The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

[Hellisan]

Hawk Blog

Game Review and Player Ratings

Iowa have won the conference championship for a third time under Coach Clark and I'm here for it. To undress Ohio State the way they did, any team that gets matched up against them will have that performance in the front of their mind as they're preparing for the game. Oregon are the favorites after taking down Coach Pete and USC 42-27, but we'll see what the committee decides. On to the game, including my players of the game and my ratings.

Players of the Game:

Ambrogino Pollino is an absolute madman. He reminds me of the Bully video game character grown up (remember that? sorry, I'm old) - A bully who got a lot bigger, but no nicer. At 6'4" 327 he gets out of his stance and on people so fast it's almost unfair, and he's allowed one sack all season. And this still might have been his best game. Lionel Robinson, with two interceptions, was seemingly everywhere. But when he wasn't making interceptions he was giving them nowhere to go on his side. He even did a good job fighting off blocks even if he was just met with another a couple times there as Iowa gave up some yards on the ground. We'll see if we can get the junior back next year, because my bet is that he goes pro.

O Line: Rating: A++
The offensive line was utterly ridiculous. This is the best all around performance I've seen all year. Joshua Mack had all the time he needed. To a man, they were dominant, led by Pollino but all of them were good. Alec Gehlhausen went one-on-one with Nikita Zagotti, everyone's pick for one of the top players in the draft, and made him look like trash. Which I'm starting to think he is. Not once did they feel the need to chip Zagotti and help Gehlhausen out. Anytime Zagotti gained ground, the senior right tackle would find a way to stand him up and knock him back again. Great show all around by this group.

D Line: Rating: B
It felt like they really didn't get a chance. The runs were well timed and always a bit of a surprise, or at least felt like it. Ohio State hardly took any deep drops let alone threw it deep to give this team a challenge downfield, so there was just one sack. There was nothing to knock here.

QB: Rating: A
This was Mack's best game as a Hawkeye. It's only not an A+ because I remember one play when he scrambled for 37 yards but missed a wide open receiver - right over the middle. Other than that he found the open man at a greater rate than in any other game, showing a cool and calm demeanor in the pocket. You'd think he was the Heisman candidate, not Hunter, if you didn't know better. He has a huge ceiling even though he's not a dominant athlete.

Linebacker: Rating: A-
They got run on a little bit. They also picked up an interception as Dez Dillon III is expected to take home some hardware at the awards ceremony coming up in a week. If Ohio State had the good fortune of being able to test them continuously all day long, I think they would have gotten control of the running game.

Secondary: A+
There was nowhere to go. That's what is easy to overlook when making fun of Jonathan Hunter's night. These guys were lockdown. Jay Cook had an incredible interception, he just knew where to go and beat everybody else there. It has been fun to watch him get to the top tier when he struggled so much early on with the nuances of the game. DJ Halloway solid, Joe Gibson excellent, [/b] Drew Farmer was right on it. All these guys were great.

Backs: A+
Larry Lloyd was Larry Lloyd. He has an outside shot at hitting 2,500 yards for the year in the title game. I kept thinking he would break the big one, and he never did. But he hit them with so many body blows there's not much body left to punch. JJ Harris Jr. continues to be a first down machine. So good out of the backfield, and did it again today whenever we needed it. Great hands.

Receivers: A
There's nothing to nitpick here. Nobody "went off," but Mack made use of a multitude of targets and there were no obvious dropped passes. They got open. They won against the coverage with someone open almost every play. That catch by Nick Vessel was a thing of beauty, I didn't expect him to be able to get to that ball, certainly not with that approach, and he did it. It was incredible to see first hand.

Altogether, an excellent win and a deserving team. Let's be real, these boys are taking it all home.

At first I thought Hunter was going to be a huge problem. He looked amazing in the first quarter. Then once Iowa got the 10 point lead, OSU started pressing and everything snowballed from there. OSU is not a bad team, but that has to be one of the "worst case simulations" of this matchup if it was played 100 times.

Great victory for the Hawkeyes!

