If there’s only one name to know on the Hawkeyes’ defense heading into the season, it is star linebacker Jack Campbell.
Iowa received a massive boost for 2022 when Campbell, one of the top tacklers in the nation, decided to stay for his senior season. Though it was an easy choice for him to return, there was a good amount of NFL buzz around the media.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper ranked him as the ninth-best interior linebacker in last year’s draft. The decision to return makes a ton of sense given the amount of pre-2023 NFL draft hype already seen by the media for Campbell, and because of how similar his path is to another Hawkeye linebacker in the NFL.
For Campbell, the numbers don’t lie, and they usually spell disaster for opposing teams. According to Pro Football Focus, Jack Campbell’s 2021 season was the second most stops by an Iowa Hawkeye since 2016. He is sandwiched between two seasons by Denver Bronco Josey Jewell, who is definitely not a bad person to stand next to.
Most defensive stops in a season by an Iowa defender since 2016
1️⃣ Josey Jewell (’17): 60
2️⃣ Jack Campbell (’21): 56
3️⃣ Josey Jewell (’16): 54 pic.twitter.com/iq9QziFDn1— PFF College (@PFF_College) June 18, 2022
In 2016, Josey Jewell was one of the best tacklers in the conference, making his second All-Big Ten second team. He might have made the first team, but it was a fantastic year at a position that included Jabrill Peppers, T.J. Watt, and Raekwon McMillan. Much like Campbell, who did make the Big Ten first team this past season, Jewell returned for his senior season.
Jewell took another leap forward and into the national spotlight, just as Campbell hopes to do for his senior season. Jewell finally made that first-team All-Big Ten team in 2017, but he also won the Lott IMPACT Trophy (a trophy Campbell is already on the watchlist for), the Butkus-Fitzgerald award for Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, the Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year Award, and was named a unanimous All-American. Campbell will look to follow that same path in 2022.
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