SB Nation - Pat Angerer

We're All Americans, But We're Not All All-Americans

Oops Pow Surprise — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:51:28 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

Iowa's Pat Angerer (43) celebrates with teammates Allen Reisner and Dace Richardson, right, after Iowa blocked a Northern Iowa field goal on the final play. Iowa won 17-16. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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As is usually the case after a 10-win season, the accolades are beginning to pour in for the Iowa Hawkeye football team. Everyone and their mom has an all-conference or All-American team, but the two that actually matter--Walter Camp and the AP--are now out. And for the 33th year in a row, the unanimous selection for player of the year is Frank Stallone*.

More importantly, the AP named three Hawkeyes to their All-American teams. While nobody made it onto the first team, thanks to Ricky Stanzi's ankle injury--come on, you know if he stays healthy and Iowa goes 11-1 and finishes at #5 or so, even the guys on defense get a little bit more of a bump--both Bryan Bulaga and Pat Angerer made it to the second team, while Tyler Sash made third-team AA as a sophomore. A fine moment for all three players (two of whom, as we insular and provincial types are quick to point out, are native Iowans).

Meanwhile, the Walter Camp Foundation agreed with the AP, naming Bulaga and Angerer to their second team as well and effectively establishing the two as the de facto MVPs of their respective sides of the ball. We have a little beef with each designation, but for wholly different reasons.

First, though Bulaga is by far the best pro prospect on the line as of right now and was utterly dominant in 2008, the reality is that even notwithstanding the 3-week absence as he recovered from thyroid issues, he struggled in 2009. Brandon Graham and O'Brien Schofield manhandled Bulaga. And while those are two very good defensive ends, so was Aaron Maybin, the 11th pick of the 2009 by the Buffalo Bills and Bryan Bulaga's personal prison bitch after Iowa-PSU 2008. There was a substantial dropoff in play by Bulaga in 2009, and voters just didn't notice it when it came time to hand out awards.

Meanwhile, Dace Richardson was actually very good in his return to the line, and he got a fair amount of media attention when mid-season awards were being handed out. Then his ankle was rolled up on against Michigan State, and he disappeared from both the depth chart and voters' attention. But why should he have been punished for an ankle injury while voters looked past Bulaga's absence of a similar length? It's all past reputation, and that's not really fair to guys who come from nowhere and work their butts off--especially in their senior year, where there's no chance for any payoff in the "rewarded in Year X for play in Year X-minus-1" system that's come to be when it comes to honoring offensive linemen.

What this comes down to is that if the AP were to select an Iowa lineman for All-American this season, we'd have preferred it be Dace--though we'll certainly "settle for" Bulaga instead. If both men are playing their last game for Iowa next month, as lots of speculation suggests, then they've both had stellar careers in the black and gold and we wish them well.

On defense, on the other hand, Pat Angerer didn't really establish himself as the most dominant player for that Iowa defense, but that's hardly through any fault of his own. After all, one usually does so by being simply better than his teammates, and the talent level on the Iowa defense this year was both so high and so consistent that it was hard to see Angerer as someone who was the best player on defense. After all, you could always come back with, "well why not Sash? Or Adrian Clayborn? Or Amari Spievey? Or A.J. Edds? Or, hell, Jeremiha Hunter?" We're not saying that Angerer was the 6th best player on the Iowa defense by any means--just that ranking the top 5 or 6 or so would be impossible, because the gaps would be so miniscule that personal preference could easily mean a 3- or 4-spot swing here or there and it wouldn't even be objectionable.

Angerer's accolades, then, come from two areas: 1) his name, which is everything you could ever hope for times infinity; 2) and his stats, which sort of sneak up on you for the same reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. As mentioned before, he was 5th in the nation in tackles at 11.3 a game. That's pretty outstanding, especially since--as TRE noticed during the season--Angerer's real strength might have been in pass coverage, not run support.

Still, absent game-changing plays, it's somewhat difficult to notice the overall impact a player has on a game. And all of those game-changing plays seemed to happen to other players--most notably Sash and Clayborn, and to a lesser extent Spievey.

Thus we have a weird ambiguity about how we look at Angerer's standing as the most highly-lauded member of the 2009 Iowa defense. It's not that he didn't deserve it--far from it--but with a defense like Iowa's, you could basically pick a name out of a hat and feel relatively confident that you made a good choice. It was that kind of year. Effectively singling out Angerer for praise, then, seems unusual and almost a little unfair. Oh well. There are worse problems to have.

Full AP All-American teams are after the break.

First team
Offense
	   Quarterback -- Colt McCoy, senior, 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Texas.
	   Running backs -- Toby Gerhart, senior, 6-1, 235, Stanford; Mark Ingram, sophomore, 5-10, 212, Alabama.
	   Tackles -- Russell Okung, senior, 6-5, 301, Oklahoma State; Trent Williams, senior, 6-5, 318, Oklahoma.
	   Guards -- Michael Johnson, senior, 6-6, 305, Alabama; Mike Iupati, senior, 6-6, 330, Idaho.
	   Center -- J.D. Walton, senior, 6-3, 305, Baylor.
	   Tight end -- Aaron Hernandez, junior, 6-2, 250, Florida.
	   Wide receivers -- Golden Tate, junior, 5-11, 195, Notre Dame; Jordan Shipley, senior, 6-0, 190, Texas.
	   All-purpose player -- C.J. Spiller, senior, 5-11, 195, Clemson.
	   Kicker -- Leigh Tiffin, senior, 6-2, 212, Alabama.
Defense
	   Ends -- Jerry Hughes, senior, 6-3, 257, TCU; Derrick Morgan, junior, 6-4, 272, Georgia Tech.
	   Tackles -- Ndamukong Suh, senior, 6-4, 300, Nebraska; Terrence Cody, senior, 6-5, 365, Alabama.
	   Linebackers -- Rolando McClain, junior, 6-4, 258, Alabama; Greg Jones, junior, 6-1, 228, Michigan State; Eric Norwood, senior, 6-1, 252, South Carolina.
	   Cornerbacks -- Joe Haden, junior, 5-11, 190, Florida; Javier Arenas, senior, 5-9, 198, Alabama.
	   Safeties -- Eric Berry, junior, 5-11, 203, Tennessee; Earl Thomas, sophomore, 5-10, 197, Texas.
	   Punter -- Drew Butler, sophomore, 6-2, 201, Georgia.
Second team
	   Quarterback -- Tim Tebow, senior, Florida.
	   Running backs -- Ryan Mathews, junior, Fresno State; Dion Lewis, freshman, Pittsburgh.
	   Tackles -- Bryan Bulaga, junior, Iowa; Chris Marinelli, senior, Stanford.
	   Guards -- Rodney Hudson, junior, Florida State; Mike Pouncey, junior, Florida.
	   Center -- Maurkice Pouncey, junior, Florida.
	   Tight end -- Dennis Pitta, senior, BYU.
	   Wide receivers -- Mardy Gilyard, senior, Cincinnati; Danario Alexander, senior, Missouri.
	   All-purpose player -- James Rodgers, junior, Oregon State.
	   Kicker -- Kai Forbath, junior, UCLA.
Defense
	   Ends -- Von Miller, junior, Texas A&M; Brandon Graham, senior, Michigan.
	   Tackles -- Gerald McCoy, junior, Oklahoma; Jared Odrick, senior, Penn State.
	   Linebackers -- Pat Angerer, senior, Iowa; Brandon Spikes, senior, Florida; Sean Weatherspoon, senior, Missouri.
	   Cornerbacks -- Perrish Cox, senior, Oklahoma State; Kyle Wilson, senior, Boise State.
	   Safeties -- Taylor Mays, senior, Southern California; Rahim Moore, sophomore, UCLA.
	   Punter -- Zoltan Mesko, senior, Michigan.
Third team
Offense
	   Quarterback -- Kellen Moore, sophomore, Boise State
	   Running backs -- LaMichael James, redshirt freshman, Oregon; Jacquizz Rodgers, sophomore, Oregon State.
	   Tackles -- Dennis Landolt, senior, Penn State; Ciron Black, senior, LSU.
	   Guards -- Brandon Carter, senior, Texas Tech; Jeff Byers, senior, Southern California.
	   Center -- Chris Hall, senior, Texas.
	   Tight end -- Dorin Dickerson, senior, Pittsburgh.
	   Wide receivers -- Freddie Barnes, senior, Bowling Green; Demaryius Thomas, junior, Georgia Tech.
	   All-purpose player -- Dexter McCluster, senior, Mississippi.
	   Kicker -- Hunter Lawrence, senior, Texas.
Defense
	   Ends -- Jeremy Beal, junior, Oklahoma; Brandon Sharpe, senior, Texas Tech.
	   Tackles -- Brian Price, junior, UCLA; Dan Williams, senior, Tennessee.
	   Linebackers -- Sergio Kindle, senior, Texas; Cody Grimm, senior, Virginia Tech; Navorro Bowman, junior, Penn State.
	   Cornerbacks -- Brandon Harris, sophomore, Miami; Alterraun Verner, senior, UCLA.
	   Safeties -- Tyler Sash, sophomore, Iowa; Mark Barron, sophomore, Alabama.
	   Punter -- Matt Reagan, senior, Memphis.

