What? No Jake Rudock or James Vandenburg for choices?
I voted for CJ Beathard and I am really surprised Stanley is winning at this point.
CJ had a magical season in 2015 that kind of transcends stats. Making the plays Iowa needed to start 12-0 and make it to the Big Ten championship game. Beathard finished 2nd Team all big ten that season. And ended up a 3rd round NFL draft choice after a disappointing 2016 senior season.
Downside to CJB is he played reckless at times and would get himself hurt. CJ also was 0-2 in bowl games.
Stanley had good stats. But the consensus is that Stanley did not have "it" but Beathard did have "it". The other consensus was there was 2 Stanleys. "Good" Stanley and "Bad" Stanley
Good Stanley
3-0 against ISU, including some clutch plays in 2 come from behind wins.
3-0 against Nebraska, including 2 wins where he led game winning drives in last minute
3-0 against Minnesota
3-0 in Bowl games
1-0 against OSU in game where he threw 5 TD passes
Bad Stanley
No division championships, no all big Ten selections. 7th round draft choice.
0-3 against Wisconsin
0-3 against PSU
1-2 against Purdue
1-2 against NW
So overall not too bad except he kind of tanked in games when Iowa was still in the race to win the Big Ten West, but kicked ass once Iowa was out of it. He also kicked ass in most trophy games, and bowl games except for trophy games against Wisconsin.
