MP football players aid Hawkeye offense

IOWA CITY ? The Hawkeyes have a new offensive system this season, and former Mt. Pleasant football players Jordan Cotton and Henry Krieger-Coble are ready to do anything they can to help it out.

Krieger-Coble, a 2011 Mt. Pleasant graduate and a redshirt freshman at Iowa, is playing at tight end for the Hawkeyes this season.

?I?m looking forward to working hard for another year,? he said.

He?s not on the depth chart ? junior C.J. Fiedorowicz is listed No. 1 at tight end and senior Zach Derby is No. 2 right now ? but with a young team and a lot still up in the air, he could see some time on the field this season.

?If it works out that way, I?ll do all I can to be ready,? Krieger-Coble said. ?The whole group of tight ends is working hard.?

Krieger-Coble had a lot of adjusting to do last season, but notes that this season is a whole different story.

?Any second-year guy will tell you, it?s easier the second time around,? he said.

Last year, he faced the transition from high school to college football.

?It?s night and day ? it?s a whole different game, a lot faster,? he said. ?The way we ran offense in Mt. Pleasant ? in a spread ? I hardly did any blocking. I was playing at wide receiver. So now I?m adjusting to blocking and playing at the speed of a DI game.?

He wasn?t the only one who had to make the adjustment, however.

?A lot of our guys came in playing the receiver slot,? Krieger-Coble said. ?A lot of high school teams don?t really have a tight end set.?

The second-year Hawkeye hopes to be back to watch the Panthers play at some point this season ? his brother, Warren Krieger-Coble, is a freshman on the Mt. Pleasant football team.

Krieger-Coble also has a number of family members who went ahead of him to Iowa.

His mother, Amy, who lives in Mt. Pleasant, played softball at Iowa. He also has two uncles who played for the Hawkeyes: Jess Settles, currently of Mt. Pleasant, was a University of Iowa basketball standout, and Bruce Kittle was part of the offensive line for the Hawkeye football team. Kittle now coaches tight ends and tackles at Oklahoma.

Krieger-Coble?s cousin, George Krieger-Kittle, son of Jan Krieger and Bruce Kittle, is a freshman on the Iowa football team this season. Krieger-Kittle graduated in the spring from Norman High School in Norman, Okla.

?He?s also a tight end, so I practice with him,? Krieger-Coble said. ?The tight ends are always together.?

Iowa has recently had a pretty good track record when it comes to sending tight ends to the NFL. Currently, six former Hawkeyes are active tight ends in the NFL, including three starters: Dallas Clark, Scott Chandler and Tony Moeaki.

?That?s everyone?s goal ? that?s what we?re all working towards,? Krieger-Coble said. ?All the former players are fun to watch. But I?m a Colts fan as well, so watching Dallas Clark (play for them) was really exciting.?

While Krieger-Coble continues to adjust to his position on the Hawkeye football team, his former Panther teammate is helping the young receivers do the same.

Jordan Cotton, a junior at Iowa, now has some experience under his belt, and he?s passing on the wisdom he?s learned to the new crop of receivers.

?I?m teaching the younger group of guys this year ? they?re all inhere working hard,? he said.

However, with a new system in place, he has a few new things to learn himself.

?Canp?s been going great so far. We?re all learning together and trying to get better,? Cotton said. ?It?s a new system, offense-wise, so everyone?s on a clean slate. This season, I?m paying more attention to details.?

This season, Greg Davis has taken over the offensive coordinator position for the Hawkeyes.

Davis has 38 years of coaching experience, but this is his first season with the Hawkeyes. Most recently, he spent 13 years as the offensive coordinator at the University of Texas. He has coached in 18 bowl games and led the Texas offense to 10 of the top 11 passing seasons in program history.

This season, the Hawkeyes look to Davis to help lead the offense through what will be a challenging schedule.

?We have tough schedule, so we?ll take it one day at a time,? Cotton said.

One tough team on the schedule is Iowa State ? the two Iowa teams have a historic rivalry, but it?s one that holds special meaning for Cotton. His brother, Darian Cotton, a redshirt freshman at Iowa State, plays for the Cyclones.

Last year, it was the younger Cotton who came out on top as Iowa State defeated the Hawkeyes, 44-41, in triple overtime.

?My brother definitely won the bragging rights, and he lets me know about it at every opportunity, so I?m looking forward to that game (this year),? Jordan Cotton said.

The Cotton brothers are still looking for the day when they get on the field at the same time, but they?re having a good time with the rivalry anyway.

?It?s fun for our whole family,? Cotton said.

The Hawkeyes start their season on Sept. 1, when they travel to Chicago to play Northern Illinois at Solider Field, home of the NFL?s Chicago Bears. The Hawkeyes then have four straight home games: they host Iowa State on Sept. 8, Northern Iowa on Sept. 15, Central Michigan on Sept. 22 and Minnesota on Sept. 29, which will be their homecoming game.