All-KF Era Team: LBs

Choose your top 3 LBs...

  • Campbell

    Votes: 2 100.0%

  • Angerer

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • Greenway

    Votes: 2 100.0%

  • Jewell

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Higgins

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Kirksey

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • Hitchens

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Hodge

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Edds

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • either Niemann

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    2
C

CP87

Well-Known Member
Butkus: Jack Campbell

All-Americans (1st team unless otherwise specified):

Chad Greenway (2nd team in 2004 and 2005)
Pat Angerer (2009)
Josey Jewel (2017 unanimous)
Jack Campbell (2022 unanimous)
Jay Higgins (2023; 2024 unanimous)

B1G LB of the Year:
Jewell (2017)
Campbell (2022)
Higgins (2024)

1st team All-B1G:

Fred Barr (2002)
Abdul Hodge (2003, 2004)
Chad Greenway (2004, 2005)
Pat Angerer (2009)
Josey Jewell (2017)
Jack Campbell (2021, 2022)
Jay Higgins (2023, 2024)

Some guys not on the lists above that might be considered (generally our LEOs who don't get the stats of the ILB):

LeVar Woods (7 year NFL career)
AJ Edds (4 year NFL career)
Jeff Tarpinian (injury-prone at Iowa, but played 4 years in the NFL)
Christian Kirksey (9 year NFL career)
Anthony Hitchens (8 year NFL career)
Ben Niemann (7 year NFL career)
Nick Niemann (5 years in NFL and counting)
Kristian Welch (injury-prone at Iowa, but he has been a ST mainstay in the NFL for 6 years and running)

Most of our NFL guys have been NFL STers...Greenway had 144 career starts on D (2 pro bowls), Anthony Hitchens had 107, Kirksey had 94, Josey Jewell has 70 (and counting, hopefully), Jack Campbell has 46 and counting (1st team All-Pro in 2025), Pat Angerer had 39.

Any other guys I am missing?
 
This may be the hardest one yet. Are we picking the top 3 guys, or are we putting the line-up together, meaning Mike, Sam, Leo?

Jack Campbell is a no brainer. After that, it gets damn tough.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
This may be the hardest one yet. Are we picking the top 3 guys, or are we putting the line-up together, meaning Mike, Sam, Leo?

Jack Campbell is a no brainer. After that, it gets damn tough.
Click to expand...

I would say Mike and Sam are pretty interchangeable. Usually our best ILB was at Mike, but not always. Greenway played Sam (I think?), as did Hitchens.

Leo is pretty unique and has now mostly been replaced by Cash, so harder to know how to treat that one. But you know someone like Greenway would have been a great Leo, as well. Someone like Josey Jewell? Probably not so much.

I would go Greenway, Campbell, and Kirksey.
 
CP87 said:
Butkus: Jack Campbell

All-Americans (1st team unless otherwise specified):

Chad Greenway (2nd team in 2004 and 2005)
Pat Angerer (2009)
Josey Jewel (2017 unanimous)
Jack Campbell (2022 unanimous)
Jay Higgins (2023; 2024 unanimous)

B1G LB of the Year:
Jewell (2017)
Campbell (2022)
Higgins (2024)

1st team All-B1G:

Fred Barr (2002)
Abdul Hodge (2003, 2004)
Chad Greenway (2004, 2005)
Pat Angerer (2009)
Josey Jewell (2017)
Jack Campbell (2021, 2022)
Jay Higgins (2023, 2024)

Some guys not on the lists above that might be considered (generally our LEOs who don't get the stats of the ILB):

LeVar Woods (7 year NFL career)
AJ Edds (4 year NFL career)
Jeff Tarpinian (injury-prone at Iowa, but played 4 years in the NFL)
Christian Kirksey (9 year NFL career)
Anthony Hitchens (8 year NFL career)
Ben Niemann (7 year NFL career)
Nick Niemann (5 years in NFL and counting)
Kristian Welch (injury-prone at Iowa, but he has been a ST mainstay in the NFL for 6 years and running)

Most of our NFL guys have been NFL STers...Greenway had 144 career starts on D (2 pro bowls), Anthony Hitchens had 107, Kirksey had 94, Josey Jewell has 70 (and counting, hopefully), Jack Campbell has 46 and counting (1st team All-Pro in 2025), Pat Angerer had 39.

