Iowa football: Freshmen Tyler Linderbaum receives high praise Saturday

The Iowa football team’s starting center Tyler Linderbaum received high praise from yesterday’s broadcasting crew. Here’s what they had to say.

Yesterday’s broadcasting crew for the win over Illinois, which included Matt Millen, wasn’t exactly the best crew nor were they the most informed as they made multiple mentions of how great the Iowa football team’s offensive line is. While that is certainly true most years, and there are good components this year along the line, it has had it’s fair share of struggles and if you wanted to, you could place blame on the interior for two of the Hawk’s three losses.

This is just me letting you know to take what that crew said with a grain of salt.

One thing they said stood out to me though.

They said freshman center Tyler Linderbaum will be an All-American someday.

Those are some big words of praise for the defensive line convert who has spent less than a full year snapping the ball and blocking as opposed to attacking the quarterback.

But, in my opinion, it’s earned and well-deserved. Playing on the offensive line with the Iowa football team is not an easy task and the expectations are sky-high. Few freshmen get on the field for the offensive line, let alone start meaningful games as freshmen.

And while there have been struggles along the interior offensive line, when watching the tape, its been much more prevalent with the guards than is has Linderbaum. Furthermore, there have been some highlight-reel blocks by Linderbaum where you can see his nastiness and aggressiveness come out in full force.

He’s even been getting some national attention as of late. In the Iowa football team’s win over Minnesota last Saturday, Linderbaum made Pro Football Focus’ National Team of the Week as he graded out as the best center in all of college football.

As I said, a lot of what you heard yesterday was fluffed up and misinformed, but they got it right when they said Linderbaum will be an All-American someday.

The kid is that good, and he’s just a freshman.