Thoughts on Arkansas State Game

Well that did not exactly turn out the way it should have. As they say though, a win is a win. Iowa is now 5-0 for the first time in fourteen years. If there had been two plays or so that went differently, I think we would be talking about a 41-7 finish rather than 24-21. Nonetheless, I think there are certainly some things to take away from the win over Arkansas State.

Defensive Line Dominance. Once again the defensive line showed why they deserve all of the accolades that they have been receiving. Adrian Clayborn continues to wreak havoc in the backfield, while Karl Klug, Broderick Binns, and Christian Ballard continue to clog up running lanes. The only thing that this unit could improve on is finishing plays in the backfield. There were several times when both Clayborn and Klug had the opportunity to make the sack but were unable to finish the play. Yes, that is an extremely ridiculous criticism but, hey, there is always room for improvement, right? It is going to be a joy watching these four play for the next seven weeks.

Decisionmaking Process. Ricky Stanzi looked very sharp on the first two drives of the game throwing touchdown passes of 33 yards and 41 yards. Then, on cue, things started to go south. As one astute observer mentioned to me, it is not that Stanzi is throwing the ball inaccurately; rather, he is making poor decisions. Fortunately, that is a problem that can be fixed. I truly believe that Stanzi will continue to improve his decisionmaking and will go back to the flashes of brilliance we saw last year. Although Stanzi has thrown only eight touchdowns compared to seven interceptions, he is now 13-3 as a starter—the most important statistic.

Kicking Game. Ryan Donahue did not have one of his better games. Again, I think that I am probably being overcritical on a day in which the wind was swirling a bit, but even on a bad day for Donahue, Arkansas State had only one return for -3 yards. I will take that every day of the week. Daniel Murray’s miss looked like me off the tee when I am too quick from the top—a hard snap hook. While I still think Murray is a very solid kicker, I worry about his ability to make one in the 42-49 yard range. At this point in the season, I would hope that the coaching staff has made the decision to redshirt Trent Mossbrucker. It will be more advantageous for the continuity of the kicking game for him to have three more years at Iowa. However, I think at some point this season, Iowa will be put in a tough spot when they need a long field goal and have to rely on Murray’s untested distance.

Game Strategy. Although I know that an anti-Ken O’Keefe crowd exists, I have been thoroughly impressed with his game planning this season. Despite the excellent game planning and play calling, the execution has not been there at times. Yes, I have been saying it all year, but at some point this offense is going to being to click and execute on a consistent basis. Is this week finally the week that my prediction on this point will come true?

Although no player would ever directly say it, I am sure some of the players were looking more forward to the Michigan game than Arkansas State. As I mentioned last week, Arkansas State was a great game to have before Michigan given the similarities in offense. Along those lines, Arkansas State’s quarterback, Corey Leonard is similar to Tate Forcier, even though Leonard is, at this point in time, the better quarterback. Well, Saturday cannot arrive soon enough. Until then, be sure to look for all of the gold clothing you can find as a protest to the Sports Marketing Department’s decision to declare the Michigan game as a “blackout.” Seriously, just give it a rest on the color scheming for games. While I think that they should only have “be bold, wear gold” games, I also think that they should use a color scheme once every few years rather than twice a year. (Remember that Arizona was a “blackout”). I know that superstition is bunk, but remember how the last “blackout” against Michigan turned out? Yeah, that is also secretly why I am going to protest by wearing gold.