hawk8645

I had to cut my post short the other night because my baby was getting fussy. I thought I'd add a few more thoughts and expand o n somethings after seeing some of the other posts. It is great to see mostly civil discussion going on here! I appreciated the info on Boffeli there Tigerbait46.
Some of my fellow Hawkeye fans are drinking too much Hawkeye koolaide on here. An 8-4 team obviously has some weaknesses.
I should have referred to the LSU D-line as having elite talent rather than being elite. They are inexperienced guys but they do have the talent. I think you guys are being a little too hard on them since LSU has had so many elite D-lines as of late. The current guys will get better with PT.
I stand by what I said of Hitchens. The guy is playing out of his mind of late and is hurting/injuring guys all over the place. Yes the Alabama LB's are great as well.
After reading a lot of these posts I want to expand upon why our safeties are so bad. They do have good athletic ability they are just not good players. The consistently bite on PA. If any skilled player with the ball meets Miller 1 on 1 in the open field they are as good as by him. Miller continues to meet guys in the open field and then go flat footed and wait for them to come to him. I'm amazed at how a three year starting SR college safety continues to do this. Obviously, he is usually left whiffing. I have seen our TR FR corner King yell at Miller numerous times before the play. Presumably Miller not doing what he is suppose to be doing. They have way too many times been playing deep zone and still had guys get behind them. Here is a nice two play stretch for Miller vs Michigan. Michigan subbed in a FR power back. He made it to Miller about ten yards down field 1 on 1. Miller stopped his feet and then went to tackle the power back high! Miller made the tackle but was run over in the process giving up another 3 - 4 yards. On the next play Gardner scrambled out of the pocket on a pass. Miller was in coverage in the end zone and saw that it looked like Gardner could run it in. He decided to leave his man and go for Gardner. I'm fine with that decision. When Miller got to Gardner he went low on him and didn't bring his feet. He didn't drive through him and throw him to the ground. While Miller was hugging Gardner around the waist Gardner was able to throw an easy TD (since Miller didn't wrap up around his arms) to the guy Miller should have been covering. I believe in that same game there was a play we were in a cover 3. We play cover 3 as: quarter, quarter, and half. Lowdermilk had the inside quarter. At the snap he turned and ran with his back to the inside of the field. He didn't see a receiver get to the inside of hime and run a post. Miller in his deep zone on the half stayed on a man running a deep out or corner. He didn't see the receiver running a post uncovered in the middle of the field. Thankfully Lowery playing quarters coverage on the far side of the field saw it and chased after him and made the tackle to avoid giving up the easy TD. Also against Michigan we were playing a zone under down on the goal on a 3rd down. Lowdermilk had Gallon in his zone. Gallon stretched Lowdermilk to the inside on his zone. Lowdermilk left him even though the guy to the inside of him already was covering a man and nobody else was a threat to come into his zone. I think these are enough example of their poor play.

Iowa Offense: We like to run a lot of 3 TE sets. We run power football and then throw to the TE's on PA. I expect a lot of this vs LSU. I wouldn't look for us to target the WR's much. With LSU having a skilled DL and poor LB's I would look for the Iowa OL to hold their blocks at the LOS a little longer before trying to get to the second level. LSU needs to crash hard to the play side to stop the run. We don't run counters! Only Canzeri has the vision and speed to cut it back on an over-pursuing defense. The LSU LB's have to stay disciplined and not let the TE's kill them on PA.

LSU offense: Stay patient and run the ball! Iowa needs to force LSU to make long drives all day. Neighbors is going to be a big key. If I were Cam Cameron I would look to make the right side my strong side and run that way. This way you run away from Hitchens and Hardy. LSU should run a lot of that quick toss off-tackle play. When in obvious pass situations LSU should go 4 wide and put Beckham in the slot to get a miss match on a LB. In those situations Iowa has developed a "Raider" package during the later part of the year. This is when he insert 1 DT, 2 rush ends, and 4 LB, and 4 DB.
Hopefully we can continue some more good civil debate and breakdowns of the upcoming game!

I'm an Iowa fan but on January 1, 2005 (cap 1 bowl) I became a fan of LSU as well. Since then they have been a second favorite team of mine. In fact; I purchased ticket for my wife and I to the LSU vs App St game in 08. We were getting back to Mobile from a cruise for our honeymoon. Unfortunately an approaching hurricane moved the game time up and we weren't able to make it to the game. I watch at least 7 LSU games every year. So, LSU is the team that I know second best.

Iowa breakdown:

QB - Rudock is a RS Soph in his first year as starter. He is very smart and has an accurate arm. He is very little threat to run. He struggles some with deep throws and throwing in the wind. We have no good depth behind him

RB - We have 4 good backs. Not great but good. 45 Weisman is a power back. He is a converted walk-on FB. 5 Bullock - decent pass catcher and blocker but, poor runner. 33 Canzeri - good all around back with speed. He goes down easy but is still our top back. For some reason he is still 3rd string. 29 Daniels - true FR power back with potential.

FB - Two decent lead blockers who have been improving.

TE - We can go 5 deep. 86 Fiedorowicz is 6-7 senior and clutch; can't break a tackle. 87 Duzey is a stud in the making. Out ran the entire OSU secondary for a long scores this year.

OL - Good overall. C Blythe is great. LG Boffeli is great and has really improved. LT Scherff is a stud but lacks consistency. RG we rotate two guys. RT Van Sloten has been solid but really struggled as a senior. He has a hard time with fast athletic guys.

WR - Poor. 11 Martin-Manley is the go to guy. 22 Powell has elite speed.

DL - Very solid and much improved. Will benefit from Alvis playing. Our DT use to sit back and pretty much spy the QB and then fail to stop him running. Our DE use to run too far up field and leave huge holes for a QB to run through. They play with good leverage.

LB - We start three SR with a ton of experience. They have played their best this season. 31 Hitchens is the best tackling and run stoping LB LSU will have faced all year.

CB -19 Lowery - big play ability but makes some poor plays. Similar to Mills. 14 King a true FR who has improved all year long. He shut down Michigan's Gallon late in the year.

S - Very poor 5 Miller SR one of the worst Safeties to start at Iowa in a long time. 37 Lowdermilk very poor as well. Both bite on PA a lot.

Special teams. K Meyer is good but poor in the clutch. P Kornbrath is poor. Kick coverage is good. KR is very poor. PR is decent.

I don't really need to tell you guys about LSU. I'll say that I think the LSU O-line is very good and under appreciated. Hill, Beckham, and Landry are three of the most talented skill guys in the country. Gallon is the only WR we have faced this year who is on the level of Beckham and Landry. Hill is similar to OSU RB Hyde. We struggled to stop him.

Key to the game: LSU OL vs Iowa DL This will be a great test for both units. Can LSU establish the run? Can they give Jennings time to throw deep against the week Iowa safeties? Can they allow LSU to not need long drives were they need to stay patient and consistent on offense?

Other keys: Will LSU give it their full effort?
Can Iowa keep improving?
Can Iowa block the elite LSU DL?

Prediction: LSU 27 Iowa 20