Hawkeye football offense preview: A new QB with plenty of targets
Spencer Petras is taking over under center for Iowa this season. Surrounding him are a variety of playmakers that could create a potent offense for the Hawkeyes in 2020.
Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras makes a pass during a football game between Iowa and Middle Tennessee State at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, September 28, 2019. The Hawkeyes defeated the Blue Raiders, 48-3.
September 30, 2020
The Hawkeye football team finished the 2019 season with 10 wins, the most for the program in a single season since 2015. Had Iowa’s offense produced more in some of the team’s most critical games — it may have won more.
In Iowa’s three losses last season, all against ranked Big Ten teams, it averaged only 12.3 points per game. The Hawkeyes’ three losses against Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin were by a combined 14 points. Overall, the team averaged 25.8 points per game and throughout the season had trouble finishing drives with touchdowns in the red zone.
However, the offense did have its bright spots last season. The unit had its best performance of the season in a 49-24 victory over USC in the Holiday Bowl. And the encouraging thing for Hawkeye fans? Several prominent players on this side of the ball are back in the Black and Gold in 2020, starting with Iowa’s Oct. 24 opener at Purdue.
Quarterback
Goodbye, Nate Stanley. Hello, Spencer Petras.
The sophomore signal caller has been talked up throughout the offseason. Head coach Kirk Ferentz has said that, starting in December, Petras looked like a quarterback that was capable of leading a team in the Big Ten.
There are still plenty of questions as to whether that will be the case when he actually takes the field.
Redshirt freshman Alex Padilla is projected to be Petras’ backup.
Running back
For most of last season as a true freshman, Tyler Goodson was caught in the clog of Iowa’s running back rotation, sometimes only touching the ball six or seven times in a game.
In Iowa’s final four games of the season, Goodson was the team’s lead back.
As a starter in Iowa’s victory over the previously-undefeated Minnesota Golden Gophers on Nov. 11, Goodson ran for 94 yards on 7.2 yards per carry, including a 10-yard scamper into the endzone at the end of the first quarter to put Iowa up 13-0.
Goodson continued to get touches in the final three games of the season, and ran for a career-high 116 yards against Nebraska in the regular-season finale.
The Suwanee, Georgia, native should continue to be the focal point of Iowa’s rushing attack in 2020, but there are other experienced backs behind Goodson on the depth chart. Senior Mekhi Sargent led Iowa in rushing yards in 2018, and junior Ivory Kelly-Martin has over 100 rushing attempts and a 4.5 yards per carry average in his career.
Wide receiver
This position group has been one of the headlines surrounding this Hawkeye team throughout the offseason. Iowa’s wide receiving corps is maybe as good as the program has ever had.
Smith-Marsette and Tyrone Tracy averaged 16.4 yards per receptions last season and bring an explosive element to Iowa’s passing attack. At 6-foot-2, Brandon Smith became a go-to target for Stanley to lob a ball up to and allow Smith to go up-and-over the defender. Nico Ragaini is a reliable target over the middle of the field and led the Hawkeyes in receptions (46) last season.
As Smith-Marsette said in May, Iowa’s offense, including its passing attack, has “everything we need.”
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Tight end
Sam LaPorta only caught 15 passes as a freshman last season, but Hawkeye fans have high expectations for him going into 2020.
Like Goodson, LaPorta started getting more involved in the offense as the season went on. All of his receptions came in Iowa’s final six games of the season. In the Holiday Bowl, the 6-foot-4, 249-pounder caught six passes for 44 yards. He’ll be the No. 1 tight end for the Hawkeyes in 2020.
Along with LaPorta, senior Shaun Beyer is projected to also be on the field in a two-tight end set. True freshmen Elijah Yelverton and Luke Lachey may find some time in the rotation as well, as could redshirt freshman Josiah Miamen.
Offensive line
Tristan Wirfs is on to the NFL, leaving an opening to fill at Iowa’s right tackle position. There are a lot fewer questions surrounding the left side of the Hawkeye offensive line.
Senior Alaric Jackson opted to return to Iowa for his senior season and is entering his fourth year as Iowa’s starting left tackle.
Another certainty up front for the Hawkeyes is center Tyler Linderbaum, who as a redshirt freshman last season solidified himself as one of the best players in the Big Ten at his position.
Who ends up starting for Iowa at left and right guard is less certain. Kyler Schott and Mark Kallenberger are the favorites. Schott was forced into the lineup early in the season, then missed five games with a foot injury. Kallenberger started five games at guard last season, including the Holiday Bowl, when he played every snap at left guard. Cole Banwart, Justin Britt, and Cody Ince are other linemen likely in competition to start at guard.
Kallenberger, at 6-5, 290 pounds, could also find himself replacing Wirfs at right tackle. But the more likely pick to take on that responsibility is Indiana graduate transfer Coy Cronk, who was a captain for the Hoosiers and has started 40 games in his career.
