Iowa Hawkeyes Football: Spring Ball Position Battles

On March 23, the Iowa Hawkeyes will suit up for the first time since their Insight Bowl victory over the Missouri Tigers.

They will have 15 practices before the April 16 controlled scrimmage, which is open to the public.

Spring football is always a sketchy time of the year. Upper classmen see minimal time, the depth chart is a piecemeal mess and particularly irreplaceable players wear a red jersey, thereby signifying they are not to be tackled.

Nevertheless, it is a valuable time of the year for younger players to make a name for themselves and work their way up the depth chart.

In this article, we'll take a cursory look at the depth chart, take note of particular players to look out for on April 16 and consider where things stand, as we transition away from the rather strange and in many ways forgettable 2010 season and into a brave, new 2011.

Quarterback

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner: Redshirt junior James Vandenberg.

Up until Ricky Stanzi twisted his leg against Northwestern in 2009, it was unknown who the official backup was. Once that leg snapped, there was little doubt left.

Vandenberg came in to relieve Stanzi and remained under center for the rest of the 2009 regular season. Moreover, he was the first quarterback off the bench in garbage time in 2010.

His career statistics to date: 95 ATT, 47 COMP, 49.5 PCT, 515 YDS, 3 TD, 5 INT.

While most Hawk fans like to remember his heroic effort against Ohio State in 2009, they conveniently forget that he was pretty bad against Northwestern and Minnesota.

Nevertheless, he's got valuable experience under his belt, and he has displayed a solid skill set when he has played.

In the end, there is no getting around the fact that the starting quarterback position will be his job to lose.

The Challengers: Redshirt junior John Wienke. Wienke has a stronger arm than Vandenberg, and word on the street is that the competition for the backup job was much closer at the end of 2010 than it was at the end of 2009.

Redshirt freshman A.J. Derby.

Derby is a more athletic player than any of the others. In fact, rumors are constantly swirling that he has changed positions and has become a tight end or linebacker. Nonetheless, right now he is still listed as a quarterback.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Wyatt Suess, redshirt sophomore and walk-on.

Tailback

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner: True sophomore Marcus Coker.

Last season, after an early preseason shoulder injury, it looked like Coker would redshirt. Then, injuries and any number of other strange things found Coker burning his shirt in the fourth week of the season.

After starter Adam Robinson went down with an injury and later a suspension, Coker became the starter. He compiled 622 yards for 5.46 yards-per-carry to go along with three touchdowns.

His most impressive game was the Insight Bowl against Missouri, where Coker literally ran over the Tigers en route to a 219-yard, two touchdown showcase.

Expectations are extremely high for Coker, but Hawk fans would do well to remember that Mizzou was hardly a great rush defense, ranking 62nd in the country. Of course, Coker also put up over seven yards-per-carry on Ohio State, and they were the third best rush defense in the country.

The Challenger: Redshirt freshman De'Andre Johnson.

Johnson was also in the mix for immediate playing time last year, but it didn't work out. All reports are that Johnson, like Coker, is a between-the-tackles banger. On the other hand, at 5'8", 210 pounds, he is decidedly smaller than Coker.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Jason White, redshirt junior and walk-on, who missed much of last season with injuries. White had originally moved to defensive back before injuries necessitated his move to the offensive backfield.

Fullback

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner: Redshirt sophomore Brad Rogers.

Last season, Rogers picked up one start, filling in for the injured Brett Morse. He also saw some action at tailback, when Iowa was down to Adam Robinson and...uhm...Adam Robinson.

Rogers certainly looks the part of an Iowa fullback. Moreover, he has more ability with ball than most recent Iowa fullbacks, as he picked up 75 yards on 11 carries last season. He also had two receptions.

The only question is whether he is fully recovered from whatever kept him out of the Insight Bowl.

The Challengers: Redshirt sophomore Jacob Reisen. Reisen moved from linebacker to fullback in 2009 spring practices. He has only seen action in one game during his career.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: None

Receivers

The Incumbent (MIA): Marvin McNutt, redshirt senior and two-year starter. He will be sitting out this spring, following a shoulder and thumb surgery.

The Front Runner: True junior Keenan Davis.

To date, Davis has 15 catches for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He also worked as a kick returner last season.

