3-2-1: Amazing Return
Tom Kakert | Publisher
This isn't the only time Brandon Snyder has made a quick return.
This week in 3-2-1, we shouldn't be surprised by the quick return of Brandon Snyder because he's done this before. We also discuss the wave becoming a national movement, Nate Stanley's play at quarterback, and what can get Iowa's run game back in gear.
BRANDON SNYDER IS A MEDICAL MARVEL
Brandon Snyder isn’t normal. The Iowa safety is set to make his return to the playing field, perhaps this weekend, about six months to the day from ACL surgery. The normal human being playing football would be out for the year if they had to have an ACL repair.
Snyder seems to have some sort of super human healing power and he’s shown it before. Back when he was a junior in high school, Snyder suffered a pretty serious leg injury. It’s called compartmental syndrome and it involves increase pressure on the muscle compartments. It might not sound serious, but it is and if it’s not treated, you could be faced with potentially losing a limb. The usual time frame for a return from this procedure is three to four months. In this case, Snyder had the surgery done in early March and the doctors told him he could potentially be back to play AAU basketball with the Iowa Barnstormers in the summer. Snyder was back on the basketball court in late April/early May in uniform and playing for the Barnstormers at the prestigious Spiece Run & Slam in Ft. Wayne, IN.
How much Snyder plays and what can do on the field it still very much up in the air, but the fact that he is even playing in early October is remarkable. Now, there is a risk involved when a player comes back this quickly from major knee surgery. There have been plenty of advancements in training and rehab over the years when it comes to ACL repairs, but we have also seen players come back this quickly and have problems. So far so good for Snyder, who has been practicing and was in uniform for the first time last weekend when the Hawkeyes traveled to Michigan State. This week it will be for real, according to Kirk Ferentz and it’s going to be interesting to see how soon they get him back on the field and more importantly, find out what he can do.
JOSEY JEWELL IS NOT NORMAL
So much for the folks who were quietly questioning Josey Jewell a few weeks ago. After the win over North Texas, there were a few fans saying that Jewell’s banged up ankle was limiting him on the field. While no one was bold enough to suggest the All American linebacker sit, they were questioning his effectiveness.
All Jewell has done the last two weeks is pile up 16 tackles against Penn State and then follow it up with 16 more last weekend against Michigan State. If you watch Jewell on the field it simply looks like everyone else on the Iowa defense, who are playing hard, look like they are in slow motion. Jewell now has 60 tackles on the season. The next best total from an Iowa player is Ben Niemann with 30. The next best total among Big Ten players is 39. He is 4th in the country in tackles, averaging 12 per game.
At his current pace, Jewell is going to finish his career at Iowa with over 400 tackles. He will finish in the top five all-time at Iowa. The senior linebacker is also on pace to reach some pretty lofty numbers from a single season perspective. As mentioned earlier, he has 60 on the season. He’s averaging 12 stops a game. If he keeps up that pace, that’s 144 for the 12 game regular season. That would put him in the top five all-time for a single season.
THE WAVE IS A NATIONAL MOVEMENT
The newly created tradition of Iowa fans waving to the U of I Children’s Hospital at the end of the first quarter is amazing and it’s caught fire nationally. If you saw the piece on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning and it didn’t get awfully dusty where you were sitting when Kirk Ferentz got choked up talking about the tragic loss of his granddaughter, then you simply aren’t human. I happened to see it while sitting in the press box before the game and as a father, I had to wipe away tears and I didn’t care what my peers in the media thought at that moment.
Another thing that happened on Saturday afternoon in East Lansing was at the end of the first quarter the PA announcer talked to the crowd about Iowa’s tradition of waving to the kids at the hospital and showed a video of it on their video board. The entire crowd came to their feet and waved and cheered for the kids back in Iowa City. I immediately wondered if this is a tradition that will not be confined to Iowa City. Will this happen when Iowa visits Evanston, Madison, and Lincoln this year? I hope so!
Then on Monday night it spilled into the world of the NFL, where the ESPN broadcast had their cameramen shown on screen waving and mentioned the tradition at Iowa. I mean, wow, this thing that started out as a really nice and loving gesture to the young people at the hospital and their families has become a national movement. It is amazing to see that a simple act of warmth and kindness can have such a huge impact on the lives of those in need.
Nate Stanley has some things to clean up, but overall he has been good this year.
TWO QUESTIONS
IS NATE STANLEY DOING OK AT QB?
There seems to be a little bit of frustration since Saturday’s loss to Michigan State being directed at Nate Stanley. I’m kind of surprised by the thoughts that either he hasn’t done a good job or that perhaps Iowa needs to look at other options under center.