*Did you know he was in Tombstone, a.k.a. the SINGLE GREATEST MOVIE IN HISTORY? And in a phenomenal scene, to boot.

It's Not Plagiarism If You Link To It Is Still Creeped Out By "Obie"

Oops Pow Surprise — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:48:01 -0000

More photos » by J Pat Carter - AP

Obie, left, the Orange Bowl mascot, along with Georgia Tech football coach Paul Johnson, center, and Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz, right, pose for photos after a news conference for the upcoming Orange Bowl game in Miami, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

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Looking at the above picture, we're just filled with questions. What do they do with those oranges in the trophy after the picture? How often do they shuffle out the oranges? Has anyone ever eaten one straight from the trophy during one of these silly photo ops? Has anyone realized that Paul Johnson is a zombie? Doesn't Obie hate always looking to his (her? its? their?!) right? Why does he have arms where his ears should be? What's with the stalker there on the left?

Anyhoo.

More like Tricky Stanzi! Am I right? No? Fine: As expected, Ricky Stanzi returned to practice yesterday.

From Hawkmania:

With Stanzi gone to the locker room with a severe ankle sprain, the Hawkeyes lost that game.

They lost again the next week in overtime in a Big Ten showdown at Ohio State, but managed to scrape out a 12-0 victory over Minnesota in the season finale.

Stanzi was on the sidelines for those games, serving as a personal tutor to his young replacement, James Vandenberg.

He said he was proud of the way the freshman from Keokuk performed in his stead, but he’s ready to take his job back now.

And uh, we're ready for that too. No offense to Vandenberg, who was admirable as an emergency replacement, but his performance thus far wasn't terribly confidence-inspiring. Vandenberg struggled mightily against Northwestern, and though he rebounded for a solid (if inconsistent) performance at Ohio State, the yucks returned against Minnesota the next week. That's 1 for 3 on competent QBing by Vandenberg. Stanzi, as we've mentioned before, has the uncanny ability to keep both teams in a game, but he's been enough to get the job done on a remarkably consistent basis.

There's no telling how each QB will practice between now and January 5, of course, but assuming the 3 1/2 weeks are enough for Stanzi to shake any rust off, we don't really expect to see Vandenberg on the field during meaningful play. If he does, something has likely gone very wrong once again, and we are D-U-M-E-D doomed.

Laugh if you must, but these guys are more like you than you want to admit: Um, yikes.

(via the Fanshots)

Our commenters already noticed the Grant-spot in his pile of cash, but did you guys notice that under it were nothing but 20s? So he basically said "Look, I have 330 dollars in my account. I can't make it rain hundreds. We could do three 50s and nine 20s... no, that's only 12 bills. That looks thin. Okay, one 50 and 14 20s. That's 15. That'll look badass probably."

And did they have to shoot it in Cedar Rapids and find some abandoned, flooded-out old building? What are they trying to say about the Hawkeyes here? Sheesh.

You should see the other guy's leg. When Gable passes it through his stool: So Dan Gable has a broken leg. You're probably wondering how he broke it, and it's pretty normal really: some cheating bastard brought a baseball bat in during a blindfolded martial arts tournament. Errr, no, never mind. That's not true.

Gable fell after his foot got caught in one of the cracks between the decking, he said."I can't do too many things that I normally do right now, like shovel snow and all that stuff," Gable said. "So I've got it pretty much made."

I like how they say "the decking" as if we're supposed to know exactly which one they're talking about. "Oh yeah, on Doc Muller's porch! He needs to get that redone, I tell ya."

Have we figured out why "Graham" isn't two syllables? That seems to be the bigger issue: As mentioned yesterday, the Trib split the Silver Football award between Daryll Clark and Brandon Graham. Whether they split the silver football along the seams or straight down the middle is unreported.

Shockingly, Pat Harty disapproves:

The problem with Graham being selected is that Michigan finished just 1-7 in the Big Ten this season, and its defense was terrible at times. A more logical choice would have been Wisconsin defensive end O'Brien Schofield or Penn State defensive tackle Jared Odrick or Iowa linebacker Pat Angerer. Not only did they perform well, but their teams also won 10 games during the regular season.

It would be different if Michigan had finished 5-3 or 4-4, or even 3-5 in the conference. But it doesn't make sense to have the Big Ten co-MVP come from a team that finished in a tie for last place, especially when there were some other worthy candidates.

We (unwittingly) performed a pre-emptive strike on this line of reasoning during last week's podcast: Here's the deal. Graham was the best player in the BXI this season. He was unblockable. But when 9 or 10 of your fellow defensive players are miserably bad at their job, it's going to mean a long season no matter what. After all, Graham registered 25 tackles for a loss, which is an insane amount. It's still only a hair over two per game. That's maybe enough to swing a few games if the rest of the defense is competent. That wasn't the case, and that wasn't Graham's fault.

QUICK HITZ:

NCAA Tournament to go to 96 teams? Jesus god no. Keep it at 65, and if you want to make any changes, make the play-in game be the last two teams to receive at-large bids rather than two 16-seeds who actually earned an automatic bid. A play-in between two 12-seeds would be so much more entertaining.

Bryan Bulaga fails to live up to hype: As the Hlog notes, casting aside the silliness of the BXI handing him Lineman of the Year, Bulaga didn't really impress scouts a whole lot this season. He's still projected as a first-rounder, but we strongly feel that he needs to come back to Iowa. And never leave. Please don't go. We need you. We miss your musk.

Wait, your productivity hasn't been annihilated yet? Kiss that sucker goodbye: MST3K on Hulu. You're welcome.

Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh Wins The Bronko Nagurski Trophy

Jon Johnston — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:17:55 -0000

What a day for Ndamukong Suh. Not only does he find out that he's going to New York City as a Heisman finalist, but he also wins the Bronko Nagurski Trophy. It could be the first of many trophies for Suh, as he's also a finalist for the Lott, Outland, Bednarik, Walter Camp and the Lombardi.

Suh won out over Alabama defensive tackle Terrence Cody, Iowa linebacker Pat Angerer, Tennessee safety Eric Berry and TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes.

Official Release from the FWAA after the jump, including quotes from Suh and head coach Bo Pelini.

NEBRASKA'S SUH WINS 2009 BRONKO NAGURSKI TROPHY

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FWAA) - Nebraska tackle Ndamukong Suh on Monday night claimed the 2009 Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which annually is awarded to the best defensive player in college football.

Suh became the 17th winner of the award as voted upon by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club. He's the first Nebraska player to win the award.

"This was definitely a big surprise," Suh said at tonight's presentation banquet. "I want to thank all the other guys here. They are all great players. And I would like to thank the Bronko Nagurski family as well as the (Nebraska) coaches, Bo Pelini and his staff and my parents, This is a great honor. I am speechless. I was definitely not planning on winning this award."

