Connor Colby Preparing for Year 2

Connor Colby seems like a veteran, yet he’s only a sophomore.

In some ways, it seems like Colby, Iowa’s starting right guard, has plenty of experience. He started the last 11 games last season as a true freshman. Only Mason Richman, with 12 starts at left tackle last season, has more starts among the returning offensive linemen.

But Colby knows he has a lot to learn.

“Fundamentals, yeah,” he said. “That’s about it.”

Iowa’s offensive line was a work in progress last season, and it looks that way again in spring camp. The Hawkeyes lose All-American center Tyler Linderbaum and guard Kyler Schott, two mainstays on the interior.

They were good teachers for Colby.

“If I didn’t know what to do, I definitely knew they knew what I was supposed to do,” he said.

The spring has been about mixing and matching, looking for combinations. Colby, though, has stayed inside, and he continues to get comfortable.

It’s much different than last season, when he came into spring camp as an early enrollee from Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School.

Still, the learning includes the little things.

“From last spring ball, I’ve definitely improved a lot, but I still have a lot of work to do,” Colby said. “I mean, it’s never going to be perfect. Like, you’re always not going to have the perfect first step, stuff like that. But it’s trying to be as consistent as possible. Some plays I’m doing what I’m supposed to, some plays I’m not there yet. It’s just working on consistency.”

Colby is up to 310 pounds now — a 15-pound increase, he said, from last season.

Iowa strength and conditioning coach Raimond Braithwaite said Colby’s early arrival helped him in the weight room.

“Everybody comes into our program with a different level of physical maturity,” Braithwaite said. “Some guys played just two sports in high school and the rest of the year they spent training for football. Some are four or five-sport guys who never truly had an offseason.

“Connor was kind of in between. One thing that helped Connor play early was the fact that he came in as a mid-year, so we had a full off season ahead of the other guys who were in the same freshman class.”

But there was also some mental maturity that had to happen for Colby as well.

“Looking back on it, I think I was kind of overthinking stuff,” he said. “I mean, that’s normal when you don’t know what you’re doing a lot of the time. Now, it’s more simplifying stuff for me. I think a lot quicker than I did in the fall.”

There is a bond among the linemen this spring — everyone, it seems, has taken on a teaching role, pointing out to others what needs to be done.

“Everyone is still learning where everyone goes,” Colby said.

His one season, his first season, has allowed Colby to become one who speaks up.

“Sometimes,” he said, “you’ve got to correct them.”