It just seems kind of silly to even suggest a chance and that he’s not doing an adequate job. Has Stanley been perfect? Heck no. However, before the season if you would have told any Iowa fan that five games in, Stanley would have 12 touchdown passes and just one interception, you would have taken that in a heartbeat. Heck, last year, C.J. Beathard had 17 for the entire year. Right now, Stanley is on pace to throw for over 2,500 yards and 28 touchdowns this year. Do I think he will get those numbers, particularly the touchdown pass mark? No, but it simply illustrates to that five games into the season, he’s done well.
Stanley is also dealing with an almost entirely new group of wide receivers, a second offensive coordinator in his two years on campus along with his second positon coach. Now, that might not seem like a big deal to some, but that’s a whole lot of change for a young player two years into their college career.
He certainly has to clean up the ball security issues and that was costly on Saturday when he was inside the Spartan red zone and had a ball that was intended for a wide open Matt VandeBerg slip out of his hands and see it recovered by Michigan State. Plays like that just can’t happen moving forward, but overall, Stanley has actually exceeded my expectations so far in 2017.
WHAT’S THE FIX FOR IOWA’S RUN GAME?
The drop has been pretty significant as the Hawkeyes have stepped up in class this season. Two weeks ago, Penn State bottled up Akrum Wadley and company most of the game. Last week, Wadley and Iowa’s run game was throttled the entire contest against Michigan State.
The bottom line is very simple, Iowa’s run game is going in the wrong direction and there are several causes for it. First, they haven’t developed the chemistry up front with the changes at tackle and guard. Second, and most importantly, Iowa just isn’t playing physical football up front on a consistent basis. The Iowa players admitted as much on Tuesday saying they needed to get back to pushing opposing defenses around instead of being pushed around. Some folks can push the idea that the box is being crowded too much by eight or nine defenders and the linebackers are essentially in run blitz mode, but let’s be honest, other teams have done the exact same thing and when Iowa’s run game is clicking, it doesn’t matter. They can get yardage against a stacked box if the execution is sound and the physical style of football is being played. I think Iowa will get back to that on Saturday and if they don’t, it’s going to be rough sledding until they do.
PREDICTION
It’s time for a run from the Hawkeyes and I think the rest of this month will be one. Iowa faces a young and not very good Illinois team on Saturday. This should be relatively easy win and if it’s not, there are some real issues in Iowa City. Then it’s a bye week before traveling to Northwestern and then hosting Minnesota. All three games are certainly contests that Iowa can win and I think they will pick up wins in all of them to become bowl eligible heading into a very challenging month of November.
Tom Kakert | Publisher
This isn't the only time Brandon Snyder has made a quick return.
This week in 3-2-1, we shouldn't be surprised by the quick return of Brandon Snyder because he's done this before. We also discuss the wave becoming a national movement, Nate Stanley's play at quarterback, and what can get Iowa's run game back in gear.
BRANDON SNYDER IS A MEDICAL MARVEL
Brandon Snyder isn’t normal. The Iowa safety is set to make his return to the playing field, perhaps this weekend, about six months to the day from ACL surgery. The normal human being playing football would be out for the year if they had to have an ACL repair.
Snyder seems to have some sort of super human healing power and he’s shown it before. Back when he was a junior in high school, Snyder suffered a pretty serious leg injury. It’s called compartmental syndrome and it involves increase pressure on the muscle compartments. It might not sound serious, but it is and if it’s not treated, you could be faced with potentially losing a limb. The usual time frame for a return from this procedure is three to four months. In this case, Snyder had the surgery done in early March and the doctors told him he could potentially be back to play AAU basketball with the Iowa Barnstormers in the summer. Snyder was back on the basketball court in late April/early May in uniform and playing for the Barnstormers at the prestigious Spiece Run & Slam in Ft. Wayne, IN.
How much Snyder plays and what can do on the field it still very much up in the air, but the fact that he is even playing in early October is remarkable. Now, there is a risk involved when a player comes back this quickly from major knee surgery. There have been plenty of advancements in training and rehab over the years when it comes to ACL repairs, but we have also seen players come back this quickly and have problems. So far so good for Snyder, who has been practicing and was in uniform for the first time last weekend when the Hawkeyes traveled to Michigan State. This week it will be for real, according to Kirk Ferentz and it’s going to be interesting to see how soon they get him back on the field and more importantly, find out what he can do.
JOSEY JEWELL IS NOT NORMAL
So much for the folks who were quietly questioning Josey Jewell a few weeks ago. After the win over North Texas, there were a few fans saying that Jewell’s banged up ankle was limiting him on the field. While no one was bold enough to suggest the All American linebacker sit, they were questioning his effectiveness.
All Jewell has done the last two weeks is pile up 16 tackles against Penn State and then follow it up with 16 more last weekend against Michigan State. If you watch Jewell on the field it simply looks like everyone else on the Iowa defense, who are playing hard, look like they are in slow motion. Jewell now has 60 tackles on the season. The next best total from an Iowa player is Ben Niemann with 30. The next best total among Big Ten players is 39. He is 4th in the country in tackles, averaging 12 per game.