But Pelini, also in attendance, was not surprised, saying, "I definitely think you picked the right man. He is a tremendous football player and a great individual."

Suh a 6-4, 300-pound senior from Portland, Ore., is considered a top NFL Draft prospect and will receive his degree in construction management. He is also a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, the Outland Trophy, the Bednarik Award, the Rotary Lombardi Award and the Lott Trophy. The winner of the 2009 Outland Trophy, presented to the nation's best interior lineman by the FWAA, will be announced Thursday night on "The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards Show" live on ESPN.

During the 2009 regular season Suh led Nebraska in tackles with 50 unassisted and 32 assisted. He had 23 tackles for losses (12 sacks for 77 yards in losses), 10 pass breakups, 26 quarterback hurries, one interception, one forced fumble and three blocked kicks.

In the 13-12 loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game this past Saturday, Suh was credited with 4.5 sacks of Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy, seven total tackles for loss, a career-high 12 tackles and two quarterback hurries.

"He's just a tremendous football player," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. "He finds a way within our defense to make plays, he gets it understands the game. He can just beat you in a lot of different ways. He is very instinctive for a defensive lineman which is very rare."

Suh's sack of Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert in the first quarter of the Cornhuskers' 27-12 victory over the Tigers in early October possibly changed the course of the Big 12 North season. Gabbert suffered and ankle injury on the play. Although he continued to play, his mobility was hampered and Suh intercepted a Gabbert pass in the fourth quarter that sparked the come-from-behind win.

Suh's efforts certainly mirror the person for whom the trophy is named. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is given in memory of the legendary Nagurski, a former All-American lineman at Minnesota (1927-29) and star for professional football's Chicago Bears in the 1930s.

"When you look at Suh, you see a player who can dominate a game," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "That defensive front is as good in the country. He is as good as any player in America. He is unbelievable. We have enjoyed watching him play. You look at their film and he is amazing player. You don't expect that someone, so big and so fast, to be over 300 pounds and be as fast as he is, it is amazing."

The four other 2009 Nagurski Trophy finalists were Iowa linebacker Pat Angerer, Tennessee back Eric Berry, Alabama tackle Terrence Cody and TCU end Jerry Hughes. Hughes was also a finalist in 2008.

The Charlotte Touchdown Club is a non-profit organization founded in 1990 for the purpose of promoting high school, collegiate, and professional football in the Charlotte, N.C. region. The club's activities and services focus community attention on the outstanding citizenship, scholarship, sportsmanship, and leadership of area athletes and coaches. For more information, contact John Rocco (704-347-2918 or jrocco@touchdownclub.com). The official website of the Charlotte Touchdown Club is www.touchdownclub.com.

The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of nearly 1,000 men and women across North America who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards, a national poll and its annual All-America team.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association's official Web site, ncfaa.org.

Let's Do This: Iowa to Face Georgia Tech in the 2010 Orange Bowl

Oops Pow Surprise — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:00:23 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

18 days ago: Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz speaks during a news conference following an announcement that his team will play Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

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Let's say, before the season began, you saw a prediction that the Orange Bowl (with its automatic ACC tie-in) would feature the following two teams:

TEAM A

Scheme-insistent offensive juggernaut featuring superior athletes at nearly all positions, a questionable defense, blowouts a-plenty

TEAM B

Slightly below-average offense, murderous defense, a quarterback with the uncanny ability to keep both teams in the game at the same time, deficits in vast majority of games played

You would probably look at Team B, frown, then ask, "Who the hell is the ACC dragging to the OB this year? North Carolina?" Then you'd start speculating about how much Texas was going to beat them by before settling on "two berjillion or so."

In fact, the most remarkable aspect of this matchup between Iowa and Georgia Tech is how Iowa's so much more of a typical ACC team than Georgia Tech is.

What we like about Georgia Tech is that they're a perfect example of how far, physically, the game has progressed in the last half-century or so. Watching highlights of vaunted triple option attacks from the '50s and '60s, like so:

and then comparing them to today's Georgia Tech offense:

...you think two things. The first is "Is that Keith Jackson doing the highlights in the first one?" (It isn't.) The second is "man, Georgia Tech's offense kicks the crap out of those old guys." And we're not talking about some worthless whodats of the era; Ernie Davis won a Heisman, and these two teams were a combined 19-1 going into the game, and Syracuse won the national title. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech isn't playing for the national title. They're hardly worthless whodats in their own right, of course, but the point is that such a level of physicality is more widespread these days.

One unit that's willing to crack helmets like that, fortunately, is the Iowa defense. While it's going to be a bit of a bummer that the pass defense--Iowa's sterling forte for the 2009 season--will basically only be tested on the fly routes that Josh Nesbitt heaves up about 10-15 times a game (to decent effect), it's at least encouraging that the Iowa defense will have a little idea of what's coming.

On one hand, one of the dirty little secrets of the Iowa football team is that the rush defense isn't all that great; they ranked 33rd in rushing defense on the season and were shown to be especially vulnerable by UNI, ISU, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. With the exception of Wisconsin (whose offense effectively disappeared as soon as John Clay returned from having his entire body severed at the waist in the 2nd quarter), each of those teams has a mobile quarterback, and O HAI JOSH NESBITT HERE TO CONFOUND YOU WITH TRIPLE OPTION DEATHNESS SIR. The lesson, it would seem, is that when the Iowa defenders have to take a second to find the ball, bad things can happen.

On the other hand, only Michigan and Ohio State put up monster numbers on the Iowa defense, and they essentially schemed to do that and only that. Once again, you're probably thinking "oh, just like Georgia Tech," and if they were an opponent waiting where, let's say, Indiana would be, we'd say for sure: Iowa is super-screwed. Hell, Ferentz even admitted so himself:

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz vividly remembers flipping his television one night last fall and instantly becoming mesmerized by Georgia Tech’s spread option offense.

"I can’t imagine trying to get ready for them in a normal week," Ferentz said.

But the Iowa defense has a full month to prepare for this game, and they'll likely use all of it on defense, defense, defense. Pat Angerer (who, by the way, is 4th in the nation in tackles; were you aware of that?) is going to be the super-duper key man here; he may do the Iowa offense the most good by taking himself away from the play by crashing the middle of the line, forcing Nesbitt and Jonathan Dwyer to the outside, where superior pursuit men like AJ Edds, Jeremiha Hunter, and Tyler Sash thrive. Oh, Angerer's still going to get his tackles; Tech's counter game probably won't do very well against an observant linebacking corps and a disruptive defensive line, so once that ball goes outside the guards, Angerer should be flying toward the outside. But the real difference between getting run over and keeping the Ramblin' Wreck somewhat in check is going to be the play of the ends and outside linebackers, guys who'll be tasked with keeping 3-yard gains from turning into 8-yard gains.

In fact, beating Georgia Tech can be done, of course; if Iowa's offense is "below average", Georgia's is "LOLOLOLOL I either peed or came I was laughing too hard to tell", and the Bulldogs still beat their rivals 30-24 over Thanksgiving weekend. In the process, Georgia put together a clinic for a team like Iowa on how to beat Tech: methodical drives, run run run run, and make Josh Nesbitt work as hard as possible. Nesbitt carried the ball 19 times for only 41 yards (and 1 TD) against Georgia; the passing went little better, as Nesbitt was just 6-12 for 135 yards and a score. Altogether it's a decent day in fantasy football; in real life, it's not a recipe for Georgia Tech success.

Knowing nothing about the key matchups (whoever's tasked with blocking Adrian Clayborn, for one, will be vitally important), my immediate gut reaction is a negative one; even given a month to prepare, Iowa's still going to give up a substantial amount of yardage--that's just the way it is with Tech's offense--and I'm pessimistic that, even with Adam Robinson, Dace Richardson, and Ricky Stanzi as close to 100% as possible, Iowa will be able to move chains with enough regularity to properly limit the amount of possessions the Yellow Jackets get. Georgia ran all freaking over Tech, but Robinson and Brandon Wegher usually only put up big stats on teams in full surrender mode, like Iowa State.

