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BHGP THURSDAY Q&A: Devin Gardner, Bob Jovi, Land Turtles and More

It's Thursday, and Thursdays are for Q&As. Ask us whatever you want—preferably about Iowa or the B1G and not about horses, but whatever you want—at @Adam_Jacobi or @BHGP and we'll try to get to it.

By Adam Jacobi
What did Devin Gardner's five fingers say to the face mask?
What did Devin Gardner's five fingers say to the face mask?
Jim Rogash

We've got quite the slate of questions today. Let's get to it.

Fixable. Absolutely fixable. For proof, look at the last two great quarterbacks Iowa has had: Drew Tate and Ricky Stanzi.

In 2004, Tate's first year starting, he threw for 2,786 yards at 62.1% with 20 TDs and 14 picks. Year two: 2,828 yards (practically the same), 62.2% (practically the same), 22 TDs (practically the same) and 7 picks (chopped in frickin' half). He also took less than half the sacks the next year, and he was pretty much a way better quarterback. Then 2006 came and a lingering ribcage injury (and a pretty lousy attitude, by most accounts) derailed that season, but the proof was there.

Stanzi's improvement was more pronounced across the board, as you'll see:

Screen_shot_2013-09-26_at_2

Still, crucial to that improvement was a drop in his interceptions as his rapport with his wideouts continued to improve. It helped that he was throwing to one of Iowa's best receiving corps ever, of course, but he had a damn good corps in 2008 too and he was so apt to throw the other team back into the game that his disastrous receptions started to get called "Rick-Sixes." That went away in 2010 and it got him drafted.

These improvements happen with continuing development and instruction from the quarterbacks coach, and Devin Gardner is in the process of getting that instruction from Al Borges. And being that Gardner came in incredibly raw, then spent part of his career at wideout, then switched back abruptly and is still only eight starts into his career, you can't write off his struggles this season as a permanent aspect of his play. He might not improve, but it is way too early to assume so.

We're including this one because of the typo, which is completely unfair but that's what gave me an idea so here we go.

When I hear the name "Bob Jovi," I'm imagining some balding, normal 40-something who wears khakis to work and has this completely normal, boring life and then all of a sudden Bon Jovi comes along and he's like, "whoa, heck, I'm almost a rock star!"

Nobody on earth believes this, of course, not for a second, not even Bob, but since Bob's got a dorky 40-year-old guy's sense of humor, he starts putting the word "Bob" into a bunch of Bon Jovi song titles, and this is what happens:

"You Give Bob A Bad Name"
"Bob of Roses"
"Thank You For Loving Bob"
"It's Bob's Life"
"Bob Medicine"
"Wanted: Dead or Alive"

(Bob's face is on the poster in the last one.)

Onward!

Ohio State by a touchdown, which is to say if Wisconsin wins it will not surprise me. I worry about Ohio State's discipline at linebacker—not discipline in a "just punched a security guard at 3:30 in the morning" kind of way, but a "caught flat-footed by Melvin Gordon" kind of way. The matchup of physicality between Wisconsin's OL and OSU's DL will be fascinating.

I just have way more confidence in Braxton Miller moving the ball on Wisconsin than I do in Joel Stave doing the same to Wisconsin. Miller is a significantly better runner and passer, and Stave has looked Matt Saracen-esque (in not a good way) in his career. So Buckeyes by a TD when it's all said and done.

(Checks Vegas just for good measure)

Wow, Adam, really went out on a limb on that one.

Well, Satan, thank you for asking.

He'll probably have a moderate amount of success on account of the fact that he's at UCLA and most coaches would be able to routinely reach the NCAA tournament at UCLA. The institutional advantages there are remarkable.

He will also probably develop an adversarial relationship with the press relatively quickly, which I'm sure will work out just great in Los Angeles seeing as how he had such a rough go of it in frickin' Iowa City.

Hope you're a fan of blatantly self-serving piety, because you'll get that in spades. People dig that in southern California, right?

And it'll probably end poorly, because it always seems to end poorly with him. He's not a Bruin at heart, never was, never will be and he hasn't shown the ability to cultivate meaningful, lasting relationships out of his professional ambitions yet.

But hey, he'll probably make a few tourneys, so good luck with that.

Let's check out that recipe, huh.

Landturtle1_medium

seems legit

Landturtle2_medium

hang on...

Landturtle3_medium

A LAND TURTLE?!

WHOA WHOA WHOA

W--WHAT

WHAT IN THE

I CAN'T

THIS... I... WHAT

A. LAND. TURTLE.

I give up. Y'all are on your own. Peace.

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