Kirk Ferentz said on Tuesday that he believes in traps games and says the he "thinks that's very real." Some might have predicted that Iowa come out flat, and then kick it into gear and pull away in the second half. However, the exact opposite happened. Ricky Stanzi came out on fire! Unbelievable I know, but he actually played his best in the 1st quarter. On the Hawks first 2 possessions, Stanzi hit Stross and McNutt for 33 and 41 yard touchdowns. After that point though, the whole team with the exception of maybe the wide receivers, played much worse than in the previous 3 weeks. There was absolutely no run game, Stanzi had 2 picks including a terrible interception returned for a touchdown, the pass defense gave up big chunks of yards, the linebackers had some trouble in coverage, and Lowe was picked on all game. But in the end, Iowa is 5-0 for the first time in the Ferentz era. In the past, these early season poorly played games ended up as losses (see Pitt, Northwestern, and Michigan State last year for recent examples), so it's hard to complain too much.
It has been a good week for the Iowa Hawkeyes. They beat #5 Penn State in Happy Valley on Saturday, got 3 more commits for the 2010 incoming class (N'goumou, Johnson, and Lowery), and now the Hawks pick up arguably their biggest commit of the year A.J. Derby.
In a press conference today, Derby confirmed his commitment to the Hawkeyes. He said that after watching the PSU game over the weekend with his family, he just knew it was the right place to go. Derby won't have to travel far to play for the Hawkeyes, as he currently lives in Iowa City and plays for City High. He is listed as a 4-star athlete on Rivals and is a 3-star QB on Scout. He was recruited by Iowa as a QB.
High School: Thus far this year Derby has been outstanding. There have been some doubts on his ability to play QB at the FBS level, but is stats this year speak for themselves. He is 32 of 56 for 781 yards and has thrown 7 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. That equates to a 208.4 NCAA QB rating. (For reference, Stanzi's current QB rating is just 113.4). In addition, Derby has ran the ball for 311 yards and 5 touchdowns on 37 carries. He has also led the team to a perfect 5-0 record and are currently the top ranked Class 4A school in Iowa.
As a junior, Derby led the Little Hawks in rushing and passing. He ran for 1,064 yards and 13 touchdowns on 168 carries. He also complete 77 of 136 passes for another 1,197 yards and 11 touchdowns, while throwing only 4 picks. Not to be outdone, he also had an interception, returned a kickoff for a touchdown (it was actually when the other team was trying an onside kick), handled punt return duties, and was the punter averaging 36.0 per kick (I don't think he'll be replacing Donahue). So, when people say he could be a starter at about 5 different positions, they are not kidding.
YouTubin':
You'll have to pick Derby out in this highlight video as it is for the whole team...but it's not hard. Most of the big plays were made by him. My initial reactions is on him as a runner rather than a passer. He looks like a very, very good runner. He's big and strong enough to break tackles, but his vision was also very good and he seamed plenty fast to me on several long runs.
Passing the ball, he didn't look quite a good in this video. Though it's kind of hard to tell, since most of the highlights are Derby scrambling, then making a pass down field. I didn't see much, if any, straight drop back followed by a pass. He looks pretty ideal for the play action bootleg Iowa likes to run though. He can obviously make plays with his feet if nobody's open and can pass on the run. He just needs to set his feet rather than jumping to throw the ball all the time. I've read he worked a lot on his QB mechanics over the summer and looking at his stats it's paid off, so he's probably a better passer than we see in the video from last year.
Final Thoughts: Derby is obviously a great get. He's one of the top (if not the top) high school players in the state and it's always important for the Hawkeyes to recruit the best instate talent. It's great too picking up a legacy commit (his dad played at Iowa back in the early 90s and his brother is on the team too). I think that he'll stick it out at quarterback. He'll probably redshirt in 2010, then in 2011 Stanzi will be gone and Vandeberg and Wienke will be juniors. He could probably challenge for the backup spot that year and the next, then be the starter for 2013 and 2014. And if that doesn't work out, I'm sure he'll be good wherever he plays on the field.
Stephane N'goumou was already a Hawkeye once before...almost. He committed to Iowa originally back in January and was expected to be part of the 2009 class. There was even some chatter that he might be good enough to see some playing time at receiver this year (though looking at it now, I think Iowa's plenty deep at receiver with just one true freshman, Keenan Davis, playing). But when it came time to enroll, N'Goumou ran into the dreaded clearinghouse issues and was deemed ineligible. So, he headed back out east and is now attending the Milford Academy in New York (yes, the same Milford Academy that Shonn Greene attended, though it was in Connecticut when Greene was a student).
The Milford Falcons are a run first sort of team, and N'Goumou only has 1 catch for 7 yards on the season. However, in high school he 71 catches for 1,060 yards and scored 9 touchdowns in his senior season. He also earned 2nd Team All-State in Maryland.
Anyway, it's great to see that he stayed committed to the Hawkeyes even after becoming ineligible. He's a tall (6'4") and athletic receiver and will be a great addition to the already deep pool of receivers that Hawkeyes currently have. So, welcome back Stephane!
The 2nd commit of the week is Ohioan B.J. Lowery. Lowery is the first definite defensive back in the class (Kirskey of Shumpert are listed as athletes and could end up in the secondary). He's flown under the radar so far as Scout has him a 1 star and Rivals hasn't even rated him yet.
High School: Lowery attends Hughes Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Big Red are just 1-4 on the year, but Lowery has been gaining some recognition. He is very athletic and a threat to take it to the house every time he get his hands on the ball. Hughes Center uses Lowery as a quarterback, cornerback, and a punt and kick returner.
In the past few days 3 (okay 4, check back tomorrow...hint: his name rhymes with A.J. Schnerby) players have verbally committed the Hawkeyes. The first is De'Andre Johnson, a running back from Miami, Florida. Johnson is the second running back commit joining Marcus Coker. Johnson is 2 stars on Scout and 3 stars on Rivals.
High School: De'Andre Johnson attends Monsignor Edward Pace High School (warning...the site has an awesomely bad video that auto-plays), a Catholic college prep school in Florida. The Spartans are 2-1 on the season, but have had to do a lot of work without Johnson, who torn his ACL in the second game of the year against North Miami Beach on just the 3rd play of the game. Fortunately for Johnson, he proved his merit last season rushing for 1,121 yards and 10 touchdowns as a junior. He also had 727 yards and 7 touchdowns as a sophomore.
Johnson also excelled in other sports. He won the 2A Florida state title in shot put (I swear Iowa coaches must go after shot putters) and is also an accomplished sprinter. (Power and speed?..sounds good).
YouTubin':
He looks like a pretty quick, little back. He's only 5'8" and is listed under 200 pounds...and he definitely looks a little small. But you can see that shot putter power on some of the runs and throws a mean stiff arm. The video also shows off some of his moves in traffic. He definitely has the makings of a good football players, so let's hope he recovers well from him ACL injury.