Essentially, then, this game will probably come down to punting. Not the punters, but willfully giving the ball to the other team instead of scoring points, on account of the offense's inability to move the ball into scoring position. Iowa sent up 57 punts over the course of the regular season. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech attempted 30. If that rough 1:2 ratio holds up and Iowa attempts twice as many punts as the Yellow Jackets next month, it will probably mean Georgia Tech has won handily. Their offense is just too good, and Iowa's, well, isn't.

But if Iowa registers a similar amount of scoring chances--or, even better, forces turnovers before Georgia Tech can punt or score points--the Hawkeyes should be in (relatively) good shape. The Tech defense is porous enough that a trip inside the 25 should yield a touchdown more often than not, and whether the same holds true vice versa (and how often each scenario should take place) may end up determining the winner of the 2010 Orange Bowl. Can't wait to find out more.

(I'm still calling this an L on first blush; don't read too much into that, though, as I said the exact same thing about Wisconsin. Whoops!)

Name of the week: NAME OF THE YEAR EDITION, preliminary round.

Rodger Sherman — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:05:51 -0000

DUN-DUN FREAKIN DUN, PEOPLE.

That's right. As you may remember, for the majority of the season, every week I selected the four or five best names from the team Northwestern was playing against and allowed you, the public, to select which you thought was the best name from that team. I'm not talking the best as in the funniest, I'm talking about all-around best. The most magnificient name.

Now, with 12 weeks gone, and nothing for us to talk about, I bring you the 12 champions. The Sippin' on Purple Names of the Week.

And again, I bring these men before you, and I ask you to determine their worth.

Of these 12 (actually 11, we'll get to that), pick your favorite. The top three will advance to a final round of voting with the best name from our opponent in the bowl game, as I optimistically left a slot for a 13th week on my impromptu name plaque (né a sunday night dinner flyer that i took down while putting new ones up), even though at the time, we were 3-1 and 1-1 in conference. Yeah optimism.

Anyway, since that fateful day like two months ago, the plaque sifted to the bottom of my desk, but I just went through the pile, retrieved it, and updated it with the names that have won since. Here is that plaque, as pictured via my iPhone.

Below, you see the poll. After the jump, I have the names listed in chronological order and what I wrote about those names at the time, plus a contextual line or two about how I feel about that name now.

So today, we separate the wheat from the chaff. We separate the Lorenzo Seaberry III's of the world from the Nate Paopao's. If we never went through this stage, those Seaberry's would potentially draw votes away from the Paopao's in the final, and I hope to avoid any Naderization of the potential final result in this poll.

Gentlemen, vote, and vote well.

Towson: Tamba Tongu.

Historic quote: "This is a great name. It's alliterative, and it's got a nice rhythm and a nice flow to it. It just rolls off the tongue (Tongu-e?) very nicely."

What I think now: You have to remember, this was back in the preliminary days of the Name of the Week poll, when there wasn't actually a poll, and the name of the week was embedded in a larger post about Towson football. Tamba's stiffest competition was probably Alex Butt, so, he had an easy ride to victory, but he'll always go down in history as Sippin' on Purple's first. And you always remember your first.

Tamba recorded a special teams tackle against NU, which is more than your average name of the week candidate did, surprisingly, although most got in the game.

Eastern Michigan: Nate Paopao.

Historic quote: "Paopao, who has one of the best football names I've ever heard. Nate is a juco transfer, and thanks to the EMU official pronunciation guide, we can find that his name is pronounced "POW-POW", the only name to get the all-caps treatment. Nate has six siblings, all of whom manage to have better names than him, but I won't drag them into this, because they don't deserve to google themselves only to find that somebody's writing about them on the internet, so, find his roster page to see for yourself.

However, if a member of the Paopao family does read this, let it be known that you have phenomenal taste in naming, and like I said in the last post, this isn't about humorous names as much as it is about classy names that make me want to sip expensive scotch and smoke cigars and discuss how great your family's names are in a well upholstered room with a fireplace. Hope you appreciate. I also hope you download the "Pow!" application for the iPhone, where you punch the air and a cartoon punching sound effect is made, because if you do it twice really fast, it's like your name."

What I think now: I didn't quote it at the time, but I'm reminded of Big L's "Put It On", in which he mentions that "my guns go boom boom/your guns go pow pow", right there in that first verse. One of the stupidest lines by the most clever rapper of all time, but one of his most memorable. (also notable: L keeps a gat in his arm's reach, and charms freaks and bombs geeks from here to Palm Beach.

Syracuse: Van Chew

Historic Quote: "Short and to the point. Neither of Chew's names are actual names. Van is a type of car, and occasionally comes up as an awesome first name (see: Morrison, Wilder), and Chew is something you do to food before digesting it. His full name is Vanzago, which sounds like a type of cheese."

What I think now: I'm still not sure how Van beat out my boy Maximilian Leo, but, you win some, you lose some. Van's definitely got a catchy name, it's not great name material.

Minnesota: Shady Salamon

Historic quote: "This is a ridiculously good name, and it's not even my pick for the week. First off, the guys first name is "Shady". Shady. That's his government name, as far as I can tell. Shady, like, when there's, like, trees over you, or when you're skeezy and people don't trust you. And Salamon sounds like Solomon, which is a first name old timey people had. Therefore, when you combine "Shady" and "Salamon", you get a name that sounds like it belongs to, like, a Mormon drug dealer or a wild west brothel owner. And that's awesome. Shady, a sophomore was a backup RB last year and started two games, totalling 181 yards on 49 carries on the year, but hasn't seen the field yet this year."

What I think now: Shady beat an absolutely STACKED name field that week, which included Logan U'u and Xzavian Brandon. But in retrospect, judging from how enthusiastic I was in this description, he deserved it. And like I posted a few days later, Shady has a pretty impressive life story considering what he's been through, and reading that article immediately made me feel bad about putting his name in my stupid little blog post about good names.

Purdue: Waynelle Gravesande:

Historic quote: "Yeah, Waynelle Gravesande.

First off, it's pronounced "grave-sandy" according to Purdue's media guide. But what I like about this name is that "Waynelle" matches up with "Gravesande" really well, they're both really long, very poetic, and both aren't actual names. If Waynelle weren't a football player, he could totally be a British dude from the 1500's. It's a mad courtly name. It just rolls off the tongue."

What I think now: Waynelle was the first time my candidate in the poll won, and admittedly, he was up against a weak field, as evidenced by the fact that he took 31 of the 36 votes. But it doesn't take away from the mad courtliness I wrote about. He's also the only name that didn't fit in the little box I made for it.

Waynelle returned a punt for nine yards in the NU game, and also drew a fair catch interference penalty costing the Cats 15 yards, the sly bastard. He never fumbled though, making him different from every other Purdue kick returner that day.

Miami (OH): VACANT.

Historic quote: "I've come to the conclusion that there's not a single player on the team which I would be comfortable anointing with the title of Name of the Week. Let's be real: RedHawks' Anthony Shoemaker and Sean Redwine simply don't belong in the same conversation as guys like Nate Paopao, Waynelle Gravesande, and Shady Salamon. And to put them amongst those winners would be a disservice to the trophy. I apologize to any readers who this will disappoint, but it's a decision we need to make. I hope you'll agree with me."

What I think now: Miami of Ohio, you disgust me.

Michigan State: Denzel Drone

Historic quote: "Apparently MSU took Denzel Washington, star of such films as Inside Man, American Gangster, and my personal favorite film of all-time (you think I'm joking, but I'm not) He Got Game, removed his soul, and set him loose as a brainless killing machine. Because this Denzel Drone they have is a defensive end. Be worried, people."

What I think now: FEAR THE DENZEL DRONE. HE'S MERCILESS, REALLY GOOD AT ACTING, AND ATTRACTIVE, IN A REALLY DISTINGUISHED WAY.

He only barely held off TyQuan Hammock in a 22-18 fight for the top spot his week, but I think this is one of those dark horse names that can put up a fight here.

Indiana: Damarlo Belcher.

