Things appear to have clicked for Iowa offensive lineman Connor Colby

IOWA CITY — There was that moment his very first semester at the University of Iowa.

Connor Colby still was a high school senior had he wanted to be. But the offensive lineman from Cedar Rapids Kennedy decided to be an early enrollee in order to go through spring football practice with the Hawkeyes.

“I was running off the field, my knee braces locked into each other, and I face planted right in front of Coach Bell,” Colby said with a smile during Iowa’s recent media day. “I just got up and kept moving. Just don’t acknowledge it.”

Coach Bell is defensive line coach Kelvin Bell. He didn’t say anything to Colby about his faux pas.

Everyone left it alone. Hey, stuff happens.

“No one in the locker room said anything to me,” Colby said. “I think they realized I was just trying to stay alive out there.”

Kind of sums up his college football career, truth be told. The 6-foot-6, 310-pounder was pushed into major playing time too soon, before he was ready, face planted a few times but kept getting back up and brushing himself off.

Now as he hits his senior season, Colby is a bona fide dude, penned in as Iowa’s starting right guard and regarded as a guy who could be all-Big Ten Conference.

“When I first got here, my eyes really got opened up to how football was supposed to be played,” Colby said. “Just the speed of the game was a big change for me. Like any freshman, you’ve got to get used to everything. It’s a lot faster than in high school. I wouldn’t say falling on my face was representative of my play. It’s just that you have to get used to everything.”

Colby played all 14 of Iowa’s games as a true freshman in 2021, starting the last 11 at right guard. He moved over to right tackle to begin 2022, then to left guard for the final seven games.

Last season was 13 starts back at right guard.

“About halfway through the season last year, it started to click,” said Iowa offensive line coach George Barnett. “You are talking about a kid who was thrown in as a high school senior and starting at right guard at Iowa. That shouldn’t happen, but it happened to him. That’s why I have a ton of respect for this kid and what he’s been through.

“The next year, we were low on tackles because of the gap in classes and availability, so he kicks out to tackle and plays way out of position. He’s an inside guy. He competed his butt off. So last year, about games three or four, you really started to see things click a little bit and him mature.”

Colby agrees with Barnett about that clicking thing.

“I think the middle of last season, I just started to see more calls out there,” he said. “Just kind of knowing what’s going on, how to play, and I think that’s definitely helped me take off a little bit.”

“You watch him on the practice field now compared to two years ago, it’s a totally different person,” Barnett said. “He has always been cool, calm and collected. But now he’s got a business-like attitude. It’s kind of like after your sophomore year in high school. You begin to paint that vision for yourself. You can tell Connor’s got one right now. That’s fun to watch.”

Iowa’s line play has been suboptimal the past three or four seasons or so, which has been the genesis of a major offensive collapse. Tim Lester has been brought in to be the Hawkeyes’ new offensive coordinator, and everyone seems excited about his schemes.

But, if the offensive line play doesn’t improve, neither will the offense as a whole.

“All you do is just keep chipping away. It's like everything in football, you just keep chipping away. But you've got to have the right people. Then they've just got to believe and keep pushing,“ Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “These guys have done that. We've had our share of challenging situations, but the guys have stayed, they've hung tough.

“George has done a great job keeping them focused on the right things, and just starting to see that in practice. We're starting to see them play at a little better tempo than we have in the last couple years.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com