{"id":24846,"date":"2016-04-25T08:01:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/iowas-defense-looks-strong-heading-into-2016\/"},"modified":"2016-04-25T08:01:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T15:01:19","slug":"iowas-defense-looks-strong-heading-into-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/iowas-defense-looks-strong-heading-into-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa’s defense looks strong heading into 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

IOWA CITY, Iowa \u2014<\/strong> Iowa had hoped that the return of star defensive end Drew Ott would fill out its defense.<\/p>\n

The Hawkeyes should be stout on that side of the ball anyway.<\/p>\n

Iowa suffered its first major loss in 2016 when the NCAA denied Ott\u2019s appeal for an extra year of eligibility because of a medical hardship. But the Hawkeyes should still have one of the best defenses in the Big Ten next fall, with seven starters back from a unit that allowed just 19 points a game last season.<\/p>\n

Iowa, which went 12-2 and 8-0 in conference play last season, concluded spring practice with a scrimmage Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes defense outpaced their offense for much of the workout \u2014 though the offense played without quarterback C.J. Beathard. He bruised his throwing shoulder in practice earlier this week but is expected to be back when Iowa resumes its workouts in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see some progress being made,\u201d coach Kirk Ferentz said. \u201cI think we saw some good growth with all four guys who worked in the two deep (at end) … you see potential there. You see growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ott\u2019s departure will thrust redshirt freshman Matt Nelson into a much bigger role.<\/p>\n

The Hawkeyes are hoping Nelson can start living up to his extremely high expectations by the fall.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8, 275-pound Nelson, who grew up in nearby Cedar Rapids, turned down offers from the likes of Florida State, Stanford and Notre Dame to play for the Hawkeyes. Nelson, who was also used as a tight end in high school, came to Iowa as something of a project \u2014 and unheralded end Parker Hesse moved ahead of him on the depth chart after Ott went down with knee and elbow injuries.<\/p>\n

Iowa will count on Nelson and Hesse, along with emerging freshman tackle Anthony Nelson, to bookend veteran tackles Jaleel Johnson and Nathan Bazata next fall.<\/p>\n

The Hawkeyes will also return one of the nation\u2019s top players in cornerback Desmond King \u2014 the 2015 winner of the Thorpe Award as the country\u2019s top defensive back.<\/p>\n

King will team up with fellow senior Greg Mabin, who missed the spring with injuries. Mabin\u2019s absence paved the way for freshman Michael Ojemudia to show what he could do this spring, and he apparently made quite the impression on his teammates and the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Ojemudia\u2019s emergence is likely one of the reasons defensive back Maurice Fleming abruptly decided to transfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s come a long way. He has figured out the defense this spring. He\u2019s looked a lot more comfortable over the last six or seven practices. He has started to blossom,\u201d safety Miles Taylor said of Ojemudia.<\/p>\n

The biggest surprise of the spring scrimmage was the move of freshman quarterback Ryan Boyle to wide receiver, where he debuted on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ferentz said the staff had only put Boyle at receiver a few days ago in an effort to find him playing time, with Tyler Wiegers locked in as Beathard\u2019s backup.<\/p>\n

Boyle\u2019s move also might be temporary, since the Hawkeyes have long liked his potential behind center. But Boyle looked like a natural at the position in the final spring scrimmage \u2014 even catching a touchdown in the back of the end zone<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have a ceiling with his athleticism. He can do just about anything he wants,\u201d wide receiver Matt VandeBerg said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IOWA CITY, Iowa \u2014 Iowa had hoped that the return of star defensive end Drew Ott would fill out its defense. The Hawkeyes should be stout on that side of the ball anyway. Iowa suffered its first major loss in 2016 when the NCAA denied Ott\u2019s appeal for an extra year of eligibility because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":24847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24846"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}