Iowa Football 2023: Five (Non-McNamara) Takeaways from Kids' Day

Obviously, the top storyline out of Saturday's open practice was the leg injury to starting quarterback, Cade McNamara. Head coach Kirk Ferentz's initial report was encouraging, and we'll know more as the week progresses.

But what else stood out at Kids' Day in Kinnick Stadium?

Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball, and recruiting coverage. Sign up with Go Iowa Awesome here.

A consistent question surrounding Brian Ferentz's offense in Iowa City in 2023 is whether or not it will deviate from the archaic designs of the past. Brian and the contingent of players on his side of the ball have remained tight-lipped about any sort of change coming this fall.

We got a glimpse of some change on Saturday -- at least in performance. The array of scholarship receivers who saw the field -- Kaleb Brown, Diante Vines and Seth Anderson -- each made a variety of plays throughout the day.

Brown made contested catches and showed off some of his play-making ability, Vines grabbed two catches of 40+ yards including an acrobatic catch with Jermari Harris all over him, and Anderson caught a plethora of passes from McNamara.

"Today was probably as good of a day as Seth has had," Ferentz said after the practice. "He likes to show up for the crowd, apparently. But, that was encouraging. Diante has been a good player, he just didn't have a chance to show it because of injuries."

"That's a group that has the biggest opportunity these next two weeks -- especially this next week to keep improving."

The starters on the offensive line were LT Mason Richman, LG Connor Colby, C Logan Jones, RG Nick DeJong and RT Gennings Dunker. Though that's the closest thing we've gotten to seeing who will start week one, Coach Ferentz said it's not incredibly telling to this point.

"I wouldn't read into it too much," he said. "DeJong has got the most positional flexibility, so that's a little bit of a variable. Dunker, right now, we're just trying to get him into one spot and let him play there. We're trying to do that with Connor at guard, too. With Rusty I think eventually he'll play all three. (Tyler) Elsbury plays all three inside positions. So, who is going to be lining up here in three weeks -- I've got no idea."

Additionally, Daijon Parker didn't participate in the day's scrimmage, so the questions remain, especially on the right side of the OL.

Though I expected Feth to take the full-time right guard duties, he appeared to be Colby's backup at left tackle on Saturday. After a portion of the scrimmage, Feth replaced Colby with the ones while Colby rotated down to play with the twos.

For Ferentz, the bottom line is the progression the group has made and continues to make.

"We've still got loose edges, and this is day nine, so you expect that. But we're a more mature group," he said. "They're practicing well, they're focused. There's always things to clean up and that's the race we're running here the next two weeks especially."

Jaziun Patterson spent a small amount of time as Iowa's third back in 2022. He almost looked like a different player behind Kaleb Johnson and LeShon Williams on Saturday.

No, the redshirt-freshman didn't break off any big runs or serve as the bell cow tail back for the offense, but his style of running looked not only more confident, but more violent. He was willing to take contact and dish it out, too.

"If we've got three running backs, that's great," Ferentz said. "I feel really good about our first two guys, and Jaziun did some good things. That run he made in the bowl game, I think that's kind of who he is."

Patterson scampered for a 17-yard gain in Iowa's 21-0 win over Kentucky in the Music City Bowl.

"That boy, he can run," Johnson said of Patterson at Iowa's Football Media Day on Friday. "He runs with anger every time and always tries to lean forward for yards. You can see that he cares."

In total, Iowa's quarterbacks threw six interceptions. Several came off some sort of pick or deflection by someone on the Hawkeye defense. Harris, TJ Hall, Jayden Montgomery, Nolan DeLong and Deavin Hilson each had one, while fourth-string corner Deshaun Lee snagged two.

"That's what you're hoping for with everybody at every level," Ferentz said. "Obviously, we're all interested in what our starters are doing, but it's also interesting to see what's going on behind them. We see a lot of encouraging things. You think about how much he has or hasn't played, it's good for him to be out here and he did some good things."

Lee returned one of his interceptions for 95 yards and a score. He wasn't the only one with a pick-six on the day, as Harris made his presence known as well.

"He missed a lot of time last year -- that was harder on him than anybody else," Ferentz said. "He has been practicing well. He was trying to do too much last spring. He was trying to make every play. We don't need him to do that. We just need him to play every position, which is really key to the defense. He's had a really good camp. It's good to see him out here and practicing."

As expected, Iowa's defensive line remains a strong unit.

All of McNamara, Deacon Hill and Marco Lainez had to show off some mobility throughout the day, as the DL showed their prowess, even without Noah Shannon. One player stood out in particular -- 6'4", 265-pound pass-rusher Brian Allen.

The redshirt freshman was virtually unblockable.

"That was probably his best, most active day," Ferentz said. "Maybe the lights came on, and he plays a little better."

"The defensive line has been practicing really well," he continued. "We've got some depth there as well. We're better if we can play with six, eight, nine guys. I think that's realistic for us, so that's encouraging."