I think JVB needs to reflect on whether he really wishes to be a D1 football player.
The camera shot where he was head in hands on the bench late in the 4th Q didn't look like someone with a potentially dangerous brain injury, such as a concussion. If he got one, it's minor. I've had a concussion. I saw spots, got way disoriented, and walked aimlessly, had trouble forming coherent expressions, etc. I have also witnessed others with concussions. I have NEVER seen anyone with a concussion pout. It doesn't occur to one to sulk, pout, cry, etc. You're in shock. But I have seen that kind of sulking.
When my sons were much younger and sat like that, in their bedrooms, head in hands, they were bemoaning the terrible unfairness of it all and were sulking like babies. I think JVB is a wimp, but I don't blame him for it. I think he has an empty sack. I also think he has rather an inflated opinion of himself, one that likely has been much worse the past few years as everyone has been telling him he's the New Chuck. So let's look at that. Take his chosen number. Nobody made him choose that. It was purely his choice, contingent upon availability. But at Iowa, in the present, choosing that jersey number makes a very particular statement about how you view yourself and your role on/for the team, and I am not certain it's all that positive. He compared himself to other people that have worn that number, and I think that was unwise. It isn't fair to himself. He also isn't a microscopic figment of an *** pimple on the guy that really filled Iowa jersey #16. Just the way it is.
I think about 1/2 of JVB in the 4th Q really thought he could beat OU with his magic touch and golden spiral. The other half was cognizant of what he was facing, even if OU isn't this year the nasty they usually are. I think his lack of pocket presence is deeper. His happy feet and bizarre passes might indicate a certain conflict or tension in himself. People have built him up for years, but the plays he is producing on the gridiron don't reflect the constructed plot, of Iowa #16 tossing miraculous touchdown passes, of the videos he's seen of that awesome image, as he heard those mighty tales at Grandpa's knee. He looks like a kid that believed all the hype and ******** about himself, and yet now it's real work. Now, the other team is also trying to win. They don't just lay down and die like all those HS teams. He probably was a special HS QB, back in those halcyon days of general athletic parity, when really special players stand out like supernovae. This is much harder. There are players even better than him on the field, and instead of relying on HIS TEAM to improvise, adapt, and overcome he chokes. Not all the time. But he chokes far too frequently to be a Great One.
He can wear Iowa jersey #16. But he cannot fill it. And the more I see him play, the more I recognize that he KNOWS it.
Just my two cents.