The Big Finish: Four undeniables coming out of Iowa spring football

IOWA CITY — The first pass play of Saturday's scrimmage was a near disaster.

Senior defensive end Drew Ott put sophomore left tackle Boone Myers on his back and nearly into quarterback C.J. Beathard's lower limbs. On the other side, senior defensive end Nate Meier dipped a shoulder and slid around right tackle Ike Boettger.

Beathard did a nice job sidestepping the mayhem and nearly delivered a first-down pass to tight end George Kittle for a first down, but outside linebacker Ben Niemann got a hand in there and forced the first-team offense to punt.

On and on this went most of a rainy, chilly Saturday afternoon in Kinnick Stadium before an announced crowd of 8,000 (it was more like 3,000).

Iowa officials kind of guessed at the crowd. This is where we all are with the football team after Saturday.

Here are some undeniables coming out of Saturday:

— There are going to be some bumps and bruises with this O-line

: There just is. Pass protection stood out. On the second drive of the game, Ott powered past Myers for a sack that put the offense second-and-19 from its 17. Then, Ott bullrushed through Myers and drew a facemask. Second down was a screen pass that was just sad to watch develop. Third down was a completion to Kittle that probably should've been called a sack.

It's been a theme this spring and you sort of saw it coming, but pass protection is condition critical.

'It's good to have that to a certain extent,' Beathard said of the senior DEs he's gotten to know pretty well this spring. 'You know they'll be doing that to other quarterbacks.'

That's digging for the positive, that's being a leader.

— The success of the 2015 Hawkeyes is tied to the O-line:

Not a new thought. You can say this about 98 percent of head coach Kirk Ferentz's Iowa teams. (Maybe the only time you don't say that is when Iowa has a monster defense, like 2004 and 2008-09.

Ferentz was asked if it was difficult to gauge the running game during spring practice. He went down the list of backs and seems to really like the discovery of former wide receiver Derrick Mitchell and thinks sophomore Akrum Wadley has a chance for real growth.

It was easier to gauge it on Saturday. The best the running game looked was when Wadley and Mitchell combined for 63 yards on five carries with the first-team offensive line against a third-team front seven that included a redshirt freshman (Terrence Harris), a true freshman (Brady Reiff) and two walk-ons (Jake Hulett and Daniel Gaffney) on the defensive line and a walk-on (Jacob Sobotka) and linebacker-turned-fullback-turned-back-into-linebacker (John Kenny).

It wasn't a fair fight and who knows who if it measures anything, but it did lead to Iowa's first TD of spring in the fourth quarter, a 4-yard run by Wadley.

'If we would've gone through that whole time without scoring a single touchdown, it would've kind of sucked,' Beathard said.

Again, the leader finds the bright side.

— The defense is better:

But how much better? Ott is a three-year starter (10.5 career sacks, 18.5 tackles for loss). Meier will be in his second season as a starter (3.0 sacks, 7.0 tackles for loss). They've not been as disruptive on as consistent of a basis as they were Saturday, but they're also fully developed seniors.

Linebackers Niemann, Josey Jewell, Travis Perry, Cole Fisher and Bo Bower are better. Iowa's secondary consistently flowed to the ball this spring. You saw safeties clean up plays like you haven't seen at Iowa in a while.

It's all fairly encouraging. It's hard to say exactly what it means, but still, it's better than the TaxSlayer Bowl (yes, anything is better, yes).

'Right now we actually have five guys and it's almost flip a coin with those five guys in terms of who the starters would be,' Ferentz said. 'I just want to emphasize that Cole Fisher and Travis Perry both had really good springs. The three guys that are on the younger side have done a really nice job and that's a good starting point there and we have to build.'

— Beathard is going to be a bit of a daredevil motorcycle jump over like 18 buses:

We noted the first pass play, when the walls nearly literally came down on Beathard, but beyond that, he showed the ability to feel pressure and climb the ladder in the pocket.

You could tell his instinct to scramble was curbed, and that may or may not be a thing because No. 2 QB on the depth chart (Tyler Wiegers) has never thrown a pass, but that didn't stop him from making a tackle on the sideline after throwing a pick and nearly giving his coaches collective coronaries.

'I played safety in high school,' Beathard said, claiming his coaches were happy he made the tackle (Ferentz later confirmed that, no, he wasn't terrible excited to see that).

Beathard finished 17 of 32 for 168 yards and an interception. He led two field goal drives and he missed on a couple of bombs, including a sure TD pass that went over senior wide receiver Tevaun Smith's head.

'I kind of started to feel a rhythm there, especially with the running game not doing as much as we'd like,' Beathard said. 'We got to spread out and throw it a little more, especially in the two-minute drive, it was a good drive. It feels good once you have rhythm, it's hard to slow it down. When your receivers are getting open and your offensive line is giving you protections, it's good stuff.'

