Iowa Hawkeyes Proving They are an Offensive Line Pipeline

While the Stanford Cardinal are likely going to send two offensive linemen to the NFL as first round picks in 2012, I am always consistently impressed with the amount of bigs the Iowa Hawkeyes send to the league, and that’s no different this year.

Obviously, the Hawkeyes have a guy in Riley Reiff who is the clear top tackle from the group, but they also sent former starters Adam Gettis and Markus Zusevics to the Combine this year.

Gettis led all offensive linemen in the 40-yard dash as a guard prospect, which is pretty impressive and could get him selected by a team that runs a zone blocking scheme. At Iowa, he was a 2nd-team all Big Ten selection by the coaches, and has played both left and right guard for the Hawkeyes.

Zusevics was a two-year starter at right tackle for the Hawkeyes, and a pretty sound player at that. He as an All Big Ten selection two years in a row and was invited to play at the East-West Shrine game. Zusevics is one of those guys who should develop into a solid right tackle in the NFL with more good coaching like he had with the Hawks, but he will first have to stay healthy. He left the Shrine game early and reportedly tore his pectoral during the bench press at the Combine.

All of these guys are so fundamentally sound. The Hawkeyes know how to bring up offensive linemen as good as any team in college football. Like I said before, I’m just consistently impressed with the talent that is coming out of this school on a yearly basis at the same positions.