Secondary

I'll start off with the good news first. Despite losing both starting safeties, Iowa's defensive backfield looks pretty strong. Prater looked good in practice. I only remember one time any quarterback throwing in his direction and he had great coverage but Keenan Davis made an even greater catch. I think Prater pretty much looked down his side of the field otherwise.

The opposite starting corner was Greg Castillo. It has been a long time since Castillo saw significant game time (the start of the 2009 season when Prater was suspended), but he played well on Saturday. He had a near pick off of a poor throw into traffic from Vandenberg. And then followed it up just 3 plays later with an INT.

The other corners that saw time were B.J. Lowery and Jordan Bernstine. Lowery had an interception of his own (which I guess has been a common thing this spring according to Norm Parker [pdf]). I think he has a little bit of work to do still if he wants to challenge for a starting spot. Steven Staggs was getting open a lot on Lowery's side of the field.

I think Bernstine will finally get on the field this year and see significant minutes. The coaches just need to figure out where he fits. He played pretty well backing up Prater at corner and also looked good at safety. There was one rushing play that stuck in my head where he flew down to the line of scrimmage and laid a good hit on the running back. I think safety, but we'll see.

As for the other safeties...Hyde seemed decent back at free safety. I never saw him way out of position or anything but don't recall him making any big plays. Similarly Collin Sleeper looked decent as well, but didn't stand out to me at all.

Quarterbacks

As expected Vandenberg is the clear starter at this point. Even in the simple passing drills he looked head and shoulders better than Wienke and Derby. He struggled a little going up against the first team defense though, especially when they blitzed. He got more comfortable as practice went on, and was really picking the 2nd team defense apart before a tipped ball ended in an interception and ended practice.

The pleasant surprise of the day at QB was that Derby has really taken a big step forward since we saw him last. Though Ferentz said that Derby and Wienke are even at this point , Derby looked much better in practice. During the situation scrimmage portion Derby was 5/7 for 73 yards. His only incompletions were a throw away and a catch out of bounds.

Wienke was okay on Saturday, but seemed to be affected by the wind more than the others. He was badly overthrowing receivers early in the practice, but got better towards the end. He was also the 3rd string punter and the holder for field goals. His punts actually looked kind of decent. The first one only went about 35 yards, but his second was a solid 45-yarder. He may be a good option for a pooch punter. It seems completely un-Ferentz like, but maybe he could come in as the punter and throw it on a fake in one of the early games just to keep teams honest the rest of the season.

I have plenty of thoughts to share on the spring game, but for now here are all the statistics I gathered from today. My notes were kind of hard to read and I struggled a little to get accurate stats while trying to enjoy watching the team, take photos, and not freeze...but they should be pretty close. Here's what I got:

7-on-7 (I didn't get yardage on these plays...the majority were short, check-down passes)

Passing:

• Vandenberg - 4/5 (the 1 miss was a drop by Fiedorowicz)
• Wienke - 4/5 (Had one nice 35-yard pass to Davis who made a diving catch)
• Derby - 2/5 (Tried to go deep a couple of times and overthrew his receivers)

Receiving:

• Coker - 1 reception
• White - 1 reception
• Gimm - 1 reception
• Meyers - 1 reception
• Binns - 2 receptions
• Staggs - 1 reception (nice route up the seam)
• Johnson - 1 reception
• Davis - 1 reception (the 35-yard pass from Weinke)
• Derby - 1 reception (nice little short route by Derby)

One last reminder: the spring game/scrimmage/open practice is tomorrow at noon. Doors open at 10:30 and remember to bring a canned good.

Norm and KOK speak

It's not too often that we get to hear from the coordinators, but when we do it is always enjoyable. Ken O'Keefe, who I know is not always the favorite, is absolutely fascinating to listen to. He is a little more candid that Ferentz and drops a lot of knowledge and insight into how he works with his offensive players, particularly the quarterbacks. Plus he is a pretty funny dude.

Some highlights from the pressers:

Parker (Full Transcript [pdf])

• "Wow" players - B.J. Lowery, Christian Kirksey, Anthony Hitchens, and James Morris
• Carl Davis - A 300 pound dude that can dunk a basketball but can't dance. (He hurt his knee during Dance Marathon).
• Hyde to FS - The move is necessarily permanent and Tanner Miller was the original thought at free safety. Miller's out after undergoing shoulder surgery, so in comes Hyde. They at least want his as Miller's backup if not the starter.
• Offensive standouts - C.J. Fiedorowicz, Keenan Davis, and Don Shumpert
• Vandenberg - O'Keefe talked a lot about Vandenberg. He knows the system, studies film, corrects mistakes, is a good leader, etc... A lot of good praise from the QB coach.

Micah Hyde

The past few years Iowa has used a receiver as the primary punt returner. Andy Brodell and Colin Sandeman had some success at the position, didn't really make mistakes, but other than Brodell's game clinching TD against Iowa State neither were too flashy. Micah Hyde has a chance to change that.

As a defensive back, Hyde hasn't had the chance to get the ball in his hands very often. But when he did, good things happened. None was bigger than his fourth quarter interception against Missouri in the Insight Bowl. After the pick, he weaved his way through the Tigers and returned the ball 72 yards for the winning score.