He (Christensen) didn't play after the Pitt game. That was the final chance he got to play. 2008 season played out as follows:
Iowa sees Stanzi is pushing Christensen/maybe is even better than him in pre-season camp. So Stanzi plays early and often against Florida International and Maine. Iowa wins easily both games. They go ahead and start Stanzi against Iowa State, the first real team Iowa has played to that point. Stanzi is awful against Iowa State in the rain, going 5-14 with 2 interceptions. Christensen goes 4-5, doesn't turn it over, hands off to Greene for a TD and Brodell returns a punt for a TD and Iowa wins.
So they start Christensen against Pitt, both he and Stanzi play. Stanzi was better, Christensen was given the second half as pretty much his last stand. He wasn't very good, so they went with Stanzi from then forward.
Stanzi promptly proceeded to play so-so against Northwestern and MSU, both losses. Iowa had 17 points against Northwestern and 13 against MSU. But Iowa stuck with him, and Iowa ended up winning 6 of the last 7, including the take down of Penn State and the bowl win over South Carolina.
In retrospect, Iowa probably should have just ripped off the scab and named Stanzi the starter from the beginning of the season. But that is tough to do when you have a starter returning who started every game the previous year and took a beating behind a bad OL and a very young skill position group. Iowa definitely COULD have won the Pitt game if Stanzi had played the whole time. But it's also very likely that Iowa loses the ISU game if Stanzi plays the whole game.
I suppose there are player personnel decisions that KF could have handled better. I really don't know, and that's not a cop out. The coaches literally see every second of practice, camp, etc. It's in their best interests to put players on the field who give the team the best chance to win. That is why they trusted their own eyes in practice and gave Stanzi equal time in the first 2 games of the season, where he played better. So they gave him a start against Iowa State, where he played miserably. Not a shocker as it was the first real team he played against. I've only coached a much lower levels (high school) but it always fascinated me that people outside the team could think that guys who weren't playing as much were just being overlooked. That does happen I'm sure from time to time, coaches are human too. But the players themselves know who the best players are. Coaches lose trust if they don't play the best guys.
