Monday Evening Hawkeye Links | Plus Who Is De'Andre Johnson?

Alright, so doing a quick profile on De'Andre isn't exactly ground breaking. I gotta wonder if the guy is related to the Hawkeye Sports photographer. Either that or he is going to see the field this fall. De'Andre has to be the star of the Hawkeye practice photo galleries. He's even in more photos that Phil Haddy.

The depth chart ahead of Johnson opened up a bit when fellow true freshmen Marcus Coker broke his collar bone sidelining him for most of camp. Redshirt freshman Brad Rogers was moved to fullback. And then there is Brandon Wegher, the pre-camp number two running back who left the team.

Hello possible playing time!

De'Andre was listed last year on ESPN.com's recruiting as a 5'8" 185 pound running back. The Miami, Florida native was given two stars by ESPN and received a scouts rating of 71. The current Hawkeye roster lists De'Andre at 210 pounds and still 5'8". Seeing him at "Kids Day" at Kinnick I would say the 10-25 pounds of weight added are all good pounds (I should note that his maxpreps profile listed him at 200 lbs). The kid musta put in work.

De'Andre was kind of an unknown last year as he missed his senior season at Monsignor Pace High School in Miami. There are some stories about his injury and his commitment out there. Marc Morhouse's On Iowa blog has links to them in an article he wrote about De'Andre last February.

De'Andre handled a lot of the carries for the offense in front of the fans on "Kids Day." I was pretty impressed with how low to the ground he ran and his forward lean with his upper torso. At times he made for a tough target to hit and because of his lean was falling forward for positive yards when brought done once passing the line of scrimmage.

What's not known (by me) was if he was only getting looks in certain packages or only in for particular looks. Honestly, I wasn't tracking formations or packages close enough to notice if he had an advanced grasp on the playbook.

It's still a little less than two weeks away from the opener and no one knows for sure if the redshirt will come off. At this point I think it is a fair assumption that De'Andre sees the field at some point this season, perhaps early on to get some game speed experience in case the injury bug forces him into action late in the year. It was noted by MikeyJoe on Hawkeye Lounge that De'Andre could be this years Keenan Davis. I think that will probably be spot on.

There are some YouTube videos of Johnson in High School, I'll warn you though some clips make the Zapruder film look like HD.

Hawkeye links,

The weeks On Iowa podcast from the boys at the Cedar Rapids Gazette is available and they say Brandon Wegher joined the lot of us in attending classes today. Granted, my schedule is set-up at a different school, but that still means we both had to navigate freshmen and transfers wandering around and getting in our way. It could also mean that Wegher will be back at practice. Tomorrow. The team is now on their regular weekly schedule and they have today off.

From members of BHGP, the SB nation blog formerly known as Rivalry Esq. (now named Off Tackle Empire), and Maize and Brew we get MAIZE PANTS PODCAST #2: ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY. Caps Lock theirs, not mine.

A couple other new items from BHGP, RossWB wants us to Better Know An Iowa Football Opponent 2010: Michigan State Spartans (Part Two).

And from ECETone, Video: Kirk Ferentz Throws Out The First Pitch at a Kickball Game.

For Big Ten related news, ESPN.com's Big Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg has a couple new stories posted. The first, Rittenberg is ranking the Big Ten's best wide receiver and tight end combinations. Iowa makes the list at #5, tied with Penn State. Rittenberg also mentions that Pundits questioning Big Ten depth. 

From the Docs Office, Scott Dochterman's Gazette blog, he says Iowa D-line: Mike ‘the Beast’ Daniels talks the talk. Last year I picked Mike D as my breakout player on defense. That break out season didn't really happen, but it's cool to see Daniels get the pub. Hopefully he continues to play like his hair is on fire.