NOTEBOOK: Jacob Park speaks on Twitter, Joel Lanning goes to East-West Shrine Game

Brian Mozey
November 22, 2017

It’s been an eventful day for Iowa State football as a few key players were featured in today’s news. 

Joel Lanning accepts invitation to Shrine Game

Redshirt senior linebacker and quarterback Joel Lanning will be playing a game in January as he accepted his invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Game. 

The game will take place at 2:07 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2018, in St. Petersburg, Florida. It’ll be the 93rd game in its history as it started in 1925. 

This is the second Iowa State player to play in January as Allen Lazard accepted his invitation to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl a few days ago. 

Lanning made the transition to linebacker from the quarterback position at the beginning of this season, his final season as a Cyclone. Ever since the switch, he’s been dominant both on defense, offense and special teams.

His main focus has been defense as he’s the leading tackler on Iowa State with 103 tackles, 43 solo and 60 assisted tackles. He also has four sacks, one interception and one fumble recovery. 

Lanning has also helped at the quarterback position after Jacob Park took a leave of absence and Kyle Kempt injured his throwing arm. The Cyclones had Zeb Noland as the lone quarterback, so Lanning has helped throughout the season offensively. 

He’s had 106 rushing yards on 33 attempts along with a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown to Allen Lazard. 

Lanning is one of four finalists for the Paul Hornung Award, an award that’s given to the most versatile player in the country. 

The last time an Iowa State player played in the Shrine Game was in 2010 when David Sims and A.J. Klein participated together. 

The East-West Shrine Game will be televised on the NFL Network. 

Jacob Park speaks for the first time

Redshirt junior quarterback Jacob Park hasn’t played a single snap of football since Oct. 6 when he told the Iowa State football team that he was going to take a leave of absence.

He said the reason behind this absence was due to personal health problems. Ever since Oct. 6, no one from the media has seen or talked to Park. Coach Matt Campbell said Park is still part of the team even during his absence and has been hanging out with the team. 

Park spoke for the first time on Twitter since Aug. 30 with a new profile picture and a few tweets to thank the Iowa State community. 

Even though these tweets were sent out, there’s been no indication by Campbell or any member of the Iowa State staff that Park is back from his leave of absence. 

The only public remarks Campbell has made was the Monday after the Oklahoma win on Oct. 7. 

“Jacob is a great young man dealing with some personal medical concerns,” Campbell said. “We are committed to helping him cope, supporting him on all levels and helping him prepare to get back on the playing field with his teammates as soon as possible.”

Even though Campbell’s comments have been short and sweet regarding the situation, the Iowa State football fans have been responding to his two tweets extending support.

And Park has responded back. 

Iowa State will play its final regular season game at Kansas State on Nov. 25 at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2.