A few arguments here are lacking adequate logic to prop them up ....
Ironic that you indicate that if we can run it that the game will be closer - not that we will have the edge...Furthermore, you as well as every other hawk fan acts as if you still have Stanzi back there....Your young qb will be reaped in pressure for this game...he's an iowa kid he will have more pressure then some cocky california kid....Vandenberg could buckle the same way that your boy Tate did a couple of years ago....
In '05, at the beginning of the season, Iowa's OL was mediocre AT BEST. Thus, one of Tate's biggest problems that year was that he was running for his life. In the game against ISU that year, Iowa's OL was outclassed by ISU's DL.
In stark contrast, in '11, Vandenberg has a much better OL blocking for him than what Tate had in '05. Thus, in that regard, Vandenberg is an entirely different position than Tate ... and is frankly in a much better position.
As for your remark that relates to how Vandenberg's psychology might impact things ... I'll definitely concede that that could certainly play a role. However, your own reference to Tate is part of what makes your statement rather silly.
In '05, ISU featured an inexperienced in-state kid in Meyer ... a great and talented kid ... a kid who understandably had a lot of (psychological) pressure on him. In contrast, Tate could easily have been described as a cocky Texas kid ... a relative outsider, much like how you describe Jantz's situation.
Anyhow, as we saw in the case of Meyer ... he had the pressure on him and he played great. In Arnaud's first game against Iowa ... aside from some INTs ... he played really well too. Of course, in subsequent years, Arnaud pressed a bit too much ... and didn't handle the pressure as well ... and ISU lost.
How will Vandenberg respond to the pressure? I don't know? However, what I do know is that Vandenberg went into the 'Shoe with the Big 10 conference title on the line as a RS FR ... and he played great! I'm sorry, but the ISU game is NOT going to place more pressure on Vandenberg than the aforementioned Ohio State game.
Now a real perspective....we have two defenses that are pretty good, ISU's give up a bit more yards but, the difficult thing to determine is how good Iowa really is....TTech is horrible and they knew coming in this was for a loss and a paycheck.....Whereas this same team took Iowa to the limit and now those kids are seniors....think they're better or worse then three years ago when they did the same thing to iowa that they did to iowa state only to lose the game!
LOL! Sorry but the two UNI teams aren't the same. Pat Grade was a veteran SR QB ... and a quite a good passer too. More importantly, UNI also had a SR laden offensive line ... and a very good one too. And, as is seemingly always the case, their D was very sound too.
The '09 UNI team was a really impressive group. The problem is that they couldn't take the pressure of being the team to beat ... and they unravelled. It was a very "Hawkeye" thing of them to have done. The '11 UNI might be that good ... I don't know. However, I'll say one thing, Rennie isn't near the passer that Grace was.
And that leads me to the one facet that may be the big difference between these two qb's. Steele can flat out run......not so much with vanderbilt....hes stationary and a sitting duck....stanzi was surprisingly mobile and had absolutely great pocket presence...his abilities will be showcased from here on out as iowas schedule get serious, people will one day wish they had stanzi back!!!!
In other posts, I've already addressed this issue to some degree. First off, I'll agree that Jantz's mobility could certainly turn out to be a x-factor that works to his (and ISU's) advantage.
However, one thing about Stanzi that you're not considering is that Stanzi's footwork was a bit on the slow side. Furthermore, between his footwork and his desire to always try to make plays ... Stanzi still ate too many sacks. Those sacks sometimes produced turnovers and, more often, the simply stalled drives.
Another thing about Stanzi is that he had great touch on his passes. In fact, in many regards, he relied TOO MUCH on touch ... and, when the weather was less than ideal, Stanzi's play in the passing game took a HUGE hit.
In contrast, Vandenberg has great footwork, a really quick release, and he has better arm-strength than Stanzi. Of course, I tend to believe that arm-strength can be a little overrated ... however, sometimes you need to be able to throw a ball on a rope ... and that is exactly something that Vandenberg is better at doing than Stanzi. As for the earlier attributes that I've mentioned about Vandenberg, his quick footwork, along with his quick release will make it that much harder to sack him. Thus, your remark about Vandenberg being stationary and being a sitting duck couldn't be more wrong.
