One of the hottest topics of the 2019 season was the play of Iowa’s offensive line.
Under Kirk Ferentz, Hawkeye fans always expect excellence from this group each and every year and generally, if Iowa has a good season it’s usually because the offensive line performed at a high level.
This year it was very much a mixed bag.
The run game never really took off, but the pass protection was actually above average. The struggles that Iowa faced this season can probably be traced directly to the fact that injuries hit the position group fairly hard. It started with the knee injury to Alaric Jackson that sidelined him early in the season and also included potential starting guards Cole Banwart and Kyler Schott missing parts of the season.
Yet, when the season ended our friends at Pro Football Focus ranked all 130 D1 schools and Iowa was rated as the 6th best offensive line in the country in 2019. While that might come as a surprise to Hawkeye fans, who might have been disappointed with their performance, that was the opinion from the PFF folks who watch the film each and every week for all the D1 schools.
Before we dive into the ratings from PFF, let’s look at the snap totals for Iowa’s offensive lineman this season. The Hawkeyes had 891 offensive snaps this season.
Tyler Linderbaum – 864
Tristan Wirfs – 855
Landan Paulsen – 619
Alaric Jackson – 599
Kyler Schott – 482
Mark Kallenberger – 441
Levi Paulsen – 233
Cody Ince – 125
Cole Banwart – 115
Justin Britt – 52
Jack Plumb – 36
Jeff Jenkins – 15
Luke Empen – 13
Nick DeJong – 6
Essentially, Wirfs and Linderbaum were full-time starters the entire season and then everything around them has a lot of moving parts. Jackson would have certainly been up there in the mid to upper 800’s as far as snaps had he been healthy. However, the guard positions never really became settled for basically the entire season.
Landan Paulsen started 11 games at left guard. Levi Paulsen started one game at right guard and three games at right tackle when Jackson was out. Kyler Schott started six games at right guard and one at left guard. Mark Kallenberger started four games at right guard and one at left guard. Finally, Cole Banwart started two games at right guard.
Like I said, a lot of moving parts at the guard position this season for Iowa.
How did the offensive line grade out this year? As you might have guessed, Wirfs led the way along the offensive line.
No surprise that Wirfs leads the way. Overall, he was the fifth best offensive tackle according to PFF this season.
Another real bright spot was Linderbaum, who PFF rated as the fifth best center this season. That is very impressive for a redshirt freshman starting for the first time at the college level.
One of the biggest surprises this year was the development of Kyler Schott. He started the year as a really kind of unknown walk-on and by the end of the season he had become a valued starter and Schott is now on scholarship.
Alaric Jackson said after the season he was probably 70% at best once he returned to action. He still posted solid numbers this year and will be back for his senior year. Mark Kallenberger had a nice year and started and played the entire Holiday Bowl at guard. Another name to watch moving forward at guard will be Justin Britt. The true freshman played in four games, so he retained his redshirt and will be in the mix moving forward.
