Iowa football is finally here, and the Hawks took down NIU in game one of the 2018 season. Which players stood out during the 33-7 win in Iowa City?
Despite winning 33-7, the game wasn’t as easy the score may suggest. The University of Iowa football team rallied in the second half to outscore NIU 30-7 in the remaining thirty minutes of play.
If you weren’t able to watch the game we’ve got you covered with our quick recap of the game along with coverage of the Kirk Ferentz becoming the winningest head coach in Iowa football history.
The first thing to realize in Saturday’s win is that there were a lot of things that need to be improved heading into next week’s game versus the Cyclones. There were a few players, however, who stood out during this win.
What is shocking about who stood out is that there are a few we expected to consistently be on this list who did not play their best Saturday. Quarterback Nate Stanley and tight end Noah Fant come to mind. The game of football, however, is not won with one or two good players, and there were many guys who stepped up their game to help the Hawks bring home the first victory of the season.
Who are those three guys you ask? Let’s find out.
TJ Hockenson
If you decided to skip the intro and head straight to the five player that stood out, you may have thought this was Fant. If you watched the game or read the intro, you would know that was not possible. Despite the preseason hype, it was TJ Hockenson, not Fant who had an outstanding game against the Huskies.
Hockenson led the Hawkeyes in receptions and receiving yards. In fact, he accounted for nearly half of the total receiving yards for the Hawks. For the day, he finished with four receptions and 64 yards receiving.
Although those numbers are solid, not spectacular, what really stood out about Hockenson’s play was his ability to hang on to the ball. It seemed like with each of his catches, he was taking big shot after big shot and didn’t let go of the ball once. In a day when Nate Stanley couldn’t get on the same page with most of his receiving core, Hockenson became the go to guy.
This isn’t to say Fant had a bad day or that maybe the Huskies game planned to take Fant out of the game leaving Hockenson open, but Hockenson took advantage either way. With Brian Ferentz’s experience running two tight end sets from his days with the Patriots, I am really excited to see how Hockenson continues to develop his connection with Nate Stanley.
Parker Hesse
To be honest, a number of defensive linemen could have been considered in this spot. The pass rush was tenacious, clutch, and a huge reason the Iowa football team didn’t allow a point until the end of the game. The standout from this group of standouts, though, is Parker Hesse.
Hesse, a redshirt senior out of Waukon, Iowa is in his fourth season as a full-time, unquestioned starter. Four year starters are not common in the Iowa football program if that provides any indication for how special Hesse really is. If Saturday’s performance showed anything, it’s that teams should be worried about #40.
Despite only getting four sacks last year, Hesse took down Northern Illinois’ Marcus Childers twice in the game. The first sack came on 3rd and 13 at the NIU 44 with Hesse tackling Childers for a three yard loss and forcing a punt.
The second sack came in the middle of the third quarter with Iowa up ten on the Huskies. With 2nd and 4 at the NIU 34, Hesse knocked the Huskies back another 10 yards. This set up an opportunity for the pass rush to relentlessly attack on third down. Kristian Welch would take advantage of this opportunity forcing a fumble when sacking Childers on third and long.
Although sacks are a fantastic statistic to measure pass rushers, the play that stood out was late in the first quarter. Hesse was double-teamed by two Huskies linemen, yet managed to blow up the play and take down the back before he could cross the line of scrimmage.
This kind of effort is what Hawkeye fans love to see from Ferentz led teams and is just one of the reasons Hesse received the Team Hustle Award on defense back in 2016.
Toren Young
Toren Young came into the game number two on the depth chart after spending almost the entire offseason as the lead back in waiting after the departure of Akrum Wadley. After an intense battle against Ivory Kelly-Martin, however, Young fell to number two.
In his limited time in the game on Saturday, however, you couldn’t tell who was the lead back. Despite receiving half of the carries as Kelly-Martin, Young rumbled his way to 22 yards more than the current lead back.
In eight rushing attempts, Young gained 84 yards and scored one touchdown including a 40 yard run early in the third with the Hawks only up 10-0.
Similar to Hesse, though, it wasn’t just the stats the were impressive, it was how he accumulated the stats. The redshirt sophomore out of Madison, Wisconsin showed patience, vision, and power in collecting his yards. Furthermore, his runs were a huge spark to the life of the offense.
It will be interesting to see how the workload is distributed going forward. Ivory Kelly-Martin couldn’t get much going on the ground, but has big play potential that warrants snaps. Young, meanwhile, isn’t typically the home run threat, but is a bruiser who is going to fall forward consistently.
Honorable Mention
As mentioned above, multiple guys stood out on the defensive line including Anthony Nelson and former five-star recruit AJ Epenesa. Nelson came up with Iowa’s first sack early in the second quarter which ultimately led to a Huskie punt.
Epenesa, meanwhile, had a forced fumble sack on 3rd and 8. Iowa recovered, and this set up a quick 26-yard scoring drive to put the Iowa football team up 24-0 early in the fourth.
In the secondary, Amani Hooker was all over the field. Although he made a few mistakes he did have five tackles and a red zone interception on a underthrown ball. This stunted another potential scoring drive for the Huskies late in the second.
Lastly, Kyle Groeneweg, the senior transfer from University of Sioux Falls did a fantastic job at returning punts. He hauled in five punts and gained 42 yards for an average of 8.4 yards. Again, not spectacular, but he was sure-handed, smooth, and made the right reads when returning. It’s only a matter of time before he is able to break one lose.
Although there were other guys who played well, these were the main Hawkeyes that caught my eye. Tomorrow, we will bringing you the top three under performers from week one of the Iowa football season.