Four Downs (post-spring): Offensive line

IOWA CITY — Iowa's offensive line is often thought of as the bedrock for what the Hawkeyes are able to do. And it's true.

And it should be true again in 2016. The Hawkeyes return five players who saw a few starts or a lot of action. When you think of the five O-linemen slated to start for Iowa in 2016 — Sean Welsh, Cole Croston, Ike Boettger, Boone Myers and James Daniels — your first thought is veteran and your second is talented.

And it's true. Things have changed, though. Iowa lost two talented inside O-linemen from 2015 with Austin Blythe (seventh round to the Indianapolis Colts) and Jordan Walsh (free agent with the Atlanta Falcons) off to the NFL.

You still have the talented and experienced names on the depth chart for 2015, but there has been quite a bit of shifting. No one faces quite the same situation going into 2016.

Sean Welsh

Is he the center? Well, maybe. In January, Daniels was penciled in at center, but he had offseason knee surgery and missed spring practice. Head coach Kirk Ferentz acknowledged center is a hugely important position and he wanted someone with some experience going into the fall. So, Welsh (6-3, 288) slid over to center this spring.

After missing the spring game with a sore ankle, Welsh was asked if he was the center. He said that's a question for the coaches.

'It's a critical position, certainly in any offense, it's really important,' Ferentz said. 'I think if anything, we'll come out of this maybe four or five deep because we'll get James back this summer, he'll be with us in camp. Maybe we'll have some decisions to make, but, hopefully, they'll be good decisions and ones that are fun to make.'

So, maybe. For what it's worth, Welsh was asked if he prefers guard or center. Of course, he said he likes to play on the inside and football is football.

James Daniels

Missing spring practice won't define Daniels' 2016, but he is kind of a question mark going into August. Ferentz did say he was in pads and going through individual drills during the last week of spring, so there's a positive.

Is he the center? Or is he a guard? The Iowa staff knew going into Rose Bowl prep in December that Daniels would need surgery and so he was giving a good, long look at the center spot.

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Did Daniels' absence open the door for sophomore Keegan Render to show he has top-five potential?

Again, it's all that top five thing.

'I think we've got a handle on what he is as a guard.' Brian Ferentz said. 'I think we have a handle on what he can do at tackle. Hopefully, we don't need to do that again this year, but you never know. As a center, we'll give him more work in there.

'It will just come back to the original point of who are our best five? If he is in that best five — is he a guard? Is he a center? I don't know that. We'll figure that out, and it depends on what Welsh does or doesn't do.'

Boone Myers

Outside of Welsh, Myers has had his deal change more than anyone. He started 10 games at left tackle last season and then in the Rose Bowl he played guard, which is where he sits going into fall camp, No. 1 left guard.

Myers is excellent in space and moves well for a 6-5, 305-pounder. The read on this might be the coaches like Cole Croston and Ike Boettger better at the tackle spots, but Myers is squarely in the top five, so guard.

'We just saw him as the most capable of moving inside, not that he's not a great tackle,' offensive line coach Brian Ferentz said.

Cole Croston

The 6-5, 307-pounder turned out to be Iowa's best OL story in 2015. He was awarded a scholarship in August and then, after injuries to Myers and Boettger, went on to start 10 games at tackle, left and right.

Croston picked walking on at Iowa over Augustana (S.D.), a Division II school. He also was Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School's punter his senior season. He also lettered in golf.

'He was the guy who was in the (offensive tackle) competition and, in the end, we just felt like the other two guys were better options and that's the truth,' Brian Ferentz said. 'Now, when we lost one of those guys, when Boone went down in the North Texas game, Cole stepped in and never stepped out. I think that's a credit to him.

'And what he did was he stepped in and he demonstrated to us that we had made a mistake. Not that necessarily he's better than anyone, but he deserved to be on the field.'

This fall, he'll pick up where he left off at left tackle in the Rose Bowl.

Ike Boettger

Boettger's opportunities at Iowa grew along with his body. He came in as a 240-or-so-pound tight end and made the switch to offensive line his freshman season. The 6-6, 307-pound junior started the first six games of 2015 at right tackle. He suffered a high-ankle sprain in October and then didn't play again until the Rose Bowl, missing seven games.

He was a first-year starter in 2015. Boettger was back and full-go this spring.