Historic quote: "It's like you took this guy and this guy (who I played in high school, btdubs), but just made their respectively names better. Damarlo Belcher. Ahhh, yes. Works perfectly. I really see no way I'm not inscribing this name on the chart next week, so, go for it."

What I think now: As I hinted at in the quote, it was a weak name field that week, and Damarlo blew away the competition, winning half the vote. But he's still got an average or above name.

Damarlo did work against NU, catching five passes for 60 yards, one of the more successful NOTW performances.

Penn State: Christian Kuntz

Historic quote: "Look, people, this is a family site. I don't put words that will startle the children in most of my posts, unless I'm quoting someone. So I'm not going to go into the precise details of why someone's last name being Kuntz is tremendously unfortunate for that human being. But I think you all understand why.

Now, think about how humorous it is to have a name like Kuntz. Think about how much more humorous it is that Kuntz's first name denotes the Christianity of said Kuntz. Ahh yes, Christian Kuntz. The most pious Kuntz in all the land. (mark this post down under "posts that will probably come back to haunt me some day later.") Anyway, we're talking about multiple Kuntz, and talking about how much they revere Jesus. This is what your name is. I mean, it's a step up from Rusty, but it's a baby step."

What I think now: Man, this is going to be a hard name to beat. And that's not because it's a great name. In fact, it's far from my favorite of the names here.

But it's a runaway force of humor, and that's going to draw some votes. Everybody I mention Christian Kuntz to laughs. I laughed when I first saw it. The people in the BlackHeartGoldPants podcast laughed. Everybody laughs. I see no way this one doesn't make it into the next round, at the least.

Iowa: Pat Angerer

Historic quote: "An angerer. A person whose job is to anger others. An equivalent name would be Greg Pisseroffer, or Steve Guywhotellsraciallyinsensitivejokestopeopleofthatraceforthesolepurposeofprovokingthemerer. And he's a linebacker. Which is probably the most angering position possible. "

What I think now: I probably overhyped this name, in retrospect, it ain't that great. But it did win the most voted in name of the week poll of all time, just just just just eking past Marvin McNutt 40-39 in the only poll I've had that drew over 100 votes.

Pat, as always, was a beast in the NU game, recording 17 tackles, 13 unassisted, as well as breaking up a pass.

Illinois: Whitney Mercilus

Historic quote: "If my name was Whitney Mercilus, I'd do two things every day: first off, I'd be angry that my name was Whitney, because that's a last name, as evidenced by Eli Whitney, and, well, anybody ever to be named Whitney.

Then, having done that, I'd contemplate showing mercy. But would I? HELL NO. My last name would be pronounced MERCILESS. And therefore, even if all I know about humanity were to dictate that I was in a situation that deserved mercy, you can be sure as all hell that I would not. WHITNEY MERCILUS. A great football name too. Now, if middle name was "The", I would begin to worship him."

What I think now: FELLAS, LISTEN UP. Whitney has my vote this week. His freakin' name is MERCILUS. HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO STRESS THIS FACT. It's pronounced "merciless." I know this. The Illinois guy said it. Merciless. Jesus.

Whitney recorded two tackles against NU, both of Dan Persa behind the line of scrimmage. Neither were sacks, because they were both on one of those drives where Fitz just sent Dan out to eat up about eight plays by running and not pretending a running back would run it or that he might throw, even though these are both options in a football playbook.

Wisconsin: Prince Moody.

Historic quote: "Therefore, it is my solemn and painful duty to tell you that there will be no name of the week poll. I'm preemptively awarding the regular season's final title to the owner of the far and away best name on the team,Prince Moody.

Surely, there will be some disappointment - especially from the Prince himself, knowing how moody that poor chap is - but I hope we can all agree it's the right thing to do. I hope you respect Prince with the same veneration deserved of all name of the week winners."

What I think now: Well, I had to do what I had to do. It was painful, but there was nobody worthy of polling besides the Prince.

So there you go.

Poll

NAME OF THE YEAR. Pick your favorite from the first 12 weeks of Northwestern's season.

Tamba Tongu

1 votes

Nate Paopao

2 votes

Van Chew

10 votes

Shady Salamon

12 votes

Waynelle Gravesande

7 votes

Denzel Drone

3 votes

Damarlo Belcher

8 votes

Christian Kuntz

20 votes

Pat Angerer

12 votes

Whitney Mercilus

16 votes

Prince Moody

21 votes

112 votes | Poll has closed

All-Big Ten Awards Announced, Swept Once Again By Toto

Oops Pow Surprise — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:00:45 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

about 1 month ago: Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz looks on during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Northwestern, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, in Iowa City, Iowa. Northwestern won 17-10. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

View full size photo »

Good news, everyone!* The Big Ten announced its picks for the all-conference teams. Naturally, the offensive and defensive player of the year are both Terrelle Pryor. Okay, not true; he's not even honorable mention.

But there's plenty of actual good news. First, the devil media named Kirk Ferentz coach of the year, and here he is reminding them that they can go suck it and he hasn't forgiven them for the slights of the regular season.

Such language, Kirk!

As for the players, here's the link to the voting results. The media named Bryan Bulaga to the first team on offense, while the second team featured four of his friends from the line: Rafael Eubanks, Dace Richardson, Kyle Calloway, and Tony Moeaki.

On defense, the first team had a little more Iowa representation; Adrian Clayborn, Pat Angerer, and Tyler Sash all received their no-brainer merits. On the second team, Brett Greenwood and Amari Spievey. Iowa put eight players on the media's honorable mention team: Ryan Donahue, Broderick Binns, A.J. Edds, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, Karl Klug, Daniel Murray, Adam Robinson, and Ricky Stanzi.

Not surprisingly, the coaches had a slightly higher opinion of the Hawkeyes; here's the link to their voting results. Bryan Bulaga was named their offensive lineman of the year(!!!), an award the media doesn't give out. Bulaga is joined on the first team by Moeaki and Richardson, both of which are worthy selections. Calloway and Eubanks didn't make the second team--not sure why on Calloway--but Derrell Johnson-Koulianos snuck in on a three-player tie for second-team WR.

On defense, the coaches agreed with the media in putting Sash, Clayborn, and Angerer on the first team roster. They also added Amari Spievey; as coaches, they're more likely to know that the reason Spievey didn't have a ton of picks wasn't that he's not good at football, but that there's just no hope in throwing at him; Spievey was a machine this season, and we're starting to lose hope that he's got more than one game left in an Iowa uniform. A.J. Edds is the lone Hawkeye on the defensive second team.

For honorable mention, it's as follows:Christian Ballard, Kyle Calloway, Ryan Donahue, Brent Greenwood, Karl Klug, and Adam Robinson.

Full All-BXI teams and a few thoughts are after the break.

MEDIA

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
QB	Daryll Clark, Penn State	Mike Kafka, Northwestern
RB	Evan Royster, Penn State	Brandon Saine, Ohio State
RB	JOHN CLAY, Wisconsin	Ralph Bolden, Purdue
WR	Tandon Doss, Indiana	Blair White, Michigan State
WR	Keith Smith, Purdue	Zeke Markshausen, Northwestern
C	Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State	Rafael Eubanks, Iowa
G	Justin Boren, Ohio State	Jon Asamoah, Illinois
G	John Moffitt, Wisconsin	Dace Richardson, Iowa
T	Bryan Bulaga, Iowa	Kyle Calloway, Iowa
T	Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin	Dennis Landolt, Penn State
TE	Garrett Graham, Wisconsin	Tony Moeaki, Iowa
PK	Brett Swenson, Michigan State	Stefan Demos, Northwestern

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
DL	Adrian Clayborn, Iowa	Jammie Kirlew, Indiana
DL	Brandon Graham, Michigan	Thaddeus Gibson, Ohio State
DL	Ryan Kerrigan, Purdue	Cameron Heyward, Ohio State
DL	O'Brien Schofield, Wisconsin	Jared Odrick, Penn State
LB	Pat Angerer, Iowa	Ross Homan, Ohio State
LB	GREG JONES, Michigan State	Josh Hull, Penn State
LB	Navorro Bowman, Penn State	Sean Lee, Penn State
DB	Tyler Sash, Iowa	Brent Greenwood, Iowa
DB	Donovan Warren, Michigan	Amari Spievey, Iowa
DB	Sherrick McManis, Northwestern	Brad Phillips, Northwestern
DB	Kurt Coleman, Ohio State	David Pender, Purdue
P	Zoltan Mesko, Michigan	Jeremy Boone, Penn State

