Iowa-Wisconsin 3 and Out: Real life on the Jewell Enterprises family farm

1. Real life on the Jewell Enterprises family farm — This is Iowa's sixth annual ANF Game Day. Former all-American tight end Dallas Clark will be inducted onto the ANF Wall of Honor.

This is Iowa and farming obviously runs deep with this program. Everything that means and is distills into linebacker Josey Jewell.

He is a farmer. His family runs Jewell Enterprises, a farm on Pole Line Road, just northwest of Decorah. Jewell's major is entrepreneurial leadership and a huge element of that is his company Outlaw Farming Technologies and a project called 'Herdmaster.' It's a virtual cattle fencing product. Think underground dog fence but for cattle (it works via an ear tag).

The junior has put all of that on the back burner because of this football thing, which does happen to take up a lot of time. Still, the Hawkeyes wear the ANF 'America Needs Farmers' sticker on their helmets.

'A little bit,' Jewell said when asked if he reflects what the helmet sticker means. 'You just think about a lot of the farmers who've sacrificed a lot of things to give people what they need.'

The Decorah area was hammered by flooding this summer. The Jewell farm isn't on the Upper Iowa River, but it's just a click away. So, no, the farm didn't escape the multiple floods that hit Decorah this summer.

Jewell's dad, Bobby, and brother, Robby, have been the ones dealing with the problems. Football and college have kept Josey pinned in Iowa City.

During his ANF news conference, Clark said he's dipping his toe into farming. He's met a ton of farmers, including former Iowa all-American center Bruce Nelson. Clark said whenever he's discussed potential obstacles with the farm, all farmers have said, 'Not a big deal,' swiping his hand at the air to make the point. They just do things, fix things.

So, the three or four floods, Josey estimated, that rolled up on the Jewell property were taken care of by Bobby and Robby. Wave of the hand. Just do things and fix things. They have the reigns right now, Josey said.

How did it affect the farm?

'They had the river pretty much coming through the farm,' Josey said. 'There were some hay bales taken down river and they had to go get them back. There were multiple things you had to fix. The river almost came up to the turkey shed, so you have to watch out for that, too. Just little things like that.'

Small things? Hay bale in the river? Small things?

'That turn into big things,' Jewell said.

2. HawkeyeReport.com's on Iowa's weekend recruiting visitors

HawkeyeReport.com publisher Tom Kakert drops some knowledge on a few of the 37 recruits who'll be visiting Iowa City this weekend.

Here's Tom ...

Initially, the Hawkeyes were hoping that this would be a huge recruiting weekend with several out-of-state prospects coming in for official visits. But, with the 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday, travel issues have pushed back several of those visits.

That doesn't mean there won't be a large number of prospects headed to Iowa City to watch the Hawkeyes host the Badgers. Leading the list is Oliver Martin, the talented wide receiver from Iowa City West and the Rivals top-rated recruit in Iowa for the Class of 2017. Martin may be close to making his college choice and recently made an official visit to Michigan.

Last week, Iowa extended an offer to 2017 defensive tackle Kendrick Green from Peoria, Ill. The 6-4, 270 pounder has visited Iowa earlier this season and it could come down to Iowa and Minnesota to land him.

Three 2018 prospects with early offers from the Hawkeyes will be in Kinnick this weekend. Chicago quarterback Quincy Patterson will be in town. Iowa offered earlier this week, so it's encouraging that he immediately gets a closer look right after the scholarship was extended. Wisconsin native and linebacker prospect Mike Bruner will be down to watch the Hawkeyes and the Badgers. Wisconsin has not offered Bruner yet. Linebacker Jack Sanborn from Lake Zurich, Ill., also is on his way.

One interesting name for this particular game that will be in attendance is 2018 running back Javian Dayne from Waunakee, Wis. The last name is certainly familiar because he is the son of former Badgers and Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne. No offers yet from either Iowa or Wisconsin, but he's a prospect to watch.

Also heading to Iowa City this weekend are several of Iowa's 2017 commits. Included on that list are the Texas duo of Peyton Mansell and Beau Corrales. Djimon Colbert will be in town from the Kansas City area and Illinois commits Ivory Kelly-Martin and Cameron Harrell are planning to be in Iowa City. In-state commits Jacob Coons, Levi Duwa and Mark Kallenberger will be traveling to the game. All of those visits will be unofficial.

3. Big Ten Love Tester

Given the fact that No. 4 Michigan body slammed Rutgers, 78-0, we're all clammy and blue this week for Illinois (2-4, 1-2 Big Ten) at the Wolverines (6-0, 3-0).

This edged out Rutgers at Minnesota (11 a.m. on ESPNU) because of the potential carnage.

The fact this game is at Michigan Stadium might buy the Fighting Illini (they lost to Purdue) some mercy. The Wolverines could only take 70 players to Rutgers, so no matter what the score was really good players were playing kind of disinterested or not very good players.

There should be 120-plus Wolverines on the sideline Saturday. So, Illinois can take comfort in that ... sort of maybe.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com