Nebraska Opponent Spring Review: Iowa

As Nebraska enters a critical fifth season under head coach Scott Frost in 2022, we decided to look at where things stand with the Huskers’ 12 opponents coming out of spring practices.

We conclude this series with Iowa, a team searching for another Big Ten West title.

Tom Kakert from HawkeyeReport.com gave us his thoughts on Iowa and their final game of the season against Nebraska in Iowa City.

Related: Northwestern | North Dakota | Georgia Southern | Oklahoma | Indiana | Rutgers | Purdue | Illinois | Minnesota | Wisconsin | Michigan

1. The quarterback position

Iowa has a unique situation in its quarterback room. Brian Ferentz added quarterbacks coach to his offensive coordinator title although he has never played nor coached quarterbacks before.

The quarterback position group was a weak point of Iowa's offense last season and was a focus for the spring and during this offseason.

As for the players, veteran Spencer Petras is back for his fifth season with the Hawkeyes and has started in 19 games over the last two seasons. He completed 165-of-288 passing attempts for 1,880 yards in 2021 with 10 touchdowns and nine inceptions.

Junior Alex Padilla played in nine games in 2021, starting in three games. The Colorado native completed 55-of-114 passing attempts for 648 yards for two touchdowns with two interceptions.

Iowa is hoping for a vast improvement within its quarterbacks position this fall.

2. Strengthing the offensive line

The glue to Iowa's offense, center Tyler Linderbaum, was selected as the 25th overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens. Linderbaum was the Rimington Trophy winner, a first-team AP All-American and the Big Ten Conference Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2021.

Iowa allowed 18 sacks and 91 quarterback pressures in the 2021 season according to Pro Football Focus. Linderbaum allowed six pressures all season and only one sack.

The Hawkeyes averaged 3.4 yards per carry on the ground in 2021, which was down from 4.5 yards per carry in 2020. Strengthening the offensive line and filling the big hole in the middle now with Linderbaum in the league is high on Iowa's priority list.

3. Rebuilding the Defensive line

Iowa has lost a lot of talent over the last couple of years on the defensive line. Most recently, the Hawkeyes lost defensive end Zach VanValkenburg, who signed with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent.

They have three starters returning in Noah Shannon, Logan Lee and Lukas Van Ness. Kakert said there is some young talent as well, for example Yahya Black who played 287 snaps on the line last season.

Kakert said Iowa needs to figure out its pass rush and he's looking to see if they'll find a way to get to the magical number of 30 sacks again in 2022.

Kakert: "It's always a big game. And Iowa has dominated the series in recent years. When Nebraska joined the Big Ten and Iowa was playing them, I said it doesn't become a rivalry until both teams start winning and kind of alternating and for a while it was Nebraska dominating the series. And I was like, eh, it's not really a rivalry until Iowa starts winning. Then now, it's really not a rivalry in that sense because Nebraska hasn't won.

"They've been competitive games. And they've been really good games. Two of them in recent years, decided in the last minute on field goals: the Keith Duncan field goal at Memorial Stadium and Miguel Recinos hit one a couple of years ago in Iowa City.

"But I think it's still a really good rivalry because it's really spirited, especially in Western Iowa where you've got that cross-section of Iowa and Nebraska fans.

"I think this year is gonna be a really good game. And I think Nebraska is really pointing to that game, just because Scott Frost wants to get that program moving in the right direction.

"I go back to the old (Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn) Eichorst when he said that they measured themselves against Iowa, and I think that's kind of where you got to be right now too with the West with Iowa being the defending champion of the Big Ten West."

Kakert: "I usually make my prediction on July 4, so this is not my official prediction yet. But it's interesting looking at Vegas, and they're starting to issue their over/under for win totals and I was at 7.5 and I was kind of surprised by that. I thought it might be a little tick higher.

"I think Iowa they have two tough Big Ten crossover games this year. Michigan comes to Iowa City. And we saw what Michigan did to Iowa in the Big Ten championship game. So there's a little revenge there, but also a realization that that's a pretty good Michigan team too. And Iowa has to go to Ohio State and Ohio State's generally considered probably the No. 1 team in the conference going into this year.

"So if you're looking at two losses there, then you figure somewhere along the line you stubbed your toe. So I'm thinking that Iowa is probably a 9-3 team at this point going into the season. So that's kind of my way early prediction for the Hawkeyes this year."