No. 16 — DE Mike Hardy

No. 16 ...

Mike Hardy is a hugely important player for the Hawkeyes this fall. The 6-5, 280-pound senior is one of two defensive ends Iowa has on its roster who's started a game. Iowa has three experienced DEs. Iowa has a bit of a defensive end energy crisis on its hands.

This has called for creativity. Defensive line coach and Hardy have said that he's more of a defensive tackle than a defensive end.

'We're playing with guys that in a lot of programs would be defensive tackles,” Morgan said this spring. 'Mike Hardy was a defensive tackle a year ago. We moved him out because of our needs.”

Hardy, who moved to DE after Dominic Alvis' injury last year, doesn't duck the discussion.

'I know what my strengths are,” he said. 'I know I'm not the quickest guy, but I'm big and I can set an edge. I know that's my strength. I know I'm not going to be a quick rusher off the edge, so I just need to work to my abilities.”

Iowa defenses have beamed in on stopping the run since Kirk Ferentz walked through the doors in December 1998. Some things have changed with the Hawkeyes defense. You all saw the third-down rush packages last season. Defending the run remains No. 1 on the list. And that's why Morgan and defensive coordinator Phil Parker are comfortable with DEs who specialize in setting an edge.

'I don't evaluate guys on sacks.” Parker said. 'I look at how well they're playing their technique. What about their effort, their toughness, how smart are they? Do they come into work every day to do their job. Since 1999, I know that's the way we've been. And I think it's worked this far. We want to be fundamentally sound in what we are doing.”

The value of setting an edge ...

Close observers of Iowa football know the word 'contain” is mentioned pretty much only when it breaks down. Head coach Kirk Ferentz hammered the topic after Iowa's 44-41 three-overtime loss at Iowa State in 2011. ISU quarterback Steele Jantz consistently got outside of Iowa's contain and rushed and passed Iowa into dizzying confusion (275 passing yards and four TD passes).

That was sort of a watershed moment. You haven't heard Ferentz mention contain too many times since, but the Hawkeyes haven't been perfect there. Ohio State's Braxton Miller reversed field and hit one last season in Iowa's 34-24 loss at Columbus. The value lies in keeping an offense between the numbers, where defensive tackles and linebackers are waiting to do the dirty work.

'I know that my main job is to set the edge and stop the run on first and second down and get the pass-rush guys in on third down,” Hardy said.

Still working on pass rush ...

This doesn't mean Hardy (34 tackles, five tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks) sits down and has a Popsicle during the pass rush portion of practice.

'That's one of the things I know I have to work on, getting a quicker first step off the ball,” Hardy said. 'I need to work on pass rushes, other than my bull rush. We work on pass rush every day. I know it's something I need to get better at and I've been working on it.”

Yes, defensive linemen are conscious of their pass rush moves. It's a 15-minute portion of practice.

'As a defensive line, we need to keep pressure on the pocket and pressure on the quarterback,” Hardy said. 'If we don't get a good push, that quarterback has a ton of time to sit back there and put stress on the guys in the backfield. We know we need to work our moves and get to the passer.”

Outlook ...

Hardy is a senior. Fellow DEs Drew Ott, Nate Meier and Riley McMinn are juniors. Beyond those four, Iowa will be young and inexperienced. That's a topic for another post.

Hardy is a fifth-year senior who made a selfless position change super late in his career. Is he perfectly suited for DE? You read Reese Morgan's thoughts. Hardy is probably more of a defensive tackle. Keep in mind Iowa's team concepts on defense and you can see how it would work.

'At a defensive end, we want who's the No. 1 guy? [Jadeveon] Clowney at South Carolina,” Morgan said. 'OK, we want to recruit three Clowneys every year, and defensive linemen are really one of the hardest things to find.

'We just sat in this very room three hours ago [players auditorium] and went through our top defensive ends. They're great athletes, but they also have offers from a lot of different places. So, we do have to be realistic about who we can get and how we can develop him and what we can do within our framework to play our team defense because ultimately it's all about the team.”

Iowa coaches always are careful not to ask players to do things they can't. And so, Iowa will squeeze everything it can out of Mike Hardy in 2014.