It wasn’t much of a surprise when the Bednarik Award’s watch list was released earlier this week and Iowa football player AJ Epenesa’s name was on it.
Even as a writer and an Iowa football fan, I am almost running out of words to describe how fantastic of a player Epenesa is and how incredible his junior season is shaping up to be. His talent and the hype surrounding him goes beyond what we saw with some of the other Iowa football team’s great defensive ends like Adrian Clayborn.
Epenesa has a chance at being the highest-drafted Iowa football player since Robert Gallery and based on his production last year, he should have a shot at breaking Leroy’ Smith’s single-season sack record.