Davis is arguably the most most lauded Iowa receiving recruit in the Ferentz era. In 2009, Rivals ranked him as the 21st-best receiver recruit in the nation. Standing at 6'3", weighing 215 pounds and running the 40 in 4.47 seconds, he certainly has the measurables. Now, it is time for him to transfer that talent onto the playing field.

The Challengers: Redshirt freshman Kevonte Martin-Manley.

In a recent tweet, erstwhile Iowa receiver Darrell Johnson-Koulianos had this to say about "K-Mart": "Kevonte is the new DJK minus the delusional antics. he has my senior skills as a freshman. no bs. I know talent when I c it." All talk coming out of Fort Kinnick is that Manley is the real deal.

Redshirt sophomore Jordan Cotton. Cotton was also fairly lauded coming out of high school, and he is a Hawkeye legacy. His father played under Hayden Fry in the mid-80's. Thus far, Cotton has yet to see the playing field.

True sophomore Don Shumpert. Shumpert could still wind up at either safety or receiver, but right now, he is listed as a receiver. At 6'3", 185 pounds, he is another big, physical player. Last year, Shumpert saw significant time on special teams.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Iowa is decidedly lacking in this capacity, and this will be an area where true freshmen will see opportunity come August.

Tight End

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner: True senior Brad Herman.

Herman has had an up-and-down career. As a true frosh, he impressed the coaches enough to earn playing time. Then he disappeared as a sophomore.

Last season, coming out of summer practices, Kirk Ferentz was very high on him. Herman took over the second tight end spot, which, in Iowa's offense, is virtually a starter. He maintained that position throughout 2010, where he caught nine passes for 154 yards. Moreover, he was a steady blocker.

Heading into 2011, he looks to be the next in Iowa's line of NFL-worthy tight ends.

The Challengers: True sophomore C.J. Fiedorowicz. Fiedorowicz was an extremely hyped 2010 recruit. Standing at 6'7" and weighing 250 pounds, he is a matchup nightmare.

Last season, he played only in garbage time and special teams. This year, he will be expected to play a more meaningful role.

Fourth-year junior Zach Derby. Derby got his first taste of playing time in 2010. He caught one pass in garbage time and got work on special teams.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Jonathan Gimm, redshirt junior and Austin Vier, redshirt freshman.

Offensive Line

The Incumbents: Riley Reiff, LT, fourth-year junior and two-year starter.

Fourth-year junior James Ferentz, C, and fifth-year senior Markus Zusevics, RT. Both started every game last season.

The Front Runners: Redshirt sophomore Nolan MacMillan, G/T, started six games last season, but was out-of-action for much of the last half of the season due to an injury. Presumably, he has recovered, but there has been no definitive word.

Fifth-year senior Adam Gettis, LG, has three starts in his career and two last season. He was slotted to be the starting left guard when the season began, but was injured near the end of fall camp. He spent much of the season trying to get healthy, which, in turn, limited his effectiveness.

The Challengers: Juco commit Dan Heiar will compete for immediate playing time. He has been on campus since the beginning of the semester.

Iowa doesn't usually go the Juco route, so one or both of two possibilities have to be assumed: Kirk Ferentz is worried about offensive line depth, and/or the Hawkeye staff really likes what they see in Heiar.

Given that Iowa has five relatively experienced, returning offensive linemen, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was more the latter than the former.

Also, the Iowa coaches have been very high on third-year sophomore C/G, Connor Boffeli. It is highly doubtful he will push Ferentz out of the starting center spot, but he will compete for one of the starting guard spots.

Finally, fifth-year senior Woody Orne and fourth-year junior Matt Tobin could be in the mix.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Fourth-year junior Casey McMillan, third-year sophomores Drew Clark and Brett Van Sloten, and redshirt freshmen Andrew Donnal and Brandon Scherff will all look to find a place on the depth chart.

Kickers

The Incumbent: True sophomore Mike Meyer. Last season, Meyer made 82.4 percent of his field goals and he missed two extra points. 

While his misses were glaring, it should be remembered that Nate Kaeding only made 63.6 percent of his field goals in his true freshman year.

Also of note is that Meyer handled kickoff duties, and his kicks got noticeably shorter as the year wore on. He had 8 touchbacks in the first six games of the season. However, outside of four touchbacks against Northwestern (all with 20 MPH gusts at his back), he only had one in the last half of the season.

