Iowa NFL'ers And Draft Picks Among Peers

[Fryowa]

After reading Rob's articles on Hawks' NFL performance each week (highly recommended, btw), I got curious.

I'm off work today so I compiled some B1G figures regarding to the number of active roster players from each team, as well as the draft performance of each team for the last 6 years plus the totals.

Some notes...

1) Holy shit, OSU.

2) Iowa and Wisconsin are very, very close to each other in these metrics, and Iowa actually has a couple more active players and even more yet NFL starters. But they still have our number. This only reinforces to me that it's our scheme, coaching, and play-calling killing us every year when we play them. Not talent. Yes, their OLs are always better than our DLs, but Parker has shown vs Michigan and OSU in the recent past what blitzing can do to disrupt the middle when we have no other options. I'm a huge Phil fan but that's on him. Also, Kirk and Brian have had plenty of time to adapt against their 3-4. They don't change it up; they keep bearing down with a nose tackle and stacked box and we keep trying to run into it.

3) Nebraska is a burned-out, gutted, rotting corpse of its former self and I fucking love it.

 

[Northside Hawk]

After reading Rob's articles on Hawks' NFL performance each week (highly recommended, btw), I got curious.

I'm off work today so I compiled some B1G figures regarding to the number of active roster players from each team, as well as the draft performance of each team for the last 6 years plus the totals.

Some notes...

1) Holy shit, OSU.

2) Iowa and Wisconsin are very, very close to each other in these metrics, and Iowa actually has a couple more active players and even more yet NFL starters. But they still have our number. This only reinforces to me that it's our scheme, coaching, and play-calling killing us every year when we play them. Not talent. Yes, their OLs are always better than our DLs, but Parker has shown vs Michigan and OSU in the recent past what blitzing can do to disrupt the middle when we have no other options. I'm a huge Phil fan but that's on him. Also, Kirk and Brian have had plenty of time to adapt against their 3-4. They don't change it up; they keep bearing down with a nose tackle and stacked box and we keep trying to run into it.

3) Nebraska is a burned-out, gutted, rotting corpse of its former self and I fucking love it.

My oh my has Sparty fallen. Even when the B1G was "big two, little eight, Michigan State was a veritable NFL assembly line.

When they were elite it seemed like every skill position player they produced would play, and play well, in the NFL.

Now they have probably been passed by Indiana for fourth best team in the east. A far cry from the 2015 team that beat Iowa in heartbreaking fashion.

Most of you know that MSU in the sixties and part of the seventies recruited minorities from the south, especially Texas, when the SEC and old SWC still stuck to their old school segregated ways. They produced Herb Adderlys and Bubba Smiths like McDonald's produces Big Macs. It has probably been three generations, at least, since Sparty produced so few NFL players.

I suspect Minnesota will have made an upward move when this list gets revisited in two or three years.

 

[Ree4]

After reading Rob's articles on Hawks' NFL performance each week (highly recommended, btw), I got curious.

I'm off work today so I compiled some B1G figures regarding to the number of active roster players from each team, as well as the draft performance of each team for the last 6 years plus the totals.

Some notes...

1) Holy shit, OSU.

2) Iowa and Wisconsin are very, very close to each other in these metrics, and Iowa actually has a couple more active players and even more yet NFL starters. But they still have our number. This only reinforces to me that it's our scheme, coaching, and play-calling killing us every year when we play them. Not talent. Yes, their OLs are always better than our DLs, but Parker has shown vs Michigan and OSU in the recent past what blitzing can do to disrupt the middle when we have no other options. I'm a huge Phil fan but that's on him. Also, Kirk and Brian have had plenty of time to adapt against their 3-4. They don't change it up; they keep bearing down with a nose tackle and stacked box and we keep trying to run into it.

3) Nebraska is a burned-out, gutted, rotting corpse of its former self and I fucking love it.

I could argue a different reason for them beating us, not saying it's necessarily the case but having similar numbers of NFL players doesn't necessarily prove that the overall talent levels are similar, just shows that our top-end caliber talents are similar. Average talent is what matters. Also it matters where our talent is. They've had a lot at running backs, some good receivers where we've been more in the defensive backfield and tight end IMO. Just saying that where on the field that talent is matters and NFL talent doesn't describe the skill level at positions where there isnt NFL talent.

Receivers for example - Wisconsin could have, say a 7 out of 10 rating at receiver where ours were about a 3. While neither would go to the NFL, theirs would clearly be better. Of course this is completely hypothetical and I'm not saying you're wrong about scheme being the issue, using number of current NFL players and extrapolating it to the entire team, I would consider a faulty generalization.


Thanks for doing the research! Always fun to see comparisons.

 

[Fryowa]

I could argue a different reason for them beating us, not saying it's necessarily the case but having similar numbers of NFL players doesn't necessarily prove that the overall talent levels are similar, just shows that our top-end caliber talents are similar. Average talent is what matters. Also it matters where our talent is. They've had a lot at running backs, some good receivers where we've been more in the defensive backfield and tight end IMO. Just saying that where on the field that talent is matters and NFL talent doesn't describe the skill level at positions where there isnt NFL talent.

Receivers for example - Wisconsin could have, say a 7 out of 10 rating at receiver where ours were about a 3. While neither would go to the NFL, theirs would clearly be better. Of course this is completely hypothetical and I'm not saying you're wrong about scheme being the issue, using number of current NFL players and extrapolating it to the entire team, I would consider a faulty generalization.

Thanks for doing the research! Always fun to see comparisons.

Like I mentioned in the post up top, I think it's more of a reinforcement of opinion than anything. If Wisconsin had say, twice the number of guys going pro than Iowa I think it'd be a fair statement to say that the talent level was disparate. It's also over a six year stretch so I think that smoothes it out a little. They run the same defensive scheme every year and we can't create enough mismatches on the field to get a win. It's true that games do come down to single plays or mistakes (we would've won the game in '18 if Beyer hadn't extended the curse), but in six years those mistakes and single plays get canceled out in the "data."

 

[Ree4]

Like I mentioned in the post up top, I think it's more of a reinforcement of opinion than anything. If Wisconsin had say, twice the number of guys going pro than Iowa I think it'd be a fair statement to say that the talent level was disparate. It's also over a six year stretch so I think that smoothes it out a little. They run the same defensive scheme every year and we can't create enough mismatches on the field to get a win. It's true that games do come down to single plays or mistakes (we would've won the game in '18 if Beyer hadn't extended the curse), but in six years those mistakes and single plays get canceled out in the "data."

I can agree with that, how we haven't spent 40 weeks in the offseason figuring out how to beat their 3-4 is beyond me.

 

[okeefe4prez]

I can agree with that, how we haven't spent 40 weeks in the offseason figuring out how to beat their 3-4 is beyond me.

The middle of the o-line has been bad for a few years and the coaching on the line hasn't been great. In the olden days, if you ran 3 down linemen against Iowa, you would have lost the TOP battle 38-22. My how the world has changed.