At his current pace, Jewell is going to finish his career at Iowa with over 400 tackles. He will finish in the top five all-time at Iowa. The senior linebacker is also on pace to reach some pretty lofty numbers from a single season perspective. As mentioned earlier, he has 60 on the season. He’s averaging 12 stops a game. If he keeps up that pace, that’s 144 for the 12 game regular season. That would put him in the top five all-time for a single season.
THE WAVE IS A NATIONAL MOVEMENT
The newly created tradition of Iowa fans waving to the U of I Children’s Hospital at the end of the first quarter is amazing and it’s caught fire nationally. If you saw the piece on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning and it didn’t get awfully dusty where you were sitting when Kirk Ferentz got choked up talking about the tragic loss of his granddaughter, then you simply aren’t human. I happened to see it while sitting in the press box before the game and as a father, I had to wipe away tears and I didn’t care what my peers in the media thought at that moment.
Another thing that happened on Saturday afternoon in East Lansing was at the end of the first quarter the PA announcer talked to the crowd about Iowa’s tradition of waving to the kids at the hospital and showed a video of it on their video board. The entire crowd came to their feet and waved and cheered for the kids back in Iowa City. I immediately wondered if this is a tradition that will not be confined to Iowa City. Will this happen when Iowa visits Evanston, Madison, and Lincoln this year? I hope so!
Then on Monday night it spilled into the world of the NFL, where the ESPN broadcast had their cameramen shown on screen waving and mentioned the tradition at Iowa. I mean, wow, this thing that started out as a really nice and loving gesture to the young people at the hospital and their families has become a national movement. It is amazing to see that a simple act of warmth and kindness can have such a huge impact on the lives of those in need.
Nate Stanley has some things to clean up, but overall he has been good this year.
TWO QUESTIONS
IS NATE STANLEY DOING OK AT QB?
There seems to be a little bit of frustration since Saturday’s loss to Michigan State being directed at Nate Stanley. I’m kind of surprised by the thoughts that either he hasn’t done a good job or that perhaps Iowa needs to look at other options under center.
It just seems kind of silly to even suggest a chance and that he’s not doing an adequate job. Has Stanley been perfect? Heck no. However, before the season if you would have told any Iowa fan that five games in, Stanley would have 12 touchdown passes and just one interception, you would have taken that in a heartbeat. Heck, last year, C.J. Beathard had 17 for the entire year. Right now, Stanley is on pace to throw for over 2,500 yards and 28 touchdowns this year. Do I think he will get those numbers, particularly the touchdown pass mark? No, but it simply illustrates to that five games into the season, he’s done well.
Stanley is also dealing with an almost entirely new group of wide receivers, a second offensive coordinator in his two years on campus along with his second positon coach. Now, that might not seem like a big deal to some, but that’s a whole lot of change for a young player two years into their college career.
He certainly has to clean up the ball security issues and that was costly on Saturday when he was inside the Spartan red zone and had a ball that was intended for a wide open Matt VandeBerg slip out of his hands and see it recovered by Michigan State. Plays like that just can’t happen moving forward, but overall, Stanley has actually exceeded my expectations so far in 2017.
WHAT’S THE FIX FOR IOWA’S RUN GAME?
The drop has been pretty significant as the Hawkeyes have stepped up in class this season. Two weeks ago, Penn State bottled up Akrum Wadley and company most of the game. Last week, Wadley and Iowa’s run game was throttled the entire contest against Michigan State.
The bottom line is very simple, Iowa’s run game is going in the wrong direction and there are several causes for it. First, they haven’t developed the chemistry up front with the changes at tackle and guard. Second, and most importantly, Iowa just isn’t playing physical football up front on a consistent basis. The Iowa players admitted as much on Tuesday saying they needed to get back to pushing opposing defenses around instead of being pushed around. Some folks can push the idea that the box is being crowded too much by eight or nine defenders and the linebackers are essentially in run blitz mode, but let’s be honest, other teams have done the exact same thing and when Iowa’s run game is clicking, it doesn’t matter. They can get yardage against a stacked box if the execution is sound and the physical style of football is being played. I think Iowa will get back to that on Saturday and if they don’t, it’s going to be rough sledding until they do.
PREDICTION
It’s time for a run from the Hawkeyes and I think the rest of this month will be one. Iowa faces a young and not very good Illinois team on Saturday. This should be relatively easy win and if it’s not, there are some real issues in Iowa City. Then it’s a bye week before traveling to Northwestern and then hosting Minnesota. All three games are certainly contests that Iowa can win and I think they will pick up wins in all of them to become bowl eligible heading into a very challenging month of November.