COACHES

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
QB	Daryll Clark, Penn State	Mike Kafka, Northwestern
RB	Evan Royster, Penn State	Brandon Saine, Ohio State
RB	John Clay, Wisconsin	Ralph Bolden, Purdue
WR	Eric Decker, Minnesota	Tandon Doss, Indiana*
WR	Blair White, Michigan State	Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, Iowa* Keith Smith, Purdue*
C	Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State	Rafael Eubanks, Iowa* Joel Nitchman, Michigan State*
G	Dace Richardson, Iowa	Jon Asamoah, Illinois
G	John Moffitt, Wisconsin	Justin Boren, Ohio State
T	Bryan Bulaga, Iowa	Rodger Saffold, Indiana
T	Dennis Landolt, Penn State	Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin
TE	Tony Moeaki, Iowa	Garrett Graham, Wisconsin
PK	Brett Swenson, Michigan	Stefan Demos, Northwestern

POS.	FIRST TEAM	SECOND TEAM
DL	Adrian Clayborn, Iowa	Jammie Kirlew, Indiana
DL	Brandon Graham, Michigan	Thaddeus Gibson, Ohio State
DL	Jared Odrick, Penn State	Cameron Heyward, Ohio State
DL	O'Brien Schofield, Wisconsin	Ryan Kerrigan, Purdue
LB	Pat Angerer, Iowa Linebacker	A.J. Edds, Iowa
LB	Greg Jones, Michigan State	Ross Homan, Ohio State
LB	Navorro Bowman, Penn State	Sean Lee, Penn State
DB	Tyler Sash, Iowa	Donovan Warren, Michigan*
DB	Amari Spievey, Iowa	Sherrick McManis, Northwestern*
DB	Brad Phillips, Northwestern	Brandon King, Purdue*
DB	Kurt Coleman, Ohio State	David Pender, Purdue* Jay Valai, Wisconsin*
P	Zoltan Mesko, Michigan	Jeremy Boone, Penn State

Okay. While we're quite happy that Bulaga got such high accolades for the season, we can't be alone in thinking that he was hardly the best lineman in Iowa City, much less the Big Ten. He was either on the sidelines or out of sorts for the majority of the season, and we still haven't seen the elephant-tusk-covered road grader from last season on display. He totally would have deserved a preseason OL of the year, but his performance over 2009 didn't merit such superlatives.

This is hardly a new development from these postseason lists, however; generally, the lists are crafted off of the preseason lists, and anybody whose knee blew out with more than four games left was excised and replaced by someone else. After all, Bulaga was only a second-team All-BXI player last season, even though he was by far the best lineman on the team in 2008. Seth Olsen, meanwhile, had the good fortune to be a first-teamer to start the year, so he was on the first team after 2008, despite a relatively blah senior campaign; we'd have put him about fourth on the list of Iowa linemen for 2009, behind the two bookends at tackle and Rob Bruggeman at center.

Essentially, Bulaga won the award in 2009 for his play in 2008.

At the end of the day, this comes down to stats; there aren't any for linemen, despite the ill-fated attempt to get the "pancake" introduced about a decade ago (for this, we blame Orlando Pace). It's assumed that linemen are sure things, and that as long as they stay healthy, the narrative has stayed true. After all, without stats, most scribes have no time (or no idea) how to watch linemen individually.

Frankly, though it's a subjective stat, we'd love to see how linemen grade out per play (remember that Blake Larsen famously graded at 100% during his senior season at Atlantic; lord, had those knees survived...) Without having the means to undertake such an activity ourselves, we'd imagine that if you graded each Iowa offensive lineman, Kyle Calloway or Dace Richardson would probably be at the top.

If they're not, which is possible, then it would probably be the guy who didn't even get an honorable mention: Riley Reiff. He was stout in relief of Bulaga--hell, we're pretty sure O'Brien Schofield would not have batted Reiff around like a catnip mouse, unlike some Iowa linemen--and he basically forced his way into the starting lineup even before Big Dace went down. But since he wasn't even a projected starter, to say nothing of a preseason honoree, Reiff didn't have much of a chance for postseason mention. Shame, really; dude is legit, and he hasn't even filled out his frame yet.

As for the skill players, it's a little disappointing that Stanzi only made one honorable mention team. But we get how that can happen. Spievey only making second team in the media is flatly ridiculous. If he'd put together that same season in an Ohio State uniform, he'd be getting All-American talk.

Other than that, we don't have a ton of beef; Stanzi killed himself by leading the conference in interceptions when he went down to injury, and the rest of the offensive skill players were far too inconsistent or hurt to merit much consideration. Jeremiha Hunter not getting any honorable mention love is a little disconcerting, but the BXI was lo-ho-hoaded at linebacker this season; we're not quite sure whom we'd place him above. He'll get some love in 2010 if he stays healthy. Also--given the play of Jeff Tarpinian in relief--if Hunter stays healthy between now and next September, there's no position battle at weakside backer next season, right?

So, all in all, a fair list, even if the voting on offensive linemen is basically a year behind schedule. It's a year behind for everyone else, after all. Anybody else that you folks think got shafted? Did Marvin McNutt deserve a nod, or is he still a year away from recognition?

*/Farnsworth'd

Top Five All-Big Ten Football Team Errors

Pete Rossman — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:04:01 -0000

The picks are here.

And here are the travesties:

5. Jared Odrick, Coaches' Defensive Player of the Year. There's no doubt that Odrick was one of the top five or six defensive linemen in the conference. However, here were the other All-Big ten first team defensive linemen named by the coaches: Adrian Clayborn, Brandon Graham, and O'Brien Schofield. If I gave you those names, where would you rank Odrick? Third? Fourth? And he's the one the coaches named defensive player of the year?

4. Eric Decker, Coaches' First team Wide Receiver. If Decker had stayed healthy all year, I'd have no problem with this placement. However, he only played two-thirds of the season, and I'm certain that there are least two wide receivers out there - Keith Smith of Purdue and Darrell Johnson-Koulianos of Iowa - who deserved the honor more than Decker.

3. Seriously, Jared Odrick? I mean, Pat Angerer can't get some love? Tyler Sash? If you were asking me, "Name two players on the same team who deserved the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award", those would've been the first two names out of my mouth.

2. Brett Swenson, non-unanimous selection. I promise this is the only section where I'll be a homer. Apparently making 90% of your field goals and being far and away the most consistent kicker in the Big Ten wasn't clear cut enough. Was it that extra point he missed in September? Is it because his kickoffs only made it to the ten? I don't get it.

1. JARED ODRICK? I don't want to bash Odrick, he's been a great player for Penn State all season. I'm happy that Greg Jones got the honor from the media, but I would've understood if he didn't receive the award. After all, I'm pretty sure Graham Zug scored again on a wheel route, and the failures of the MSU secondary drags the whole defense down, fair or unfair. However, I would've named Schofield, Graham, Angerer, Sash, Amari Speivey, Navarro Bowman, or Sean Lee DPOY before Odrick. Once again, Odrick deserved the honors he received as All-Big Ten, but there were several more deserving players this year in the Big Ten to be defensive player of the year.

The Last Gopher Friday Preview Until Pizza Pizza? Minnesota at Iowa, November 21, 2009

JG2112 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:15:14 -0000

by Charlie Neibergall - AP

I knew life wouldn't be good once I got kicked out of the Institute of Technology.

