Broderick Binns speaks softly, carries two long arms

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - There's more than enough swagger in Miami, from the nightclubs to the freeways.

Iowa sophomore defensive end Broderick Binns isn't adding to it. He didn't make a late night of it on New Year's Eve at the Hawkeyes' Miami Beach hotel.

“I was trying to sleep,” he said. “I wanted to have a clear head for these interviews.”

Binns was one of a half-dozen Hawkeye defenders brought up to Fort Lauderdale Friday morning for an Orange Bowl press conference. A big talker, he isn't. He willingly answers questions, mind you. He's just not the type to draw off-field attention to himself.

A lot of Iowa's defensive players have drawn a lot of attention on it. Binns was surrounded at that press conference Friday by five of them in Pat Angerer, Christian Ballard, Adrian Clayborn, A.J. Edds and Tyler Sash. That's an accomplished quintet.

But Binns has been fairly special himself. His season statistical line is like a good buffet. It has some of just about everything you could want, and large amounts of especially satisfying items.

Like quarterback sacks (second-best on the team at 6) and tackles for losses (tied for third with 9). He has a few quarterback hurries, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, a blocked kick.

But the mental picture most Iowa fans probably have of Binns involves his favorite stat.

“I've got to say the batted balls. I think I have more batted balls than our cornerbacks do,” he said with a soft laugh. “That kind of sticks out to me.”

It sticks out to a lot of people. Defensive backs lead teams in passes broken up, not ends. But Binns has nine, one more than cornerbacks Amari Spievey and Shaun Prater.

The guy is 6-foot-2, not 6-8. But his arms are long, and he knows how to use them in pass defense.

“If you look at him physically,” said Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker, “his wingspan, it's out there. His arms are much longer than your arms or my arms.

“I'm not trying to make him out to be a freak or something. But when he leaps up, he can get up higher than you'd think he could.”

Fellow defensive end Clayborn said this week that he and Binns will be the most important Hawkeye defenders in Tuesday's Orange Bowl.

That's because, in the triple option offense, Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt often determines

 his first read by what the opponent's defensive ends are doing.

Binns, Parker said, “has got a knack. I think he has great timing and anticipation of what the quarterback is going to do with the ball.”

So it's a good-reading quarterback going against a good reader of quarterbacks.

If Binns is a good recruiter, Iowa fans will love him even more.

Binns came to Iowa from St. Paul, Minn., turning down Minnesota's overtures because the Gophers were going through a coaching change and he thought Iowa's football program had similar characteristics to those of his Cretin-Derham Hall High School.

Cretin-Derham Hall is a longtime football power in Minnesota. It won the Class 5A state-title in November. It has USA Today's prep Offensive Player of the Year, offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson. Binns was a basketball teammate of Henderson's in high school.

“Coach has been telling me to do what I can do,” Binns said. “I've been talking to him. When I was home a couple weeks back I sat down and talked to him, tried to give him some advice.

“I just basically told him to go to the school that's good for you, not for anybody else, because he has to spend his four or five years there. I've tried to give him the best advice I could, and hopefully he takes it.”

Henderson is looking at eight different colleges. Iowa is among them, though a long shot at this point. He has made official visits to Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida and USC, and hasn't decided on where to take his fifth and final visit.

“I just basically told him to go to the school that's good for you, not for anybody else,” Binns said, “because he has to spend his four or five years there. I've tried to give him the best advice I could, and hopefully he takes it.”

He probably said it softly. But Henderson has to notice Iowa is working out for Binns, and vice versa.