Overreaction Monday: Is Iowa football finished before the season even starts?

Hello everyone. It’s Monday. The weekend is over, and if you’re like me, it was spent with a combination of yard work, not watching/caring about The Masters until Sergio Garcia (who I had never heard of before Sunday) missed the putt that would have won him The Masters and sent it to a playoff. Glad it worked out for him. I read way too much into the news and analysis from Iowa football’s spring practice that occurred Friday night in West Des Moines.

Ah yes, to address the elephant in the room. You may notice that I am NOT @jpinic. Well, JP is currently on paternity leave from the Pants after he and Mrs. PinIC welcomed a new child into their family over the weekend. Everyone pass along your congratulations in the comments!

In the meantime, I’m going to take over Overreaction Monday while he sits on the couch with a baby in one hand and his phone in the other. Now, when JP started writing this piece last week, he wanted to overreact about the state of the offense for next year’s football squad. Let’s hear it directly from him:

“You guys, I can barely contain my excitement. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. Maybe it’s the overactive imagination due to sheer boredom. I dunno. But whatever it is, I’m excited about Iowa Football again, even after an utter disappointment of a 2016 season. Am I turning into a Cubs fan? I feel like I’ve fallen into that cycle with Iowa sports. I get excited. I get let down. Rinse, repeat. Granted, there are obvious times when the pattern is broken. I was excited about Iowa Football in 2015, but I had no reason to believe that team would go undefeated. No disappointment with the regular season. But then, I let my expectations or hopes or whatever get away from me and was, again, disappointed.

So here we are, the second Monday in April and I’m already letting the excitement build for the 2017 football season. I know it’s just setting me up for disappointment, but it’s overreaction Monday so damnit I’m gonna be excited about what we’ve seen and heard so far about the Hawkeyes.”

So much has changed in two days.

You may have heard the news late Friday afternoon/evening that Jerminic Smith has been suspended from team activities for not showing up to class, and Brandon Snyder tore his ACL, making depth at the safety position a crucial hole in Iowa’s defense.

Granted, we don’t know how long Smith will be suspended, and like I wrote Friday night, I would be shocked if we didn’t see him on the field at some point next year. But, for the sake of overreaction, let’s say we don’t. Let’s say he doesn’t go to class at all between now and fall and still can’t play in the season opener against Wyoming (read more about that matchup here, by the way). If that’s the case, the Hawks will only have two scholarship receivers on the roster, grabbing passes from a first-year starting quarterback under center (and maybe a QB battle?), in a similar, but still new, offensive system under Brian Ferentz. Not exactly the recipe for a successful offensive output.

Thankfully, LeVar Woods has come to the rescue. He wants to use the tight ends in multiple ways this year and — gasp! — send them down the field running vertical routes. His comments had Marc Morehouse thinking there will be a “TE renaissance”.

Let’s hope that’s the case, and that this crazy stat about incoming wideout Brandon Smith receiver turns out to be true.

If BoilerHawk’s Zap-Ruth-er Films breakdown of Chris Ruth’s spring practice videos is any indication, the Iowa receivers may have to use some hops to catch passes come fall.

As for Snyder, the prognosis seems to be that he won’t be available at all next season. Kirk said as much after the spring practice, basically saying it would be icing on the cake. Modern medicine is a marvel, and recovery for ACL tears varies, but I just can’t see him playing a down next year.

To put the cherry on top, after the scrimmage, Captain Kirk had this to say about his team: “We’re not a good football team right now. Don’t expect to be in April, and the objective is to be ready when the season starts. “...We’re doing some good things at times, but...we can’t get lined up sometimes.”

Yes, it’s only April, and there’s another open practice in a couple of weeks that will hopefully show more improvement. But this isn’t logical thinking. This is overreaction Monday, so...

LET’S PRESS THE PANIC BUTTON ON IOWA FOOTBALL 2017!

I can see it now: an offense with a solid offensive line and run game that can’t get the ball downfield or drops a lot of passes, and can’t score points. A solid, serviceable defense that may be susceptible to deep throws. Youth thrown into heavy playing time at various positions.

Not a recipe for disaster per se, but definitely potential for some long Saturday afternoons.

Let’s hope I’m just overreacting.

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And now, some tweets JP left for me, as well as a bit of hoopyball news...

Iowa’s new offensive line coach Tim Polasek and his wife slept on an air mattress in their new home. “The football facility is a lot better than my new home,” he said on April 5th to open his press conference. Now that’s a football guy if I’ve ever seen one.

Why don’t schools advertise on these guys? Don’t tell me there’s not room for an Old Capitol University of Iowa logo somewhere on that sweater.

Jordan Bohannon is good at basketball

Jack Nunge is going to be good too

WTF Cubs?

Another transfer for Trey Dickerson for his final year of eligibility

Wichita State is joining the AAC. I thought we were done with the whole conference realignment ordeal. I’m not emotionally prepared to go through that again (RIP Old Big East).

And finally...

Can we please be finished with LaVar Ball?

In an announcement that many of us saw coming, Dale Jones’ time on the Iowa basketball squad is finished. Injuries marred his short career at Iowa, but he certainly made an impact when he did hit the court. Whether he decides to keep playing somewhere else or join the rest of us in the working world, we here at BHGP wish him the best.

The Iowa hoops squad also celebrated its season on Sunday night with its annual banquet, where Peter Jok (unsurprisingly) took home the Chris Street Award. Tomorrow, Jok will travel to Phoenix for workouts in advance of this summer’s NBA draft. For the complete list of men’s basketball award winners, check out the @iowahoops timeline.

Have a good Monday, everybody.