Iowa football: Nine named to preseason All-Big Ten team

A year after 15 players received All-Big Ten distinctions, Athlon Sports handing out 2019 Preseason All-Big Ten honors to 9 Iowa football players.

As with any preseason award, it really doesn’t mean much at this point, but it’s a nice starting point for understanding where players are currently at on media’s radar so landing nine players on Athlon Sport’s Preseason All-Big Ten list is exciting. For reference, last year’s end of season All-Big Ten list included 15 Iowa football players.

It’s particularly exciting when you consider that they lost 11 starters from last year’s Iowa football team and that four of the players on this weren’t even full-time starters last year.

Obviously, AJ Epenesa was included on the first time along with his offensive counterpart Alaric Jackson. Last year’s 2018 Rodgers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year Ihmir Smith-Marsette also managed to join the first team unit on special teams again.

Tristan Wirfs and Geno Stone just barely made the cut, but I could see their fortunes changing over the course of the season. Wirfs is widely projected to be a first round draft pick in next year’s 2020 NFL Draft and Geno Stone is a strong candidate to be the next great defensive back from the Iowa football progrFirst-time

First-time starter Chauncey Golston landed on the third team, which is about right for the junior defensive end. He has the potential to perfectly compliment All-American candidate AJ Epenesa on the defensive line while junior cornerback Matt Hankins is a guy not many have talked about, but also made the third team.

For Hankins, he sometimes suffers from the Desmond King treatment. People just don’t throw the ball his way. He has never had an interception in two seasons and has had just four passes defended. With every corner from last season returning, expect those numbers to change as quarterbacks will struggle to find any open receivers resulting in a few more forced passes his way.

Interestingly enough, this preseason All-Big Ten list went all the way out to the fourth team, which would be the equivalent of Honorable Mention. On that list was senior quarterback Nate Stanley and junior running back Mekhi Sargent.

It will always be tough for an Iowa football quarterback to make the first team with the way the offense typically runs, but if Stanley makes the leap from fringe day two prospect to first-round lock, he will need to do it by breaking this offense out in a big way. A season like that could land him ahead of Michigan’s Shea Patterson or Ohio State’s Justin Fields. Moreover, for quarterbacks more so than any other position, winning football games will help his cause.

Mekhi Sargent, meanwhile, is an interesting inclusion on this list after last year’s disappointing season for the Iowa football team running the ball. Sargent, however, was one of the few bright spots in the running game and could be in line for big-time stats this year. If the Iowa football team returns to its typically dominant running game ways, Sargent could be higher on this list, but it will be tough in a crowded Big Ten running backfield.

At this point, I actually don’t disagree with this list at all. There is nobody else I would include right now, although that can certainly change given the progression of next year.

A few guys I wouldn’t expect to be on this list now, but could be by seasons end is Julius Brents, Michael Ojemudia, Barrington Wade, and Shaun Beyer.

Only time will tell though and we still have three long months until the start of the college football season.