Michigan Football vs Iowa: Getting to Know the Hawkeyes
Michigan football heads to Iowa City this Saturday, here is some info you need to know about the Iowa Hawkeyes.
I think that after this week I’ll probably never rule out an underdog in any arena ever again, so yes, Iowa irrationally seems a little scarier than it did on Monday. This despite the fact that Michigan football is a 21 point favorite and playing its best football in decades while Iowa has lost two straight, including a 41-14 thrashing at the hands of a Penn State team that Michigan beat 49-10.
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The Hawkeye offense is 65th in S&P+, 117th in total yards, 78th in points per game, and probably first in punts from within enemy territory. Looking up and down the roster and remembering their run to the Rose Bowl last season, it just doesn’t make much sense that they’d be this bad on the offensive side of the ball, but boy, they really are.
They beat Rutgers and Minnesota 14-7, lost to Northwestern and North Dakota State; it seemed like the Hawkeyes were keeping it together, though, until playing Wisconsin tough and losing and then having to travel to Happy Valley. They didn’t look like a team with a pulse against Penn State.
All of that said, they’ve still got some guys. CJ Beathard is completing 60% of his passes and has thirteen touchdowns to only five picks. He really seems to be one of the players whose talents are most squandered in Iowa’s archaic offensive system. He’s 6’2, has a good arm, makes good decisions, and is a pretty accurate passer to go along with the fact that he’s surprisingly nimble. After all that, he’s still only averaging less than seven yards an attempt.
His favorite receiver is senior Riley McCarron, who has fifteen more catches than anyone else on the team. Look for Jourdan Lewis to spend a considerable amount of time lined up across from McCarron, especially because they like to use him the screen game.
Running backs Akrum Wadley (Big Ten All Name Team) and LeShun Daniels Jr. split time, but Daniels gets the lion’s share of the carries. Iowa runs two zone plays and not much else (seriously, they don’t have counters or constraints in their playbook or something), so Daniels and Wadley end up doing a lot of work themselves because the scheme is so repetitive. Daniels will run through defenders and Wadley will run around them.
Wadley is quick but no one else really is on this offense, so I don’t see the problems on the edge continuing at the same level. Iowa is a team that runs a scheme tailor made for the Michigan football defense to eat for dinner; imagine Lloydball’s id unchecked by any psychic or social forces:
If Iowa gets into third and long just go into the bathroom, yell SCREEN SCREEN SCREEN into the mirror and Mike DeBord will pop up in your living room to watch the game with you. He’ll bring Tostitos and no dip.
The Iowa defense is a little more stout. Part of that comes from the fact that by far the best offense they’ve played is Penn State, who’s currently sitting at 28 in the S&P+ rankings. Part of that comes from the fact that they have a future first round pick shutting down half the field. Desmond King will be the best defensive back Wilton Speight faces all season, so it’ll be interesting to see how that matchup goes.
Unlike say, Ohio State, Iowa doesn’t have a handful of other blue-chippers to go along with their All American corner, so I would expect Amarah Darboh to have a quiet day and for Speight to take what the defense gives him. Still, King vs whoever is going to be informative. Either way, the Wolverines offense should keep chugging along in this one.
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There’s no reason for this game to be particularly close, but for the fact that this is college football and it’s a night game on the road. We all need a little stability in our lives right now, though, so I’m saying the Maize and Blue train at its breakneck speed and Michigan football walks out of Kinnick Stadium with a win, 41-10.