I agree. I was surprised the way it turned out. Hunter began his march toward Heisman candidacy as kind of a low rated dude with some solid athleticism. He has improved like all CPU players do but come further than most overall with Ohio State's great reputation etc giving them a boost. Still, we just did the same things we've always done to him that gave him problems. If they go 3 wide, we stay in 4-3 for the most part. If they're 4 wide, we're in nickle and we're pressing, selecting Robinson, Halloway, and Gibson to either press or play tight zones and then pick up the other guy with scheme. Hunter has never really been able to punish us too much when we do that. Finally, altogether - although we have one game left - this is the first time I've had a lockdown defense practically all year. These corners are REALLY tough for other teams to deal with. Thanks for the reply and a great analysis Studbucket.

[moose141]

Re: Hawk Blog

Dominant! tOSU game you all they could for a quarter and then you guys really put your foot on the gas. Complete game from Mack at QB, Larry Legend sewing up the Heisman for sure in this one, and the defense putting on a clinic in the secondary. Couldn't have asked for more, this has to be one of the more complete games that your team has played not only all season but in quite some time, especially against an opponent of that caliber! Like Studbucket said, has to be one of the best outcomes that could have been forecast for the Hawkeyes.

[Careless Whisper]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

Catching back up here - really nice to see the OS front page praise on this report (one of my favorites to follow on here) and Iowa's dismantling of Ohio State for the Big Ten title. studbucket is absolutely right that the result was the ultimate best-case scenario for the Hawkeyes, and it was eye-opening to see how Coach Clark has dominated this rivalry with Urban Meyer since their first meeting. Lloyd had to have sewn up the Heisman with that performance, and I know it's a broken record that his ratings don't tell the story, but the fact that he could reach 2,500 yards is incredible. Looking forward to seeing the final moments of his career and Iowa's run to another natty!

[Hellisan]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

Dominant! tOSU game you all they could for a quarter and then you guys really put your foot on the gas. Complete game from Mack at QB, Larry Legend sewing up the Heisman for sure in this one, and the defense putting on a clinic in the secondary. Couldn't have asked for more, this has to be one of the more complete games that your team has played not only all season but in quite some time, especially against an opponent of that caliber! Like Studbucket said, has to be one of the best outcomes that could have been forecast for the Hawkeyes.

I can't disagree with anything here, I honestly thought it was impossible to build a truly lockdown defensive secondary. Even if they end up giving it all away in the BCS or something, this is still considered a lockdown secondary by my standards, we never looked helpless against the pass one time this year unlike other years. We had so many ways to attack you depending on personnel, we could have the athletic "Big Man" in the nickel instead of just the dime option (tied for the team lead in INT's), or we could put use either Jaivonn Bender (blitzing, run defender) or Joe Gibson, who like our two starting corners can press you all day without giving up much in the way of a big play and just press people to death with two over the top. With those various options and a defense that really did surprisingly well in aggressive cover 2 and various blitz packages, we always had something we could turn to.

Catching back up here - really nice to see the OS front page praise on this report (one of my favorites to follow on here) and Iowa's dismantling of Ohio State for the Big Ten title. studbucket is absolutely right that the result was the ultimate best-case scenario for the Hawkeyes, and it was eye-opening to see how Coach Clark has dominated this rivalry with Urban Meyer since their first meeting. Lloyd had to have sewn up the Heisman with that performance, and I know it's a broken record that his ratings don't tell the story, but the fact that he could reach 2,500 yards is incredible. Looking forward to seeing the final moments of his career and Iowa's run to another natty!

Thanks a lot, yes, Larry's legend continues to grow and we'll see what he can do in the title game. Originally it was breaking big plays all the time, now this season it's been that he can take on a huge work load and not necessarily be anywhere near the top players in yards per carry, but plug away and still occasionally break one. What's weird about how well we do against OSU is that they're the best at running it against us, they always have a QB that can hurt us and multiple great running backs and we can't really figure out where the ball is going, but their passing game doesn't do as well as it would "IRL" and we usually figure out a way to make big plays against them on defense.

---

Quick "state of the dynasty" here if you don't mind my doing so. This "season" has been ongoing for two years and I've been trying to get to the end, still very little time to work on this stuff so I've been a one track mind. We just took a trip to Lake Tahoe 2 weeks ago, driving each way (our Crosstrek got us out thank God) then a road trip to Davis CA (all from San Diego) for my daughter's soccer showcase, and next week it's Spring training with my dad... but once I make it to the offseason, I plan to slow down and actually get back into the swing of the OS dynasty interaction stuff which is really the thing I love as much as anything. I'm appreciative you've been interacting with me here. Thanks guys.

[studbucket]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

That all sounds exciting on the life front. All really good stuff!

