BY DAVE SEDGWICK

2011 Season Outlook – Iowa Hawkeyes Football:

Hello Again Hawkeye Friends, both near and far! Welcome to year 7 of Sedge’s Hawkeye Game Notes! Seven years – where does the time go?  Oh yeah…as you are reading this, I turn yet another year older.  Alas, at least my birthday weekend is full of football.*

I hope that you have had a wonderful summer time and had plenty of chances to have fun with your friends and family.  Summer ends early for the Iowa Football team, who opened camp in early August.  But now that school has started on the Iowa campus, the team has had to shift from being full time athletes back to being student athletes.  And that means the day draws ever closer, that Iowa Football will soon be here again to fill our Saturdays with thrill and elation.

So we hope.  While the 2010 season ended with a thud, there was reason to be optimistic after we found a way to finish off the Paper Tigers late in the 4th quarter.  That was the Iowa team we have come to expect.  Now we see if they can build on that game, and produce a season where that is the norm – where it’s our work ethic that is the difference when the game is on the line.

You have to pay close attention to the games, or just read my ever-more-detailed Game Notes, to know that those 5 losses were not just failures in the final minutes.  No, we had chances to make plays and didn’t at earlier points, and a football game is the sum of those full 60 minutes.  Sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce our way, but sometimes players can begin to be comfortable and complacent, and when that happens, Iowa is at a disadvantage.  We will never be at a point where 10+ starters are 4 or 5 star athletes, where pure skill can sometimes overcome execution and discipline.  We must play with a chip on our shoulder to prove that we belong among the college football elite.  I now think that what happened in 2009 kind of doomed the 2010 team from the very beginning.

Because let’s face it, if Stanzi hadn’t of gone down with the 10-zip lead over Northwestern, we would have run the table, and probably finished 2nd in the country after winning whichever BCS bowl we would have played in at 12-0 (we probably would not have made the title game).

Since all the returning players knew that, they probably just didn’t quite work as hard going into the 2010 season.  It may not have been a conscious decision on their part; all athletes are at risk for that to happen when you have been very successful. In that sense, it may be good that we have the fewest returning starters of any team in the Big Ten.

5 on offense, 5 on defense, and one kicker.  That’s it.  But it’s not as if the other 12 guys haven’t played, so we are not going out there as a team that thinks of itself as rebuilding.  It’s a team that is young, which probably means it’s hungry.  And no matter how much they have played, these players know that Iowa Football has not picked up any Big Ten hardware since 2004.  Now, there is twice as much.  But the goal must stay the same; it’s not enough to win the B1G West Division, you’ve got to win the title game too.

Based on all the players we lost to the NFL, most experts considered us a rebuilding team after spring ball.  The consensus among the various magazine writers was 3rd in the division, or 6th overall.  But sure enough, the young players have worked hard, and because of that, the Big Ten Network crew thinks we have made the biggest leap from spring ball to fall camp of any team in the conference.  And now we have people on ESPN saying we are going to meet either Wisconsin or Ohio State in the B1G Title Game.  So while we might not be as under the radar as we thought we would be, we are still a team that may catch people napping if they are not careful.

A young Iowa team that most people are not talking about? Sounds like one of those Iowa teams that might kind of stumble in September, but then really start to figure things out come October, and then blow people out in November.  Then again, I don’t really think this team will be slow out of the gate.  The schedule is once again set up about as well as we could have hoped. And if we are going to compete for Big Ten titles, we must be a team that looks like one from the opening gun.

The Schedule:

What does it mean, the schedule being set up for a run? Let’s take a look!

Week 1 – Tennessee Tech.  5-6 in 2010.  Most notable stat – head coach Watson Brown is Texas coach Mack Brown’s brother.   Tech<Texas. But they do return 21 starters from their 2010 team, so they might have a shot to move up the Ohio Valley standings this year.  However, this is their first meeting with a team from the Big Ten.  I’m sure the folks in Iowa City will be fine hosts – at least, until the game starts.

Week 2 – at Iowa State.  5-7 in 2010, lost 35-7 in Iowa City.  ISU is breaking in a new starting quarterback this year and has many holes on defense.  Hawk fans are expecting another 3+ year streak of no ISU touchdowns.

Week 3 – Pittsburg.  8-5 in 2010, 5-2 in the Big East.  They did finish the season with a  27-10 Compass Bowl win over Kentucky.  This will be a good test, but the game is in Iowa City, and Pitt had major offseason coaching chaos.  Payback for our visit to the Steel City.

Week 4 – Louisiana-Monroe.  5-7 in 2010, 4-4 in the Sun Belt.  I do believe the Hawks are giving the Warhawks $900,000 for the pleasure of playing in front of 70,597 fans.

Week 5 – Bye Week.

Week 6 – at Penn State. 7-6 in 2010, 4-4 in the Big Ten. Lost 24-3 in Iowa City. They are Penn State.  We are Iowa.  Our little sliver of yellow in the corner, chanting ‘we own Penn State.’

Week 7 – Northwestern. 7-6 in 2010.  3-5 in the Big Ten.  Beat Iowa 21-17 in Evanston. Persa is back after his surgery, but may not be ready to start the season.  NU is hyping him for the Heisman.  As you will learn later, our defense is better suited to stopping him and other running QBs in 2011.  Plus, we are overdue for a 52-10 beat down of these guys.

