College Football

Iowa Football: Departures Leave Questions At Wide Receiver

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:14 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jeremy Karll/FanSided via Dear Old Gold

Iowa’s wide receiver core faces a lot of questions next season

Iowa football has never and will never be a pass-heavy offense under Kirk Ferentz. Still, 2016 marked just the second time since 2010 that Iowa didn’t have a receiver catch at least 50 passes.

Despite being hindered by drops, Riley McCarron led the Hawkeyes with 42 receptions. He graduated, though, and Iowa will need to replace him along with tight end George Kittle, who led Iowa in receiving touchdowns in each of the past two seasons with 10 total, and once highly touted wide receiver Jay Scheel, who retired this offseason due to injuries.

Granted Iowa will return Matt VandeBerg for a fifth season after a broken foot kept him out of all but four games in 2016, but after him there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding Iowa’s pass game. The good news is VandeBerg was on pace to catch 61.75 passes a season ago.

That said, other than VandeBerg, sophomore quarterback Nathan Stanley will have to implement new targets into the offense.

He can’t solely rely on VandeBerg and short passes to Akrum Wadley because 2016’s stagnant offense, especially in the Outback Bowl when Wadley caught four of C.J. Beathard‘s seven completions, is evidence to it not working and resulting in a measly three points.

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Top downfield threat Jerminic Smith, despite dealing with drops last season, returns after 23 receptions for 314 yards and two touchdowns in 2016. Plus, highly touted sophomore tight end Noah Fant should have a bigger role than his nine receptions in 2016.

But even they’re part of the unchartered water the Hawkeyes are treading in right now. C.J. Beathard never relied heavily on either. Fant usually only played on passing downs, plus, he only had two multiple reception games as a freshman.

If drops continue to be a problem for Jerminic Smith, the Hawkeyes will be in trouble with only youth and inexperience to turn to. That’s a risky bet on a player with 29 career receptions.

Iowa will also rely on Adrian Falconer, despite his claim to fame being dropping an easy two-point conversion against Michigan, Devonte Young and Ronald Nash more when in three wide receiver sets, too. Nash is the only one with any career receptions, though.

In total, outside of VandeBerg and Wadley, the Hawkeyes only return 34 receptions. Someone has to have a breakout season.

This offseason didn’t patch up any holes at the position for the Hawkeyes, either. Along with Scheel’s retirement, Derrick Mitchell Jr and Jonathan Parker are both transferring, and two wide receiver verbal commits in Gavin Holmes and Beau Corrales decommitted from Iowa and landed at Baylor and North Carolina, respectively.

Mitchell, despite switching to running back, played wide receiver in high school and showed flashes of his receiving abilities coming out of the backfield. Parker didn’t play in 2016, but he had three receptions as a freshman in 2014. It’s not to say either would have had significant playing time in 2017, but at least Iowa had options, not to mention the speed both players had.

With National Signing Day a little less than a week away, the Hawkeyes are down to five receivers on scholarship. They have verbal commits from potential future receiving threats in three-stars Brandon Smith and Henry Marchese, and two-star Max Cooper, but none are expected to have a huge role in 2016.

While Iowa’s thin receiving core could push them into action, it’s unlikely as freshman receivers rarely have a big role on Iowa football. Even with new offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, it’s hard to imaging any of Iowa’s three incoming freshmen becoming just the second freshman receiver, along with Kevonte Martin-Manley, to record at least 30 receptions since 2010.

It’s going to be the Akrum Wadley show in 2017, but teams will quickly, if they haven’t already, figure out Iowa’s game plan to give him the ball often and hone in on stopping him.

Everyone saw what happened when Iowa doesn’t have a consistent pass game to complement the best running back duo in Iowa football history. It resulted in the 95th ranked scoring offense in the nation.

There is potential with a new offensive coordinator and quarterback, but Iowa is in murky water as their top returning receiver is a running back and they have a quarterback with nine career pass attempts under center.

A lot of Iowa’s offensive success will depend on the development of Stanley, but it doesn’t help that the Hawkeyes’ receiving core is one of the most inexperienced in years.