What level of soccer is your daughter playing? Select/Premier at the HS level, or is she in college? My daughter is 14 and plays on a really quality select soccer team, so I always like learning more about others' experiences here.

[Hellisan]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

That all sounds exciting on the life front. All really good stuff!

What level of soccer is your daughter playing? Select/Premier at the HS level, or is she in college? My daughter is 14 and plays on a really quality select soccer team, so I always like learning more about others' experiences here.

My daughter is 13 (2010), she's been playing soccer football since she was 6. She plays in the ECNL RL league, so the regional ECNL league and a step down from the top. The club seems to be considering her for promotion as multiple coaches have told me she's the best player on her team, and during their first tryout sessions (which are by and large for incoming players) she was placed with the top club. I figure that could be to rule her out as much as rule her in though and I'm not obsessed with 'elite,' I want her with the right coach. She was always a very accurate passer of the ball and a solid defender but she has turned herself from too slow to really beat anybody to a loose ball, to the fastest or second fastest player on the team depending on what drill they're doing. She plays center back for the most part, although I enjoyed watching her play middle school soccer where they let her come up for about 10-20 minutes a game and she got a goal in every game. On the club side, they've had a coach that was out of his depth ever since they went to 11 man football (before that, she won 11 tournaments with him and finaled in two others). They recently replaced that coach with a coach who has his 2008 team at second place behind some of the most high powered clubs in the region, so I'm hoping that her team, which has a ton of talent, can develop into a great team, which they haven't been for about 2 years now. My experience is that it's a lot of fun, but way too expensive, and I'm glad I just have the one kid because it seems like we're constantly going and I can't imagine if we had to try and get 2, 3, or 4 kids to different teams. It's going to be weird when she's no longer playing club soccer because I went from leaving all my friends behind when I moved down here, to making new friends at my job, to becoming self employed, and now my social life is basically just the soccer scene and the other dads. I'll have to find some other way to spend my time maybe start self defense classes or something.

How about your 14 year old? What's your experience been like?

[studbucket]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

My daughter is 13 (2010), she's been playing soccer football since she was 6. She plays in the ECNL RL league, so the regional ECNL league and a step down from the top. The club seems to be considering her for promotion as multiple coaches have told me she's the best player on her team, and during their first tryout sessions (which are by and large for incoming players) she was placed with the top club. I figure that could be to rule her out as much as rule her in though and I'm not obsessed with 'elite,' I want her with the right coach. She was always a very accurate passer of the ball and a solid defender but she has turned herself from too slow to really beat anybody to a loose ball, to the fastest or second fastest player on the team depending on what drill they're doing. She plays center back for the most part, although I enjoyed watching her play middle school soccer where they let her come up for about 10-20 minutes a game and she got a goal in every game. On the club side, they've had a coach that was out of his depth ever since they went to 11 man football (before that, she won 11 tournaments with him and finaled in two others). They recently replaced that coach with a coach who has his 2008 team at second place behind some of the most high powered clubs in the region, so I'm hoping that her team, which has a ton of talent, can develop into a great team, which they haven't been for about 2 years now. My experience is that it's a lot of fun, but way too expensive, and I'm glad I just have the one kid because it seems like we're constantly going and I can't imagine if we had to try and get 2, 3, or 4 kids to different teams. It's going to be weird when she's no longer playing club soccer because I went from leaving all my friends behind when I moved down here, to making new friends at my job, to becoming self employed, and now my social life is basically just the soccer scene and the other dads. I'll have to find some other way to spend my time maybe start self defense classes or something.

How about your 14 year old? What's your experience been like?

Wow, that's fascinating, thanks for the details. It's really cool to see your daughter improve like that, which is cool. I'm really glad you are focusing on a good coaching situation - it is probably the single most important thing.

My daughter plays for the somewhat-famous Crossfire club up here in the Seattle area. She's on the U15 Select A team, which is theoretically a step down from RCL or ECNL. However, when we've played RCL teams, we've always won (to their embarassment) and the club won't let us play the premier teams from the same age group (I can't remember if we've played ECNL teams or not). This team is fantastic. When they were 12 we had parents of 16 year old boys come and watch and say "they play better than our teams do". We generally control 80-90% of the possession each game, never allow more than 1 goal, and mostly are fun to watch.

