Iowa football: Ihmir Smith-Marsette taking the next step for Hawks

Ihmir Smith-Marsette is the most electric player the Iowa football team has, and it sounds like he is stepping up to the plate in his junior season.

Last year was a breakout year of sorts for the Iowa football team’s sophomore wide receiver and kick returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette. He had a phenomenal year returning the ball and was named the Big Ten’s Return Man of the Year.

But what we didn’t realize is that there was so much more potential for Smith-Marsette to be a dynamic playmaker for the Iowa football team if he just applied himself more to the game.

It sounds like in year three, that’s no longer a worry for the Iowa football coaches though, and it shows by how much responsibility they are laying on the true junior speedster.

When asked about Smith-Marsette and his season-ending meeting with him last year, Kirk had this to say:

"Yeah, we’ve always liked him there. That hasn’t been the issue. It just his work habits or practice habits and just paying attention to certain details."

He went on to speak highly of Smith-Marsette though.

"Ihmir he’s done a good job, and I couldn’t be more complimentary of what he did during the summer. He was in tremendous condition, the best condition we’ve seen him in."

For an Iowa football team that historically doesn’t have big-time playmakers like Smith-Marsette, this couldn’t be better news.

Not only will he be starting at wide receiver and look to become one of Nate Stanley’s favorite new targets, but he will also be returning kicks and returning punts.

The kick returns we are familiar with already after he crushed it last year averaging 29.5 yards per kick return, which was tops in the Big Ten and 4th best in the nation, but we haven’t him return punts.

As Kirk said, fielding punts is a whole different ball game, and they finally trust him enough to handle the job, and ideally, add another element to special teams that was missing from previous seasons.

This responsibility gives Smith-Marsette another opportunity to show that he is every bit as dynamic as Purdue’s Rondale Moore, whom he is battling with for the Paul Hornung Award in 2019.