Iowa football: Where Nate Stanley ranks among Big Ten West QB’s
By Ryan Sikes
The Iowa football team will be leaning heavily on senior quarterback Nate Stanley in 2019 but where does he rank among the Big Ten West quarterbacks?
Nate Stanley will be entering year three as the starting quarterback for the Iowa football team. The senior from Menomonie, Wisconsin grabbed the starting gig as a sophomore over Tyler Wiegers. He would go on to complete 55.8 percent of his passes for 2,432 yards with 26 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in 2017.
His 26 touchdowns tied Chuck Long‘s single-season record and if not for an Akrum Wadley early celebration penalty against North Texas, he might have broken the record. Stanley followed his sophomore season with a 59.3 percent for 2,852 yards and matched his 2017 touchdown total.
He looks to build off his first two seasons under offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz but he will have to do so without his top two targets in T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant. The pair of tight ends went in the first round of April’s draft.
Stanley and the Iowa football team will have a more challenging schedule in 2019 with road trips to Iowa State, Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. So where does Stanley stack up against the rest of the Big Ten West quarterbacks?
Check out the rankings below:
As you can see the quarterback group in the Big Ten West is a little bare with the departure of four of last year’s starting quarterbacks.
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Fortunately for the Iowa football team, that bodes well for them to have success as they face a plethora of first-time starters or guys who weren’t good enough to be the starters last year in their division schedule this season.