Iowa’s two healthy fullbacks have brought something a little extra to Iowa’s offense this season.
By Jordan Hansen
Midway through the first quarter in Iowa’s Oct. 31 game against Maryland, LeShun Daniels Jr. lined up behind fullback Macon Plewa with the ball on the 1-yard line.
Hawkeye quarterback C.J. Beathard put tight end Jake Duzey in motion to the right, and as soon as he was in position, took the snap. Duzey proceeded to pick up a corner flowing in off the edge, leaving Plewa to pick up an advancing linebacker.
It was a short-yardage play with little room to do much, but Plewa made a decent block on the Maryland linebacker, giving Daniels just enough room to squeeze by. As Daniels passed, the Terrapin linebacker disengaged from Plewa, but by then, it was too late.
The fullback simply pushed and fell with both players into the end zone. The Hawkeyes had their first touchdown of the day. It wasn’t flawless or pretty, but gritty and enough to get the job done — a play encompassing of what Iowa’s two fullbacks have been doing all season long.
“The fullback is kind of an eraser in our offense,” Iowa’s other fullback, Adam Cox said. “Either there’s a linebacker in there that we have to knock out of the way, or if someone makes a mistake, we’re there to clean it up.”
And oh, how they do.
Cox and Plewa have delivered plenty of blows to opposing players this season. Iowa boasts the second-best rushing offense in the Big Ten, something that has the duo’s fingerprints all over it.
Iowa uses its fullbacks in about half of the team’s plays during an average game, though that depends heavily on the level of competition and game situation. Over the last three games, for example, head coach Kirk Ferentz has called for a fullback to be inserted into the game on 41-of-61 fourth-quarter plays.
This season, the Hawkeyes have had the luxury of having to run out the clock. One of the most consistent ways to move the ball forward is to add an extra blocker in the backfield and run down the other team’s throat. Whether it’s blasting a linebacker or simply pushing the pile forward, their job is to do whatever dirty work needs to be done.
“Macon gets in there, Cox gets in there, they open holes,” running back Akrum Wadley said. “It’s really them — with the offensive line — that lighten the load for us.”
While “spreading” teams out to make running lanes easier to find for running backs is all the rage in college football these days, Iowa’s offense is quite different.
Fullbacks and tight ends are used to play matchup games with the linebackers on the opposing defense. Offensive linemen also pull to create even more matchup issues for other teams. When combined with the bulk of a fullback or tight end, they can wreak havoc.
Put another way, instead of creating more space, the attempt is to make a wall of humanity that overwhelms the defense. Iowa’s offense line has done a nice job this season of pushing defenders out of the way and making holes, but sometimes a bit of extra “oomph” is needed.
In come the fullbacks, who have to be as aggressive and mechanically sound as anyone on the field. If they aren’t, injuries are common, and the walk-ons (who usually are the ones to accept the role of fullback) are aplenty.
“You have to have leverage, you have to know leverage, you have to be able to use your hands,” Cox said. “There’s a lot more than people think, sometimes.”
In fact, both fullbacks were injured last year, making life difficult for Iowa’s offense. Coach Kirk Ferentz has noted that it was one of the biggest stories, at least to him, during the 2014 season was the lack of two solid college fullbacks.
The difference between this year and last has been most noticeable in rushing situations of 3 yards or shorter on third down. This season, Iowa is converting nearly 68 percent of the time in those instances; last season, it did so at a 58.6 percent.
Of course, Mark Weisman, a fullback playing running back, fit perfectly in those plays — hence the respectable mark — but it should say something that the 185-pound Wadley has converted three-of-four in that situation that season.
Why?
That success starts with the fullbacks, who are in on nearly every short-yardage situation. In one of the group’s best performances of the year, against Northwestern on Oct. 10, four rushing touchdowns were scored from 14 yards or fewer. Each time, there was a fullback making a critical block on the play.
“They’re not afraid to start from 5 yards back and run head-on into a linebacker,” offensive lineman Sean Welsh said. “They’re very physical guys.”
With how tough they’re reputed as being, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are also some of the most respected players on the team. Both Cox and Plewa came to Iowa as walk-ons and had to earn a spot on the roster.
Beyond that, neither started off playing offense. The two began playing linebacker, and when they realized they would never see time there, they took on the challenge of becoming fullbacks.
“They’re great team leaders … widely respected,” Ferentz said. “Part of it’s because their stories are walk-on guys who are tough, hard-nosed guys, played defense, slipped over a couple of springs ago, and ever since then, they’ve done a lot of good things to help our football team.”
Both players appreciate the role they have been given and don’t seem to mind the bit of extra pressure it takes.
“Every year, you get older, and the younger guys start looking up to you. It’s kind of weird, really,” Cox said. “You feel like you were one of those younger guys just one or two years ago. You have a lot of guys looking up to you, so you have to do the right things at the right times.”
It may seem cliché, but unselfishness is a huge part of a fullback’s game, and he — perhaps better than any other player — exemplifies what it means to be a team player.
After all, if it were stats the pair sought, the two have looked in the wrong place. While Iowa checks down to its fullbacks on occasion, the pair has a combined 9 catches for 42 yards over the last two years.
Neither has a carry this season, and neither has a touchdown to his name. However, they have been the lead blockers for six scores over the past two games.
“We do anything we can to help this team,” Cox said. “I think a lot of people could do it — just run into people — but I think to be a good fullback, you have to understand technique and, honestly, the whole concept of the offense to excel at it.”