SPRING GAME STATS (UNOFFICIAL)

Passing

– Beathard 17-for-32, 168 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT; Wiegers 6-for-18, 66 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT.

Rushing

– Wadley 13-80, Mitchell 7-53, Hilliard 7-18, Canzeri 3-8, Daniels 5-7, Joly 3-7 (1 lost fumble), Beathard 4-(-13).

Receiving

– VandeBerg 6-52, Kittle 3-48, Scheel 2-23, Canzeri 2-22, McCarron 2-17, Pekar 1-17, A.Harris 1-12, Kulick 1-10, T.Smith 1-9, Hillyer 1-9, Mitchell 1-7, Wisnieski 1-7, Wadley 1-1.

Field goals

– Koehn 3-for-3 (made 32, 34, 44); Ellis 0-for-1 (miss 51); Recinos 1-for-1 (made 35).

Punts (avg.)

– Kidd 3-46.0, Koehn 2-40.0, Kornbrath 2-34.5.

Sacks

– Ott 1, M.Nelson 1, Terlouw 1.

Interceptions

– Fisher 1, Snyder 1.

FIRST-TEAM OFFENSE

LT – Boone Myers; LG – Eric Simmons; C – Austin Blythe; RG – Jordan Walsh; RT – Ike Boettger; TE – Henry Krieger Coble (no contact); WR – Tevaun Smith; WR – Matt VandeBerg; QB – C.J. Beathard; FB – Macon Plewa; RB – Jordan Canzeri.

OTHERS:

WR – Jacob Hillyer; FB – Adam Cox; RB – LeShun Daniels, Akrum Wadley, Derrick Mitchell Jr.; TE – George Kittle, Jon Wisnieski.

SECOND-TEAM OFFENSE

LT – Cole Croston; LG – Keegan Render; C – Steve Ferentz; RG – Mitch Keppy; RT – Dalton Ferguson; TE – Jon Wisnieski; WR – Andre Harris; WR – Riley McCarron; QB – Tyler Wiegers; FB – Drake Kulick; RB – Akrum Wadley.

OTHERS:

WR – Jay Scheel, Jonathan Parker, Joshua Jackson, Connor Keane; RB – Derrick Mitchell Jr., C.J. Hillard, Marcel Joly; FB – Steve Manders, Austin Kelly; TE – Peter Pekar; G – Lucas LeGrand; T Dalton Ferguson

REGULAR TWO-DEEP DID NOT PRACTICE (INJURY/UNSPECIFIED)

: T Ryan Ward, WR Andrew Stone, TE Jake Duzey

FIRST-TEAM DEFENSE

DE – Nate Meier; DE – Drew Ott; DT – Jaleel Johnson; DT – Nathan Bazata; OLB – Ben Nieemann; MLB – Josey Jewell; WLB – Bo Bower; CB – Greg Mabin; CB – Desmond King; SS – Miles Taylor; FS – Jordan Lomax

NICKEL

: CB Maurice Fleming, DT Faith Ekakitie for LB Bo Bower, DT Nathan Bazata

SECOND-TEAM DEFENSE

DE – Matt Nelson; DE – Parker Hesse; DT – Faith Ekakitie; DT – Kyle Terlouw; OLB – Cole Fisher; MLB – Travis Perry; WLB – Aaron Mends; CB – Maurice Fleming; CB – Sean Draper; SS – Brandon Snyder; FS – Anthony Gair

OTHERS

: CB Malik Rucker, Omar Truitt; DE – Melvin Spears, Sam Brincks, Brady Reiff, Terrence Harris; DT – Jake Hulett, Daniel Gaffey; LB – Jameer Outsey, Jacob Sobotka, John Kenny; S – Kevin Ward, Jake Gervase

SPECIAL TEAMS

FIELD-GOAL UNIT

WB – George Kittle, Jon Wisnieski; Snapper – Tyler Kluver; Line – Ike Boettger, Jordan Walsh, Mitch Keppy, Keegan Render, Eric Simmons, Cole Croston; Holder – Connor Kornbrath; Kicker – Marshall Koehn

OTHERS

: K -- Mick Ellis, Miguel Recinos

PUNTER (in order)

– Dillon Kidd, Marshall Koehn, Connor Kornbrath

PUNT RETURN (in order)

– Desmond King, Riley McCarron, Matt VandeBerg

FIVE THOUGHTS FROM SCOTT DOCHTERMAN

1. Competition is strong at safety. Two of the biggest hits from Saturday's practice came from two players vying for the start at strong safety. Sophomore Miles Taylor and red-shirt freshman Brandon Snyder

are physical at the point of attack and appear to have enough athletic ability and range at the position. While Taylor opened with the first team, both players look like key contributors regardless of their role this year.

