[conway3ia]

Originally Posted by SwirlinLingerie

I have some loose connections at the Press-Citizen, and the scuttlebutt is that O'Keefe has been playing around with Derby in some different formations. I know the skeptics will say sure, that's what camp is for, to give your second string QB some snaps. But's that not what I am hearing. These are formations designed for Derby this year. We'll see.

they've said they are playing to the strengths of wienke and derby to find out who will take the back up spot. derby brings that different skill set; why not play around with it?

[Jordell]

Get homer, windy but good post. I also think this O has a super high ceiling. I know many people quest vandenberg, but I think he is going to impress. Kirk has been super high on James, which is kind of un-Kirk like for a play who has played very littlle. I'm a homer too, but I'm very excited for this season.

[clim33]

Originally Posted by homerHAWKeye777

Crap ... are you referring to a guy IN ADDITION to MacMillan?

I really like Gettis, Scherff, and Boffeli ... and, if healthy, I think that they can man the OG spot well. However, at this juncture, Orne and Clark are still relative unknowns to me.

I was referring to MacMillan.....sorry for the scare. I heard Scherff is looking tough as hell though.....

[homerHAWKeye777]

Originally Posted by Wreckonize

There alot of what-ifs in your thoughts about the Iowa O. Vandy is gonna have his hands plenty full with the grind of an entire season rather than just a plug-in play here and there. By that way Vandys numbers are 47-95 for 515yds 3TD 5INTs. Better hope the "hawkeye prayers" are answered cause alot of points are gonna need to be scored. Alot of ppl are only worried about the QB i would be worried about the Defense they have areas that will be exploited. And everyone rallys behind KF but yet has a 53-44 record in the Big10? and two shared conf titles and two BCS bowl bids in 12yrs. At least we wont be sharing the conf title anymore.

My primary concern IS about the D. Fortunately, the D has a pretty nice tendency of playing at a high level ... at least when they're adequately healthy. Furthermore, having Norm back is pretty big.

Anyhow, the O will have to score a little bit more than usual ... however, I'm not so certain that it will be too much more than usual. Even in some of our relative "down years" on D ... Iowa's scoring D tends to be pretty darn solid.

When you scoring D still ends up giving up only around 20 to 22 points per game ... IN A BAD YEAR ... that still tends to bode well for us. The only caveat is that there could be a better chance this year that we finally lose a game by a larger margin (than one score).

[JHHawk]

Originally Posted by homerHAWKeye777

My primary concern IS about the D. Fortunately, the D has a pretty nice tendency of playing at a high level ... at least when they're adequately healthy. Furthermore, having Norm back is pretty big.

Anyhow, the O will have to score a little bit more than usual ... however, I'm not so certain that it will be too much more than usual. Even in some of our relative "down years" on D ... Iowa's scoring D tends to be pretty darn solid.

When you scoring D still ends up giving up only around 20 to 22 points per game ... IN A BAD YEAR ... that still tends to bode well for us. The only caveat is that there could be a better chance this year that we finally lose a game by a larger margin (than one score).

Agree about the offense,Homer.
Barring injury(always a huge if) this offense could be close to 2002.
But,just like in 2002,the defense could be shaky early. Remember that defense gave up a bunch of points to ISU,PSU and Purdue? It did get better,but was always a WIP. This team could be the same.

I hope that KOK feels somewhat freed up from heavy expectations of last year,and KF also, so they throw some caution to the winds and mix it up a bit more...using Derby in a wrinkle would be a start.