Iowa football: Five observations in Senior Day win over Illinois

Nate Stanley has up and down performance

I was hoping that when Nate Stanley got his named called on Senior Day, the Iowa football fans would appropriately give him an incredible round of applause, and by all reports, they did. It’s well deserved. The guy is in line to break a few long-standing records and should be able to finish his career as the second-winningest quarterback in Iowa football history.

Can he be maddingly inconsistent? Absolutely, but there aren’t many quarterbacks I would trade for Nate Stanley, who has been a model citizen and teammate since joining the Hawks. His play can be questioned at times, but you can never question his heart.

In his final game at Kinnick, could it be more poetic and twisted that Nate Stanley had one of his more up and down performances of his career?

He started the game on fire going 4 of 4 for 92 yards in the first drive and the beginning of the second while leading the Hawks to the game-opening touchdown.

Then, the wheels fell off as Nate Stanley starting missing his wide receivers pretty consistently including several deep passes, one of which was an interception thrown right into the hands of Illinois’ Sydney Brown.

In between multiple misthrows though, Stanley would chuck a beautiful pass in between a tight window. It was seriously one of the most Jekyll and Hyde performances I have seen in his career.

And it would be wrong to not mention the fact that he picked it up towards the end of the second half. One play, in particular, stood out though. With Illinois linebacker Dele Harding blitzing, Stanley was able to shake him off, scramble out to his left and get a deep ball to Ihmir Smith-Marsette.

Thank you for always keeping it interesting Nate.