be involved. He can roll in at tackle and he can cause some problems. He is that guy at practice that a coach has to take out of a drill to get anything done.”

-Adrian Clayborn: “I felt all along I was going to come back this year. There are still some things I have to get better at and still some things that I feel like I have to prove.”

-They showed video of some DL drills when Clayborn was being interviewed. Mike Daniels manhandled James Ferentz. It was more about how physical Daniels was…holy cow that guy is a house.

-Stats: Over the last two years, the Iowa defense has allowed just 34 touchdowns, tied with USC for best in the nation. They are third in the nation with 44 INT’s over the last two years, 7th in yards per game allowed and 6th in points per game allowed.

-On Newcomers: Dinardo said James Morris stood out to him. Griffith: “CJ Fiedorowicz. He is about 6-7, they say he is 250. There is no way he is 250, he has to be more than that. This is part of the game that he will have to continue to improve on is his blocking. He can make great catches in space. He made a great decision in coming here, as this is a place that is going to use it’s tight end.” Griffith is an Illinois alum, and CJ decommitted from Illinois.

-Under the radar players: Dinardo picked Micah Hyde, who played in all 13 games last year. Griffith said that Adam Gettis jumped out to him.

-Hampton made an excellent inside read and cut on a screen play that drew a lot of ooh’s and ahh’s from his teammates, and the BTN crew stopped what they were saying to talk about him..high praise.

-Ferentz on the OL: Reiterated that the first line guys are making progress every year but the second tier needs to improve, but he said it’s been that way everywhere he has ever been; you don’t have ten that can be on the one line.

-Ferentz said he hasn’t seen any signs that this team is slacking off or not focused. The older players are providing a lot of leadership.

-Ferentz said the kicking game made some progress last week in practice, since the 8/14 scrimmage.

-Parting Shots Dinardo: I think there are a lot of reasons why Iowa will compete for a Big Ten Championship, but here are a few of them. They are real physical team, which is no surprise. The fact that they can run the ball on offense in a year where this will be a deep conference, they can move the chains on short yardage, they can score on the goal line, they can protect the ball with four minutes left because they can run the ball…last but not least, of all the contenders they may have the best kicking game. I don’t know yet, but they could come out of camp with the best kicking game in the league.”

-Parting Shots Griffith: “For me, the offensive line was my biggest concern coming into today. It’s not a concern for me any more. I watched them, these guys did a great job of keeping a flat back. James Ferentz will end up as the starting center. Riley Reiff is a stud waiting to be made; he is going to be a special player. This is just what they do. When they keep plugging these linemen in, and they can run the ball, Hampton looked good today. Coach, you talked about it. Four minute offense controlling the clock, Stanzi will be a lot better, I think this is an offense that is poised for greatness.

-Dinardo Follow Up: “You talk about those two lines helping one another out? When camp breaks, they will still go against one another. That will do nothing but help both lines.”

Revsine: “We are talking about an offensive line where last year only two teams gave up more sacks, they only averaged 3.3 yards per carry and you lose three starters, I think it’s natural to come in here and say this group might struggle, but I think we all came out of here thinking that is not going to be an issue for the Hawkeyes. They look very good up front.

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