Jewell made sense for Iowa, eventually

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., - On national football day, the football heavens delivered a ray of light on Iowa's doorstep. Yes, that's schmaltzy and overstated, but hang for a second.

It just wasn't that easy. There was drama and some poker and certainly wondering and waiting.

Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan was the only one who could see this light. He did some lobbying on behalf of Decorah High School four-sport star Josey Jewell. Maybe he convinced head coach Kirk Ferentz. Maybe Ferentz just threw his trust, once again, behind Morgan, who is basically the Iowa staff recruiting hound with a great track record of finding gold where others aren't even looking (his recruiting territory is Iowa and the plains).

'The first thing I think about is how close we came to not offering him a scholarship, our astute judge of ability, I guess,” Ferentz said.

This statement came on the heels of another standout performance from Jewell. The sophomore linebacker piled up 15 tackles during the Hawkeyes 35-27 victory last weekend at Indiana. Jewell also had a tackle for loss and broke up two passes to help the No. 8/9 (coaches poll/College Football Playoff rankings) Hawkeyes (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) remain undefeated and drop their magic number to a Big Ten West Division title to two with three games to play.

The Hawkeyes resume that drive with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Kinnick Stadium this weekend against Minnesota (4-5, 1-4).

'The guy is a heckuva football player,” Ferentz said. 'He's got a real presence about him that, to me, is kind of special. He's a magnetic guy, not a rah-rah guy, but guys rally to him. A big part of that is the way he plays the game.

'He's totally committed.”

OK, there's that word. Jewell grew up an Iowa fan and was always totally committed to the Hawkeyes. They kind of had to sort things out before they committed to him.

Back in winter 2013, Jewell waited and wondered. There wasn't a huge crush of scholarship offers, with the only other coming from Northern Iowa. Still, there's an internal clock that runs during the recruiting process.

The calendar turned from January to February. The national signing day in 2013 was on Feb. 6. The Super Bowl was on the TV. It was the Ravens and 49ers. There was a power outage.

And then there was a scholarship at Iowa for Jewell. Finally. Yes, he was getting nervous.

'It was really late,” Jewell said. 'I didn't know when it was going to come. I don't know if I expected it or not. Coach Morgan was the recruiting coordinator for me. He told me from day 1 that I was a scholarship kid. I was hoping that was going to come true. It was just a great day when they offered me and I became an Iowa Hawkeye.”

In his first full season starting at middle linebacker, Jewell leads the Hawkeyes with 77 tackles. He also five tackles for loss and four pass breakups. He has the vibe of an 'organizer.” He gets the defensive call from the sideline. Before the snap, he occasionally slaps a D-lineman on the hip to get him to scoot over into correct alignment.

'He's a great leader on our defensive side,” cornerback Desmond King said. 'He gets everyone together. We have people emerging as leaders, coming together and making plays as a team.”

The Indiana game wasn't perfect. The Hoosiers dented Iowa for a season-high 407 yards of total offense, 227 rushing yards and two rushing TDs (Iowa had allowed just one going into the game). This is what Jewell took with him onto the bus.

'He missed a couple of reads out on the field and he'll confess that when you talk to him,” Ferentz said. 'He had a couple of reads the defensive guys were mad at. That's going to happen. He's wired in. . . . Instincts is an overused word, I think, a lot of times it's just because guys prepare and are really serious about what they're doing. In Josey's case, he's almost ahead of his time that way, the way he plays, some of the things he does out there.”

So on Super Bowl Sunday in 2013, the Hawkeyes said yes to Jewell. It's been a Lego-like fit.

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