Iowa football: AJ Epenesa could break single-season sack record

A.J. Epenesa registered 10.5 sacks last season as a part-time player. He has a great chance to break the Iowa football single-season sack record in 2019.

Former five-star recruit A.J. Epenesa has been everything the Iowa football team could have wanted when he signed his letter of intent back in February 2017. He’s been a part-time player through his first two seasons but has still managed to rack up 15.0 sacks (10.5 in 2018) and 22.0 tackles for loss.

He’s a lock for a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft if he chooses to depart Iowa City after this season. However, he could significantly boost his stock into the top 5 if he can break the Iowa single-season sack record set by Leroy Smith in 1991 (18.0).

This season, Epenesa will be a starter which means more opportunities but it also means more attention given by opposing offensive lines. He’s going to see a fair amount of double teams just like Adrian Clayborn did in 2010 after putting up monster numbers the year before.

However, the rest of the defensive line this season is arguably better than 2010’s defensive line, so double-teaming Epenesa will only work for so long. Doing the math, 18.5 sacks is approximately 1.4 sacks per game (including the bowl game). He’s already shown that he’s capable of putting up more than 1.0 sack per game on a couple of occasions last year.

He’s a year older now and more experienced. Epenesa is not going to sneak up on teams this season but he’s just too dominant of a player to be completely shut down for 60 minutes. I expect Iowa defensive coordinator, Phil Parker, to make the most of what is likely to be Epenesa’s final season in a Hawkeye uniform.

I’ve said before that Epenesa could see a drop-off in production this season due to being double-teamed, but after giving it more thought, this could be the best front-seven that Iowa has ever put out on defense.