By Jordan Hansen | [email protected]
Between now and Jan. 1, 2016, the Iowa football team has quite a bit to prepare for against the Stanford offense.
The most obvious piece, of course, is the Stanford running game, led by Christian McCaffery. An extremely dynamic player, the Heisman runner-up led his team in both receiving and rushing this season.
McCaffery is a smooth route runner and has excellent hands. A viable comparison for Iowa fans might be former Northern Iowa running back David Johnson, now in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals.
The Hawkeye defense will have its hands full with McCaffery, especially in the passing game. Iowa is better at the linebacker position than it was last year, but pass-catching backs can do plenty of harm against them.
Interestingly enough, McCaffery doesn’t actually lead the team in rushing touchdowns. That honor goes to 5-9, 205-pound running back Remound Wright, who has 13 to McCaffery’s 8. Wright is often used as a short-yardage running back, and he has just the fifth-most rushing yards for Stanford this season.
Complicating matters, McCaffery is also an extremely talented runner with excellent field vision. He is great at cutting and is explosive as he comes through the hole. Whenever McCaffery is on the field, Iowa is going to have to key in on him before anyone else.
With that said, simply slowing him down won’t stop Stanford. The Cardinal have a talented, veteran quarterback in senior Kevin Hogan. He led the Pac-12 in pass efficiency this season, completing 194-of-283 passes for 24 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions.
Hogan also has a knack for running the ball and is the team’s third leading rusher with 312 yards.
However, he doesn’t exactly have a ton in the way of help from his group of receivers. Senior wideouts Michael Rector and Devon Cajuste have combined for 58 receptions and 861 yards, but outside of them, the production is spread pretty evenly.
Six different players have 2 or more receiving touchdowns, and eight players have more than 10 receptions.
This won’t be a game in which Iowa can shut down one part of the opponent’s offense at another part’s expense. Hogan is good enough to hurt Iowa if the team starts trying to continually go after McCaffery. To add another wrinkle, the Hawkeyes haven’t seen a whole lot this season, Stanford loves to use tight ends.
Junior Austin Hooper leads the group and has the third-most receptions (31) to go along with 6 touchdowns. He’ll give Iowa’s linebackers a challenge in pass coverage.
With that said, if Iowa’s defense plays near the caliber it did against Michigan State, it will be fine. Many of the things the Cardinal like to do (i.e., run the ball and use play action) won’t be far from what the Hawkeyes try to do on the other side of the ball.
As always for the Hawks, forcing its opponent into turnovers and punts will go a long ways to their winning. Stopping the run will be important, but the Hawkeyes can’t sell out to do so.
Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker will need to find balance in how he wants to stop the Stanford attack, and if he can do that, the Hawkeyes just might walk out with their third Rose Bowl win.
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