By Blake Dowson
When it seems a football team’s best opportunity to score throughout the course of a game is on punt and kick returns, there is generally a problem that needs to be addressed.
The Iowa football team is closer to that point than anyone would like to admit.
Desmond King is electric with the ball in his hands after it is kicked to him, and just about every time he catches it he’s a shoestring tackle away from breaking it.
The problem with that is simple — teams don’t have to kick the ball to King if they don’t want to.
It’s already happened on defense. King’s targets have been way down on that side of the ball, and his ability to make plays has been compromised.
“Obviously, his numbers are down from last year,” defensive coordinator Phil Parker said. “The targets haven’t been his way. I think he’s done a very decent job of where he has, and it’s probably frustrating to him.”
Without his production and ability to flip field position for Iowa — both in the kicking game and through interception returns — the Hawkeyes need to find somebody (anybody) capable of making explosive plays.
Tevaun Smith filled that role in 2015. Smith was a big-bodied receiver who had elite speed at the position. Iowa doesn’t have any of those this year.
George Kittle was a big play threat last year as as the No. 2 tight end, because most teams were concerned with possession tight end Henry Krieger Coble. Now that Kittle is the No. 1 option, he has been mostly quiet.
With the recent injury to Kittle and season-ending one to leading receiver Matt VandeBerg, quarterback C.J. Beathard has a fairly empty cupboard of capable receiving options.
“When you talk about throwing the ball, and you look at C.J., you have Tevaun Smith, who is in the NFL, Henry Krieger Coble, who is in the NFL, and then you lose VandeBerg, he had great chemistry with those guys,” offensive coordinator Greg Davis said during the bye week. “He had thrown the ball to those guys for three or four years, and everything they did, C.J. knew exactly what they were fixing to do. And so right now we don’t have that same chemistry. Especially when it gets to pushing the ball down the field.”
The Hawkeyes need to find or create something to get things moving down the field, and the bye week is the best time to do that other than the off-season.
Head coach Kirk Ferentz numerous times has shot down the idea of King getting snaps on the offensive side of the ball. As shiny as that option seems, having a player in all three phases of the game just doesn’t work in this day and age.
One idea neither Ferentz nor Davis shot down was playing both Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels at the same time during the upcoming weeks.
Wadley has been the most explosive player in the offense this season, and parts of last, and he got super involved with the passing attack against Wisconsin to the tune of 7 catches and more than 70 yards.
“We’re looking at some things. Can we get LeShun and Akrum on the field at the same time?” Davis said. “That’s one of the things that we’re looking at … where is the best combination of getting guys on the field that can come up with plays. And whether or not that’s Akrum — a package with Akrum and LeShun in the backfield at the same time … that’s what this week is all about.”
But you can only get so vertical with running backs.
Sooner or later, the wide receivers have to get involved with the offense if the Hawkeyes want to succeed.
Ferentz talked last week about the Hawkeye’s 2013 game against Michigan in which a sophomore Tevaun Smith made an acrobatic 55-yard touchdown grab that in a way jump-started his career.
As of now, guys such as Jerminic Smith and Jay Scheel have not had those moments. Freshman tight end Noah Fant hasn’t had that moment.
If Beathard wants to have any confidence in throwing the ball downfield to those young receivers, it needs to happen quickly.
Ferentz said there’s no easy solution, but that two weeks of practice in between games should help.
“We have good, young players who are getting better; they’re learning, they’re improving, and now we’ve got to get them to take the next step,” Ferentz said. “The only thing we can do is keep practicing, [keep] working, and concentrating. And our guys are doing that, they’re working hard. They’re capable. We have to get one of those breakthrough moments that would help us right now.”