5.0 things to watch during Hawkeyes day in the 515

The Hawkeyes are going to be something this year. Who knows what that something will be, but the public will see its first glimpse of it today at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines.

For the third year, Iowa is holding a spring practice at Valley as a gesture of good will for fans in the central part of the state.

This is the first of those three years where Iowa has zero questions on who its starting quarterback will be. With the news this week that Jake Rudock will graduate and transfer to Michigan, junior C.J. Beathard

is the No. 1 and that's that.

Along those lines, here are some Iowa things that might be worth tracking today on the big orange 'V”:

1. Watch Beathard run and not run and then sort of slide or maybe not

- Beathard spoke to the Iowa media for the first time since last October when spring practice opened. He talked about running the football and seemed excited about that prospect.

'Coaches told me to slide when I can,” Beathard said. 'I don't want to get knocked out of a game for lowering my shoulder into a linebacker, someone I obviously can't truck. [But] I'm not going to stop running the ball, because I feel I can do things with my feet that will help us.

'When I see the green light and I see that opening, I'm going to take that chance and continue to take shots downfield.”

Iowa has toyed with the read option QB run the last two seasons, and Beathard looked solid running the ball against Tennessee in the 45-28 TaxSlayer Bowl loss, rushing eight times for 82 yards.

During the season, when Iowa is fighting for every yard and point, Beathard probably will have the green light to take off.

Today? Not a chance. Iowa has two scholarship quarterbacks in spring drills . . .

1.2 - Redshirt freshman Tyler Wiegers

is the QB you'll want to be watching today. He's the No. 2. He was a four-star recruit (Rivals.com) out of Detroit (Mich.) Country Day High School. Rivals ranked him as the No. 14 prostyle QB coming out of the 2014 recruiting class.

Has another other Hawkeyes' profile gone from zero to 60 mph like Wiegers'? OK, Beathard's, but he has played and does have one start.

2. Probably won't learn a ton at RB, but let's parse - Sure feels like Iowa coaches want more out of junior LeShun Daniels

.

The 6-0, 225-pounder lost his spot in the rotation early last season and suffered a foot injury and missed five of the final six games, finishing with 49 yards on 15 carries.

It's a light resume, but Iowa remains fixated on the big, burly running back. When asked about the prototypical Iowa running back, backfield coach Chris White mentioned Daniels, who's listed as co-starter with senior Jordan Canzeri

.

Hey, Daniels hasn't done a whole lot in his first two seasons. It does look like, however, the staff went under the hood with him this winter. He's down about 10 pounds. He's moving better, has lowered his pad level and, according to White, set a record in the running back shuttle run.

2.2 - With O-line coach Brian Ferentz's

elevation to run game coordinator, perhaps there is room for maneuvering in Iowa's zone schemes. White talked about where runners need to push the ball, went they need to cut, a more holistic approach to the running game. We won't see this come to fruition today, but keep an open mind with the running game.

2.3

- Canzeri isn't exactly a ball of rolled up ankle tape. Despite the heavy sell job on Daniels, Canzeri is hands down Iowa's most experienced back (1,089 career yards on 207 carries for 5.3 per).

2.4 - As for today, sophomores Akrum Wadley and Derrick Mitchell and freshmen C.J. Hilliard and Marcel Joly

are the running backs to watch. They'll see a lot of work. If Wadley fumbles, then you have to wonder if it's going to happen for him.

3. The veteran defensive ends vs. the rookie offensive tackles - Drew Ott and Nate Meier are seniors. They've worked four years honing their craft as Big Ten defensive ends. Boone Myers and Ike Boettger

are third-year sophomore offensive tackles taking their first steps in the Big Ten pits.

You'll probably see a few plays blown up from the edge today. Will this be a good gauge for progress? Maybe. We've never seen Myers and Boettger on stage. Talk about 0-to-60 mph profiles.

3.1 Let's not forget two new defensive tackles - junior Jaleel Johnson and sophomore Nathan Bazata. Beyond those two, who's in the rotation. Big Ten Network analyst Gerry DiNardo watched Iowa practice on Thursday and came away impressed with junior Faith Ekakitie

.

3.2 Senior Eric Simmons

finds himself as the starter. According to HawkeyeReport.com, sophomore Sean Welsh is not practicing due to 'family leave” and freshman Ross Reynolds is out after an unspecified surgery.

4. Safeties vs. tight ends might be fun - Senior free safety Jordan Lomax is 5-10. Sophomore strong safety Miles Taylor is brand-new. They'll find themselves opposite a veteran group of tight ends in Jake Duzey, Henry Krieger Coble (if he goes through contact, still nursing shoulder injury) and George Kittle. They all go 6-4. Redshirt freshman Jon Wisnieski

is the rookie of the bunch and he's 6-5.

4.1 After senior Tevaun Smith

, can a wide receiver have a performance that demands targets?

4.2 This will be our first real look at redshirt freshman strong safety Brandon Snyder

. He is a walk-on who was installed as No. 2 behind Taylor on the January depth chart. At 6-1, 210, he's a bit of a different football creature.

5. Punter, punter, punter, punter, punter - Senior Marshall Koehn is in the running. When White, who also serves as Iowa's special teams coordinator, said this week Koehn doesn't know what he's doing with technique, but did launch a 60-yarder during a scrimmage last week. White also said Koehn has rare leg strength. That said, how can he be punter, place kicker and handle kickoff duties? That remains to be seen. There are five 'punters” to begin this entry, so the competition between Koehn, seniors Connor Kornbrath and Dillon Kidd and redshirt freshman Miguel Recinos

will be ongoing through fall camp.

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