O-line rises to the occasion
There’s been a little bit of upheaval with Iowa’s offensive line this week.
You’ve might have seen the video of center Josh Koeppel dusting himself off Monday morning after the moped he was riding plowed into a pickup.
You might have read about right guard Adam Gettis and the injury that sidelined the junior this week and chipped away another layer of Iowa’s most renovated position.
You might have noticed the ninth-ranked Hawkeyes took the field Saturday with three first-time starters on the right side of their offensive line.
Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi prepares to take a snap from center James Ferentz on Saturday against Eastern Illinois. Benjamin Roberts/Press-Citizen
“There’s been a little bit of upheaval — just a little bit,” senior offensive guard Julian Vandervelde said, tongue planted firmly in cheek. “Getting hit by trucks and stuff is an everyday occurrence.”
Iowa’s offensive line faded into the background of a 37-7 victory against Eastern Illinois on Saturday in front of 70,585 at Kinnick Stadium. There were no holding penalties, no false starts, none of the major breakdowns that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz envisioned in his worst thoughts this week.
“Important thing is we didn’t fall apart,” Ferentz said. “One of the dark thoughts I had was (a vision of the offensive line) just letting guys just totally run through. We had some guys penetrate, but nothing too catastrophic.”
No, the Hawkeyes made it through the season opener with little drama, except for an innocuous scramble early in the second quarter when quarterback Ricky Stanzi went down awkwardly and hobbled off the field, favoring his left knee. Stanzi returned on Iowa’s next series after sophomore James Vandenberg led the Hawkeyes to their fourth touchdown.
“I was more embarrassed that I tried to make a cut, I didn’t do anything and I almost injured myself,” he said. “It doesn’t get much worse than that. I’m very fortunate it was nothing, and I’m happy I was able to get back out and play.”
Stanzi completed his first nine passes and finished 18-of-23 for 229 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions, sophomore Adam Robinson rushed for 109 yards and three scores and Paki O’Meara blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown to handle the scoring fireworks for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa’s defense allowed just 157 yards and six first downs. The Panthers picked up nearly half of their yards on consecutive plays — 36 on a fake punt and 37 on a deep pass — to set up their only touchdown.
“It wasn’t a 70-7 game,” Eastern Illinois coach Bob Spoo said.
It looked like it could’ve been early on. The Hawkeyes went 65 yards on six plays on their opening drive. They went 56 yards on eight plays on their second possession. O’Meara blasted through two blockers, got his left hand on a punt, scooped it up ran into the end zone for Iowa’s third score of the opening quarter.
Robinson scored on touchdown runs of 2, 4 and 6 yards. His third touchdown put the Hawkeyes ahead 28-7 with 8:39 remaining in the second quarter. Iowa’s offense went more than two quarters without scoring again.
Two turnovers — a fumbled exchange at the Eastern Illinois 3 and another fumble — stopped drives in the third quarter.
Stanzi said the Hawkeyes might have gotten complacent on offense.
“You could kind of see that from us today,” he said. “It’s natural for a team to do that, for an offense to kind of think everything is going to happen now that you’ve got points on the board.”
All things considered, Iowa’s problems Saturday were minor. For once this week, there was little turbulence Saturday on the offensive line.
Sophomore center James Ferentz, freshman right guard Nolan MacMillan and junior right tackle Markus Zusevics made their first career starts Saturday.
Ferentz had competed with Koeppel throughout camp for the starting center job. They were listed as co-starters entering the week.
Then Koeppel was involved in a traffic accident that made national news. If you saw the video of his moped plowing into a Ford F-150, you probably were amazed he walked away from it at all, let alone with just a few scrapes after flipping through the air and landing on his side.
“It’s Josh Koppel, he’s a borderline superhero,” Vandervelde said. “If anybody’s going to get hit head-on by an F-150, take a tumble, hit his face on the concrete and walk it off, it’s going to be Josh Koeppel.”
Koeppel didn’t play Saturday, although Kirk Ferentz said the senior probably could have. The Hawkeyes are optimistic they’ll get Gettis back next week against Iowa State. He could be coming back to join a group that felt good about its opening performance.
“We came out confident,” Vandervelde said. “We came into the season knowing we essentially had six guys we could start a game with and felt comfortable playing. I think we came out of today feeling like we have maybe 10, 11, 12 guys we can throw into a game and be effective. That’s definitely a big mental boost for us.”
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
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I focused on the OL much of the game. There were no major problems as coach alluded, but I hope Koeppel is a player and Gettis comes back quick because Ferentz and the RG really struggled in the run game. It’s not going to be pretty on tape. Both were getting bounced around and man-handled at times. Against the Buckeyes, etc., that could be a disaster. All in all, though, nice to see a W with the first game and no major injuries.
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