Fiesta Bowl????

I am telling you right now, Fiesta has been waiting a long time to be in a position to select the Hawkeyes!!! The last time Iowa went to a BCS game was the Orange. Let me tell ya, there were Hawk fans everywhere! The Dolphin Stadium was packed 90% with Hawk fans. Fiesta wants a sell out crowd and they know picking the Hawks it would be sold out in minutes. Big fan-base in Arizona and a BCS bid will make a lot more travel that usually don't. I went to the ASU game a few years back and I was shocked how many Hawk fans were at that game... The only thing keep Iowa out of the Fiesta is the BCS poll. Iowa needs to be in the top 14 in order to be selected for a BCS game. It would help by cheering against the following teams and of course a convincing win by the Hawks vs the Goophers!

8) LSU - The SEC already have their 2 BCS teams in but LSU is ranked ahead of the Hawks.

9) Pittsburgh - They still have to play Cincy. Only one Big East team will get in so might as well as make in Cincy and knock Pitt out of the Top 14.

10) Ohio State - It would help us get a share of the Big Ten!

11) Oregon - It seems their luster has worn off but we need Arizona to win. AZ lost last week to Cal really stung!

12) Oklahoma State - This might be the biggest. Boone has deep pockets and connections. One more loss to either CO or OK would keep the Cowgirls out of the BCS!

13) Iowa - Just WIN baby! We need another big win like last years 55-0 win. We have two big prospects visiting this weekend in #1 overall ranked prospect OL Seantrel Henderson and #5 ranked TE C.J. Fiedorowicz. I think CJ will commit to the Hawks but I give Seantrel a 5% chance...

14) Penn State - A lot of talk of Fiesta taking PSU over the Hawks but I just don't buy it. Even though head-2-head doesn't matter much just look at how they got crushed at home vs OSU and we almost beat OSU in the Shoe. Enough said there but a loss to MSU this weekend would take them out of the BCS for sure!

15) Virginia Tech - They have no chance...

16) Wisconsin - OK they beat up on Michigan that has been spiraling out of control. Big Deal. PSU would be taken ahead of Wisky. Still a loss at NW would definitely take them out of the BCS.

The other thing Iowa has going for them is their recent Bowl record. Last year they were the only Big Ten team to win a Bowl game. And they won convincingly over South Carolina who most analysts thought was too fast for the Hawks. Blah Blah Blah. We hear that every year yet since the Orange Bowl:

- Crushed Ron Zook and his Florida Gators in the Outback
- Was taking it to LSU in Cap1 before they inserted Jamarcus Russell and took the lead at the end of the game. Last second TD from Tate to Holloway for the win!
- Got screwed by the refs throughout the rematch with Florida in the Outback. We battled through it all and had a chance with an onside kick at the end. Hawks recover the kick yet are called miraculously offside. Video showed it was yet another bogus call.
- Took it to Texas in there own backyard at the Alamo. Another controversial call took away a TD pass and Texas took the lead at the end of the game.
- Outback yet again vs South Carolina. It was nothing but a slaughter by the Hawks.

January 1, 2004 Outback Bowl W Florida 37 17
January 1, 2005 Capital One Bowl W LSU 30 25
January 2, 2006 Outback Bowl L Florida 24 31
December 29, 2006 Alamo Bowl L Texas 24 26
January 1, 2009 Outback Bowl W South Carolina 31 10

Iowa Sports Information Department has had enough...

This was sent out today by the Iowa Sports Information Department to the media outlets:

GET THE CORRECT FACTS ON IOWA FOOTBALL

It seems popular for national pundits to criticize the University of Iowa football team these days. Many have said Iowa doesn’t belong on the same board with Florida, Texas, Alabama, Cincinnati, TCU, Oregon or Boise State. Iowa’s schedule has been rated the seventh toughest in the nation. Only one team in Big Ten history has beaten Penn State, Michigan State and Wisconsin on the road in the same season (Michigan did it in 1997). The two schools Iowa does not play in the Big Ten this year have the worst overall records (Purdue and Illinois) in the league. To say Iowa hasn’t played a strong enough schedule is to be totally misinformed. Please look at the facts below.



Number of opponents defeated that currently have winning records:

1. Iowa 6

2. Cincinnati 4

TCU 4

4. Oregon 3

5. Boise State 2



Total won-lost records (and winning %) of defeated opponents:

1. Iowa 44-31 .586

2. Oregon 29-28 .508

3. TCU 34-33 .507

4. Cincinnati 30-36 .454

5. Boise State 27-37 .421



Total won-lost records of opponents defeated in their home stadiums (i.e. road wins)

1. Iowa 23-12 .657

2. TCU 19-14 .575

3. Cincinnati 21-20 .512

4. Boise State 14-18 .437

5. Oregon 6-10 .375



Number of defeated opponents ranked in current BCS Top 25:

1. Iowa 3 (Penn State, Arizona, Wisconsin)

Oregon 3 (USC, Utah, California)

3. Boise State 1 (Oregon)

4. Cincinnati 1 (South Florida)

5. TCU 0



Won-lost records of remaining teams left on schedule:

1. Iowa 17-10 .629

2. Oregon 19-12 .612

3. Cincinnnati 19-13 .593

4. Boise State 20-22 .476

5. TCU 15-17 .468

AZ 2 Deep Changes

Bulaga is back at LT. Welcome back big guy!!! Vandervelde might be full time at RG after playing a lot against ISU. Vandervelde was projected to play limited vs ISU but with Bulaga being out that changed things. Richardson at LG makes that left side very tough. This is an outstanding OLine now!

