Harty: Receiver separation an ongoing problem for Iowa
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Receivers struggling to get separation is a problem that has haunted the Iowa football program for years, if not decades.
So for it to happen in the last two games probably shouldn’t be a surprise.
Maybe we should have seen this problem coming, considering Iowa lost its best receiver at getting separation from last season in Tevaun Smith, who is now a rookie on the practice squad for the Indianapolis Colts.
Maybe we should have seen it coming when the Iowa coaches were so quick to move redshirt freshman Ryan Boyle from quarterback to receiver this past spring, although, Boyle has yet to make a contribution at his new position.
Or maybe we should have seen it coming as a result of Iowa being hit hard by attrition at receiver. Just in the last two years, Iowa has lost receivers Cameron Wilson, Derrick Willies, A.J. Jones, Andre Harris and Emmanuel Ogwo to attrition.
Ogwo still attends Iowa, but he decided right before the start of this season to switch from football to track, where he is star in the quarter mile. Ogwo would have been a redshirt freshman this season.
Iowa lost another receiver recruit when Derrick Mitchell Jr., switched to running back before the start of 2015 spring practice.
That is six receivers who are no longer in the mix at that position.
Okay, stop right there.
That is how far I got into this column before learning late Monday night that Iowa senior receiver Matt VandeBerg suffered a broken foot in practice on Monday.
In a matter of seconds, Iowa’s leading receiver was gone, and now is out indefinitely.
There already was concern at receiver, even with VandeBerg healthy. It was getting more difficult for VandeBerg to get separation as defenses started to clamp down on him.
Iowa needed a reliable second option to emerge before VandeBerg was injured. Iowa now just needs anybody to be an option heading into Saturday’s game against Northwestern.
Sophomore Jerminic Smith has shown the ability to get separation, just not consistently as the second option to VandeBerg.
“They just have to play and play consistently,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday about the young receivers. “There’s nothing magical about it other than just working hard out there just like Matt did when he was coming up. He is an established player, quote-unquote established player. We don’t have a lot of those guys, but Matt is a guy you really knew what you were going to get. He came into his own last year, hit stride, and really gained a lot of confidence.
“You can’t hand confidence to people, they earn that, and he did it through really playing well last year. I think that carried over to this season, and that’s the race everybody runs as a player. You’re trying to gain that confidence.”
The good news for VandeBerg is that he almost certainly would qualify for a medical hardship because he only played in four games during the first half of the 12-game regular-season.
The bad news is that getting separation is a problem for the Iowa receivers, with or without VandeBerg.
It has been a problem since I started covering Iowa in the early 1990s.
There have been exceptions such as Tim Dwight, Kevin Kasper, Kahlil Hill, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Marvin McNutt, players who could create separation just with their athleticism alone.
But if you were to list some of the recruiting shortcomings for Iowa, the inability to land explosive receivers who excel at getting separation should be near the top.
It isn’t caused by a lack of effort on the recruiting trail as the Iowa coaches have certainly tried to land speedy receivers. The problem dates back to when Hayden Fry coached the Hawkeyes from 1979-98 and long before that.
One theory is that Iowa’s reputation for being a power-running team hinders the attempt to land big-time receivers.
Another theory is that most of the blue chip receivers prefer to play in warm weather or for elite programs that rely heavily on passing or have enough tradition to where it doesn’t matter what they do on offense.
The fact that Iowa hasn’t sent many receivers to the NFL over the past few decades probably can be traced to having receivers who struggle to get separation.
There is only so much that coaching can do in helping a receiver get separation. At some point, it comes down to talent versus talent.
The inability to get separation causes quarterbacks to have to throw into tighter windows and take more chances.
That might cause a quarterback to hesitate before throwing, which increases the odds of being sacked.
VandeBerg was one of the players Iowa could least afford to lose because of the inexperience and inconsistency at receiver.
He was quarterback C.J. Beathard’s security blanket because he had a knack for getting open, even without being a master at getting separation.
Every team is different and ultimately defines itself during the course of a season. But the current Iowa team is similar to many others in that it has receivers who struggle to get separation.