With it time to bury the 2017 season and let it sit, we can begin looking ahead at what Iowa will have to offer us at a variety of positions in 2018. We have looked at the running back position which will have a hole in it that needs to be filled. Now we will look at the linebacker position which could have some holes in it as well.
The departure of senior’s Josey Jewell, Ben Nieman, and Bo Bower is going to leave a sizeable gap in the Hawkeye defense in 2018. They are going to miss the playmaking ability of those three players. Both, especially Jewell, influenced games that rare defenders will have, and he was a very important part of Iowa’s defense since he came to the school. His partner, Nieman, was a very key piece to the puzzle that was the Hawk’s linebacking corps. Bowers was a playmaker that will be missed.
Now some adjustments must be made. But how will they be made and who can they be made with?
Heading into the 2018 season the Hawkeyes have 11 linebackers plus an additional four that have signed letters of intent to come to the University. That leaves the Hawks with 15 possibilities at linebacker going into the 2018 season. But these guys are going to have a lot of work to do to replace the three starters Iowa lost.
Here are the players that the Hawkeyes currently have on the roster at linebacker: Seniors: Jack Hockaday, Aaron Mends, Jacob Sobotka; Juniors: Amani Jones, Michael Oiemudia, and Kristian Welch; Sophomores: Ben Campos, Nick Neiman, Kyle Taylor, Barrington Wade and Nate Weiland. The newly signed guys include Dillon Doyle, Logan Klemp, Jayden McDonald and Seth Benson.
Which of these players is going to have the honor of starting at linebacker this year? It’s tough to tell because we don’t know what there was behind the three stars that just graduated.
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The Hawkeyes recently released their spring game roster and they have the following players listed as starters at the linebacker spots: The weakside starter is senior Aaron Mends, the starter at middle linebacker is Kristian Welch and the starter the outside or strongside is Nick Niemann.
Some seem to think that Welch has what it takes to take over for Jewell at the middle linebacker position. Welch comes in at 6’3” and weighs 232 pounds. That is a good size for a middle linebacker. But size isn’t everything when it comes to the position.
Mends should be able to play the weakside linebacker spot. He comes in at 6’0” and weighs 227 pounds.
Niemann is the youngest of the group as he is only a sophomore. He stands 6’4’in and weighs 225 pounds. He’s the biggest of the group and perhaps the strongest.
There had been talk of moving a healthy Brandon Snyder over to the strong or weak side linebacker spot and let Jake Gervase take over his safety spot. That’s a tall order for someone who has been injured as often as Snyder. What this could signal is that the coaching staff is leading on that they don’t have a lot of confidence in their current crop of linebackers.
Hopefully, Iowa’s coaching staff will be able to find the right combination of talent at the linebacker position so that they won’t suffer a big drop off this year. That means that they must find the guys that will play the position well.
But who will step up?
The spring game will be coming up soon, and we will get a chance to see which players are going to step up and play well for the Hawks. Maybe then we will get an idea of which players in the stable of talented linebackers will step up. It will be interesting to see who Kirk Ferentz puts in and tries out and how each player plays.
This writer will be present at the spring game and will report what happened at the linebacker position.
The Iowa Hawkeyes cannot allow this to be a point of weakness for them next season. They must do what they can to ensure that this position is in good shape. They need to be sure that the players that they put back there are going to do a good job. Consider this a critical position for the 2018 season and one that everyone should keep an eye on.