The Iowa football team already was pretty well set at quarterback on offense going into next season, but during the spring workouts that concluded Saturday, the Hawkeyes seemingly developed something nearly as important: A quarterback for the defense.

Senior Jeff Tarpinian was moved to middle linebacker early in the spring and by all accounts, has quickly taken to a position he’d never played before.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said that if the Hawkeyes opened the season tomorrow, Tarpinian would be his middle linebacker and you can tell he’s very comfortable with that.

Tarpinian, a former high school quarterback who never played defense during his prep days, has long been considered a great prospect but he’s never been able to nail down a starting job. He has played a lot of special teams and been shuffled between the two outside linebacker spots before finally being tried in the middle this spring. Bruce Davis and Troy Johnson had been considered leading contenders for the job, but it’s Tarpinian’s now.

It’s a more important position than many fans realize. While people saw how many jarring tackles Pat Angerer and Abdul Hodge and Mike Klinkenborg made through the years, they may not have noticed how much those players did before the ball was snapped.

“A lot of guys like to play in the band,’’ defensive coordinator Norm Parker said last week. “The middle linebacker has to be the guy who leads the band. Angerer had no problem doing that. Abdul Hodge said ‘I’ll lead the band.’ Angerer said ‘I’ll lead the band.’’’

Tarpinian can’t wait to lead the band on a weekly basis.

“I’ve been there in high school (as a quarterback) before,’’ he said. “Obviously, it’s different on the defensive side of the ball, but it’s the same type of leadership skills – making the calls in the huddle, getting everything going.’’

The Hawkeyes’ spring football day – there still is some doubt as to exactly what that will entail – is already upon us Saturday.

It has been a pretty quiet spring for the program. No arrests. Very few injuries. Almost no position changes. Other than Jeff Tarpinian moving ahead of Troy Johnson as the starting middle linebacker and some shuffling of bodies on the second line of the two-deeps, very little has changed since the start of spring drills.

Here are some players that fans may be getting their first extended look at when the Hawkeyes hold a practice and possibly a brief controlled scrimmage Saturday at Kinnick:

Jeff Tarpinian: We’ve been hearing for years about his potential and he’s been a big special teams contributor but now, on the eve of his senior season, he apparently is emerging as a mainstay on the defense. Norm Parker said Tarp has been great this spring, forcing the coaches to move him from the backup slot at weakside linebacker to Pat Angerer’s vacated spot in the middle.

Markus Zusevics: Another guy who has been around, lurking in the shadows, and now is ready to play a major role. He has packed on about 60 pounds since arriving three years ago and still is not as big as Kyle Calloway, but he is going to be a more than adequate replacement for Calloway at right offensive tackle.

Micah Hyde: A brilliant, but undersized high school quarterback in Ohio, he played a lot of special teams as a true freshman last fall but saw only spot duty in the secondary. He now seems to be the guy who will replace Amari Spievey at right cornerback. Most of us assumed it would be Jordan Bernstine or possibly William Lowe or Greg Castillo, but Hyde has outshone all those more experienced players this spring.

Jordan Cotton: This team didn’t really need one more wide receiver. Marvin McNutt is a budding superstar, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos has led the team in receptions three years in a row, Colin Sandeman is a very capable role player, Keenan Davis should take a huge step forward after a rocky freshman year and if Paul Chaney is healthy, he’ll be in the mix. But Cotton, who redshirted as a freshman last fall has hustled his way into the hearts of the coaches. With DJK, Sandeman and Chaney all seniors, he should be a major factor in 2011.

Jonathan Gimm: Iowa just keeps cranking out quality tight ends and this sophomore might be the next one. He apparently is pushing Brad Herman for the No. 2 job behind Allen Reisner and since the Hawkeyes love three-tight end sets, he should see the field at least some this fall. Of course, when high school All-American C.J. Fiedorowicz arrives, everyone might move down one notch.

Brad Rogers: He should be the No. 4 or No. 5 running back in the fall but for now – with all the experienced backs sitting out for precautionary reasons — he’s No. 1. He has shed a lot of excess weight since arriving last fall and served notice that he’s a viable option if something happens to Adam Robinson, Jewel Hampton and Brandon Wegher.

A.J. Derby: It’s going to be at least a year-and-a-half – maybe more – before we see Derby do anything much in an actual game but everyone is curious to see what he looks like at quarterback right now. He graduated from high school in December so he could enroll for the spring semester and go through spring drills.

Most of the talk regarding the Iowa football team this spring is going to be about rebuilding the offensive line. With only two starters back, there are a lot of unknowns there.

But there similar mysteries – if not similar concerns — regarding the three linebacker positions. The Hawkeyes essentially have five guys contending for three spots.

All five candidates are juniors or seniors. All weigh between 232 and 238 pounds. All have played quite a bit, at least on special teams. All have their best football in front of them.

Jeremiha Hunter is the one guy with really extensive playing experience. He has been the starting weakside linebacker for the past two seasons and although he usually was overshadowed by the departed Pat Angerer and A.J. Edds, he’s been a very solid player. You might remember him as the guy who blocked the second field goal attempt against Northern Iowa to preserve a 17-16 victory in last year’s season opener.