My daughter went straight from recreational soccer right to this team, so she was out of her depth in year 1, but the coaches learned that she played much more confidently out of the back than she did at wing/FW. So now that's she's settled into a CDM/CB hybrid role (they run a sort of strange 3-5-2/4-4-2 hybrid) she's consistently starting and playing much more confidently.

The coach is a 60+ year old woman with multiple sclerosis and her husband. She played college soccer but can barely move now. But this is her 3rd select team that she's taken from age ~8 through 18 (and probably her last). She's such a good coach and the girls are so loyal to her. It's a fantastic situation to land in. None of the families want to take the step to premier because the coach and team are so good and the extra cost, pressure, and time commitment don't really seem worth it.

[Hellisan]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

Wow, that's fascinating, thanks for the details. It's really cool to see your daughter improve like that, which is cool. I'm really glad you are focusing on a good coaching situation - it is probably the single most important thing.

My daughter plays for the somewhat-famous Crossfire club up here in the Seattle area. She's on the U15 Select A team, which is theoretically a step down from RCL or ECNL. However, when we've played RCL teams, we've always won (to their embarassment) and the club won't let us play the premier teams from the same age group (I can't remember if we've played ECNL teams or not). This team is fantastic. When they were 12 we had parents of 16 year old boys come and watch and say "they play better than our teams do". We generally control 80-90% of the possession each game, never allow more than 1 goal, and mostly are fun to watch.

My daughter went straight from recreational soccer right to this team, so she was out of her depth in year 1, but the coaches learned that she played much more confidently out of the back than she did at wing/FW. So now that's she's settled into a CDM/CB hybrid role (they run a sort of strange 3-5-2/4-4-2 hybrid) she's consistently starting and playing much more confidently.

The coach is a 60+ year old woman with multiple sclerosis and her husband. She played college soccer but can barely move now. But this is her 3rd select team that she's taken from age ~8 through 18 (and probably her last). She's such a good coach and the girls are so loyal to her. It's a fantastic situation to land in. None of the families want to take the step to premier because the coach and team are so good and the extra cost, pressure, and time commitment don't really seem worth it.

That's absolutely crazy, man. They're amazing and probably SHOULD move up a level as a unit, lol. 80% to 90%? Do you have to console opponents and their parents after the match? WOW. We've had the occasional game like that over the year, usually early in a tournament, but not often.

Their coach sounds like an amazing teacher if she can teach them to play like that in her condition. Happy for your daughter to land in such a great situation. On the one hand running a system like that sounds so crazy, but on the other, little girls are VERY smart and if they're really into the game, you can teach them virtually anything. I think that may be where my daughter's team falls short right now and why a lot of them might get cut is, they don't take it super serious. The new coach, who doesn't let them cuss or even say the "clean" variants of cuss words or they have to run laps, was talking to them about requirements for team captain and I think what he doesn't know is none of them really want it. My daughter is probably the best candidate but she's the type to pick a "bestie" on the team and hibernate, having a lot less contact with the other girls. On the pitch she's the ringleader of the back 5 and very much in command, but you really can't give out a captainship to a player like that unless you have no better options. As for your daughter's team, I hope you'll give some updates here about their exploits over the coming years.

My daughter had an interesting weekend in Davis, she was asked to play with their 09 team because they didn't have enough players, so, being an October 30 2010 kid that's a decent challenge. She started the first game but they took her out I don't know, maybe 25 minutes in because they were getting everybody in and out with unlimited subs, then she never came off the field again until getting injured late in the last game of the weekend. She played great, made so many line-breaking passes and played lockdown D, but in that last game, a player that didn't look too spectacular early on (from PNW SC actually) just wore all of them down with her strength and pace and my daughter somehow landed on her shoulder and neck trying to keep her from scoring after she ran through another couple of their 09 girls. And she didn't succeed, so she got hurt physically and in pride at the same time, lol. She's alright, but what a humbling game. It got ugly after that as they scored 3 times late on us.

[studbucket]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

Despite my daughter's team talent, they do tend to screw it up in cup finals. They'll beat a team 6-0 in group play then lose 1-0 in the final because they get all weird and in their head. Our best player is terrible at penalties because she missed one in a cup final 3 years ago.

That's one of the biggest areas for them to grow. They should be in a different league, but part of the downside of being part of a big club like Crossfire is the politics, so we're stuck with where they allow us to go.

