deacon hill

For the third straight year, we get B1G Championship Game Fee Fi Foe Film! For the second time in three years, that FFFF will be breaking down Iowa. Each year that I've analyzed Iowa tape, it seemed like we said "this is as bad as a P5 offense on a respectable team can get" and each year it's somehow gotten worse, even as the team's record is unchanged. Iowa is 10-2 and B1G West Champions this season, yet possess the 124th-ranked offense in SP+. Every narrative about them is 100% true, so get ready to cover your eyes: 

The Film: The best defense Iowa faced was PSU, but that game was back in September before all the injuries befell Iowa's offense. Given the current conditions of the unit, I had to pick a recent opponent and it was rather convenient that the B1G West defense I like the most outside of Iowa is Nebraska, who happened to play the Hawkeyes last week. So I'm rolling with the Nebraska-Iowa game, which my Nebraska football expert Daniel Thompson dubbed "the greatest football game ever played". At the very least, the most B1G West football game ever played. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Hope for Iowa this offseason hinged on the talent infusion they were getting on offense via your MICHIGAN WOLVERINES. Namely Cade McNamara at QB and Erick All at TE, who was poised to replace last year's star pass-catcher Sam LaPorta. Unfortunately for Iowa, both of those players are out for the season. Quarterbacking duties have instead fallen to Deacon Hill, a one-time 3.5* 2021 recruit of Wisconsin who transferred to Iowa back in January. I'm not sure if Hill is as bad as Spencer Petras, but he's firmly in the Spencer Petras Zone. Sub-50% completion speaks for itself, but he is far from the only problem on this offense and is not helped by the other disasters around him. 

The RB position has been missing a Dude since the likes of Akrum Wadley and Tyler Goodson departed the backfield, which remains true for this season. Leshon Williams and Kaleb Johnson get the lion's share of carries and they're mostly fine. Not good, not bad, just fine. They get what the offensive line and the scheme give them, which isn't much. They have both ripped off a few explosives this year, but on a down-to-down basis, this running game isn't terribly effective. Jaziun Patterson is the third back and I have few notes on him... he played only one snap against Nebraska. For what it's worth PFF likes him less than Williams or Johnson. As always, Iowa does have a fullback and this year's FB is the spectacularly named Hayden Large, a walk-on transfer from "Dordt University" in Sioux Center, Iowa. 

Brian Ferentz's general ineptitude gets most of the attention, but more focus should be given to the horrendous state of the Iowa wide receivers. They are arguably as big of a problem to this offense as Ferentz, incapable of getting open or catching the ball. Nico Ragaini is by far their most used receiver this season- he has a 54.9 PFF grade and I charted him for two drops against Nebraska. Kaleb Brown, a transfer from Ohio State, has become their second-most used WR in recent weeks. He's probably an upgrade over the other options like Seth Anderson and the banged up Diante Vines (not sure on his status for Saturday), but all of these guys suck. There's a reason that Erick All is still Iowa's most productive receiver a month-and-a-half after his injury. 

The other reason that All is still the most productive receiver is the injury to the equally talented TE Luke Lachey, the one good returning player off last year's Iowa offense. With both All and Lachey down for the count, Iowa has had to dip further into its endless bag of tight ends to pull out a host of names you've hopefully never heard of. The new TE1 is Addison Ostrenga, who plays nearly every snap. He's okay. The geriatric one-time Lafayette transfer Steven Stilianos is now TE2, who is probably a little worse than Ostrenga but neither guy is anything special. Those two players avoid the cyan, but TE3 and TE4 aren't so lucky, Johnny Pascuzzi and Zach Ortwerth. Those two players being weak links is not surprising when you remember the injuries to the positional group- Pascuzzi and Ortwerth started the season as TE5 and 6 on the depth chart (Ortwerth is a true freshman). If Iowa didn't make 3 TE sets a cog of their offense, you wouldn't see these players on the field. 

The decline of Iowa's offensive line has been an oft-underlooked part of the multi-year offensive calamity in Iowa City, but I actually came away more impressed with the Iowa OL than I expected to be. Consider that a statement about my extremely low expectations than anything else, as this unit is still an issue. The left side is particularly weak, LT Mason Richman (who wasn't cyan'd last year, but was in 2021) and LG Rusty Feth both getting the cyan. Injuries are a story at this positional group as well, with G Beau Stephens and C Nolan Jones injured. I haven't heard much on Stephens and Jones' status at this time. Neither are star players, with Jones likely not much different than C Tyler Elsbury, who has been starting in his place. Elsbury avoids the cyan despite being given the business against Nebraska by NT Nash Hutmacher. Hutmacher is a great player and Elsbury's PFF scores indicate that was a relative outlier, so I kept it off him. 

The right side of the line consists of RG Connor Colby and RT Gennings Dunker (we've got quite a few great names in this piece). Colby is a multi-year starter and is probably the best player on this line, while Dunker isn't bad himself. Dunker got banged up against the Huskers but it sounds like he'll be good to go on Saturday. In his place was Nick DeJong, a player I've charted for three seasons now and he's been a subpar performer every season. Iowa is much better off with Dunker at RT than DeJong. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: welp]