Forgot How Bad Christensen Was

[lightning1]

I am embarrassed to say, but I did not buy into NP until '04. In fact, I wanted him gone after the '02 ISU disaster. I simply thought he was a by-product of coaching under Perles/Widenhofer. Obviously, I was wrong, now more than ever it is pretty easy to see that he was definitely the glue for the Iowa success under Ferentz.

I'm not afraid to admit when I've been horribly wrong. I started buying into Norm in 2003. Before that, I wasn't really thrilled with the prevent defense (or what I assumed to be a prevent defense).

 

[trj]

Just to refresh, Jake Christensen was a 4-star recruit coming out of high school. He was the top player in Illinois his senior year, first team all state, and got all American notice from Rivals, USA Today and Parade Magazine. He played in the US Army All American Bowl as a senior in high school. He threw for over 6000 yards and 69 TDs in his HS career.

Yes, I agree that his career at Iowa was pretty bad, but as a coach you kind of give leeway to a kid with those credentials hoping he'll find his groove again; he just never found it at Iowa.

On top of all that his father played the position in the league for several years. He looked good throwing the football the '06 No. Illinois game replacing Tate. After that it seemed like he got the case of the yips throwing the football and never recovered.

 

[Billso]

The kid had demonstrated talent and was heavily pursued by many schools. It really was reminiscent of Steve Sax, or Chuck Knoblauch. Just a freakout between the ears.

 

[DP5555]

I remember when he left Iowa (for a directional Illinois school I believe) he claimed that the Hawkeye staff tried to make him "too strong". Not sure if there is any truth to that claim, but he certainly had ground squirrels afraid of that arm strength. He didn't have a touch pass in his arsenal.

 

[RocknRollface]

just a prime example of Loyalty trumps Talent at Iowa!

Or his fear of turnovers and mistakes far outweighs common sense and logic.

Stanzi was turnover prone while JC never turned it over, but he never did anything but throw uncatchable passes and get sacked.

But somehow that's better to Ferentz.

Luckily KOK talked him into the switch.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

My favorite JC moment. 2007 at Northwestern. Iowa runs a bootleg to JC's strong side and sneaks Tom Busch out of the backfield into the flats wide open. It's not a deep bootleg so JC and Busch are maybe only 4-5 yards away from each other and JC proceeds to spike the ball into the ground at Busch's feet.......one yard short of him.

Kirk playing him over a cadaver in 2008, much less a future NFL QB, trying to implode the 2008 season needlessly ranks second behind Banks/McCann 2001 on the all-time moron personnel decisions list.

I remember the play. Didnt he lob it about 3 yards over his head?

 

[Rosebowler]

 

[MelroseHawkins]

No, you didn't!!

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I remember tailgating at UNI before a UNI and South Dakota game (I believe) and listening to that game on the radio while tailgating. UNI is a pretty fun but laid back tailgate for a directional school.

 

[tksirius]

OMG, I received the razor sales pitch from that guy a few years ago.

 

[PCHawk]

I remember the play. Didnt he lob it about 3 yards over his head?

Lob? You must be thinking of someone else.

 

[ChosenChildren]

Jake was highly touted out of high school. I think he was a little overwhelmed by expectations at Iowa and played on a very young team in 2007. We sure could have used him in 2009 when Stanzi went down, but by then he had transferred to the directional school in Illinois. Ferentz really has a hard time "rolling the dice" with the younger, less experienced but more talented QB......it happens often, including last season

 

[PCHawk]

Jake was highly touted out of high school. I think he was a little overwhelmed by expectations at Iowa and played on a very young team in 2007. We sure could have used him in 2009 when Stanzi went down, but by then he had transferred to the directional school in Illinois. Ferentz really has a hard time "rolling the dice" with the younger, less experienced but more talented QB......it happens often, including last season

I would take '09 Vandy over '09 JC.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

This might be a case where he took advantage of excellent players around him on his HS team, but over 6,000 yds is hard to argue. I sometimes wonder about that with highly rated players that don't pan out too well. Did they have outstanding teammates or players around them in HS that made them look that much better??? Who knows.

 

[trj]

His old man put together a 5 part highlight reel on youtube. I am a firm believer that somewhere after that '06 No. Illinois he got the case of the yips and never recovered. Who knows what happens if James Cleveland catches that pass at the goal line and they beat ISU in '07. Take it a step further they beat a bad ISU team and a 5-7 Western Michigan team and that '07 team is 8-4 and the '08 QB competition may never even happen.

[video=youtube;ggH9onCCfy4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggH9onCCfy4[/video]

 

[TychoBrahe]

Couple of things people forget about JC:

1. He threw for a lot of HS TD's, but his completion % was only in the mid-50% range, which one would think would be better for an 'elite' HS QB. He was never very accurate--not in HS and not in college.

2. His father BARELY played in the NFL. BARELY. People always made it sound like he was the Earl Morrall to someone else's Johhny U, but the fact is that his father BARELY saw the field.

JC was over-hyped by a statistical anomaly (lots of yards and TD's, but poor completion % that people ignored) and the 'legacy' of his father being an NFL QB, which he barely was at all. Don't forget--after each game, the stat line always looked better than JC had actually performed. Seeing him in person was a whole 'nother experience entirely.

 

[NCHawker]

I recall Jake saying in an interview, after leaving Iowa, that his throwing touch got pretty messed up - he attributed it to so much weight lifting.

What's the point of running this guy into the ground years later?

 

[hawkeye4life68]

I remember the play. Didnt he lob it about 3 yards over his head?

Could be. Might be remembering it wrong. The really incredulous part was that there must have been several breakdowns on D because the play was WIDE open. No rush from the pursuit side or coming at JC and Busch was wide open with no one near him. It was literally like playing catch with no one around from a 5-7 yard distance. Would have been a 25-30 yard play easy but JC ganks the throw.

A harbinger of things to come.

 

[ShockHawk22]

Woah woah woah woah..... When did the Big Ten Network start showing Iowa games?

 

[SpecialKHawk]

I must say KOK's formations and passing game looks were pretty darn good.