Kaden Wetjen (Preferred Walk On; Could play in 2025) is faster than Cooper DeJean. Chad Leistikow & Scott Dochterman Discuss the WR Room
- Thread starter Franisdaman
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Does it just look like it, or is he fast as shit?
Wait until it slows down even more for him. He is trying to take it to the house every time,and effort is needed, but give him a few more times doing it in game action and the vision will get even better as things slow down. And yeah he is fast, he gets in the open field and there are not many that are going to run him down.
I hope we were just making sure we have a 2nd option at punt returner in the 2nd half. Because the job should be 100% Wetjen's. EVERY punt return felt like he could bust open. Felt like a 10 yard minimum return.... Even with NO SPACE.
Dude is fun to watch
Dude is fun to watch
Re-watched that return and got some serious Timmy D vibes. Game speed like that is very rare. Kid has a chance to be really special and I feel like we may have a chance to see multiple TD returns from him over the next few years.
Might be nit picking, but there were a couple of times that I wished/thought Wetjen coulda/shoulda turned it back inside instead of going out of bounds.
I’ve never seen a staff at Iowa under KF, regardless of who it is not know how to use potential weapons at the wr position. This staff is retarded offensively under him.
I was calling for wetjen and cooper to be WR early last year. ISU got away with a lot of holding and grabbing this weekend. They weren't called for a secondary hold or PI all day long. NFL refs are much better at seeing this. VanderZee was neutralized via holds that the refs wouldn't call. Quite a bit harder to grab speedsters like Wetjen and Gill that can shift on a dime.
He did break one for a TD. Eliot, please don't memory-hole the few happy moments we have.
Not getting the ball to a potentially dynamic offensive weapon like Wetjen is perfectly in line with the KF offensive philosophy.
Ouch @icantfindausernamethatisntused This projected pecking order cracks me up. I've gone ahead and filled in the number of catches Iowa's top 6 receivers have after 6 games in RED. They have a combined 6 catches. Pretty unfathomable at the beginning of the season.
Wetjen was what I call less than a nose faster that even Cooper. For some reason, he doesn't get a lot of regular downs. Looks like his use is growing, though.
I think we will see more deep balls if teams just stack the box, as did Wisconsin. Never going to bomb away with this QB but old habits die hard. I refer to defensive coordinators. If teams stack the box they still cannot fully contain Kaleb. One slip of the hip and he's gone. The line is run blocking well. That's been the book on Iowa for years. The odds makers have shortchanged the offense most of the season.
Basically I don't see any team on the schedule that can stop Iowas running game. Howard and LVZ are huge targets and both look fast, especially Howard, although don't sleep on LVZ, long strider.
In this May 17, 2024 Gazette article linked below, they write "walk-on Kaden Wetjen"
If he is not on scholarship, he deserves to be.
Iowa’s transfer portal shopping likely compete after filling 2 needs
Kirk Ferentz still sees some positional needs on the 2024 roster, but “the market has to cooperate with that.”
www.thegazette.com
Kaden, in today's 40-14 win vs Northwestern:
Punt Returns:
4 for 111 yards (27.8 yd ave), 1 TOUCHDOWN
Kick Returns:
3 for 65 yards (21.7 yd ave)
Punt Returns:
4 for 111 yards (27.8 yd ave), 1 TOUCHDOWN
Kick Returns:
3 for 65 yards (21.7 yd ave)
It's a shame he's a senior. But, there's another kid named Doll waiting in the wings who's even faster than he is.
If it's true Wetjen is still a walk-on that's also un ... wait, what am I saying. That's very fathomable from the guy who wanted Charlie to be a backup WR after winning all-big ten honors in consecutive years. All because he wanted to push the narrative that "well we don't really have talent at that position".
it's really unfortunate if Wetjen is paying his own way this season
Crazy to think that we had both Cooper and Kaden on the roster last season! 😳
Too bad we did not redshirt Kaden last season (even though he was great at KR duties, but especially with BF as OC….🥲
Too bad we did not redshirt Kaden last season (even though he was great at KR duties, but especially with BF as OC….🥲
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Is Wetjen the fastest player on the team this year? Definitely a great replacement for Cooper. He's got that fearlessness and quick acceleration that all good returners need.
Exactly- he has that fearlessness and confidence that he's going to house it on every return
we really miss Cooper in the secondary this year, that's for sure
and too bad we didn't have Lester at the beginning of last season......hell, we still finished 10-2; I bet this year we would be better than 5-3
