By Tyler Devine

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Former Iowa tight end George Kittle has moved on to the National Football League, but still is impacting the Hawkeyes in a good way.

Just ask redshirt freshman tight end T.J. Hockenson.

Kittle took Hockenson under his wing last season and helped to make him a better player, especially with regard to blocking.

.“George is a big influence,” Hockenson said Tuesday. “Obviously (tight ends) coach (LeVar) Woods does a great job of teaching us how to do it. (Offensive coordinator) Brian (Ferentz) last year as the line coach, he helped me a lot. 

“Just getting insight from George last year as a senior was a big thing. He helped me a lot and he still does. I go back to things he said throughout practice and throughout the game. You always trust those guys. Anybody that came through here they’re not going to steer you wrong. You take their point and put it in your pocket and make sure you go back to it.

Hockenson was similar to Kittle coming out of high school in that they both were used more as receivers than as blockers.

Hockenson has eight catches for 116 yards heading into Saturday's game against Illinois at Kinnick Stadium. One of his catches has resulted in a touchdown, while the other seven have resulted in first downs.

The Chariton native also has improved as a blocker, thanks partly to the example set by Kittle, who now plays for the San Francisco 49ers.

“Throughout high school, I was always basically a receiver, so catching passes isn’t really too hard for me, I would say,” Hockenson said. “Getting open is a different story. But catching them isn’t too bad. For sure blocking was an adjustment coming in. 

“It was an eye opening experience, these guys are huge. So throughout the offseason I just tried to get as big and as physical as I could.”

Hockenson and his tight end counterpart, Noah Fant, have made the most out of their catches this season. Fant has 10 receptions with three resulting in touchdowns and six resulting in first downs.

Together, they have combined for 18 catches, four touchdowns and 13 first downs.

Kittle was he same way at Iowa where 10 of his 46 career receptions resulted in touchdowns. 

“We can relate a little bit,” Hockenson said. “I mean, I wouldn’t say I’m exactly like him but he was a great tight end here and he’s doing great things in the NFL. I constantly go back and remember what he told me last year and what he’s told me recently.”

Kittle was an accomplished blocker by the time he finished his career at Iowa. He also played a key role in Iowa having two 1,000-yard rushers last season for the first time in program history.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz feels that the 6-foot-5, 243-pound Hockenson barely has tapped his potential as a playmaker for Iowa.

“T.J. is a guy that caught our eye last year working against our defensive football team,” Ferentz said. “He did some good things and made some good grabs. He catches it, he’s got a good attitude and enthusiasm. 

“He had to grow physically and that’s just ongoing with him but we felt that. And then in spring ball he did a good job with the opportunities that he had. He just keeps climbing with every week actually, so I think he’s got a really good future.”

Quick healer: Junior free safety Brandon Snyder might be returning to action sooner than expected.

The 6-foot-1, 214-pounder suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament during spring practice, but now less than six months later, he has received medical clearance and could see action against Illinois on Saturday.

It was originally thought that Snyder likleyt would miss the entire 2017 season due to the injury.

“He’s been cleared," Ferentz said. "He was cleared last week so we’re trying to move him forward. We’ll see what the week brings here, he’s been doing a good job in practice. I think it’s fair to say he may be out there but I don’t know how much yet.”

Deep ball woes: Sophomore quarterback Nate Stanley has completed a respectable 58.8 percent of his passes on the season, but has struggled to connect with receivers on deep passes.

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Stanley has consistently overthrown open receivers on deep routes for an Iowa offense that has sputtered as of late. Iowa only combined for 504 yards in the first two Big Ten games, both of which were losses to Penn State and Michigan State.

Ferentz remains optimistic that Stanley will start to connect on the deep balls.

"We've all seen some of those near misses on the long balls, the deep balls, and you'd like to think in time — you're never going to hit 100 percent of those," Ferentz said. "That's probably unrealistic. It's like three-pointers in basketball. But we'll improve in that area. I've got every reason to think that we will.

"But I think he's done a lot of good things. He's made a lot of really good throws and some tough throws and done a lot of good things from the checks and all those types of things that you talked about earlier. It's part of the process, and there's certainly obviously some plays that he would like to have back. And then how that affects momentum, and really I alluded to the start of the game the other day, we did not start well offensively, and just as a team we didn't start well the other day."

Stanley knows that connecting on a few deep passes will help to ignite the offense.

“I think just being able to execute some of those deep throws (would help),” Stanley said. “I’ve missed a couple of those throws but we just continue to work on those in practice and hopefully when we start connecting on those it’ll start to loosen up. 