LT - Bulaga, Reiff
LG - Richardson
C- Eubanks
RG - Vandervelde
RT - Calloway

Eubanks came out some plays due to dehydrated and Koeppel played very well in his spot. Robinson and Wegher will be sharing the RB duties. I expect Wegher to get more carries in the 1H than what he did last week. They are a nice 1-2 punch!

Again not much has changed on Defense. Lowe started for Castillo at LC last week as Castillo was a little banged up during the week. Lowe played a fantastic game and gets the start again at LC. Prater is back off suspension so he might take over for Lowe. If not I expect Prater to get a lot of playing time.

A look at the OLine for Week 2

Calloway is back from suspension which is huge! That makes both Tackles are back from last year. Julian Vandervelde is cleared to play. It sounds highly unlikely he will start or play a lot. So we are looking at the following OLine on Saturday:

LT Bulaga
LG Gettis
C Eubanks
RG Richardson
RT Calloway

I am thinking Gettis gets the nod over Doering this week. Doering was a top OL coming out of HS in 2005 class. Iowa fans have had big hopes for him but he has been hampered by injuries every year. Coach has stated he has been impressed with Doering in spring and summer but he looked awful at times at RG. It could change in practice this week but this is how I see it.

Then when Julian is ready to go in to play, this is where the Oline gets to be stout!!!!

LT Bulaga
LG Vandervelde
C Eubanks
RG Richardson
RT Calloway

Barring injury, I expect this to be the starting lineup for some time. Some don't like Eubanks at center but I thought he did an alright job. They just need more practice and game time together to work out the kinks that caused a couple sacks last Saturday.

Latest 2 Deep vs ISU

Only changes are on Offense where Calloway makes it back at Right Tackle. This moves Richardson back to his normal Guard spot but they don't know whether it will be RG or LG. So either Gettis or Doering will be benched this week. The only other change is at RB where Adam Robinson gets the start ahead of Paki O'Meara. Adam had a solid game after a slow start. It seemed he was hitting the line to fast and not allowing the holes to open up. After a couple series, he finally slowed it down and got some nice runs out there. Paki didn't do a whole lot on the day but he did have one huge mistake. After Iowa gets a fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half, he fights for some extra yards and gets stripped of the ball. That cost Iowa at least a FG as it would have been 3rd and 10.

In other news, Vandervelde sounds like he might have a chance to play this week as he was dressed for the UNI game but didn't play. Ferentz is back also but he is down the 2 deeps a ways. Prater is still on suspension this week but will be back for the Arizona game. We definitely need him back as UNI picked on our CBs playing opposite of Speivey.

Who is out for the Hawks tomorrow???

CB Prater, OL Calloway, and OL Ferentz are all suspended due to off-season arrests. RB Hampton and CB Bernstine are out for the season. OL Vandervelde is back practicing but missed most of camp. Coach made it sound like he will not play this week and probably not next week. WR Sandeman has been injured a lot of camp also and sounds doubtful.

UNI is missing their #1 and #3 RB plus their best WR...

The RB Situation

Lets start by stating the obvious, Jewel Hampton is out for the year. That leaves us with Paki O'Meara as the only RB with experience. Paki wasn't a big time recruit. He was a walk-on that worked his tail off to get where he is today. Kind of like Dallas Clark did and we all know how that turned out. Paki hasn't shown a lot of flash the past two years but he has shown two things... He takes care of the ball and runs North-n-South. Word in camp though is he has shown a lot more this year. So we will see what kind of Paki went get on Saturday. I am believing it is the new and improved Paki with over 100yds rushing.

Second Team is redshirt freshman Adam Robinson out of Des Moines. Adam had back to back 1,000yds rushing seasons at Lincoln High School but Iowa was the only major to offer him. It looks like we might have found another diamond in the rough. Adam has really impressed the coaching staff this camp. I have a feeling if it wasn't for Paki's experience that Adam might be starting on Saturday. But who cares who starts this weekend, Adam will be getting a good share of snaps on Saturday.

Third Team is a mix of redshirt freshman Jeff Brinson and true freshman Brandon Wegher. If Jeff wouldn't have missed a lot of camp due to an ankle injury, he might have been the starter. I have heard over the pass two years that he is the closest to Shonn Greene that we have. He is a punishing back and has delivered some vicious hits running scout team against our first team Defense. Jeff might not see much action this weekend due to missing so much of camp but we should at least see some glimpse of what he has. Brandon was a four star, highly recruited last year with 3,200yds rushing last year. He is supposedly quick and fast and is supposed to be a damn good return man for both punts and kick offs. As of Tuesday, Coach stated that Paki would still be the kick return man if they played today. I see that changing on Saturday since Coach stated that Brandon will play and not redshirt. Coach doesn't like having his starting RB as a KR man. I suspect Brandon will be the third man in on Saturday and get a decent look with maybe 10 or so carries.

The rest, we have two true freshman in Brad Rogers out of OH and Josh Brown out of FL. Brad is just a huge true freshamn RB close to the 230lb mark. Josh moved from CB/S to RB during camp. Many believe with the depth we have at the Freshman mark and with Jewel having 3 more years of eligibility going into 2010 that he might move back to CB/S. It will be very interesting to see if either of these two play this year or redshirt.

Even without Jewel, our running game will be just fine. It wasn't all Shonn last year! He had some big holes to run through by those OLinemen. This could be the best OL that we have ever had at Iowa when they all get healthy and off suspension. It will be interesting to see how they do against UNI without Vandervelde (due to injury) and Kuempel (OWI suspension). When these two get back in action, look out!!!