Iowa football’s receivers are getting more confident at the right time

IOWA CITY — Wide receiver Dayton Howard’s phone was blowing up after the win against Rutgers.

The sophomore receiver has had opportunities to impact the Hawkeye football team this season, but his biggest play thus far came in the Big Ten opener. The Hawkeye bench exploded when the 6-foot-5 receiver came down with a big 42-yard catch.

“It felt good,” Howard said. “We all have the ability to make plays, but I feel like the biggest step for us is just trusting our hands and trusting ourselves and trusting each other and be able to make those plays, because we made those plays every single day in practice.”

The receiving room’s confidence is a far cry from where it was a month ago. They believed they could make explosive plays then, but it hadn’t translated into a game.

The Hawkeyes got a taste of it against UMass two weeks ago, opening up the playbook and scoring a touchdown in the first three plays of the game. Quarterback Mark Gronowski threw the ball more than he handed it off or took it himself for the first time this season.

That confidence only grew against Rutgers last week. Gronowski was 12-for-18 for 186 passing yards. His three rushing touchdowns stole the show, but the graduate signal caller had four connections over 20 yards, including the 42-yard dart to Howard.

“Dayton made an awesome play on that one, and he has been having an awesome past couple weeks of practices,” Gronowski said. “Just continuing to believe in those guys, and continue to give those guys chances again.”

The steady improvement is noticable. Offensive coordinator Tim Lester had 11 players catch the ball last week, and three players had multiple receptions.

There still are dropped passes, some happening at crucial moments in a drive. The Hawkeyes coaching staff, however, doesn’t want to let the players get too nervous to go for an explosive play later.

“Nobody in the group wakes up on Saturday morning getting ready for a game and say, ‘Man, I can't wait to go drop a ball in front of 70,000 people,’” wide receiver coach Jon Budmayr said. “But I think the most important thing — whether we're talking about football, in life — I address to the guys, is you can't instill panic. There can't be any panic within it. Because when there's panic, then with that comes doubt and fear, and that's what I don't want the guys playing with.”

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti demands perfection from his team, especially his defense. Even after holding a top 10 opponent to just 10 points, he wasn’t impressed with the mistakes his secondary made.

Indiana’s defense allowed one deep ball on Saturday: a 59-yard pass to Illinois receiver Collin Dixon. The play led to the lone Illini touchdown. Cigentti made it clear Monday morning — the Hoosier’s defense revealed a few weaknesses in that play, and others, that Iowa’s offense could take advantage of.

“We had some egregious mistakes in the back end, particularly at safety,” Cignetti said. “We had about five of them in that game, and we only got exposed once because of them. And if we don't clean those up, we're going to get fractured, and you can't put that stuff on tape.”

The Hoosiers’ offense has proven they can string together aggressive drives that drive up the scoreboard. After Iowa’s win against Rutgers, the Hawkeyes showed they have potential to keep up if Indiana offers up another shootout.

Besides, Gronowski said, he loves going toe-to-toe with other quarterbacks.

“It’s a blast,” he said after the Friday night win. “I mean, all we can do on offense is go out there and score points. And putting up 28 points in the first half, that's ... all we can ask for.”

It also helps that the entire offense still believes there’s more to unlock, against Indiana and beyond.

“I don't want them playing with doubt,” Budmayr said. “I want them playing fast and trust in their skills, trust in the development that we're doing and continuing to improve each week, and obviously minimize those as the week goes on.”

Comments: madison.hricik@thegazette.com, sign up for my weekly newsletter, Hawk Off the Press, here.