Iowa football: Three things Nate Stanley needs to do to win Davey O’Brien

Iowa football player Nate Stanley was named to the 2019 Maxwell Award and Davey O’Brien Award watch list. Here’s what needs to happen for him to win it.

This week alone, Senior Iowa football player Nate Stanley has been named to two watch lists, one for the Maxwell Award and the other for the Davey O’Brien Award.

Although these awards are different, they have a tendency to go hand in hand. The Maxwell Award is handed out to the best all-around player in college football while the Davey O’Brien Award is given to the best quarterback. More often than not, the best quarterback is considered the best all-around player too.

Being named to the watch list is an honor in itself, but keep in mind that it’s not incredibly selective. The Maxwell Award lists 80 players on the watch list while the Davey O’Brien lists 30 players on the watch list, and we’re not considering the fact that this list ultimately doesn’t matter much if someone comes out of nowhere a la Brad Banks circa 2002.

With all that being said, does Nate Stanley have a chance at winning?

It’s not a clear-cut no, but I wouldn’t put my money on it.

Hypothetically speaking though, what would he need to do to win it either or both?

First, he would need to break a few records including Chuck Long’s touchdowns in a season record (which Stanley has been one off of both years as a starter) and Chuck Hartlieb’s yards in a season record (which Stanley is about 900 yards off in his best season). Iowa football quarterbacks aren’t known for slinging the ball around like Oklahoma quarterbacks are so putting up high production in Iowa’s system would be a huge thing. Bonus points if he can do it while keeping his interception rate low (think 4 to 5 interceptions total).

Second, the Iowa football team would need to be a top-10 team, but if he really wants a shot, he needs to lead the Iowa football team to the College Football Playoffs. These awards are handed out to either the quarterback on one of the top-5 teams or to the quarterback who won games in spite of his time (think Lamar). For Stanley, I think it has to be the former, not the latter.

Third and finally, guys like Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence, and Sam Ehlinger need to have down years or at least similar years to the ones they just put up. Any improvement, given the national hype already around those three, will supersede anything Nate Stanley does.

It’s not going to be an easy road for Nate Stanley, but it’s possible. He just needs a lot of things to go right.