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Iowa’s Max Llewellyn builds trust, communication after needing some early patience
Llewellyn is ‘a lot more comfortable out there’ ahead of his fourth season with Hawkeyes
John Steppe
May. 6, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: May. 6, 2024 1:04 pm
IOWA CITY — When Max Llewellyn walked into the lobby of the Hansen Football Performance Center last month for media interviews, he did not have the highest expectations for himself.
“This might be rough,” Llewellyn candidly said. He had not been among the select players regularly available to media in recent years.
Llewellyn’s underestimate of his interviewing skills aside, the moment carried some symbolism. His increased media spotlight in the spring of 2024 comes ahead of a likely larger role on the field in the fall of 2024.
The Urbandale native is expected to move up on the pecking order to third among the Hawkeyes’ defensive ends (still behind seniors Ethan Hurkett and Deontae Craig). While the non-starting role might not come with the most cachet on paper, it has plenty of importance for an Iowa team that heavily rotates defensive linemen.
In each of the last three seasons, Iowa’s No. 3 defensive end still took 400-plus snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Whether it be Joe Evans in 2021, John Waggoner in 2022 or Hurkett in 2023, they all finished their respective seasons with six or more tackles for loss.
Llewellyn is “a lot more comfortable out there” as he approaches his fourth season in a Hawkeye uniform.
“I feel like K.B. (defensive line coach Kelvin Bell) trusts me — at least more than he did last year — to the point where I’m kind of able to do my thing,” Llewellyn said.
The impact of Bell’s trust in Llewellyn already is evident. Llewellyn’s increased sense of freedom “allows me to be a little bit more craftier with especially pass rush.”
Defensive tackle Yahya Black has especially taken note of Llewellyn’s “nice little chop spin.”
“We always react whenever he does it,” Black said. “It’s great. … Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and we all laugh it off when we watch it.”
Llewellyn is part of a defensive line that lost some longtime contributors. Evans and defensive tackle Logan Lee have NFL homes. (Noah Shannon does as well although his season-long suspension meant the Hawkeyes already had to brace for his loss.)
“They did a really good job of playing as one,” Llewellyn said of last year’s seniors. “K.B. always talks about you all got to be on the same page. … So I’m trying to emulate that with my teammates right now.”
Llewellyn has mostly worked next to defensive tackle Aaron Graves — they were second-teamers in 2023 — so they are usually “on the same wavelength.”
“Especially in the pass game, there’s been times where we would just like communicate almost telepathically,” Graves said last month. “I’ll just look at him, nod and he’ll know what I’m doing and then he’ll cover me. Or I know what he’s doing and I’ll cover him to keep our lane integrity.”
Before refining his telepathy with Graves, Llewellyn had to exercise some patience. After not seeing game action in 2021, he took 44 defensive snaps in 2022 and 147 defensive snaps in 2023, per PFF.
Despite the lack of immediate opportunities amid a “very deep group” on the defensive line, the former four-star recruit described it as an “easy decision” to stick with the Hawkeyes.
"I like it here,“ Llewellyn said. ”K.B. is a really good coach. I like the program. … I can either leave and take a chance somewhere else or I can stay at a place I like and wait it out. So I think it’s going to pay off for me.“
Llewellyn has not been the only one who has stayed patient while awaiting opportunities. In fact, it is a theme among the defensive players in Iowa’s 2021 recruiting class.
The only defensive players from the class to not still be on the roster are Cooper DeJean and Griffin Liddle. DeJean became the highest-drafted Hawkeye defensive back in the Kirk Ferentz era last month, and Liddle was put on medical leave earlier this year.
Llewellyn and six others still are on the roster — Jeff Bowie, Jeremiah Pittman, Karson Sharar, Jaden Harrell, Justice Sullivan and Zach Twedt — never started (or even played 200-plus defensive snaps in a season) in their first three years on campus.
The NCAA’s blanket approval of an extra COVID-19 year of eligibility came at the cost of opportunities for Llewellyn’s recruiting class. One more year of opportunities for linebackers such as Jay Higgins and Kyler Fisher also meant one more year of waiting for 2021 linebacker recruits like Harrell.
“I said they should give our class another year of eligibility, but then if they give our class another year of eligibility, then that hurts guys like Jayden Montgomery,” Harrell said. “My class got the short end of the stick. It is what it is.”
The good news for the 2021 recruits is the spotlight seems to be finally finding them, or at least the media spotlight is. The in-game spotlight will have to wait another four months.
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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