Iowa football: Multiple Hawks make PFF All-Big Ten team

A week after 15 Iowa football players received All-Big Ten honors, four Hawks were placed on Pro Football Focus’ All-Big Ten First Team.

The awards keep coming in after the Iowa football team finished 8-4 during the college football regular season, and although Pro Football Focus isn’t a true award, it’s fun to see a few Hawkeyes make their Big Ten Team of the Year list.

Just a week after an outstanding 15 total Iowa football players received either first team, second team, third team or honorable mention All-Big Ten honors, four Hawkeyes made this yearly list. Moreover, one of those four Hawks had such an outstanding season according to Pro Football Focus that he was named to the PFF All-American team.

Oddly enough, despite finishing fifth in the Big Ten, the Hawks had the second-most representation on the team behind just the Wisconsin Badgers who took up three of the five offensive line spots.

Iowa offensive lineman Ross Reynolds was able to find a spot amongst the Badgers on the PFF All-Big Ten First-Team Offense, and he was joined by Big Ten Kwalick Clark Tight End of the Year TJ Hockenson.

Equal representation was given to the defensive side of the ball as defensive backs Amani Hooker and Geno Stone made the PFF All-Big Ten First-Team Defense.

While Hooker is no surprise, the lack of Anthony Nelson and AJ Epenesa is somewhat shocking as is the inclusion of reserve safety Geno Stone.

The awards didn’t stop their however, as Amani Hooker, who is fresh off of winning the Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year Award given to the best defensive back in the conference, proceeded to be named to the PFF All-American First-Team Defense. Hooker was the only Big Ten player to make this list.

As mentioned above, these awards don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things other than reaffirming our thoughts on how well certain players performed throughout the year according to more intense analytics.

It will be interesting to see how all of this hype both from an analytical numbers perspective and a media perspective will impact junior safety Amani Hooker’s draft stock as he begins to look at his options after the Outback Bowl.