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Give me or Tressel the Patriots. We would have punted on third down. 10:06 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck
- from the "Not Kirk Ferentz" Twitter stream - http://twitter.com/NotKirkFerentz

Saturday is the end of the college football year, for all intents and purposes. outside of some rivalry games and conference title games. Then onto the bowls. Really, other than Florida/Alabama and Texas (or maybe TCU?) , the 66 or so bowl participants will be taking part in exhibition games in late December and early January in mostly warm climates, of which the most impressive part of the experience is usually the gifts given to the student-athletes that somehow are allowed under NCAA rules (example: last year each Gopher got a Vizio 26-inch LCD HDTV, a Bulova watch, and a Hat at the Insight Bowl.) Besides the gifts, ask Corey Wootton, Willis McGahee or Glen Mason: only bad things really happen in bowl games for the participants.

But back to tomorrow, when Tim Brewster will try for a significant milestone - his first rivalry game win. Last week Brew got his first win in November as a college coach. This week, a Big Ten win in November will increase his record in rivalry games to a robust 1-7. This comes on the heels of Maturi's weird comments to Sid in Thursday's Star Tribune, which indicated an endorsement of the program's direction but a peculiar non-endorsement of the coach. And while we can be literal and say that the only way that Brewster's job comes under fire is if they lose the next two games by 100 in the aggregate, the fact it's even being suggested is foolish in my opinion, but could be suggestive of things going on at Fort Bierman.

Iowa enters this game having endured a rough November thus far. First off, Northwestern put paid to Iowa's national championship hopes in Kinnick, and then Kirk Ferentz's lack of backbone gave away the outright Big Ten Title to Ohio State (pending their beatdown of Michigan). Oh yeah, Minnesota won't be the beneficiary of any Stanzi-balls on Saturday, either.

That really is unfortunate, because the backup QB, freshman James Vandenberg, played rather well in the Horseshoe, completing 20/33 for 233 yards, 2 TDs and 3 INTs (one at the end of the 1st half, one in OT). Playing in front of friendly fans may make him more relaxed. Then again, the pressure of Senior Day and the Pig may make him channel his inner Stanzi and get acquainted with BIG PLAYE TRAYE.

Looking at the rest of the offense, you know what you're getting with Iowa. The big hogs up front are interchangeable and generally awesome. LT Brian Bulaga is the standout. The Hawkeyes like running stretch plays where a TE (normally Tony Moeaki) will go in motion to Bulaga's side, and whichever RB is in the game (Adam Robinson, Brandon Wegher, Paki O'Meara) will plow behind those two for big chunks of yardage. As has been the case this year, Minnesota's DTs need to keep Iowa's line occupied so Campbell, Triplett, Lawrence and/or Cooper can flow to the ball, attack the lead blocker, and cut the play back for the help to arrive. If the D-line is pushed around and Iowa's line can get to the second level, this game will get ugly.

That's without mentioning Iowa's passing game, which as mentioned above, went for over 230 yards on Ohio State last week. Marvin McNutt is a former QB with significant height (please grow six inches Carter kthx) and superb speed, and I think every Minnesota fan knows about Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. Simmons (who returned to practice Wednesday after recovering from a leg ailment) and Marcus Sherels are carrying injuries which may make them vulnerable in pass coverage.

As for Iowa's defense, yikes. On the line, meet 2007 Cretin Derham Hall grad Broderick Binns (7 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks), along with Adrian Clayborn (8.5 sacks, 16.5 tackles for loss and THAT punt block against Penn State) and Karl Klug. The linebackers include A.J. Edds (65 tackles), Pat Angerer (119 tackles) and Jeremiah Hunter (83 tackles), and if you look to the secondary, meet Tyler Sash (6 INTs, 76 tackles), Amari Spievey, and Brett Greenwood.

This is the kind of defense that will give the Gopher offense fits (namely, competent and well-drilled). Iowa rarely sends its linebackers on blitzes because the front four can get pressure by itself. In almost every Gopher game this year we've watched this happen, so I'm even more concerned about tomorrow's game. Other than against Sparty, the Gophers, since the Penn State game, have had horrific pass protection which has led to Adam Weber looking like a true freshman in the pocket.

And sorry everyone, but this isn't the game to fully let MarQueis Gray loose on the football world. Brewster had his chance last week and decided not to, which suggests either coaching stubbornness or player incapabilities at this point. Gray, at this point in his development, would have been most effective against a team with slower defensive players who were frequently blitzing him and leaving him wide open running lanes, such as on November 14th at TCF. The last place you want Gray deciphering coverages is against a Norm Parker-drilled defense of veteran players, whose LBs don't even need to blitz you to get pressure.

So tomorrow you can expect Weber to be in the pocket, with lots of max protect (TEs and RBs) to provide support for Alford, Wills and Carufel in the hopes that Weber is given more than 3 seconds to wait for his WRs to break free from what are excellent Herkeye defensive backs. Once again, Hoese and Tow-Arnett will likely be utilized extensively in the passing game, trying to break the tackles of those excellent LBs. Blergh.

Oh, and have I mentioned that Brandon Green missed practice Wednesday with a knee injury and is questionable for Saturday? Calling Messrs. McKnight, Stoudermire, and yes, Carpenter, please be ready for action.

Anything else? Yeah. The forecast Saturday: around 55 and sunny.

Also, an aside: yeah, I recognize this is a conspiracy theory, BUT. The slate of games on Saturday is one of the least attractive collection of games I can ever remember this late in the season (thanks Florida and Alabama, among others, for scheduling soup cans this weekend). One of ESPN/ABC's featured games is Kansas at Texas.

Anyone else find it uniquely coincidental that ESPN is releasing an amazing slow drip of information from multiple sources (where have these former players been since August?) about Kansas HC Mark Mangino's bad temper and abuse at practice the same week it needs to drum up interest in a rather lackluster prime time game? At all?

Okay.

So what about Saturday? Minnesota has a chance here. It needs to attack Iowa's defense straight-on, because it can be run on. Weber cannot expect to spend much time, if any, looking in the pocket, and Fisch should not abandon the running game and put Weber into obvious passing situations.

As for Minnesota on defense, they need to roll support over to whoever is guarding the tall McNutt. Of course, this leaves the Gophers susceptible to either Johnson-Koulianos or Moeaki, but, you've got to try something.

Bottom line: games this year in Iowa City have been close. Northern Iowa, Arkansas State, Michigan, Indiana and NW were really all very tense, close games. Saturday SHOULD be no different. If the Gophers are not competitive, however, I guess Maturi will be having a discussion with Mr. Brewster about what is expected when the Gophers get their new TVs in Arizona. I don't see it happening.

Iowa 27 - Minnesota 20.

A Winner Is You! Heavyweight

RossWB — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:18 -0000

Come January, when the Iowa football team again goes into hibernation for another nine months, what's a Hawkeye fan to do? You could pay attention to our ~~preseason consensus cellar dweller~~ frankly terrible basketball team... or you could give a little time to the two-time defending national champion, #1 ranked wrestling team. It is the one winter sport we're really, really good at, after all. In the spirit of our Assume the Position series for football, we bring you A Winner Is You!, a weight class-by-weight class breakdown of the Iowa wrestling team, counting down from the weight class we have the most confidence in to the weight class we have absolutely no clue about.

DANIMAL AND THE BABY-FACED ASSASSIN: CHAMPIONS OF ALL THEY SURVEY.

What We Already Know
Until a few months ago, this weight class was as much (or more) of a known quantity as any of the previous weight classes that we've looked at in this series -- Dan Erekson (SR) was just going to pick up where he left off last March. He had already started three years (though not consecutively and not all at heavyweight; he wound up redshirting two years ago), had steadily improved over the course of his career, and developed into a legit contender by the end of the previous season (going 27-8, winning the Big Ten Tournament, and finishing fourth at the NCAA Tournament). Then he got injured (torn pectoral muscle) and found himself sidelined for the first few months of the season. Which is a damn shame, because Erekson had developed into one of the most dominant and most consistent performers on the team by the end of last season; his dramatic pin of Iowa State's David Zabriskie in the NCAA Tournament last year was arguably the biggest reason why Iowa was able to repeat as national champions. Now he's unlikely to be back in action until around January and he'll need to spend the Big Ten season shaking off the rust in hopes of getting into peak form in time for the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments. But while we wait for that to happen, someone else will have to be manning the Heavyweight spot in the roster. So who's that gonna be?

