The defensive line will get plenty of attention during spring drills for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Adrian Clayborn, Christian Ballard and Karl Klug are gone from last year’s defense and a number of new faces looking to move into the lineup.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it’s similar to what happened last year with the offensive line, where they had a lot of good veterans graduate, but had some good leaders coming back. He says while a number of young players will be counted on there may be more depth this year.
Ferentz says he can envision them playing 6 to 8 guys this year compared to being locked in at 5 last year. One of those in the mix is freshman Carl Davis. The 300-pound native of Michigan redshirted in 2010, and Ferentz says he probably could have been brought in a little bit, but they decided to hold him back and believes that was the right decision.