Iowa football rewind: ‘Shaggy’ makes first impression, Brendan Sullivan’s fearless running has drawbacks

PASADENA, Calif. — Kirk Ferentz revealed during the week that backup quarterback Jackson Stratton has received the nickname “Shaggy.”

“Like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo,” the 26th-year Iowa head football coach said during his weekly news conference.

Iowa found out a lot more about Stratton — the walk-on quarterback who transferred from Colorado State — after he needed to step in for the injured Brendan Sullivan in the Hawkeyes’ 20-17 loss to UCLA.

Here is a look at how “Shaggy” did in some challenging circumstances along with other observations from rewatching the game:

Evaluating Jackson Stratton’s performance

Iowa had plenty of problems against UCLA on Friday night, but when rewatching the game, Stratton’s performance was hardly one of them.

Stratton was on the field for 17 offensive plays on Friday. Ten of those 17 plays entailed handing the ball off to either Kaleb Johnson or Kamari Moulton. (That’s not much of a surprise the week after Iowa had 54 rushing plays versus 10 passing plays against Wisconsin.)

When looking specifically at the seven plays that depended on Stratton, at least four had good execution from the Colorado State transfer. (You could make the argument that actually five or six of those plays had as good execution as possible.)

He had two well-placed completions on third-and-long to Jacob Gill that were long enough for a first down. His other completion was on a screen pass to Gill. It was only good for three yards, but Stratton appeared to do his part as well as possible.

Stratton’s 14-yard scramble on third-and-19 put the Hawkeyes in field-goal range ahead of fourth down. (Stevens made the attempt, but the drive continued because of a penalty on UCLA and eventually ended with a game-tying touchdown.)

Stratton had three incompletions. One literally hit Gill’s fingertips, but Gill couldn’t make the catch while a Bruin defender was closing in on him. Another was a deflection at the line of scrimmage, and the other incompletion was a tad too low for Jarriett Buie to make a play.

Three completions, one big scramble and three low-risk incompletions do not make for a bad evening, particularly given Stratton’s difficult circumstances.

Brendan Sullivan’s fearless running has its drawbacks

Iowa’s offense has obviously benefited from Brendan Sullivan’s fearless running over the last few weeks. His style of running helped him elude Wisconsin defenders last week and outrun his ex-Northwestern teammates the week before.

But Sullivan’s fearless, rarely-sliding, willing-to-take contact style comes with some drawbacks, as evident in Friday’s loss in Pasadena.

The turnover risk was apparent in the second quarter. Sullivan faked a pass on the run-pass option and ran it himself. He did not have a good enough handle on the ball, though, as UCLA’s Kein Medrano ripped the ball loose and set up the Bruins with excellent field position.

The injury risk was even more apparent in the third quarter. Sullivan took several big hits on Friday, but one of the biggest ones was in the third quarter as he braced for contact on a run rather than trying to run out of bounds. Sullivan spent a significant amount of time in the medical tent after the play before running out right before the next drive started.

Sullivan took another big hit on the subsequent drive after throwing his second interception — his final play of the night. Even before the hit, Sullivan did not seem to have his usual mobility ahead of his off-balance (and obviously off-the-mark) throw intended for Gill.

Missed tackles galore (again)

Iowa missed 13 tackles against UCLA, according to Pro Football Focus’ updated statistics. Iowa’s only game with more missed tackles was when the Hawkeyes missed 20 tackles in last month’s loss to Michigan State.

When Iowa has missed 10-plus tackles in a game, as tracked by PFF, the Hawkeyes are 0-2 (with both losses coming to unranked teams). When Iowa has missed fewer than 10 tackles, the Hawkeyes are 6-2.

The missed tackles again proved costly Friday at the Rose Bowl, as UCLA gained 142 of its rushing yards after contact, per PFF.

Iowa’s late decision to punt

In a game as close as Iowa’s 20-17 loss to UCLA, some what-ifs will inevitably linger. That includes Iowa’s decision to punt on fourth-and-6 on its own 29-yard line with fewer than four minutes remaining.

Traditional Iowa wisdom would be to punt, rely on the defense to get a stop and give yourself another chance at the end (likely with better field position because of the Hawkeyes’ special teams advantage).

But traditional Iowa wisdom counts on Iowa playing traditionally stout defense, and Iowa’s defense had struggled to get off the field throughout the night. The Hawkeyes already allowed 180 rushing yards at that point while six of UCLA’s previous nine drives lasted at least six plays.

The Bruins ultimately strung together a eight-play drive — six actual plays followed by two kneels — to run off the rest of the clock and prevent the Hawkeyes from getting another shot at a game-tying or game-winning drive. (It was their third consecutive drive of three-plus minutes.)

Had Iowa tried the fourth-and-6 attempt, it obviously would have carried some risk. But it at least would have given Iowa’s offense, which averaged 5.8 yards per play on Friday, a chance to win.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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