The Front Runner: None

The Challengers: Redshirt junior Trent Mossbrucker, Mossbrucker was the starting field goal kicker during his true freshman year. Then Daniel Murray hit a pretty big kick against Penn State, and Mossbrucker lost his job.

He redshirted in 2009, only to once again lose his job to Meyer in 2010. Now, Mossbrucker will look to push Meyer, both for place kicking and kickoff duties.

Also of note, redshirt freshman punter Jonny Mullings will push for the kickoff spot.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: None

Punter

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner: 22-year-old, redshirt freshman and Australian transplant Jonny Mullings. There isn't much to say about him, other than that his leg strength has become the stuff of Internet legend.

The Challenger: 6'6", fifth-year senior Eric Guthrie.

Guthrie has one punt on his stat sheet: a 32-yarder against Iowa State in 2010.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: None

Return Men

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner: In 2010, then-sophomore Keenan Davis did a good deal of work on kick returns. Unfortunately, he wasn't terribly impressive. In nine returns, he averaged almost 10 yards less per return than the regular kick returner, DJK (who had 17 returns on the season).

Nevertheless, Davis is the only player on the team with experience, and there is nobody on the team with punt returning experience (at the college football level).

The Challengers: We know that Kirk Ferentz almost always lines up a receiver as the punt returner, and he usually puts a receiver back on kickoffs. Thus, odds are pretty likely that the return man will come from the ranks of the receivers, especially with Iowa's health and depth issues at running back.

With that said, my opinion is that the return man/men will wind up being a true freshman, and/or Kevonte Martin-Manley.

We won't see the former until August, but the latter did return kicks in high school, and as his high school tape shows, he's got moves. Moreover, at 6'0", 190 pounds, he is built like a prototypical slot receiver. In other words, he is adept in space.

If Manley proves to Ferentz that he can be trusted to take care of the ball, expect him at the top of the depth chart on April 16.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: If Ferentz does not trust Manley to take care of the ball, Keenan Davis is the most likely option. McNutt would also be in the mix if he were healthy.

The cornerbacks—Prater and Hyde—are also an option.

Defensive Ends

The Incumbent: Fifth-year senior Broderick Binns. Binns started every game in 2009, but only started five in 2010. Nevertheless, he got plenty of playing time, and can certainly be expected to start in 2011.

The Front Runner: Fifth-year senior Lebron Daniel. Daniel has been patiently waiting his turn behind Adrian Clayborn. He picked up plenty of meaningful game action last season, and he will now have his opportunity to make an impression.

The Challengers: Third year sophomore Dominic Alvis. Alvis saw some garbage time action in 2010, and was creeping his way up the depth chart. He even earned some off-the-cuff praise from Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker. However, he missed the last half of the season with an injury.

Redshirt freshman Louis Trinca-Pasat. This will be Trinca-Pasat's second spring practice, as he enrolled early last season.

While it is unlikely either of them will pass Binns or Daniel on the depth chart, they could work their way into the rotation.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Fifth-year senior Joe Forgy, fourth-year junior Joe Gaglione, third-year sophomores Scott Covert and Marty Hopkins.

Defensive Tackles

The Incumbent: Fifth-year senior Mike Daniels. Certainly, the graduated Adrian Clayborn, Christian Ballard and, to a lesser degree, Karl Klug, got the press, but at times last season, Daniels looked like Iowa's best lineman.

The Front Runners: Fourth-year junior Steve Bigach and fifth-year senior Thomas Nardo.

Neither played any quality minutes in 2010, but both stayed on the depth chart all season, and have been regularly praised by the coaching staff.

The Challengers: Redshirt freshmen Carl Davis, Mike Hardy and Donavan Johnson.

All three are big players, and might make enough noise to get playing time in goal line situations, or when the coaching staff wants some bulk on the line.

This is especially true of Davis, who weighs in at 295 pounds.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: None. All current defensive tackles have a reasonable shot at putting their names on the depth chart.

Linebackers

The Incumbents: True sophomore MIKE James Morris, and fifth-year senior LEO Tyler Nielsen.