4th Down

Pass protection is a focus. Iowa allowed 32 sacks last season, 13th in the Big Ten. The 10 sacks allowed in the Big Ten title game and the Rose Bowl punctuated this point.

Hits took a toll on QB C.J. Beathard. No, there's no way of pinpointing if the sports hernia that nagged him all of 2015 was caused by a hit. But from Brian Ferentz to the O-linemen, pass protection has been a point of emphasis.

'I don't even think it was just that game (Rose Bowl), either,' Boettger said. 'There were a lot of games where we were giving up too much pressure. Some of it was mental, some of it was physical. You are going to get beat every once in a while, but it can't be a mental mistake, like a lot of those were.'

This is what has been driving this group ...

3rd Down

... not to take away from a supremely productive running game in 2015. Iowa rushed for 35 rushing touchdowns, the most in Kirk Ferentz's 17 seasons as a head coach, second most in the Big Ten and 12th nationally last season. Iowa rushed for 2,544 yards, second most in the Ferentz era (Iowa rushed for 2,784 in 2002).

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Iowa had running back talent last season (Jordan Canzeri, LeShun Daniels and Akrum Wadley), and that certainly factored. It also helped that the O-line found a rhythm.

But ...

'Even among ourselves, I don't hear 'We had such a great running game last year,'' Boettger said. 'Among us, it's 'We need to work on our pass protection, we need to protect C.J.' He was banged up. We can't let him get touched, that's been our main focus.'

2nd Down

I feel like we need to relive the Rob Gronkowski example.

Let's reset: Brian Ferentz was talking about what makes Sean Welsh good. He said Welsh is a 'natural' player and can do things by feel. To further illustrate, Ferentz brought up Gronkowski, who he coached with the New England Patriots. You might know Rob Gronkowski as one of the best tight ends to play this position and/or fantasy team keeper.

'He probably couldn't diagram for you or talk intelligently about it, all due respect to Rob, he is a bright guy,' Brian Ferentz said, 'But football-wise, he wasn't going to be able to explain to you the difference between cover 2 man and cover 2. But he would find the hole in the coverage and he would get open.

'You may say, 'Well, what kind of coverage was this, how did they play you?' He would just look at you. And you would just say, 'Well, that was good, do that again.' So, it was natural for him. That's all I mean with Sean.'

That right there is fun and it absolutely explained what Ferentz meant about 'natural' football player.

1st Down

Where does versatility rank when it comes to Iowa's O-line? Probably higher than you think. Welsh's 2015 is a great example. He started two games at right tackle, including one super emergency start at Northwestern.

Brian Ferentz gave another pretty great example here. This is the Marshal Yanda example. It's good, you'll get it.

Reset: You know Yanda as a former Hawkeye from Anamosa via NIACC (pretty good story here if I do say so myself, wink wink). It was late in the 2015 or 2014 season and the Baltimore Ravens, where Yanda has been All-Pro level for several years, were out of the playoff hunt. It was a late December game against the Houston Texans and hulking defensive end J.J. Watt.

Watt was crushing the Ravens' right tackle and then the right tackle got hurt. A player the Ravens just signed went in for a series and that didn't work. This is when Yanda raised his hand.

'I remember talking to Marshal afterward and just saying, 'Hey, what happened there?'' Brian Ferentz said. 'He said, 'Look, I wasn't going to get the guy go in there. The best thing for the team was for me to go out there and block Watt.'

'I think that's a little bit uncommon for a couple reasons. No. 1, NFL players don't want to be embarrassed. These guys are in the business of paychecks and how it looks and how they play and how they are evaluated and, especially at that time ...

'They weren't even in the (playoff) conversation. And most guys in the NFL wouldn't do that. They're waiting to get their golf clubs out and play. So for Yanda to do that, I think that was really impressive on two levels.

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'That's what Sean reminds me of as a football player. I'm not saying that he's a Pro Bowl guy or he's at that level, but as a football player, he's a team-first guy and he's willing to do things that maybe are a little bit uncomfortable because they come pretty natural to him and he doesn't give it a whole heck of a lot of thought.

'I bet you I was more nervous the night before the Northwestern game last year than he was. It didn't faze him very much. I was petrified. I was scared to death of what was going to happen.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com