Any other guys I am missing?
Click to expand...
Great post! Lots of personal memories.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
This may be the hardest one yet. Are we picking the top 3 guys, or are we putting the line-up together, meaning Mike, Sam, Leo?

Jack Campbell is a no brainer. After that, it gets damn tough.
Click to expand...

Jack Campbell at the Mike
AJ Edds at the Sam
Chad Greenway at the Leo

I believe all 3 guys were 6’4 or taller in height, long arms, and ran under a 4.7, 40. With those 3 guys, you could play base, and really not need to play sub packages(Cash).
 
Last edited:
trj said:
Jack Campbell at the Mike
AJ Edds at the Sam
Chad Greenway at the Leo

I believe all 3 guys were 6’4 or taller in height, long arms, and ran under a 4.7, 40. With those 3 guys, you could play base, and really not need to play sub packages(Cash).
Click to expand...
Perfect. Those would be my three as well. Edds was tremendously underrated.
 
OK, here's another question: who were the best tandem of 2 LBs who played at the same time?

For me, it's Greenway and Hodge. For one of my young son's birthdays I got him a signed poster from both of them, showing them crushing a Florida player in a bowl game. My son is now 34 but that framed poster has survived every move he's made all over the country!

I agree Edds was underrated. There are 2 players over the past 40 years as I've watched the Hawks at Kinnick who had a noticeable hop in their step the first time they set foot on the field: Tate and AJ Edds. Dude was light on his feet!

Best First Game as a Starter: goes to Higgens. He never sniffed the field until he was a Jr., and I remember watching him closely his first start. Dude was everywhere, sideline to sideline, seemingly knowing where each play was going before it happened...super smart, intelligent, with great instincts.
 
trj said:
Jack Campbell at the Mike
AJ Edds at the Sam
Chad Greenway at the Leo

I believe all 3 guys were 6’4 or taller in height, long arms, and ran under a 4.7, 40. With those 3 guys, you could play base, and really not need to play sub packages(Cash).
Click to expand...
Greenway is not 6'4"
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
Greenway is not 6'4"
Click to expand...
His data online says 6’2” but he also had long arms which helped. Very fluid and was good at play recognition. Which is why I chose him with Higgins and Campbell. I still think Jewell was the best at play recognition I have seen at Iowa but as a total package I don’t feel he was better than Campbell and the other two would be better on the outside in my opinion. Toughest position to judge in my opinion.
 
Grady said:
OK, here's another question: who were the best tandem of 2 LBs who played at the same time?

For me, it's Greenway and Hodge. For one of my young son's birthdays I got him a signed poster from both of them, showing them crushing a Florida player in a bowl game. My son is now 34 but that framed poster has survived every move he's made all over the country!

I agree Edds was underrated. There are 2 players over the past 40 years as I've watched the Hawks at Kinnick who had a noticeable hop in their step the first time they set foot on the field: Tate and AJ Edds. Dude was light on his feet!

Best First Game as a Starter: goes to Higgens. He never sniffed the field until he was a Jr., and I remember watching him closely his first start. Dude was everywhere, sideline to sideline, seemingly knowing where each play was going before it happened...super smart, intelligent, with great instincts.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it should have been Campbell and Higgins? We had a unanimous All-American starting, with a future 2x All-American on the bench behind him. Though Seth Benson was no slouch, and there is no guarantee that sophomore Higgins would have been better than senior Benson (2nd team All-B1G from coaches).

The best trio, though none of them show up on the All-B1G 1st team or AA lists, might have been Morris, Hitchens, and Kirksey. They took their lumps early, but they were salty as seniors and helped make up for an uncharacteristically weak DL in front of them (we were still recovering from Coach Kaz who was let go 2 years prior).