Nielsen started the first eight games of 2010, and was doing a solid job before a fractured vertebrae ended his season. Assuming he makes a full medical recovery—and all indications are that he is well on his way—he will pick up where he left off. Nevertheless, there has been no word yet on whether he will participate in spring practices.

Plans were for Morris to get into the action right away, though I'm sure there were no plans for him to start. Regardless, due to injuries, Morris did start five games, and had the fourth most tackles on the team.

The Front Runners: Fifth-year senior MIKE Bruce Davis. Davis got one start last year before a torn ACL finished his season.

I expect the Iowa coaches will do everything in their power to get their three most experienced linebackers on the field. Those three are Nielsen, Morris and Davis.

The problem is Davis is a pure MIKE and probably couldn't do very well at either of the other linebacker positions. Meanwhile, Nielsen will man the LEO. In effect, if Morris can't make the transition to WILL, then arguably the most competitive position battle on the team might be at MIKE.

With all of that said, as Davis is still only six months removed from his injury, there is still no word yet on if he will be participating in spring practices. If he is, it is unlikely he'll be involved in contact drills.

MIA: Third-year sophomore Shane Dibona, who started three games last season (one at LEO and two at WILL), will sit out spring practices due to shoulder surgery. He would have been in the mix for the starting WILL position.

The Challenger: True sophomore Christian Kirksey was the backup WILL during the Insight Bowl. Last year, he got a lot of work on special teams, and the coaches have spoken very highly of him.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Third-year sophomore Dakota Getz and redshirt freshman Jim Poggi.

Also, true sophomore Anthony Hitchens could definitely see playing time. However, while he is currently listed as a linebacker, he could wind up playing safety. 

Cornerbacks

The Incumbents: True senior Shaun Prater and true junior Micah Hyde.

Prater got all-conference nods in 2010, and will hear his name called in the 2012 NFL draft.

Meanwhile, after some early bumps, Hyde had a solid sophomore year (his first as a starter). However, it should be noted that at 6'1", 185 pounds, Hyde is physically more reminiscent of a safety than a cornerback.

Given the substantial depth the Hawks currently have at corner, and the dearth of experience Iowa has at safety, that might be something the coaches will consider.

Front Runner: None

The Challengers: Fifth-year senior Jordan Bernstine, true senior Willie Lowe, fourth-year junior Greg Castillo and true sophomore B.J. Lowery.

Castillo has three starts to his credit. Lowe has one. Bernstine has been on the verge of earning a starting position for a number of years. B.J. Lowery surpassed upperclassmen in his ascendancy up the depth chart.

In short, Iowa has experienced, talented cornerbacks. Moreover, an Iowa cornerback's primary responsibility is not allowing anybody to get behind him and being a top-notch tackler. In other words, being a glorified safety.

For that reason, two of the three Iowa corners that have made it in the NFL—Charles Godfrey, Bradley Fletcher and Amari Spievey—have gone on to become safeties (Fletcher is the exception).

Therefore, I would be shocked if at least one of Iowa's corners didn't make a move to safety. Furthermore, I'd be moderately surprised if one of Iowa's current corners doesn't wind up as the starting free safety in September.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: None

Safeties

The Incumbent: None

The Front Runner (MIA): True sophomore Tanner Miller, who spelled Brett Greenwood when Greenwood was injured for a series in the Insight Bowl, had shoulder surgery in January and might miss spring ball.

The Challengers: Of the aforementioned cornerbacks, Jordan Bernstine seems the most likely to make the switch. He is a heavy hitter, and this will be his last chance to see the playing field.

Also, depending upon how creative D-backs coach Phil Parker and D-coordinator Norm Parker want to get, I wouldn't count out a move for Micah Hyde, with B.J. Lowery taking over his corner spot.

As for current safeties that will challenge for the starting position, fifth-year senior Tom Donatell was listed as second-string strong safety on the Insight Bowl Depth chart.

Also, fourth-year juniors Nick Nielsen (Tyler's brother) and Jack Swanson will be in the mix.

All of their experience is limited to special teams and garbage time.

Finally, the aforementioned Anthony Hitchens could move to strong safety.

Filling Out the Depth Chart: Walk-ons Kyle Steinbrecher (fifth-year senior), and Collin Sleeper (fourth-year junior) will push for playing time.

Given the Hawks' history of success with walk-on safeties, I wouldn't count them out.