I watched Arizona on ESPN last night against Toledo and I was pretty impressed.  Foles is a big strong QB who is accurate as hell if he is given time and his receiving corp is pretty tough.  Grigsby demonstrated all PAC 10 skills and will give us fits with his cut back ability.  Defensively, AZ has a number of new faces but they looked pretty solid, we are going to have our hands full going out west and playing on their home field.  We are going to need a constant pass rush on Foles and we are going to need to keep Grigsby contained if we want any chance of leaving AZ with a win. 

AZ looked like a well coached team, not perfect but plenty of talent and Foles looked like an NFL prospect.  We need Prater healthy and our D-Line to show up big time.  Go Hawks!!!!!!

Very, Very Funny


At least JNWU will see decent attendence numbers Nov. 13 when we realign the universe.  Also, anyone who cares to respond with the "There is so much more to do in Chicago" argument, don't bother, it doesn't hold water.  There are dozens of other programs located in close proximity to major metropolitan areas that consistently post respectable attendence numbers.  jNWU fans don't travel to their own stadium, let alone a bowl game. (These are the same fans that were pissed off in 08 when the Outback bowl passed them over for Iowa)  Classic.

Imagine the following hypothetical, the current Big Ten coaches square off in the Octagon.  To be fair and ensure a level playing field, each coach will assume the form of “their best day,”  For example, a 21 year old Joe Pa, Ferentz, etc. 

The seeding is as follows:

1. Bilema
2. Fitzgerald
3. Brewster
4. Hope
5. Ferentz            
6. Rodriguez
7. Zook                           
8. Dantanio
9. Lynch
10. Paterno
11. Tressel

The Highlights from the first round:

(8) Dantonio vs (9) Lynch;  Lynch enters the Octagon raving like a lunatic about Dantonio having too many people in his posse.  While Lynch is chasing down the referee, citing the specific infraction, Dantonio is cool as a mother fucking cucumber.  The fight is over quickly, Dantonio slips a wild roundhouse attempt by Lynch and comes up behind him with a firm choke hold.  Lynch does manage to reach back and gauge out one of Dantonio’s eyes just before losing consciousness.  Although Dantonio won, the loss of the eye will cost him in his upcoming bouts.

(7) Zook vs (10) Paterno:  Zook enters the ring with short shorts, a half shirt and matching wrist bands/head band.  Paterno enters the ring in a “turn of the century” boxing singlet extending his arms forward with a slight bend at the elbows, clenched fists (ala early 20th century fighting stance), circling Zook.  The fight starts and Zook comes flying at Paterno like a wild animal, latches onto his head and bites off his nose.  The crowd is appalled and Zook is immediately disqualified.  Zook, clueless to what just happened, is standing over the hemorrhaging Paterno begging him to get up and fight.

(6) Rodriguez vs (11) Tressel;  Rich Rod enters the ring cool, confident, almost cocky.  A young, spry Tressel enters the ring in trademark sweater vest, tie and gray slacks.  The fight begins and Rich Rod comes charging at Tressel.  Tressel recoils and keeps backing away.  Rich Rod, only encouraged by the retreating Tressel, pounces and quickly applies a submission hold.  When asked about his fight strategy, Tressel said he thought it would be too risky to throw punches and was waiting for Rich Rod to wear himself out.

(4) Hope vs (5) Ferentz;  Ferentz enters the ring and immediately goes over to Hope and tells him how much he respects him as a fighter and he really appreciates the opportunity to fight him.  Hope slaps away Ferentz’s hand and says:  “Don’t try that classy, nice guy shit with me Ferentz, I am going to kick your ass.  The crowd reacts with a series of boos, heckles and a young Norm Parker nails Hope in the head with is beer.  The fight begins and both fighters exchange conservative jabs.  Hope lands the first big strike which sends Ferentz reeling to the corner, Ferentz composes himself quickly and strikes back with a series of perfectly executed combinations sending Hope to the canvas with 15 seconds left in the first round.  The elated Hawkeye fans are chanting finish him, however Ferentz decides to just keep his distance and waits for the bell for round 2.  Hope comes out at the beginning of round 2 and knocks Ferentz unconscious with his first punch.

