The Hawkeyes will show off their new offense and quarterback alongside their experienced offensive and defensive lines in the season-opener.
By Courtney Baumann
It’s here.
Fewer than 24 hours stand between the Iowa football team and the long-awaited first game of the 2017 season.
While the Hawkeyes have been criticized in the past for having a weak nonconference schedule, Wyoming will be no walk in the park.
Having the prospective No. 1 draft pick in quarterback Josh Allen, the Cowboys averaged 436.1 yards of offense in 2016 — 207 on the ground and 229.1 through the air.
Allen is a gunslinging junior who threw for 3,203 yards and 28 touchdowns last season, and he has been compared to the likes of Eli Manning and Joe Flacco.
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The quarterback adds another threat with his running game, too. Allen was the No. 2 rusher for the Cowboys last season, carrying the ball 142 times for 523 yards and 7 more touchdowns.
“The way he can play, he can damage you in a lot of ways,” Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell said. “We know he’s a good quarterback. He’s able to run, he’s able to throw the ball, too. We have to be ready for anything to happen, especially with him.”
Luckily for Iowa, it has the best defensive line that defensive coordinator Phil Parker said he has coached as coordinator.
After being in the position since 2012, that’s pretty high praise considering the Hawkeyes had a perfect regular season in 2015.
“With Anthony Nelson, Matt Nelson, Parker Hesse, and AJ [Epenesa] — I think those guys are a good rotation,” Parker said. “We’ve got four or five guys there, we have three or four guys inside that can play, I think it’s the best we’ve been up front as a whole since I’ve been the coordinator here.”
Though the defensive and offensive lines are packed with experienced players, there will be some new things for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa will début its new offense for the first time against another team under first-year offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.
Ferentz, who was the offensive-line coach for five years before taking over the entire offense in January, has worked to integrate a new offensive system for the team during the spring and summer camps.
This will start with Nate Stanley, who the coaching staff finally announced this week would start at quarterback.
