Iowa football: Nate Stanley 3rd best in Big Ten in big time throws

Senior quarterback Nate Stanley is one of the best in the Big Ten at making big-time throws for the Iowa football team according to PFF.

The common theme heading into the 2019 Iowa football season as Nate Stanley goes, this offense will go. If the offense can just improve from last year, the defense can take care of the rest.

To continue to progress forward, the Iowa football team will need a few big-time plays from it’s most notable offensive player, senior quarterback Nate Stanley.

According to Pro Football Focus, that shouldn’t be a problem. Stanley is the third best-returning quarterback in the Big Ten at making big-time throws.

Pro Football Focus defines a big-time throw as such:

"Big-time throws (BTT) earn the highest level of grade and can be best described as a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window."

It’s essentially a way to measure a quarterbacks talent in a more reflective way than touchdown or interceptions. Touchdowns can be the result of a great run after the catch and an interception could come as a result of a dropped pass, but in both cases, the quarterback is praised or punished.

So while Stanley is on pace to break Chuck Long’s passing touchdown record, we shouldn’t necessarily look at that as an indicator of success.

Those 18 big-time throws do paint a great picture of the Iowa football signal caller. That’s 1.5 throws a game and with another year under his belt, expect that number to continue to rise. Moreover, Stanley will be protected by two of the best tackles in the Big Ten, giving him plenty of time to fully unleash the necessary force or touch on each pass to ensure it’s delivered to the best spot possible.

If the Iowa football team is going to make a splash in the college football world and sneak into a big bowl game or the College Football Playoffs, they will need Stanley to make more of those throws.