Phil Parker seemed nervous about the safety position at Iowa football media day on Friday. Could this be the downfall for the Hawkeye defense?
Everyone knew it was not going to be easy to replace Iowa football’s best safety and the reigning Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year in Amani Hooker. Thankfully, it’s not a complete overhaul in the position as Geno Stone saw some significant time at the position and even received All-Big Ten honors.
Stone actually registered 4 interceptions in 2018 and could be one of the best safeties in the Big Ten but that’s not stopping Phil Parker from expressing concern about the position. I had stated earlier that Kaevon Merriweather could be the weak link in the secondary and maybe that’s coming to fruition.
Chad Leistikow of the Des Moines Register has setup this texting service that’s really neat for receiving the latest information on all things Hawkeye related. Time will tell whether Merriweather can handle the starting gig, and we likely won’t have any answers on that until we see how he performs in a game.
However, Parker iterated that he really likes what he sees in true freshman Dane Belton who came to Iowa as a three-star safety from Tampa, Florida. The Hawkeyes coaching staff has done a really good job of establishing pipelines outside the state of Iowa and the Tampa area has yielded strong prospects.
Belton was ranked as the 102nd best player in the state of Florida which is solid given the amount of talent that comes from there. He was ranked as the 64th best safety prospect in the country and has the potential to earn himself a starting spot if Merriweather shows any signs of faltering.
It’s likely that Belton will get to see significant playing time in 2019 as the Des Moines Register staff indicated that he could also be suitable for the CASH position. Amani Hooker slid into that role when Nick Niemann was hurt last year, often playing closer to the line of scrimmage. Belton has really good size for a true freshman listed at 6-1, 190 pounds.
Another location that the Hawkeyes have recently tapped into is Indianapolis and redshirt freshman D.J. Johnson could also be a fit for the CASH position. Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds. You might see a very short leash on Merriweather much like we saw with Amani Jones last year as a linebacker.