By Blake Dowson
The 2015 Iowa football team came up with a lot of surprising story lines.
It was surprising that quarterback C.J. Beathard stepped in and was immediately one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten. The offensive line, which lost All-American and Outland Award recipient Brandon Scherff, turned into a strength for the team, opening some eyes.
But the linebackers, featuring one returning starter in sophomore Josey Jewell, new starter sophomore Ben Niemann, who was deemed undersized to play the position, and senior Cole Fisher, who had been a perennial special-team player, were probably the biggest surprise of all.
Jewell became an All-Big Ten performer during his sophomore campaign with his 126 tackles, Niemann proved his combination of size and speed made him a unique talent, and Fisher was as steady as any of them with 116 tackles.
Fisher is gone to graduation, but Jewell and Niemann return to man the backside of the box in 2016 and seem set to improve upon last season.
The season Jewell had last year was truly one of the greats by an Iowa linebacker, and the Hawkeye coaching staff never has a bad thing to say about the player. In every sense, he has become the epitome of what Hawkeye football stands for: blue collar, hard-working guys that don’t look at the number of stars they receive in recruiting to determine how good they are going to be.
Defensive coordinator Phil Parker, who knows Jewell and the rest of the linebacking corps as well as anybody, said the success his middle linebacker had last season wasn’t a surprise — it was the fruit of many days of labor.
“Josey didn’t surprise me at all last year,” Parker said. “The more you’re around him, the more you see him, he’s a guy who has a natural instinct seeing the ball, and he knows how to run to the ball at the proper angle, and sometimes, that’s hard to teach.”
Jewell is about as reliable as they come on the football field, and his steadying influence earned him captain’s honors this season, something not normally handed out to juniors.
As steady and secure as Jewell is, the weak side position has about as much clarity as the Iowa River after a storm. It seems to be Aaron Mends’ job to lose heading into the fall. Mends, a converted running back, is one of the most physically gifted players on the team. It is the mental side of the game that he is yet to fully grasp, and he admits that’s what has kept him off the field at times in the past.
“I feel like I’ve come a long way compared to when I first got here,” Mends said. “I was an offensive guy. Defense was like a foreign language to me, but now that I’ve grown up a little bit and had some great mentors to help me out, I’ve been able to elevate my game.”
If Mends does get the hang of the nuances of the position, he could be the best of the bunch. His body, speed, and pure athletic ability are special.
So, too, is the skillset of Niemann, who emerged as a key player on the defense a year ago. The Sycamore, Illinois, native proved he was reliable covering backs out of the backfield in the flat, something that the linebackers struggled with all too much during the 2014 season.
Niemann is almost a hybrid-type linebacker, able to cover guys coming out of the backfield or taking on an offensive lineman in run support.
“You have to be able to move like a defensive back, but you have to be up on the line of scrimmage and be physical as well, so it’s a mold of different things,” Niemann said.
The Hawkeyes also bring back another backer with experience in Bo Bower. The former walk-on started as a redshirt freshman and played in eight games as a sophomore last season. He has taken snaps at all three linebacker positions and adds to the versatility of the group.
After all of the questions surrounding the group heading into the 2015 season, it’s the exact opposite as the 2016 campaign starts. The Iowa linebackers are one of the best units on the team, and the physicality they bring sets the tone for the entire defense.
Follow @BRDowson on Twitter for Iowa football news, updates, and analysis.