Hunter has been backed up for two years by Jeff Tarpinian, a highly regarded player who has been patiently waiting for his chance to play.

When it was determined just before kickoff of the Minnesota game last season that neither Hunter or Tarpinian could play, the Hawkeyes tossed Troy Johnson into the weakside breach. All he did was earn Big Ten Defensive Player of Week honors with his performance.

Bruce Davis looked like an animal on special teams and in the few snaps he got in relief of An-gerer last season.

And Tyler Nielsen is one those guys we’ve been hearing about for a few years but seldom have seen because he was stuck behind Edds at the other outside linebacker position.

Now all these guys finally have a chance to start. The competition should be pretty intense.

Going into spring drills, Hunter, Johnson and Nielsen are listed as the starters but it wouldn’t be a shock to see Davis and Tarpinian in the lineup next fall. Whoever ends up on the field, Ferentz is confident they’ll do a great job. They might not be Angerer and Edds, but they’ll be solid.

“Quite frankly I’m almost more worried about a year from now at our linebacker spots,’’ Ferentz admitted. “Sounds kind of funny, with two pretty good seniors graduating, but we are top heavy age wise.’’

He said we’ll undoubtedly see one or two freshmen play a lot of special teams next fall – probably James Morris and possibly Austin Gray? – if only to give them some experience for the following season when Hunter, Johnson and Tarpinian will be gone.

The latest projections by Scout, Inc. have Bryan Bulaga listed as the 27th best player available in April’s NFL Draft. MyNFLDraft.com projects him going No. 28 to Green Bay in the first round of the draft.

Amari Spievey? He’s nowhere to be found in any draft projections. But the junior cornerback is going to test the waters anyway. Spievey confirmed Monday what most of us already assumed to be the case, that he was foregoing his senior season at Iowa to enter the draft.

I have a feeling Spievey, like Bulaga, could be in the NFL for a very long time. Both play positions that always are in great demand at the next level. Everyone seems to be looking for a competent cover corner or a left tackle who can pass block.

But while Bulaga apparently is going to get the big money that comes with being a first-round pick, I’m guessing Spievey won’t get selected until the third or fourth round of the draft. He has fairly average size and speed for his position. And since so many opponents this season avoided throwing the ball in his direction, there may not be a lot on video that will impress the scouts. Whoever picks him, however, probably is going to get a guy that will do a solid job for the next decade or so.

With Spievey turning pro, it seems likely that the Hawkeyes will have six players who are almost certain to get drafted. A recent CBSSports.com listing of the top seniors in the draft had Kyle Calloway listed as the 49th best prospect with Tony Moeaki 74th, A.J. Edds 82nd and Pat Angerer 110th.

The Hawkeyes announced their team award winners at the team post-season banquet Saturday night in Iowa City. It’s quite a list.

A total of 36 different players won some sort of award. By my count, there were only five starters who didn’t win anything at all. Surprisingly, one of those was Amari Spievey, who played almost every defensive down of every game and may be the best cornerback the Hawkeyes have had in the Kirk Ferentz era.

Not surprisingly, middle linebacker Pat Angerer was the biggest winner. Angerer, who also was named a first team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America on Saturday, shared the team MVP award with Ricky Stanzi and won three other awards. I think most of us who watched this team all year would have given the MVP award to Angerer alone. Nothing against Stanzi, but Angerer was the undisputed leader of the defense on a team that was significantly better defensively than it was offensively.

The full list of awards:

Hayden Fry Extra Heartbeat award: Angerer and Tony Moeaki.

Iron Hawk award: Angerer.

Comeback Player of the Year: Dace Richardson.

Next Man In awards: Riley Reiff, Adam Robinson, Brandon Wegher, Joe Conklin, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Colin Sandeman.

Forest Evashevski Scholastic Achievement award: A.J Edds.

Coaches Appreciation awards: Bryan Bulaga, Marvin McNutt, Tyler Sash, Broderick Binns, Tyler Nielsen and Jeff Tarpinian.

Reggie Roby Special Teams Specialist of the Year: Andrew Schulze.

Reggie Roby Special Teams Player of the Year: Ryan Donahue.

Hawkeye Hustle awards: Allen Reisner, Brett Morse, Trey Stross, Karl Klug, Christian Ballard, Adrian Clayborn, Paki O’Meara and Bruce Davis.    

Team Leader awards: Nick Kuchel, Zach Furlong, Joe Forgy, Thomas Nardo, Brad Rogers and Zach Derby.

Permanent captains: Stanzi, Moeaki, Edds, Angerer and Clayborn.

Win During The Week awards: Stanzi, Edds, Rafael Eubanks, Brett Greenwood and Troy Johnson.

