Iowa Football: Who will fill Ike Boettger’s shoes?

Iowa lost their senior right tackle Ike Boettger for the season to an Achilles injury suffered during their overtime win in Ames, Iowa over the weekend. Boettger has been a key piece of the offensive line the last three seasons, replacing him will be no easy task.

However, the depth of Iowa’s offensive line should be able to soften the blow.

Iowa finished the Iowa state game with starting right guard Sean Welsh moving out to tackle, left guard Keegan Render shifting over to right guard and junior Ross Reynolds, who started the Wyoming game, stepping in at left guard. Iowa will use that lineup at times, but with senior Boone Myers approaching 100% after being limited the first two weeks with a high ankle sprain, and four star true freshman Tristan Wirfs  practicing with the second unit at right tackle, the offensive line  rotation could see more shakeups in the coming weeks.

Kirk Ferentz had this to say about Wirfs in his press conference on Tuesday: “I think (Boettger’s injury) just pushes him forward. We’ve been leaning in that direction anyway, so right now we just have to plan like he will play at some point”. It would be a bit of a surprise if Wirfs became the full-time starter at right tackle this early in the year, but it sounds like he’ll be getting on the field sooner rather than later.

It’s also unlikely that Welsh moves out to tackle full-time, or that Myers moves to RT after playing every snap of his college career up to this point on the left side of the line.

Most teams only play their five starters throughout the course of a game, but it looks like Iowa will be rotating as many as seven different players on the line, with center James Daniels being the only player to take 100% of the snaps at the same position.

Welsh and a healthy Meyers will likely take 100% of snaps as well, but their time will be split between guard and tackle. Juniors Render and Reynolds will see regular time at guard while freshmen Wirfs and Alaric Jackson figure to get plenty of time at tackle.

For the time being, I would expect Iowa to keep Alaric Jackson as the primary left tackle after two solid performances, with Boone Meyers taking over for Reynolds at left guard. Meyers has an abundance of experience at left tackle, so if Jackson struggles Brian Ferentz won’t hesitate to shift Meyers out to LT and insert Reynolds at guard.

Render will shift over to right guard while the four year starter Welsh will have to step up as the team’s primary right tackle. There’s little doubt that the coaching staff is pulling for Wirfs to speed up his learning curve, which would allow Welsh to move back inside more often.

Will Wirfs be ready to take over at right tackle sooner than we thought? If so, what happens to Render? Could Render/Jackson/Reynolds possibly push the decorated Boone Meyers out of the rotation if he can’t return to full health?

There’s no telling yet what will happen with the offensive line for the rest of the 2017 season, but one thing’s for certain, it won’t be boring.