(8) Dantonio vs (1) Bilema;  Bilema enters the ring with the confidence and swagger of a champion.  Dantonio, sporting an eye patch, appears skittish and intimidated.  The fight is over as soon as it begins.  Bilema opens with a devastating roundhouse to Bilema’s blind side which sends him reeling to the canvas.  Bilema immediately goes to the ground and pound and as he is pulled off, Dantonio is left a bloody mess.

(2) Fitzgerald vs (10) Paterno “Sans Nose”;  Paterno enters the ring in his trademark fighting stance, singlet and a cluster of tape where his nose used to be.  Fitzgerald bounces into the ring gives a wave to the fans and realizes he only has 7 fans in the 15,000 seat auditorium there to support him, the rest are naturally there for Paterno.  With a shrug, Fitzgerald says, “That seems about right” and goes about the business of getting ready to kick some ass.  Again, this fight is over as soon as it begins with Fitzy pouncing on Paterno and hammering the tape cluster in the middle of Paterno’s face.  Fitzgerald is pulled away and gives a wave to his seven fans.

(3) Brewster vs (6) Rodriguez;  Brewster enters the ring to music, fireworks, dancing girls and a posse of 140 people taking an hour and a half.  The fight begins and Brewster lands a series of stiff jabs and he begins taunting Rich Rod:  OMG!!!!!!!!!, I AM KICKING YOUR ASS.  A frustrated Rich Rod dives for Brewster’s legs only to get a knee to the face rendering him unconscious.  I JUST KNOCKED YOUR PUNK ASS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ,  BOOOYAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  NEXT!!!!!!!!!!

(1) Bilema vs (4) Hope;     The prefight is filled with Hope’s corner psyching him up and giving him all kinds of advice to grab Bilema’s balls, David vs Goliath, etc.  Bilema is not paying attention as he is trying to work one of the girls next to the ring and drinking a beer.  The fight begins and Hope is wary of Bilema’s range and power trying to keep his distance and sneak in a jab.  Bilema looks annoyed at having to chase Hope around and exclaims “Fuck This,” charges Hope, tackling him to the canvas and proceeds with smashing his face.

(2) Fitzgerald vs (3) Brewster;  Brewster enters the ring with his usual pageantry, Fitzgerald bounces into the ring and couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw 12 fans in the stands there to support him.  Holy Shit!, exclaimed Fitzgerald my fan support nearly doubled.  Fitzgerald then felt nervous about having to perform in front of such a large crowd.  The expectations, the pressure, it all started building up inside Fitzy.  As soon as the anxiety welled up, it disappeared when the fight began and Fitzgerald was all business.  Brewster was hit with an opening barrage of jabs, punches and kicks to which we exclaimed:  WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!,  THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Fitzgerald pressed on and left Brewster crying on the canvas after well executed submission hold.

(1)Bilema vs (2) Fitzgerald;   Fitzgerald enters the ring and is amazed to see 26 fans screaming their support. In a way, he already felt like a winner, however he knew there was business to be taken care of.  Bilema was eating a hot dog and looked like he just woke up when the fight started.  Both fighters were cautious, feeling each other out with jabs.  Fitzgerald, still a bit overwhelmed by the fan support, kept repeating the mantra in his head:  “Don’t let them down,”  “Don’t let them down.”  As Fitzgerald is distracted by his rabid fan support, Bilema smashes him in the face with an elbow sending him to the canvas.  As Fitzgerald attempts to regain his composure, Bilema allows no quarter and kicks him in the face.  Fitzgerald is, again sent to the canvas in horrific fashion.   Bilema kneels beside Fitzgerald and grabs the back of his head.  “Hey Pat,” you see this tattoo mother fucker?”  Fitzgerald’s eyes are not focusing, blood is pouring from his mouth, nose, etc, Fitzgerald attempts to grunt some type of a response.  Bilema’s finishing move is to repeatedly smash Fitzgerald’s face into his Hawkeye tattoo. 

The end.

Historically, it would be interesting to see Evy, Hayes, and Schembechler in the mix, Lou Holtz would have to be in strong contention for the bottom seed.

I know, one game at a time, focus on jNWU, we will end up where we end up.   We don't get many opportunities to be "in the discussion" and, as a fan, I am enjoying it, regardless of the national disrespect. 