The Hawkeyes also gave a few awards to regular people for the support they have given the university and the football program through the years. A Player Appreciation Award was given to three couples who are long-time supporters: Jim and Darlene McCord of Iowa City, Dale and Marilyn Howard of Iowa Falls and Stew and LeNore Hansen of West Des Moines. The Bump Elliott Appreciation Award went to businessmen Mike Riggan and Ed Huff, who have helped transport the Hawkeyes and all their equipment when they go on the road.

The first of many All-American teams is out and if this is any indication, the Big Ten is not very highly thought of nationwide.

There is not a single Big Ten player on the 25-player first team of the Walter Camp Foundation team. None. Zero. My guess is that might be a first. I certainly don’t recall it happening before. Heck, this might be the first time in a long time there isn’t at least one Ohio State player in there.

There are five Big Ten guys on the second team, including Iowa’s Pat Angerer and Bryan Bulaga, but it’s clear that the people who select these teams don’t think there are any really elite players in the league.
The question: Is that an accurate depiction or just perception?

I’d say it’s perception. Other than offensive skill position players, where there are concrete stats that can be used for comparative purposes, there’s a lot of guesswork that goes into these selec-tions. There are 10 Camp first-teamers from the SEC (Alabama and Florida accounted for seven of those) and seven from the Big 12, and while those leagues are better than the Big Ten right now, they’re not that much better.

For what’s worth, the Big East also got shut out and there was only one ACC player on the first team.

Besides Angerer and Bulaga, other Big Ten players on the second were team were Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones and two Michigan players – defensive end Brandon Graham and punter Zoltan Mesko. No one from either Ohio State or Penn State.

There were only a few surprises on the All-Big Ten teams that were announced Monday night. One of the surprises was that Iowa was as well-represented as it was.

I figured the Hawkeyes might get as many as five first-team selections, but they had a league-high seven first-team players on the team chosen by the BigTen coaches, only four on the media team.
The five I thought were deserving: Linebacker Pat Angerer, strong safety Tyler Sash, defensive end Adrian Clayborn, offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga and cornerback Amari Spievey. All of those players made the coaches team and all but Spievey were honored by the media.

The coaches also put Dace Richardson and Tony Moeaki on the first team even though Richardson missed the last 4 ½ games of the conference season and Moeaki was more or less missing in action over that same span.

Other thoughts:

– The offensive line, which never really got its act together, had four players selected. In addition to Bulaga and Richardson, Rafael Eubanks and Kyle Calloway made the second team.

– Although 19 Iowa players received some sort of mention, there was at least one more that merited at least honorable mention. Receiver Marvin McNutt scored six touchdowns in a span of four Big Ten games, including some of the clutch plays of the season.

– Iowa’s defense received the recognition it deserved. The only two starters who didn’t get some sort of mention were Jeremiha Hunter and Shaun Prater.

– Although everyone knew Wisconsin’s John Clay and Penn State’s Evan Royster would be the first team running backs, I thought Adam Robinson had a chance to make the second team. He ended up being honorable mention on both teams with Purdue’s Ralph Bolden and Ohio State’s Brandon Saine making the second team.

– There was widespread disagreement on the first team wide receivers. The coaches picked Minnesota’s Eric Decker and Michigan State’s Blair White. The media went with Indiana’s Tandon Doss and Purdue’s Keith Smith. I would have voted for White and Smith.

– It was interesting that Penn State defensive tackle Jared Odrick was the coaches’ defensive player of the year, but he wasn’t even first team on the media squad. There’s no way he had a better season than Wisconsin’s O’Brien Schofield, Michigan State’s Greg Jones (the media pick) and Angerer.

– You can’t help but wonder how the coach of the year voting might have gone if the voting hadn’t been done with a week to go in the season. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz won the award, but Pat Fitzgerald’s Northwestern club finished very strong, beating Wisconsin in the final game to finish 8-4. Fitz might have gotten a few more votes if the voting was done later.

The All-Big Ten teams selected by the coaches and the media will be announced Monday night and it will be interesting to see how the Hawkeyes are rewarded for the season they’ve had.

They have plenty of guys who have a chance to make All-Big Ten, but the only two sure things on the first team probably are linebacker Pat Angerer and safety Tyler Sash. I’ll be stunned if those two aren’t there. Angerer may even have a shot at being the league’s defensive player of the year.

Cornerback Amari Spievey is a great player but could get overlooked because his statistics don’t necessarily reflect the type of player he is.

Adrian Clayborn has the stats, but the Big Ten is loaded with quality defensive linemen this season. Wisconsin’s O’Brien Schofield is a great player. So are Penn State’s Jared Odrick and Ohio State’s Thaddeus Gibson. And you could make a case for Michigan’s Brandon Graham, Indiana’s Jammie Kirlew and Purdue’s Ryan Kerrigan each being the best player on their teams.

There probably are a dozen other Hawkeyes with a chance of getting some sort of All-Big Ten mention.

Then, of course, there is the Coach of the Year award. I think Kirk Ferentz probably gets it although there might be some sentiment for Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald. I don’t really see another viable candidate unless Ohio State’s Jim Tressel gets some votes for winning a fifth straight league title.