“It’s just like everything, it takes time to iron out the wrinkles. We’re just continuing to rep those plays in practice and just continuing to work on them.”

Pesky punts: Junior defensive back Josh Jackson is returning punts for the first time as a Hawkeye, and it's been a learning experience..

Jackson took over that role for senior receiver Matt VandeBerg during Iowa’s 44-41 win over Iowa State.

The 6-foot-1, 192 Jackson has returned three punts for 25 yards on the season, but has struggled at times to decide whether to call a fair catch or let the ball go over his head for a potential touchback.

In this past Saturday;'s 17-10 loss at Michigan State, Jackson fielded a punt just feet from his own goal line instead of letting the ball bounce into the end zone.

“I’m told if it’s over my head to just leave it and not back up,” Jackson said. “I’ve just got to make better decisions and if I’m back that far just let the ball go over my head. I thought I had more room but obviously I didn’t.”

Ferentz attributes Jackson’s struggles to growing pains that come with learning learning a new role.

Former All-America cornerback Desmond King returned punts for Iowa in each of the past two seasons and is now a rookie with the Los Angeles Chargers.

“I don’t want to get into any specifics, but as you might imagine we try not to field the ball on the one (yard line) that’s pretty obvious,” Ferentz said. “There are certain parameters that you give to every player and in that circumstance they’re certainly well spelled out. I think what you saw there was just inexperience so we’re paying for that a little bit, but he’s doing a good job back there.”

Sophomore punter Colten Rastetter has also struggled with consistency. Rastetter is averaging 39.7 yards per punt on the season, with two of his 25 punts having traveled longer than 50 yards.

Ferentz said the competition at punter still is ongoing and that he is open to change.

True freshman Ryan Gersonde has been listed as the backup punter throughout the season.

"We're keeping an open mind to everythding right now, and we'll let the guys compete again in practice, see how it goes, and then just kind of push forward," Ferentz said.

Changing of the guard: Illinois announced on Monday that sophomore quarterback Jeff George will start in place of junior Chayce Crouch against Iowa.

The change at quarterback isn’t the only thing that catches Ferentz’s eye about Illinois’ offense. The Illini also have talented skill players for the 6-foot-3, 218-pound George to throw to.

“Crouch really caught our attention last year, I think it was the Purdue game, he came in and really ran the ball effectively,” Ferentz said. “That’s probably the best thing he does, quite frankly, I thought that was really something he had that added a dimension. 

“George is more of a thrower. We got to see him last year and then he played the second half, or most of the second half, of the South Florida game. He throws the ball well. They’ve got good receivers, they’ve got (Mike) Dudek back, No. 18 is a good player and No. 4 (Ricky Smalling) is a good freshman, they’ve got some good skill players.”

Senior linebacker Josey Jewell expects to see both Illinois quarterbacks on Saturday.

“I think you’ve got to be ready for either one of them,” Jewell said. “I’m sure they’re probably going to use a little bit of both of them. The other quarterback is a good runner so they can use him in different packages, whether it’s short yardage or in the hot zone. So we’ve got to get ready for both of them I think.”

Illinois ticket update. It was announced on Tuesday that approximately 1,000 tickets remain for Saturday's homecoming game against Illinois. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:01 a.m. at Kinnick Stadium and the game will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

Series stats: Saturday will be the 73rd meeting between Iowa and Illinois. Iowa trails the all-time series 38-32-2, but the Hawkeyes have won 11 of the last 14 meetings, eight of the last nine and three in a row. Iowa shut out Illinois 28-0 last season in Champaign, Ill. Illinois hasn't won at Kinnick Stadium since 1999, which was Ferentz's first season as the Iowa head coach.

Quick slants: Jewell leads the Big Ten and ranks third in the nation with 60 tackles…VandeBerg has 119 career receptions and is seven receptions away from tying Marv Cook for tenth on Iowa’s all-time receiving list…Jackson is tied for the Big Ten lead in passes defended (10) and interceptions (2). He also ranks second in passes broken up (8)…Senior running back Akrum Wadley has 2,131 career rushing yards. He is 98 yards from passing Shonn Greene and moving into Iowa’s all-time top 10…Iowa has three players ranked in the top 10 in the Big Ten in sacks. Sophomore defensive end Anthony Nelson is tied for third with four sacks and true freshman defensive end A.J. Epenesa and Jewell are tied for eighth with two and a half sacks each.