No. 11 — DE Nate Meier

No. 11 . . .

There are embeds all over football games if you watch closely enough. Last season, one of those was this kind of little fella at noseguard when Iowa went into its goal-line defense.

At 6-2, 255, senior Nate Meier is an undersized defensive end. At noseguard on goal line, he's an extremely undersized player. But you know Iowa coaches wouldn't put him there if they didn't feel as if he could do the job.

'I can get low,' Meier said. 'It was cool playing that position.'

So, what does it say about Meier? It probably says that he's a quick, violent rambler. It also says he walks a fine line. In this game, at his size, a lot of times for Meier it's all or nothing. When you consistently give up a half foot and 50 to 70 pounds to the O-lineman across from you, it's embarrass or be embarrassed.

So, doubling down on goal line and asking Meier to hold a point and stalemate, shows Meier has believers on the staff. After all, Meier was put in that noseguard position and defensive tackle Carl Davis, an NFL draft pick now shining in the Baltimore Ravens camp, slid outside.

Speaking with Meier about the noseguard thing, there really isn't much to say. He knows the stakes and he punches the clock.

'What are you going to do?' he said with a laugh. 'You just go in there. He's going to embarrass you or you're going to embarrass him.'

And that's where we're at with Nate Meier, the converted running back, linebacker, running back and defensive end who wears No. 34.

The art of napping . . .

Meier is paired with fellow senior, fellow graduate of prep 8-man football and fellow defensive end Drew Ott. He lets Ott take care of the talking part of the senior leader thing. Meier is quiet and focuses on his business.

Some of that senior leader stuff can't, however, be ignored. This brings us to the art of napping, a little-discussed element of the game that, apparently, needs to be taught to freshmen.

'That's true, you have to learn how to calm down,' Meier said.

Remember, Meier came into the D-line from running back, which at that time was run by Lester Erb, who was a talky coach. 'He was all about the talk,' Meier said. 'He wanted everyone to talk.'

So, fast forward to Meier's first times in the D-line room, it changed.

'I was older, I knew everybody,' he said. 'The freshmen, they sit in the back and they're sort of chattering while we're trying to watch film. They'll learn, for sure.'

Outlook . . .

This season sets up to be a nutty ride for Meier. He's a senior and as trained and as strong as he's ever going to be as a Hawkeye. Still, he's a 6-2 (more like 6-1), 255-pound defensive end in the Big Ten. Where he came from — the 8-man football in southwest Iowa — is fun to look back on, but the stakes are the highest they've ever been for Meier as a Hawkeye. In his first full year as starter in 2014, Meier had six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Iowa could use increased disruption.

The lessons in leverage are still being learned. Meier brought up the Pittsburgh game from last season, when he was matched against OT T.J. Clemmings (6-5, 309), a fourth-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings.

'He didn't really come off the ball, he shot his hands and he was like 6-9,' Meier said. 'He shot his hands and he would just pick you up. So then, after that first series, I'm thinking I'm just going to try to use my speed. I'm not going to try to muscle this dude. He was the one dude I was like, 'Wow.'

'That was earlier in the season and I still had butterflies and stuff like that. As the year went on, it was just like every other day. You have to watch more film and take in more details.'

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