Brad Banks had an incredible season with the Iowa football team finishing 2nd in Heisman voting, yet his success was underrated according to Matt Miller.
Brad Banks’ Iowa football career may not have been long, but in the limited time he was with the program, he made a huge impact. He was a catalyst for the Hawkeyes improbable 11-2 run in 2002 that finished with a loss in the Orange Bowl to Carson Palmer and the USC Trojans. Following the conclusion of the season, the Iowa football team would finish with the 2nd highest end of season ranking in the Kirk Ferentz era and Brad Banks departed for the NFL.
I remember being a young fan watching the NFL Draft (fully aware that I had little understanding of the intricacies of the draft at that time), and I kept wondering when Banks would be drafted.
Surely, he would be drafted right?
Heisman runner-up, Davey O’Brien Award Winner, First Team All-American, and College Football Player of the Year.
How does a guy like that not get drafted? What I didn’t understand at the time was Banks lacked the height traditionally sought after, and he wasn’t incredibly accurate. The former Iowa football player went undrafted and spent a New York minute with the Redskins before embarking on a short CFL and AFL career.
These days, it’s not often Brad Banks name is brought up in discussion unless your reminiscing about that 2002 Iowa football team or making a list of the top quarterbacks in the Kirk Ferentz era.
So when respected NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller mentioned on Stick To Football that Brad Banks was one of the most underrated players in recent college football history, it struck a chord with me. He specifically said this when discussing his list of underrated players.
"Brad Banks at Iowa was a monster as well, I love all of those early 2000s teams."
I started thinking about it, and I started feeling more and more passionate about this notion of being underrated.
“Yes, he is incredibly underrated”, is what I kept saying to myself.
So I set about to figure out why, and here are the three things I came up with.
- His career was short. Most college football players don’t have one absolutely incredible season with almost zero production before that.
- Secondly, it’s incredibly rare for anyone to have a season like Banks (collecting awards, putting up statistics, and having great team success) and be the runner-up to the Heisman Trophy Award without being drafted. In fact, it’s only happened twice since 1995 where the Heisman runner-up wasn’t drafted. Banks in 2002 and Nebraska’s Tommy Frazier in 1995.
- Finally, Banks run was in a time before social media was around before highlight reel plays went viral, and because of that the reach of his career and the Iowa football team’s season is significantly less.
Although unfortunate, it makes sense. Brad Banks is and will always be a legend in Iowa football history, but to the dismay of Hawkeye nation everywhere, most outside of our beloved community will never realize how great of a career he had.
At least Matt Miller does though.