In spite of having around 230 Iowa “writers” at OTE, they all seem to have gone missing when it’s time to talk about their offense. And if we’re honest, that’s the fairest representation of that group, is it not? I’m actually a bit surprised that Kim Reynolds hasn’t banned this unit since June 24th. Anyway, let’s get this over with.

QB

Spencer Petras is back. I’m happy about that.

RB

Tyler Goodson is gone. They’ll either find another serviceable back or they won’t. Kaleb Johnson is supposed to be good, but it feels like Iowa swings and misses on the more talented recruits and hits HRs with middling guys.

WR

LOL. Keagan Johnson is the best target, but he has Spencer Petras throwing towards him. And to make things worse, he hasn’t practiced yet this fall. Is it possible for a passing game that only got 180 yards a game on 55% completions to somehow get worse?

TE

Sam LaPorta is the best players on the Iowa offense that shows up for more than one play a series.

OL

The OL was rather meh outside of Tyler Linderbaum last year, and now he’s gone to the NFL where he may or may not play. It’s a rather young group outside of Jack Plumb, and we’ll see if they improve with a year of eating and lifting or Iowa is even more turbofucked on offense.

P

The most important part of the Iowa offense is Tory Taylor. The SO from Australia is critical for taking yet another failed drive, flipping the field, putting the opponent into a bad spot, and helping the team succeed by either waiting for the other offense to make a mistake to set the offense up for a FG or get the defense to score. He’s got to be one of the most valuable players returning in the B1G West.

Taylor may need to improve upon his 3,688 yards of offense (compared to the 4,252 racked up by that the guys who are supposed to move the ball down the field) if Iowa wants to repeat as B1G West Champs and get slaughtered in Indianapolis again.

Key questions that need to be addressed this fall:

Will the OL be better, or will they compete with Northwestern and Nebraska for the worst in the division?

Who steps up at RB?

Can Spencer Petras hit the broad side of a barn from the inside?

How did Brian Ferentz’s deposition in his racial bias case go?

Is there any chance of Tory Taylor hurting his hip if he has to keep averaging 6 punts a game?