Defensive lineman’s menu: Rip, chop, ol�!

These could be sandwiches on a menu:

Counter Club

Chop Rip

Chop Club

Wash those down with a nice, refreshing ... Rip Spin or a Bull Rush or, maybe, a Swim. OK, maybe 'bull rush' is pushing it a bit far.

Maybe for dessert try the jab olé' or the Speed Bull Rush.

Either you're hungry or curious or you've hung up. These aren't menu items. They're rush moves and techniques for defensive linemen. In last week's 48-7 victory over Northwestern, Iowa's defensive linemen were in full counter club and rip spin, with the group accounting for four of Iowa's five sacks and anchoring a defensive effort that held the Wildcas to 180 total yards, their lowest output since 2007 (a span of 93 games).

'They actually [sound like sandwiches], if you think about it,' senior defensive tackle Carl Davis said.

These are every defensive linemans' techniques of destruction. Of the Iowa D-linemen polled, no one confessed to a favorite. They like to keep some of what they do a surprise for the offensive linemen. This week, hand fighting will be at a premium, with Minnesota (6-2, 3-1 Big Ten) and running back David Cobb putting up the conference's most run-centric offense against the Hawkeyes (6-2, 3-1), a traditionally tough run-stopping team that had its feathers ruffled before stopping the bleeding last week.

Minnesota has rushed the ball 366 times this season with just 151 pass attempts. Cobb is the No. 6 rusher in the country with 141.3 yards a game. Sixty-one percent of the Gophers' offense comes from rushing yards, that's the eighth-highest percentage in the country.

This sets up to be a three-run inside run drill. No one is shying away from this fact.

'There's nothing tricky about them, nothing at all,' Minnesota offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said. 'They're going to let you know exactly what they're going to do, and they do it well. So absolutely, there becomes more of a, 'Hey, this is going to be a one on one battle; how are you going to face it, how are you going to step up to the challenge?'

'It's always that way. It's classic Big Ten football. It's just going to be body on body, and who's going to be better at what they do.'

This is where the Iowa D-line, a group that has matured either according to plan for coach Kirk Ferentz or beyond his wildest dreams, puts the 'chop rip,' 'chop club' and all those food-sounding moves to work.

OK, what is a 'jab olé',' really?

'It's just a move where you put pressure on the outside of the guard's arm,' defensive tackle Louis Trinca-Pasat said. 'Then, you work a move back inside toward the quarterback.'

'That's one of my favorites,' Davis said.

Some of these are self-explanatory. A 'chop' is where you chop the O-lineman's arm off you. Often on the inside, the winner is the one with the quickest hands and who can make them stick. The 'rip' is the opposite of the chop, with the D-lineman firing his arm up toward his arm in an attempt to clear the O-lineman's grip.

The 'counter club' is when the D-lineman starts upfield and outside and then quickly counters, punching the O-lineman's outside arm with his inside arm and forcing him to shift weight. The 'club' part is the punch.

And, no, these guys aren't consciously picking their moves. When you hear D-lineman talk details, these are the details.

'It's just repetitions we do during the week,' Trinca-Pasat said. 'It becomes muscle memory, I think, during that moment. You scout your opponent and see what might work and what doesn't and then it becomes muscle memory.'

Of course, the moves don't matter as much as the player trying to pull it off. There, Iowa has benefited from good, old maturity. Davis (6-5, 315) and Trinca-Pasat (6-2, 290) are fifth-year seniors. Drew Ott is a third-year junior, but he spent all of spring and summer facing off with all-Big Ten offensive tackle Brandon Scherff, who was named a Lombardi Award semifinalist this week.

Last season, as a sophomore, Ott mostly was on the field for first and second down. When it was time to rush the passer, defensive coordinator Phil Parker installed a third-down rush package with Ott on the bench. This year, Ott doesn't leave the field. He's gone from the 240-pound range to 270 pounds since his freshman year in 2012. This week, he's second in the Big Ten with 7.5 sacks, trailing only Ohio State's Joey Bosa (10.5).

'He works extremely hard, strength and conditioning, and works hard at the mental part of the game and he competes hard on the field,' Ferentz said.

That maturity has helped Ott perfect his really complicated and elaborately named rush move.

'I don't know, I can't give away the secrets,' he said with a laugh. 'A bull rush and just work the hands, I guess.'

None of these three have trained in martial arts, where hand fighting is everything. They do 'grippers' in the weightroom. Former Iowa D-linemen Aaron Kampman, Jared DeVries and Mitch King have coached them in some advanced hand techniques. Ott bailed hay and buried pipe on his family's farm in Trumbull, Neb.

He also plays a deadly game with his roommates.

'You just constantly work through the house and hit peoples' hands when they try to touch you,' he said with a laugh. 'We do that a lot.'

There are some rules of engagement: You can't do a rush move/technique that will pull you out of your gap for the called defense. Also, you need to have an array. If you lapse into the same thing every play because it's comfortable, O-linemen will scout it and be ready.

'I try to balance myself as best as I can,' said Trinca-Pasat, who now has 5.5 sacks this season. 'You have to try to have several or be good at several. You can't settle.'

Davis' favorite move is the jab olé', but his forearms are the size of a regular human's thighs, so he can vary his game with an array of chops and rips and, because he moves his feet well, spins.

'You're more conscious of what you do when you watch film,' Davis said. 'You see how a guy [O-lineman] sets up, there's just something natural that happens. Once you see your guy do that, you practice that move all week and it just kind of happens. You go to the chop club move or a rip spin, different things. It's whatever works for you.'

To be clear, none of this 'kind of just happens' and it is 'whatever works.' On Iowa's side, on Minnesota's side, you'll see skilled and drilled veteran bodies put their craft to the test.

If you aren't the chopper or ripper, then you're the sandwich.

'You're thinking about beating the guy across from you and not getting embarrassed,' Trinca-Pasat said. 'It's one or the other. You're either going to go hard or you're going to be on the ground. That's the mind-set.

'It's kind of like a do-or-die.'

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