Iowa football: Top three players in loss to Wisconsin
By Andrew Wade
TJ Hockenson
Most people reading this might be surprised to see this isn’t Preseason All-American Noah Fant who registered two touchdowns on three catches in Saturday’s contest. Simply put, he wasn’t the best tight end on his own team. That honor belongs to the sophomore tight end out of Chariton, TJ Hockenson.
In fact, some might be surprised to know Noah didn’t even see as many snaps as Hockenson Saturday. According to Marc Morehouse, Hockenson was on the field for 50 snaps compared to Fant’s 35. Although this is in large part due to Fant being pretty bad at blocking, it still goes to show what the Iowa football coaches think of their young tight end.
What TJ Hockenson did Saturday night was incredible. He was the big-play target for Nate Stanley and consistently created momentum on each of his three catches in which he gained 125 yards for an average of 41.7 yards. On two of Iowa’s scoring drives and another in which they failed to capitalize with the ball on the Wisconsin 5, Hockenson reeled in one of his big catches.
The first catch came on Iowa’s first drive of the game when he hauled in a 24 yard catch for a first down. The second catch came on a crucial 3rd and 9 at the Iowa 34 where he brought in a 46 yard catch to put the Hawks in scoring position. Hockenson caught the final ball on a key 3rd and 1 at the Iowa 49 that put the Hawks in scoring position.
He singlehandedly accounted for almost of half of the Iowa football team’s passing yards Saturday night.