Iowa football’s experience on offensive line shifts from guards, center to tackles heading into 2022

IOWA CITY — Connor Colby isn’t picky about the position (or positions) he’ll play in 2022.

He’s “pretty comfortable everywhere.”

“I’m good with wherever they put me,” said Colby, who started 11 games at guard as a true freshman last year and has worked at tackle for much of fall camp. “Whatever I can do to help the team is what I’m going to do.”

The possibility of Colby playing at tackle is part of a shift in experience on Iowa’s offensive line.

The two tackle positions — a perceived weakness of Iowa’s offensive line at this time last year — now is where Iowa has the most experience.

The 2021 offensive line had a combined 38 starts heading into Week 1, and 36 of those starts were from players who exclusively played in the interior of the line.

The situation in 2022 is almost the opposite.

Iowa’s available offensive linemen for 2022 have combined to start 41 games in their careers. All 41 starts come from players who could play tackle.

“Usually one of the bigger challenges is not having enough guys to play tackle, and I think we have a healthy competition there,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Having guys that have some flexibility going in and out helps.”

Iowa plans to “keep Mason (Richman) at tackle,” Ferentz said. Jack Plumb could play left or right tackle. Nick DeJong could go inside or outside, if needed. All three saw significant snaps for the first time in 2021.

“It gives us a little bit of an ability to maybe get the best five guys out there,” Ferentz said.

Injuries at the position group inhibited Iowa’s ability to consistently play the top five offensive linemen on the first team in fall camp. Richman and DeJong were among the absences in the open Kids’ Day practice.

Ferentz was optimistic about the health at the position in his Tuesday news conference, though — his first media availability since Aug. 13.

“If you would have asked me 10 days ago, not so good,” Ferentz said. “Right now I feel a lot better.”

David Davidkov, the second-team left tackle on the preseason depth chart, is out for the season, but he is the only one missing from the Week 1 depth chart.

“It was rough there practicing for a while because we had guys out of the lineup,” Ferentz said. “But right now we probably have four to six to seven, maybe eight guys that we feel comfortable putting out there.”

The number of players Ferentz is comfortable with differs from the position group’s level of experience, particularly at center and guard.

“Obviously if you do the math on that, a couple of those guys haven't played, so that's going to be a little bit of a wild ride,” Ferentz said. “There will be some excitement involved there.”

Aside from Colby, everyone else at center or guard will be seeing significant offensive snaps for the first time this season.

Colby played 632 offensive snaps last year, per Pro Football Focus. The other five guards and centers on the depth chart combined to take 63 offensive snaps.

Gennings Dunker wasn’t on Monday’s depth chart, but he could see playing time for the first time. Photos released by the team of fall camp practices showed him working at guard.

Ferentz thought Dunker was on the depth chart until a reporter said otherwise Tuesday.

“Put him on there,” Ferentz said. “He's in the mix of top eight, top 10 guys, yeah.”

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