We’re taking this week to outline – and rank – all of the conference’s offensive triplets. Who makes up the league’s top trio, and who has the most to prove? We’ve laid it all out here.
We’ve essentially chosen the top three skill players on every team. Some squads might have a quarterback and two receivers (Nebraska), others might have three pass-catchers (Michigan). In the event of a tie or close call, we settled on QB-RB-WR.
It’s time for No. 6 on our list: the Iowa Hawkeyes.
QB C.J. Beathard: Pick any random passing stat from last year, and there’s a good chance Beathard was either first or second among the B1G’s returning quarterbacks. Most-effective QB in the red zone? Beathard was No. 2 with an 85.7 QBR. Best fourth-quarter signal-caller? Beathard was tops – by far – with an 88.1 QBR. (J.T. Barrett was second with a 69.1 QBR.) Beathard is tough, poised and talented. And it’s pretty fair to say he has the respect of this staff. Offensive coordinator Greg Davis told KXNO’s Hawk Central last month, “I think he has a chance to be the best I’ve ever coached.”
RB LeShun Daniels Jr.: Injuries have prevented the senior from really going off during his career, but he’s a running back the staff would like to see carry the ball 25 times a game. “I would love to see him for 12 games kind of like Shonn Greene, just kind of wear people out,” assistant coach Chris White said during the spring. The 225-pound back posted career bests last season with 646 rushing yards (4.5 per carry) and eight touchdowns, and more will be expected of him in 2016. With other talented runners on the roster, it’s not likely he’ll see 25 carries per game, but he’s currently in line to see the heaviest workload.
WR Matt VandeBerg: He’s certainly not flashy, and he won’t burn you after the catch. But VandeBerg is an incredibly underrated possession receiver who does exactly what’s asked of him. His hands are among the best in the conference. He didn’t commit a single drop in 2015, making him just one of 18 Power-5 players to do so. And no one – outside of VandeBerg – had more than 51 catches without dropping a reception. (Vandeberg finished with 65 receptions for 703 yards.) It’s hard to beat that consistency.
Evaluation: Beathard is one of the B1G’s best quarterbacks, but the Hawkeyes don’t exactly have two gamebreakers in the other spots. (Only 10 of VandeBerg’s 65 catches went for at least 20 yards last year, and Daniels finished 18th in the conference in runs that went at least 10 yards.) Daniels and VandeBerg are solid and consistent, but they’re not going to hit home runs like a Saquon Barkley or a Simmie Cobbs. This is a solid trio, but others in the B1G are simply better.