The Florida/Alabama scenario will flush out one participant in the N.C. game barring some sort of very strange circumstance and it appears as if Texas has cleared it's last real hurdle, which was not much of a hurdle at all, to an undefeated season. 

It appears as if we would jump Texas if we could get to #3 in the human polls, correct me if I am wrong:

Currently:
 
                        Texas          Iowa           Iowa #3
Computer        0.870        .960             0.96
Human 1         0.9523     0.7751         0.9375
Human 2         0.9458     0.7871         0.9424
Average           0.9227     0.840733     0.946633

 
As you can see from the bold column, if Iowa is able to make it to #3 in the human polls and maintain their #2 computer ranking, they would jump Texas.  The reason this is possible is because Texas is tied for #3 in the computer ranking, but due to their softer schedule has no chance of improving the #3 computer ranking.  Also, Texas has seemingly topped out their human poll potential as well.  I don't see any scenario in which they would jump Florida to be #1, and if Florida were to lose to Alabama, Alabama would be the new #1. 
 
Currently, Iowa is 6th, in one human pole and 7th in the other, winning big the last three weeks, most importantly at Ohio State, might  bump us up to #4 or #5.  Combine that with Florida beating Alabama, or vice versa,  and as a consequence, the loser drops down three or four spots and Iowa could get to #3.  Unfortunately, #4 won't cut it, Iowa has to get to #3 to jump Texas. 

I know, one game at a time, focus on jNWU.  

[This FanPost has been edited to remove unsourced content copying. The irony is that the "original" content came from Bleacher Report, who have zero qualms about content copying, but we're going to be bigger men than they. We do not ordinarily edit FanPosts and will never do so out of editorial disagreement, but we simply cannot abide by outright plagiarism.--ed.]

Four-star tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz verbally committed to Illinois back in July, but is now taking another look at his recruiting. The main school of interest for the 6-foot-7, 240-pounder is Iowa where he will make an official visit in two weeks.

Link for more info from Rivals.com (subscription required).

Granted, we had an ultra conservative approach and we did not do much to attack the Michigan State defense, but after the game, I was wondering:

How in the hell did Michigan State lose to Central Michigan, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin

How in the hell did Wisconsin score 38pts on Michigan State's D?

Not that I am complaining about Ricky, I love the guy, but how in the hell did we not get Cousins?  The kid's lineage makes him a pure bred Hawkeye and from all accounts, he grew up loving the program?  Did we not offer this kid???? If not, why the hell not? 

tOhio State University.  I already have my flight and game ticket for Ohio State, anyone else going?

I have been reading up quite a bit on MSU and it looks like Nichols and Cousins are both going to play.  This could be a ploy by the MSU staff to make preparation more difficult for us, however I watched the MSU coaches show on the Big Ten Network last night and they said they are planning on both QB's playing.

From what I have been able to gather, MSU looks to have a very good passing attack, 1st in the Big 10, however the run game seems to leave quite a bit to be desired. 

Defensively, the linebackers are awesome and appear to be very stout agains the run.  The d-line looks pretty average, 1 tackle for loss against jNWU.  The secondary is by all accounts downright bad.  9th in the Big 10 and they really haven't played great passing teams in conference yet.  Notre Dame &  Central Michigan each hung 400 yards passing on them, Michigan & Wisconsin came in around 300.  Juice Williams managed 100 yards passing with only playing a half.  Another encouraging sign is that there are a few fan posts on the espn MSU page bitching about how much their secondary sucks. 

I don't think MSU has faced a defensive front 4 as good as Iowa's and I am predicting we hear the names of Clayborn and Binns called many times.

Offensively, we will probably play very conservative early, trying to establish the run and bring up the talented linebackers of MSU, however I see us pulling away with play action to Moekei and rolling out Stanzi.

GO Hawks!!!!!

At this stage in the season it is obviously early to be thinking too far ahead, however the ESPN bowl projections are quite encouraging.  Two of the three writers had us in the Rose Bowl playing USC while the third had us 11-1 playing Va Tech in the Orange Bowl. 

A healthy Bulaga and Moeki will go a long way to getting our offense on par with the defense.  If we can continue to show improvement on offense and stay healthy on D, we are going to be a very tough team.

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!