Who Else Is An Option
The "next man in" with Erekson laid up is likely to be Blake Rasing (SO), a shaved bear of a man who uses every ounce of the 285-lb. weight limit for heavyweights. He missed most of last season for personal reasons and wrestled very little the year before that, so "battle-tested" is not one adjective that we'll be using to describe Rasing. The other option at heavyweight is Jordan Johnson (SO), who's also pretty damn inexperienced (he went 9-5 last year) and whose most notable characteristic may be hailing from the same dirty river town that gave us Pat Angerer. We can only hope some of Angerer's badassery has rubbed off on Johnson. In the recent wrestle-offs, Johnson actually defeated Rasing, 3-2, but the word is that Rasing will still be the guy to get the call while Erekson is out.

Who Are The Major Threats
This is yet another weight class that isn't particularly strong in the Big Ten (Minnesota's Ben Berhow (JR) is the only B10 challenger in the preseason top ten), but does boast seem pretty solid options nationally. The preseason number one is Duke's Konrad Dudziak (SR), and the Big 12 boasts a number of top challengers, including Iowa State's Dave Zabriskie (SR), Oklahoma State's Jared Rosholt (SR), Missouri's Dom Bradley (SO), and Nebraska's Tucker Lane (SO). Erekson went 1-1 against Zabriskie (losing an early season dual meet and winning that crucial match in the NCAA Tournament), 0-2 against Rosholt, 1-0 against Lane, and 1-0 against Bradley. So if Erekson can get his mojo back in time, he actually stacks up favorably to the other top contenders.

What We Reasonably Expect To Happen
This is entirely dependent on Erekson's rehab. If he's able to come back healthy and regain his form relatively quickly, the ceiling for this weight class is extremely high -- it's not unreasonable for him to contend for a national title. But that's a big if, sadly. We don't know how healthy he'll be upon his return, or how much his conditioning has suffered, or how long it will take to shake off the rust. He should have a good chance to repeat as Big Ten champion, given the relative weakness of the rest of Big Ten field, and repeat as an All-American at the NCAA Tournament, but a deep run in the NCAAs is tough to forecast until we see Erekson in action.

Previous entries in the series:

Two Years Ago Today...

RossWB — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:07:59 -0000

Worst. Senior Day. Ever.

Funny how much can change in just two years. Two years ago today the Iowa football team suffered arguably its worst -- or most humiliating, at least -- defeat of the last decade. Oh, there have been more lopsided defeats and there have probably even been defeats to teams worse than the 2007 Western Michigan Broncos (who were a pretty middling outfit). Many of those defeats happened during the formative years of Kirk Ferentz's tenure, when his Iowa teams played hard but frequently lacked talent and/or experience. Or they happened against bitter in-state rivals or hyper-motivated conference rivals, so it was easy to rationalize the loss by saying "they wanted it more."

But the November 17, 2007 loss to Western Michigan didn't fit any of those easy categories. It was far from the most talented or most experienced squads of the Ferentz Era, but it wasn't completely lacking in those departments, either. It featured Albert Young and Damian Sims, who had been a dynamite combination in years past. The defensive front seven was pretty well-stocked with talent and experience, too, between Kenny Iwebema, Mitch King, Matt Kroul, Bryan Mattison, Mike Klinkenborg, and Mike Humpal. It wasn't as if the team had nothing to play for, either -- beyond the standard pride of Senior Day, they needed one more win to ensure themselves a trip to a bowl game (Western Michigan didn't even have that to play for; they were just acting as spoilers).

Defeat and misery that week wasn't exclusive to the action on the field, either. The week of November 17, 2007 also saw the first news reports of a sexual assault involving Cedric Everson and Abe Satterfield. Eight months later those reports would explode into a nightmarish scandal that threatened to paint Kirk Ferentz, the athletic department, and the University of Iowa administration as badly negligent and aloof at best and guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice at worst; it made Iowa football the leading example of "Programs Gone Wild." That was two years ago.

Today, it seems like a lifetime ago. On the field, Iowa went from a team that was pushed around by Western Michigan to a team that was a play or two away from beating Ohio State in Columbus, winning the Big Ten title, and going to the Rose Bowl for the first time in nearly two decades. That's a pretty remarkable transformation. (The fact that they did it with a team that was ravaged by injuries and missing most of its offensive leaders is even more astounding.) Could you have ever envisioned such a quick turnaround? Many of the guys who have emerged as leaders and key performers on this team were blooded in the painful slog of 2007, like Adrian Clayborn, Christian Ballard, A.J. Edds, and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. The transformation of DJK is a great example of Iowa's turnaround in general. My enduring memory of him from the Western Michigan game is of him seemingly quitting on a play and talking to some fans in the end zone while a Bronco defensive back was running back an interception. My enduring memories of him from the Ohio State game will be of multiple clutch catches and, of course, of the rally-igniting 99-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter when hope was slipping away. He's gone from a talented but raw and sometimes immature talent to an extremely reliable target in the passing game and an explosive playmaker in general.

Yes, he's totally checking out his runback on the Jumbotron.

But many of the top performers in 2009 would have never been predicted back in 2007. Pat Angerer, arguably the heart and soul of the 2009 defense, nearly quit football in 2007 after dealing with a serious of injuries and illnesses. Amari Spievey, one of the best cornerbacks in the conference in 2009, had washed out of Iowa in 2007 thanks to an inability to go to class. Brett Greenwood was, well, EPIC GREENWOOD back then; now he's a guy everyone was relieved to see take the field against the Buckeyes. The other defensive secondary spots were manned by the much-maligned Harold Dalton and the combination of Adam Shada (victim of the third indignity suffered by the Iowa football team that day/week, which was the betrayal of the Iowa fanbase as expressed through the boos directed at him) and Bradley Fletcher (who was burned more than a charcoal briquette back then) and there didn't seem to be much hope of better players in the program if they were the best we could send out there. (A year later, of course, Dalton was quickly replaced by Tyler "Motherfucking" Sash and Fletcher transformed himself into an NFL draft pick.)

Offensively, Iowa went from having one of the worst offenses in football in 2007 to having... well, a more timely offense, at least. Statistically, it's still not very good in most respects, but the ability of the 2009 Iowa team to come through in the clutch is almost unprecedented among other Ferentz Era teams. The 2007 team lost a pair of games in the fourth quarter (at Wisconsin and at Iowa State); the 2009 team has come from behind in the fourth quarter in four of its wins this year (and came from behind to send the game OT last weekend). A few of the faces remain the same from 2007 -- DJK, Tony Moeaki, Bryan Bulaga, Rafael Eubanks (to name a few) -- but experience and maturity have improved their performances tremendously.

Marvin McNutt owns the slant route and don't you ever forget it.

Since that loss to Western Michigan, Iowa has gone 18-6. That run has included a pair of upset wins over top-five teams (Penn State, twice), a program-best 9-0 start this year, wins over every Big Ten team but three (Ohio State, Illinois, and -ugh- Northwestern), a rare win over Iowa State in Ames, a 55-0 demolition of Minnesota in the final Gopher game ever played in the Metrodome, a dominant Outback Bowl victory, and perhaps more come-from-behind wins than in all the other years of the Ferentz Era combined. And while all six of those losses have been painful in their own way, there's something to be said of the competitive spirit that's been on display in all of them as well. The 2007 Western Michigan game was the fourth game that year that Iowa lost by nine or more points -- none of the six subsequent losses have been by more than seven points.

The journey of 2009 is far from over -- a 10-win season is still in our grasp, there's some Gophers to destroy, a big bronze pig to keep, and a bowl game somewhere warm to win -- but on this day, the anniversary of one of the darkest and most depressing moments in recent Iowa football history, it's worth taking a moment to stop and think about how far we've already come in such a short period of time. The pain of losing the de facto Big Ten Championship Game to Ohio State stings, but it feels a hell of a lot better than the ache of losing to Western Michigan and being lost in the college football wilderness.

Kenny bled to get that pig back, man. Floyd is ours, dammit.