Iowa and Iowa State have almost been exact opposite when it’s come to talent production/development.
Iowa graveyard at QB while ISU is (soon) to be on it’s 2nd 4 year starter. Iowa meh at receiver while we’ve had good ones. RBs? During Campbell’s tenure ours have consistently been superior. TEs? Iowa cranks out TE draft picks like they are going out of style. OL? Campbell sucks here while Iowa cranks out draft picks. DL? Edge goes to Iowa (thought we’ve had some good ones). LB? Edge to Iowa, especially recently. DB is probably the one area where both have succeeded, though Iowa has an edge in NFL players from the positional group. Special teams? LOL. I guess ours have been as competent as they ever have under Campbell these last few years.
Getting back to “our guys”. On offense we’ve had a lot of positional talent under Campbell and a lot more than people give us credit for. I think players would get a lot more hype if A) the offensive line wasn’t an annual train wreck and B) Our offensive design and scheming was more robust and adaptable. At times, I have no idea what the hell we are doing on offense. Our blocking schemes/splits are perplexing, route trees often terminate at the same depth of the field, we’ve ran an overabundance of Mickey Mouse screens that don’t work, etc. If Campbell/Mouser/Whoever could build an above average line, utilize more misdirection, and adjust blocking schemes as necessary (splits are narrow and we never chip block on the outside when needed), I think we could substantially increase the production.
If people ask “what’s wrong with your blocking schemes” I’d tell them to watch tape from 2023 against Baylor and another opponent we played in back to back weeks. They simply split their ends wide and angled them toward Becht’s drop. By the time he set up to throw, he had 2 ends in his face. We made ZERO adjustments to our play calling or the blocking scheme. I’ve never understood our aversion to chip blocks.
