Josey, One of Five Butkus Award Finalists

[enosmohawk]

Josey Jewell is the only Big Ten representative of the five finalists for the Butkus Award for America's Best Linebacker. Does the national acknowledgement of Josey's linebacker skills make him a candidate to come out for the NFL draft early? As much as I would love for him to come back for his senior year, if he has definite first round potential, he would have to give considerable thought to his NFL options.

 

[ChosenChildren]

Incredibly good LB....a great honor

 

[Fryowa]

Love having Josey Jewell on this team.

That said, we would all do well to remember the Mitch King situation. Everyone got rose colored glasses on and assumed he was 1st round material and then he never got drafted. Raw talent can make up for lacking speed and size in college, but the NFL is a whole other zip code. The average 4-3 linebacker in the NFL is 245 lbs and they're much faster than Jewell. Pro scouts don't care how good we think he is.

 

[guffus]

Could be wrong but 2017 feels like its going to be a rebuilding year.

King, CJB, L. Daniels all gone.
Schedule that includes Ohio St, Penn st, Mich St.

Team could end up 5-7 or 4-8 in 2017.

If Jewell is projected for the first round after this year, I believe he should bail for NFL.

 

[Joshbrown]

This full-nelson defense has a thorpe winner and butkus finalist and draft pick in JJ and our scoring D is 15th in the nation!

How the ****! did we lose to NDSU and Northwestern???????

 

[MWS604]

This full-nelson defense has a thorpe winner and butkus finalist and draft pick in JJ and our scoring D is 15th in the nation!

How the ****! did we lose to NDSU and Northwestern???????

We lost because Mabin played. He could never locate the ball and generally was a bad tackler. He was one of the weakest links and when other players tried to compensate, they got burned. With Rugamba playing corner, the opposing quarterback doesn't have any automatic 3rd and long conversions and a lot less likely that RBs get 20+ yards on carries.

KF's stubbornness and loyalty kept Mabin in front of Rugamba. It is very likely that we would 6-5 or 5-6 right now if Mabin hadn't been injured. Also, Gair and Faith are a couple of other players seeing more action since Penn State.

Our offense sucks this year because we tried to turn a rollout QB into a pocket passer. An over correction to avoid injury. Being a second year starting QB at Iowa is really tough. The coaches focus almost exclusively in limiting weaknesses rather than capitalizing on strengths. Prediction: Stanley has a better year in 2017 than 2018.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

This full-nelson defense has a thorpe winner and butkus finalist and draft pick in JJ and our scoring D is 15th in the nation!

How the ****! did we lose to NDSU and Northwestern???????

In a word...offense. 120th in offense. Even an avg offense and we beat Wisc as well and have a good shot at another B1G West title.

Just...dang.