Fans pick the most enjoyable Iowa football players to watch
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – And the winner is…
Tim Dwight.
But it really wasn’t my intention to pick a winner when I asked Iowa fans on Twitter to choose between Dwight, Ronnie Harmon, Tavian Banks, Shonn Greene and Akrum Wadley as the most enjoyable/exciting Iowa football player to watch.
I was just curious to see how Wadley would fair against some of the biggest offensive legends in the history of the Iowa program.
Wadley is clearly at a disadvantage because he still has most of his senior season remaining, including the final nonconference game against North Texas on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. But on the other hand, Greene only played one full season at Iowa in 2008.
I only mentioned five because Twitter only allows for 140 characters.
And I didn’t include Nile Kinnick because, for one, he’s Nile Kinnick, and because he played nearly 80 years ago.
Dwight was clearly the winner, though, with more than half of the 400-plus responses picking him.
A pattern also developed in which some picked Harmon as the most talented and Dwight or Banks as the most fun to watch.
Most of the feedback came on social media, but some fans also reached me by e-mail, by telephone and by word of mouth to give their opinion.
The choices also went far beyond the five I had mentioned on Twitter.
Fred Russell’s name came up shortly after my tweet was posted, as did Sedrick Shaw, Brad Banks, Ladell Betts, Marvin McNutt, Larry Ferguson, Bob Sanders, Chuck Long, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, Nick Bell, Matt Roth, Adrian Clayborn and Willie Fleming.
I’m probably missing a few names, but the fact that I even wrote this column is a testimony to Wadley’s emergence as a star. He was my inspiration for reaching out to fans.
The New Jersey native is ascending to stardom and doing so in an electrifying and eyebrow-raising fashion, much like Harmon did for Iowa in the 1980s, like Dwight and Banks did for the Hawkeyes in the mid-1990s and like Green did in 2008.
Each is unique in their own way, but what they share is greatness and the ability to entertain.
Wadley is the only one who still plays football, and wow, is he ever on a roll.
He is ranked second in the Big Ten in all-purpose yards with an average of 203.0 yards per game. But it isn’t just the yards that have helped to build Wadley’s legend, it is how he has gained the yards.
His ability to make defenders miss with sudden cuts is rare for an Iowa running back, something we haven’t seen at this level since Banks graced us with his presence two decades ago.
And before Banks, it was Harmon who left defenders grabbing for air.
Dwight was more of a lightning bolt who could make defenders miss, but who also delivered his share of blows as a blocker and tackler despite being undersized, while Green was a hard-charging force who played running back like a linebacker.
As for the feedback from fans, it was more than I expected and more names were mentioned than I expected.
Wadley and Harmon are an intriguing comparison because while Harmon’s style was different than Wadley's, it still was built around making defenders miss with sudden changes in direction and with great vision and anticipation.
Harmon was more of a glider in the Gale Sayers mold, while Wadley makes sudden cuts without slowing down, much like NFL running back LeSean McCoy, whom Wadley often watches on tape.
You couldn’t go wrong with any the players mentioned by the fans as they were all stars in their own way.
But we’re also creatures of the moment and the moment currently belongs to Wadley.
“The comparison there would be Akrum does some stuff with the ball in his hands that none of us can coach,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. “We'd love to, but you can't coach or give that to a guy.
“Ronnie was the same way. I think they're similar in the fact that Ronnie's one of the tougher, more competitive guys I've ever been around anywhere at anyplace I've ever coached. I mean, he was a tough-minded guy.”
Wadley is coming off a game at Iowa State in which he gained 118 yards on 28 rushing attemptsand caught four passes for 72 yards, including an incredible 46-yard touchdown reception that pushed the game into overtime.
“Akrum likes playing,” Ferentz said. “That was a full day's work he got in the other day. Probably more than he needed, but we needed him. That last touchdown he scored, that was a lot of individual effort, and Ronnie had some of those similarities too.”
Harmon played at Iowa from 1982-85 under former head coach Hayden Fry. Harmon played receiver in his first two seasons at Iowa before switching to running back.
He is the only player in school history to surpass 2,000 rushing yards and 2,000 receiving yards as a Hawkeye.
“Ronnie wasn't as skinny as Akrum, and part of my thinking there would be we'd like to wear you out this year just like we wore Harmon out in '85, and that was good coaching, by the way,” said Feretnz, who coached the Iowa offensive line from 1981-89. “So that's kind of the plan there. We need you to be this kind of guy that we can really give the ball to a lot.
“I mean, Ronnie Harmon was one of the greatest players I've ever been around. You think of the way he impacted that team. I mean, we had a good football team, but he was a big, big part of that.”
Ferentz thinks so much of Harmon that he encouraged Wadley to watch him on tape. Wadley shared that little nugget after I asked him on Tuesday if he had watched any tape of Harmon from his Iowa days.
“Coach Ferentz gave me an assignment actually to watch some film of him,” Wadley said. “So I have to watch him.
“When I first got here my jersey was 31. I think that was his jersey number.” I’ve got to watch some film of him. I’m going to tune into it.”
Wadley and Harmon are linked by geography, too. Harmon is from Staten Island, N.Y., which isn’t far from Wadley’s home in Newark, N.J.
Where they differ is that Harmon made an impact from the moment he stepped on campus as a true freshman, while Wadley struggled early in his career, on and off the field. He struggled with fumbling, with academics and with gaining weight, but has worked hard to improve in all three areas.
Wadley has the rare gift of being able to make defenders look silly or helpless in space. He can manuever his body like few others can.
His 46-yard touchdown catch against Iowa State was a thing of beauty as Wadley made several defenders miss before diving into the end zone with a defender draped all over him.
“That’s a tough task playing him one-on-one in the open field,” said Iowa linebacker Ben Niemann. “He’s just so shifty and just a quick back.”
Niemann was asked on Tuesday to describe what it’s like trying to tackle Wadley.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “You need multiple guys at the football is what it comes down to. You can take your shot on him, and hopefully, slow him down and get him going side to side and then have other guys swarm to the ball.”
It was the same with Harmon, Dwight, Banks and Greene. A defender was almost certain to lose a one-on-one matchup in space against any of them.
Dwight played receiver in his final three seasons at Iowa, so he didn’t touch the ball as often as the others on the list. But Dwight also returned punts and is considered one of the greatest return specialists in Big Ten history.
The former Iowa City High star returned five punts for touchdowns while at Iowa and he returned a kick for a touchdown in the Super Bowl as a rookie with the Atlanta Falcons in 1999.
If this survey proved anything, it’s that Dwight’s legend continues to grow. I counted at least 10 responses in which the person picked Dwight and said it wasn’t even close. No other player besides Harmon received that strong of an endorsement.
Many of those who responded also pointed out that Wadley's career isn't over yet, so it's hard to rank him at this stage.
As for my personal opinion, I’d probably pick Harmon as the most talented and Dwight as the most fun to watch followed closely by Banks
But Wadley still has time to help his cause. So we might have to conduct this survey again.