Nate Stanley and Toren Young have a big weekend in front of them: heading home to take on No. 6 Wisconsin.

By Pete Ruden
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Nate Stanley and Toren Young have an important task this week.

Not only will they take on No. 6 Wisconsin on the road, they also have the opportunity to show their home-state team what they’re up to these days.

After taking down No. 3 Ohio State by a substantial margin, the Hawkeyes are getting thrown back into the fire to face another top-10 team.

For Wisconsin natives Stanley and Young, the motivation is there. While the Badgers were late to the party on offering Stanley a spot, Young didn’t even get a shot.

He grew up about 15 minutes from Camp Randall Stadium, where he rushed for 2,779 yards and 28 touchdowns in his senior season at Monona Grove High.

As good as it was, it wasn’t enough to attract the Badgers.

With no offer from his favorite childhood team, he was forced to look elsewhere. When he visited Iowa City and the Hawkeye football program, he found the place for him.

“It’s all about finding a perfect fit for me and for them,” Young said. “Maybe I wasn’t that fit for them, and that’s OK. I found the spot. I love it here. I fell in love with it when I came and visited, and I feel like this is the best spot for me.”

Stanley, on the other hand, grew up in Menomonie, Wisconsin, about three hours northwest of Madison.

In high school, he excelled in every sport he played, including football, basketball, and baseball, starting on all three teams.

Stanley earned first team all-conference and honorable mention all-state honors as a senior at Menomonie High. Unlike Young, he did attract the Badger coaches. 

But Stanley had already committed to be a Hawkeye and play for head coach Kirk Ferentz, and he didn’t change his mind.

Ferentz said Iowa has been recruiting in Wisconsin for a while now, and with the players his team has picked up recently, it’s clear that it’s working.

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“We’ve always gone up there and seen what we could find. But for whatever reason, we’ve been able to get a couple players that have fit well with us, and just the match was good,” Ferentz said. “They were guys we thought were good players, and they liked what they found here, so it’s worked out well, and a couple of those guys have made it to the field now.”

While the Hawkeyes picked up a good number of players from the border state, they didn’t get everyone they wanted.

Wisconsin won the recruiting battle for Jonathan Taylor, and he has been on an absolute tear this season.

As a true freshman, Taylor ranks third in the country with 1,368 rushing yards, trailing only San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny and Stanford’s Bryce Love, who are both upperclassmen.

Wisconsin has had a slew of talented running backs in its backfield in recent years, and Taylor is just one more with a bright future.

“They have had a string of [good running backs], it’s amazing,” Ferentz said. “I know we were a little late to the scene on [Taylor] … I mean, he’s already had a great season for anybody, let alone a true freshman. Just really, really impressive.”

Both Stanley and Young have friends on the team, so they’re looking to pick up bragging rights for the next year.

They also have quite a few people they know who will be in the stands, ready to watch them go to work.

But other than the gathering of people, Iowa is looking at the game as just another battle against a top-10 team.

“Maybe just more friends and family at the game; that’s really probably the only other thing, other than it being a trophy game for us,” Stanley said. “From that standpoint, we’re just trying to treat it like any other game and obviously continue to prepare the best we can so we can go out and play the best we can.

“The coaches have done a great job at getting us to realize that we have to prepare even better this week than we did last week if we want to continue to build and grow and get better.”