Punting:
Ryan Donahue is a fantastic punter. His average yards per punt (41.6) is not outstanding, but that stat does not tell the whole story. His biggest asset is the ability to place the ball inside the 20 giving the opponent tough field position. He had 19 of his 50 punts downed inside the 20. Even more astounding is that only 12 punts were returned for a total of 60 yards, accredited to the Donahue's punt's hang time. That comes out to be an average of 1.2 return yards per punt. If Donahue continues this kind of success, his name on the Ray Guy Award watch list, may turn into his name on the Ray Guy Award trophy. Donahue also handles duties as the holder for field goals and PATs. He was solid as a holder all year long and you may remember the slightly high snap on the game-winning field goal against Penn State that Donahue got down beautifully.
Placekicking:
In 2008, Daniel Murray and Trent Mossbrucker split time kicking field goals. Murray was 6-9 on FGs and 14-14 on PATs, while Mossbrucker was 13-15 on FGs and 31-33 of PATs. Murray tended to kick the longer attempts and he handled kickoffs. After the infamous kick against PSU, Murray appeared to have won the job was listed as the starter after spring practice. The latest depth chart, however, shows the two with the dreaded "OR." I think Iowa will be fine with either kicking. In the open practice 2 weeks ago, both were very good (Murray 12-13, Mossbrucker 11-13). It would just be nice if somebody flat out won the job.
Long Snapping:
I mention the long snapper because I think it's a vital role that's often overlooked, and Iowa has an excellent long snapper. Andrew Schulze handled 122 long snaps last year (that's every punt, field goal, and PAT) without a single fumbled snap or non-attempted kick.
Returning Kicks:
Last year Andy Brodell was the punt returner and Jewel Hampton and Paki O'Meara handled most of the kick offs. This year, Brodell is gone and Hampton is injured for now. There was a lot of talk about the possibilities of incoming freshman returning kicks (primarily about Brandon Wegher, but also Keenan Davis or Jordan Cotton), but the current depth chart shows Amari Spievey as the main returnman with Paki being the other on kickoffs. It seems to me the starting running back usually does not go back for kickoffs very often, so I do think there is still a strong possibility of Wegher jumping in back there. Much more interesting though is Spievey as a returner. He has huge potential there to be a game changed. And, yes, the Hawkeyes cannot afford to lose him, but his record speaks for itself. In JUCO he had 2 kickoffs returned for TDs and 2 interceptions returned for TDs. He also had a total of 65 career touchdowns in high school. The guy knows how to find the endzone.
Other thoughts:
- Special teams extraordinaire Jayme Murphy underwent back surgery and his football career is sadly over. Kirk Ferentz said that Murphy was one of the best special teams player at Iowa in the past decade. I would say the best...unless somebody can think of someone better (Tim Dwight was obviously amazing but that was just over 10 years ago).
- I think there may be some more blocked kicks this year. I know Ballard blocked a field goal and Paki had a blocked punt (there might have been more, but I can't remember), but this year there are some guys that should be able to get some good penetration. I think Broderick Binns may be one of those guys with his long arms and his quickness off the snap.
- Kirk Ferentz has mentioned a few times that he wants the kickoff return game to be more dynamic. I'll be interested who ultimately lines up to return the kicks and if Iowa can actually return one for a touchdown, something that hasn't happened since the start of the Orange Bowl.
In case you missed it, here are the season primers for the offense and the defense.