The worst LB trio was probably the year after those 3 graduated (2014). We started the season with Travis Perry (Jr.), Reggie Spearman (So.), and Quinton Alston (Sr.). Alston and Perry were solid defenders, but not All-conference caliber. Spearman had no idea what he was doing. We were 48th in the nation in defensive efficiency that year. Since that year, we have never been worse than 22nd. In their defense, they did face a murderers' row of RBs that year:

Gave up 203 yards receiving to David Johnson in the opener.

Gave up 155 yards rushing to James Conner in a win over Pitt.

Gave up 219 yards rushing to Tevin Coleman in a win over Indiana.

Gave up almost 300 yards rushing in a 51-14 loss to Minny.

Gave up 200 yards rushing to Melvin Gordon in a 26-24 loss to Wisky.

Gave up 106 yards rushing to Ameer Abdullah in an OT loss to Nebraska (the loss that got Bo Pelini fired).

Hiding in that LB room were some future studs, including RS Fr Josey Jewell and Bo Bower and Fr Ben Niemann (I believe Jewell and Niemann were in the starting lineup as the year progressed). There were also a few guys who made an impact at other positions: Parker Hesse (Fr) and Drake Kullick (Rs Fr.).
 
Grady said:
OK, here's another question: who were the best tandem of 2 LBs who played at the same time?

For me, it's Greenway and Hodge. For one of my young son's birthdays I got him a signed poster from both of them, showing them crushing a Florida player in a bowl game. My son is now 34 but that framed poster has survived every move he's made all over the country!

I agree Edds was underrated. There are 2 players over the past 40 years as I've watched the Hawks at Kinnick who had a noticeable hop in their step the first time they set foot on the field: Tate and AJ Edds. Dude was light on his feet!

Best First Game as a Starter: goes to Higgens. He never sniffed the field until he was a Jr., and I remember watching him closely his first start. Dude was everywhere, sideline to sideline, seemingly knowing where each play was going before it happened...super smart, intelligent, with great instincts.
Click to expand...

Angerer and Edds also worth consideration.
 
I think we have to give Seth Wallace a lot of credit for our recent LB production. He was elevated to LB coach in 2016, and since then, we have had 3 B1G LBs of the year, and a total of 5 1st team All-B1G LB seasons. And there have been a ton of guys like the Niemanns, Kristian Welch, Bo Bowers, Seth Benson, Nick Jackson, and Karson Sharar who were not racking up accolades but were critical to our defensive success. Not to mention tons of STs stalwarts.

Whatever you think of him personally, his LB production has been great.
 
#1DieHardHawk said:
The toughest of the position groups to pick, IMO

Campbell
Greenway
Jewell

It pains me to leave off Angerer and Hitchens
Click to expand...
That's my 3 too. I found it surprisingly easy to separate them from the rest. Yeah lots of other great players throughout the yrs but those 3 separated themselves to me.
 
Grady said:
OK, here's another question: who were the best tandem of 2 LBs who played at the same time?

For me, it's Greenway and Hodge. For one of my young son's birthdays I got him a signed poster from both of them, showing them crushing a Florida player in a bowl game. My son is now 34 but that framed poster has survived every move he's made all over the country!

I agree Edds was underrated. There are 2 players over the past 40 years as I've watched the Hawks at Kinnick who had a noticeable hop in their step the first time they set foot on the field: Tate and AJ Edds. Dude was light on his feet!

Best First Game as a Starter: goes to Higgens. He never sniffed the field until he was a Jr., and I remember watching him closely his first start. Dude was everywhere, sideline to sideline, seemingly knowing where each play was going before it happened...super smart, intelligent, with great instincts.
Click to expand...
Most impressive thing about him was that. He wasn't the fastest or most physically imposing of any LB there's ever been. But he never took a wrong step. Knew the defense inside out and what everyone else's jobs were on top of his own. He could read diagnose and react to plays almost instantaneous with the snap it seemed like. You could tell he learned all their was to learn from sitting behind Jack.

It woulda been almost unfair if he had the body of a Jack Campbell or speed of Greenway out there. At the college level he really didn't need it he was plenty good enough to dominate. I was so happy he was able to be on the 53 man roster for part of last yr nobody deserved it more. Hopefully he can for all of this next yr
 
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