2. Tight end George Kittle showed good concentration hauling in a pass over the middle. With Jake Duzey

out, Iowa needs Kittle to become a consistent threat as a receiver and improve as a blocker.

3. Among back-up defenders, I like linebacker Aaron Mends'

tenacity and quickness at linebacker. He showed good speed and range and did a good job of finding the ball carrier.

4. The most impressive play for quarterback C.J. Beathard took place in the third quarter. He was chased out of the pocket and rolled to his left. He threw across his body into a heavy wind and completed a 9-yard to Matt VandeBerg

along the left sideline. Very few people can make that throw.

5. Two new wrinkles in the offense caught my eye. One was a nifty draw play to Derrick Mitchell Jr.

(who was impressive) near the game's end. The other was the consistent flexing of tight ends in passing situations. In the past, Iowa used a wide receiver in the slot with this look.

FIVE THOUGHTS FROM MARC MOREHOUSE

1. Personnel groups are largely the same, the exception being flexing and moving TE George Kittle around. Before Jake Duzey's injury, I was interested in TE deployment and I do think Kittle fits this role and can do some damage here. But I don't like that the personnel groups are unchanged. Then again, I don't know if 1) those changes are still in the works or 2) if there's a position group that's a no-brainer weapon. Iowa's play-action game hasn't been devastating since Marvin McNutt

tore up the league in 2011. I think the success of play-action is tied to linebackers in the box and where Iowa can exploit a matchup. When I write 'success,' I mean the play going to a WR for an explosive 16-plus yarder (the play Scott mentions above was to a WR for 9 yards) and not a pitch to a tight end for 4 yards.

2. I think the jury is still out on the wide receivers. Iowa seemed to play down senior Tevaun Smith this spring, which kind of makes sense. He's bona fide. Coaches seemed to want to get a measure on the others. I liked junior Matt VandeBerg this spring (six catches for 52 yards Saturday). Senior Jacob Hillyer has the grit. At this point in his career, Iowa needs that out of him. As a receiver? Probably 20 catches this season would be fantastic. Iowa needs to find at least two contributors (20 receptions or maybe 15, solid blocking, solid contributions) from three of these eight: Riley McCarron, Andrew Stone (out with a hamstring Saturday), Andre Harris, Jay Scheel, Joshua Jackson (who switched from CB) and incoming freshmen Jerminic Smith, Adrian Falconer and Emmanuel Ogwo

.

Is that asking too much?

3. Freshman defensive end Matt Nelson

did good things this spring. He should've been awarded two sacks on Saturday. The 6-8, 270-pounder might be rounding into that third DE Iowa kind of really needs.

4. This fall Iowa will have 17 scholarship offensive linemen, with at least three walk-ons, including junior RT Cole Croston, who is pushing for playing time. Of that group, just three will be seniors (C Austin Blythe, G Jordan Walsh and G/C Eric Simmons

).

We've documented here that Iowa took from the OL piggybank of schollies and gave some to WR in 2013 and then the secondary in 2014 before signing five O-linemen in the 2015 class.

Maybe it wasn't so much passing OL schollies to WR and secondary as much as spending two at fullback (Adam Cox and Macon Plewa have more than proven their worth, but fullback schollies are luxuries for the most part), two at punter (¯\_('~)_/¯), two this fall at kicker and at least one OL moved to longsnapper (junior OL Reid Sealby is now No. 2 longsnapper behind Tyler Kluver

, who's now a two-year starter who remains a walk-on). Seven schollies is a gouge.

Here's OL coach Brian Ferentz

on the topic (the optimum number for OL scholarships): 'That's a good question, and I think it's fluid. I think whatever is best for the football team at that period in time, and that's changed year to year, and based on where we have needs, where we don't have needs, how much we've gotten out of a certain class, how much we haven't gotten out of a certain class, team-wide.

'Right now, we took five last year, and I think we all agreed we needed to take five, and that's why we did it. We had a really good class in-state. There were a lot of really good players in-state across the board, and there were certainly a lot of good offensive linemen in the state, too.'

Later Brian Ferentz credited walk-ons for coming through and giving Iowa some roster flexibility. Bottom line, Iowa has a lot riding on the 2015 OL signees. They need hits across the board.

5. Can junior cornerback Reese Fleming wedge his way into some playing time at corner? Can junior Greg Mabin

hold him off? I don't think that matters as much as how they might be used. The third-down rush package (raider) was absent Saturday and replace by nickel. That might be where you see some flex this season. Fleming saw more than a handful of snaps there.