Iowa football: Outland Trophy will be won by a Hawkeye in 2019

The 2019 Outland Trophy watch list has been released and to no surprise, two Iowa football players landed on the list. They should be favored to win it.

The Outland Trophy is named after John Outland, an Oskaloosa, Iowa native who had a stellar collegiate career, and since the Outland Trophy was introduced to honor the big boys up front, four Iowa football players have taken home the honors. The most recent Iowa football player to win the award is current Washington Redskins offensive guard Brandon Scherff.

Just a few short years later, the Outland Trophy should be coming back to Iowa City as the Hawkeyes have two stud tackles set to start for the team in 2019.

Both of these tackles, Alaric Jackson and Tristan Wirfs, are possible first-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft and they were both recently named to the Outland Trophy watch list for 2019.

As we have said numerous times the past week as watch list nominees have been announced, watch lists do not mean anything in the grand scheme of things. However, since the watch lists are announced, we might as well give our spin on if these Iowa football players can possibly win the national awards they’re up for.

In some cases, like Mekhi Sargent for the Doak Walker Award or Nate Wieting for the John Mackey Award, I don’t think they have a chance at winning unless something crazy happens.

This award, however, should be claimed by a Hawkeye in 2019.

Both Alaric Jackson and Tristan Wirfs are heading into their third seasons as starters and they are massive assets for Nate Stanley, who needs a clean pocket to perform well.

Wirfs has been generating most of the buzz, being listed as a possible top-ten pick, setting the hang-clean record at Iowa this summer, and getting named college football’s number one freak. Jackson is no slouch though, and some analysts actually favor Jackson over Wirfs, which makes sense considering Jackson has tape at left tackle, a premier position in the NFL.

This award is a bit tougher to monitor week in and week out as it relies more on other’s success to generate publicity about these guys specifically, but a few highlight-reel plays will help the cause as well. For these guys to win though, the Iowa football team’s running game needs to see significant improvement and Nate Stanley needs to be pressure-free the majority of the time, which means Wirfs and Jackson need to throw shutouts when it comes to sacks allowed.

If they can do that, the Iowa football team will claim its’ fifth Outland Trophy in 2019.