Iowa at Arizona: Grades

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

TUCSON, Ariz. — The No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes lost to the No. 24 Arizona Wildcats on Saturday, 34-27. The loss puts Iowa at 2-1 overall.

Below are the grades I would give each group of players after Saturday’s game:

Quarterbacks — B-

I’ll give Ricky Stanzi some credit in that I thought he played much better in the second half. He completed 18-of-33 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns. He did have one interception though that was costly, as Trevin Wade returned it 85 yards for an Arizona touchdown.

Running Backs — C

Maybe this doesn’t fall so much on Adam Robinson and Jewel Hampton, but Iowa’s ground game was virtually nonexistent on Saturday. Robinson had five yards rushing against Arizona after posting back-to-back 100-yard performances. Hampton didn’t fare much better with 30 yards on the ground, and actually left the game with an injury.

Wide Receivers — B+

I’ll start by saying that Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Marvin McNutt specifically came to play. Johnson-Koulianos led the Hawkeyes with 114 yards receiving on seven catches and caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Stanzi. McNutt had a 18-yard score that was originally ruled an incomplete pass before being overturned.

However, both had some big drops. And in the case of McNutt, one pass in the first quarter that went off him was intercepted and returned 85 yards for an Arizona touchdown.

Tight Ends — C+

Allen Reisner had two catches for 27 yards. I think Iowa wanted to use him more in the offense, but really couldn’t when the ground game was being stuffed.

Offensive Line — C-

No running game to speak of, and Stanzi was sacked six times, including three times on one series late in the fourth quarter with Iowa trailing by seven.

Defensive Line — B

Mike Daniels had a nice game, and Broderick Binns did have a pick-six that tied the game at 27-27. However, Adrian Clayborn, Karl Klug, and Christian Ballard all only finished with three tackles each. The front four played better in the second half.

Linebackers — B

Jeff Tarpinian and Tyler Nielsen both had solid outings. Tarpinian led the team with 12 tackles, seven of which were solo, and forced a fumble recovered by fellow linebacker Jeremiha Hunter. Nielsen has seven tackles.

Secondary — B-

Micah Hyde was constantly being picked on. Tyler Sash had seven tackles. Shaun Prater had five tackles, and made one of the few bright plays on special teams for the Hawkeyes.

Special Teams — D

When a punt gets blocked, a kickoff is returned for a touchdown, and an extra point is blocked, that is horrendous. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Prater’s fumble recovery on the muffed punt by Arizona is the sole reason I’m not giving this an F, because I feel that play sparked Iowa’s near comeback. Otherwise, this proved to be the difference.

Overall — C

Again, I give Iowa credit for making the comeback it did. But with that said, the Hawkeyes never should have put themselves in this situation in the first place. Attention to details proved to be critical, and Arizona did a better job with this.

The good news for Iowa is that it returns home for its next two games, but the Hawkeyes definitely need to regroup and find a way to not let this loss deflate the remainder of their season.

“BIG UPS”

My player of the game will get “Big Ups” from me (For those new toHawkeyeDrive.com, I’ll give these out on Twitter every now and then). After No. 9 Iowa’s 34-27 loss to No. 24 Arizona, there was really only one player I found worthy of these, and that was senior linebacker Jeff Tarpinian.

Granted, Iowa received a solid effort from wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. But Tarpinian had 12 tackles for the Hawkeyes, seven of which were solo. In addition, his strip of running back Nic Grigsby late in the first quarter may have prevented Iowa from experiencing a repeat of its 2004 debacle at Arizona State.

2010 BIG UPS TALLY:

9/4/2010: Iowa 37, Eastern Illinois 7 — Adam Robinson

9/11/2010: Iowa 35, Iowa State 7 — Ricky Stanzi

9/18/2010: Arizona 34, Iowa 27 — Jeff Tarpinian