Getting girls at your daughter's age to be actual leaders/captains is so hard. I coach middle school girls basketball and we did captains at 7th grade. It was OK, but I dropped the whole concept for 8th grade and it was actually an improvement culturally. I do like your daughter's coach focus on character: it's rare. I hope they can do well.

Congrats on playing up with 09, that's a big deal. It's hard to do that, especially at that age group where the 09 girls are women-sized and your daughter's age isn't necessarily.

[Hellisan]

2023 Around the Nation - Championship Week Wrapup

[Hellisan]

2023-24 BCS National Championship Preview

Hawkeyes and Ducks for all the marbles

Unbeaten Iowa will face off against 10-3 Oregon and Heisman winner Isaac Harris to determine the champions of the 2023-2024 college football season. Oregon will be hoping that their impressive offensive line and running attack, combined with a capable passing attack, can get the job done against the #1 run defense and overall defense in the nation, in Iowa. Iowa will look to probe a defense that hasn't stood out against either the pass or the run, but have managed to be the 6th best team in the nation in turnover differential. The Ducks have the talent to give the Hawkeyes difficulty on both sides of the ball.






Butler still unable to go with hip flexor injury

Brandon Butler will end up missing the remainder of the season. The team has been hoping he could continue and continued to re-evaluate him as the season progressed, but unfortunately, the team will continue to be without arguably their best player and leader for the BCS National Championship.

[Hellisan]

Hawk Blog - DJ Halloway Hype

Is D.J. Halloway About to Take S*&% Over Again?

The Hawkeyes have played their way into a chance at a third championship with J.D. Clark at the helm. D.J. Halloway still plays defense for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Therefore, it can reasonably be assumed that Halloway is about to do something big to help his team win a third championship. He always does. To wit:

2020/21 BCS Championship - Georgia 20, Iowa 41

Halloway pilfered three passes against Heisman Trophy winner Calvin Sanders (and his backup Isaac Fountain). Just like the last two times he has faced Nebraska, Halloway put the nail in the coffin with a late interception returned for a 53 yard touchdown against Georgia. His first interception of the game came with Iowa leading 17-13, when he mirrored DeMarcus Dukes in the end zone and pulled the ball out of his hands for the interception. His second was almost returned for a touchdown, but he stumbled and couldn't recover. Halloway was the defensive player of the game, earning his first title.

2021-22 BCS Championship - Oklahoma 32, Iowa 35

On defense, Halloway made 4 tackles. Not used on offense for much of the game, Clark broke glass and put Halloway in the game. With 2 seconds left and the Hawkeyes down 32-28, Halloway beat Odabiah Steele, arguably the best corner in the nation, for a touchdown in the back of the end zone to win his second BCS National Championship.

Maybe it's just chance and circumstance that Halloway has done so well in BCS Championship Games. But if he can do it again, he'll go down as an all-time Iowa legend.

[Careless Whisper]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

Larry Legend was robbed! Harris had an incredible year to be fair, but not one worthy of the trophy when Lloyd led the charge all season. I remember disliking this game's bias when it came to dual-threat QBs for the Heisman, and it seems like it reared its ugly head again.

Speaking of award winners though, one guy that should have been in the Heisman race is that Maryland TE! To double as a lead RB while playing TE, it's very H-Back of the sim engine and really brings something I've never seen before in all of my years playing NCAA.

Really like the Holloway note and how he's shown the "clutch" gene previously in the national championship games. I'm feeling like this natty against Oregon could get ugly though - there's a talent gap and you've faced better teams in the Big Ten, and with it being Lloyd's last game and his Heisman robbery, I could see an epic final hurrah performance.

[Hellisan]

2023-24 BCS Championship Game - Clark Wins Third Title

[Careless Whisper]

Re: The Career of J.D. Clark (NCAA 14)

Look at "Big Play" Halloway coming up clutch once again! That certainly had the drama that I didn't expect, though I'm sure Lloyd's injury factored heavily into that. The Oregon ground game was unstoppable and really played into the only way that it could have won, IMO - but the Iowa defense was able to make the stops it needed to make late to give the offense a chance.

Joshua Mack had a star-making performance overall, but the poise he showed in the winning drive was that of legends. To come back from three straight incompletions and keep the game alive with a 4th and 10 conversion, then take off from there with a couple big plays as a redshirt freshman is special. It's hard to live up to the career that Eddie Allen had, but Mack could be on the right track.