With the Iowa football team’s game versus Iowa State days away, here’s a breakdown of who holds an advantage at each offensive position.
Hate week in Iowa gets a bit crazy. Case in point, I actually saw an Iowa State fan say that Brock Purdy is on the level of the Iowa football team’s star player AJ Epenesa.
Comparing a top-10 NFL draft pick to a true sophomore quarterback who has less than 3,000 yards passing to his name is a bit ridiculous, but it also means the CyHawk Trophy game is right around the corner. And by the corner, I mean in two days.
In addition to the dumb comparisons between Epenesa and Purdy, I keep seeing people say how good the Iowa football team’s offense finally is or how great the Iowa State’s defense is.
So I decided to put it all out on the table and break down each position group against each other as unbiasedly as I possibly could.
Here’s my take on who’s better at each offensive position on the field with defense and special teams to come soon.
Quarterback:
Iowa State fans will be upset when they see this, but there is no way I would take Brock Purdy over Nate Stanley at this point. Stanley is a three-year starter who just passed Ricky Stanzi for third all-time in career touchdowns. He’s a bit inaccurate, but he’s considered a fringe first-round prospect in the upcoming draft if he can get his stuff together. So far, he has impressed me and among others, including future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning.
Brock Purdy is good, but I want Stanley on my side at this stage in both of their careers.
Advantage: Iowa
Running backs:
Mekhi Sargent had more rushing yards last year (745) than Iowa State’s top three backs (Johnnie Lang, Sheldon Croney Jr, and Breece Hall) have in their careers, combined (462).
Heck, so did Toren Young who had 637, and Ivory Kelly-Martin had 121 fewer yards last season than those three had in their careers.
Numbers aren’t everything, but the point is, these guys are unproven. I’m taking Iowa’s three-headed monster plus Tyler Goodson any day.
Advantage: Iowa
Wide Receivers:
Iowa State would have won this battle the last few years, but not anymore. After losing Allan Lazard and Hakeem Butler to the NFL the last two seasons, the Iowa football team can finally claim the advantage in the wide receiver group. I do think Tarique Milton and Deshaunte Jones are good wide receivers, but I would pick Brandon Smith and Ihmir Smith-Marsette over them, plus our depth makes this the deepest wide receiver group ever in the Kirk Ferentz era.
Advantage: Iowa
Tight Ends:
The Iowa football program is Tight End U, but not this year. I honestly haven’t seen enough of Nate Wieting and Shaun Beyer to really give the Hawkeye tight ends the nod against almost any Power 5 team, including Iowa States combo of Charlie Kolar and Chase Allen.
Advantage: Iowa State
Offensive line:
This is probably the second most contentious offensive position group debate after the quarterback position.
The Iowa State Cyclone’s offensive line returns all five starters from last years squad, and this group has a combined 9 years of starting experience amongst them, which honestly might make them one of the most experienced groups in the nation.
But I’m taking the star power of Iowa’s offensive line, even without Alaric Jackson. As a unit, the Iowa football team’s offensive line is better, but I will say, it’s close. Tristan Wirfs being a possible top-10 pick and Tyler Linderbaum’s emergence as a center gives the Hawks the close edge here.
Advantage: Iowa
This couldn’t be more obvious that the Iowa football team holds the offensive advantage versus Iowa State. If it wasn’t for an oddly down year at the tight end group, the Hawks would have gone perfect in this positional breakdown.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re going to come out so lucky in the defensive battle.