Week 8 – at Minnesota.  3-9 in 2010.  2-6 in the Big Ten.  They have Floyd.  If we don’t beat them by 5 touchdowns, it’s a loss.

Week 9 – Michigan.  7-6 in 2010.  3-5 in the Big Ten.  Lost 38-28 to Iowa in the Big House.  This presents us with another opportunity to beat Michigan three times in a row, for the first time, ever.  Michigan is installing a pro-style offense with Denard Robinson at quarterback.  Results – tbd. But defense is still their weakness.  He is not going to outscore us by passing the ball 35 times a game.

Week 10 – Michigan State.  11-2 in  2010,  7-1 in the Big Ten. Lost 37-6 in Iowa City. And they get to come back!  Kirk Cousins is back as the senior QB.  They are a trendy pick to make another run.

Week 11 – at Purdue.  4-8 in 2010.  2-6 in the Big Ten.  Didn’t play Iowa in 2010, but now we always will, as they are our protected rival!  Much more on that as the Big Ten season comes up.

Week 12 – at Nebraska. 10-4 in 2010, 6-2 in the Big 12.  Lost 31-30 to Iowa State in 2010. Now trading the Big 12 North for the Big Ten West.  B1G West>Big 12 North.  We trade the pro style death match with Wisconsin for just another spread/option offense in Nebraska.  As we now see this almost every week, we should be real good at stopping it come week 12.

So, as you can see, the weeks set up for the Hawkeyes to make a run. And it’s not just we Kool-Aid drinkers who believe it, the paid media also agrees that our path is the easiest in the conference.  How are we going to get there?  By playing Iowa Football.  Prepare, execute, and outwork.  We don’t have a lot of starters back, but we are not lacking for players.

The Players:

Who will be the ones to step up, and lead us to the promised land? It’s a team game, and each and every part of it is important.  So we talk about all of them, starting with the big boys up front.  As they go, so goes the Iowa offense. The Iowa two-deep was released last Friday, so we can assume the starters are set for this week, as you want your first and second teams set as you begin the normal game week schedule.

Right Tackle: #56 Marcs Zusevics, senior.  6-5, 300.
Back up: #70 Brett Van Sloan, sophomore.  6-7, 292.

Right Guard: #73 Adam Gettis, senior.  6-4, 280.
Back up: #72 Woody Orne, senior.  6-5, 295.

Center: #53 James Ferentz, junior.  6-2, 284
Back up: #59 Conor Boffeli, sophomore.  6-5, 290.

Left Guard: #60 Matt Tobin, junior.  6-6, 290.
Back up: #68 Brandon Scherff, redshirt freshman.  6-5, 310.

Left Tackle: #77 Riley Reiff, junior.  6-6, 300.
Back up: #78 Andrew Donnal, redshirt freshman.  6-7, 302.

Not as big an Iowa O line as we have had in the past, but what they are is very active and versatile, and should work perfectly for our zone blocking system.  Reiff is expected to be an NFL first rounder after THIS year, let’s hope he decides to stay for one last go around.  This is the offensive line, and we are the Iowa Hawkeyes.  One of the best in the nation by the end of the season, to be sure.

Quarterback #16 James Vandenberg, junior.  6-3, 212.
Back up: ##17 A.J Derby, redshirt freshman.  6-4, 232.

Full Back: #35 Matt Meyers, redshirt freshman.  6-2, 220.
Back up: #92 Jonathan Gimm, junior.  6-3, 240.

Tailback: #34 Marcus Coker, sophomore.  6-0, 230.
Back up: #3, Jason White, junior.  5-10, 205.

Receiver: #7 Marvin McNutt, senior.  6-4, 215.
Back up: #83 Steven Staggs, junior.  6-3, 195.

Receiver: #6 Keenan Davis, junior.  6-3, 215.
Back up: #11 Kevonte Martin-Manley, redshirt freshman.  6-0, 205.

Tight Ends: #39 Brad Herman, senior.  6-5, 255.
Back up: #86 C.J. Fiedorowicz, sophomore.  6-7, 265.

The Vandenberg Era begins, and what a ride it can be over the next two seasons.  You don’t hold 12 Iowa high school qb records without being able to throw the ball, and now he has had the entire offseason to work with his weapons.  On the outside, Marvin needs 6 td catches to break the Iowa all time mark of 21.  I say he gets it by early October.  On the other side, we have seen small flashes of brilliance from Keenan Davis, but now as the starter, he needs to step it up to the next level.  Expect to see the back ups and other youngsters early, we need to have a bucket of solid wideouts to start the B1G season.

It was Kirk’s presser today (Tuesday) where he said Derby had moved into the number 2 spot. He is next, hoping to get him some quality minutes in mop up duty this season.

It’s another era beginning at tailback.  Give Coker the ball 25 times per game, 5.5 per touch, that’s 1650 yards for the season.  Even some of the ESPN guys are thinking Marcus could be a dark horse to lead the Big Ten in rushing.  Shine a light on this, if he stays healthy, it will be done.  There are other tailbacks that we will want to get a look at this year, but the ball belongs to Marcus as far as he can take it.

And then, there are the tight ends.  Herman has patiently waited his turn to be the starter, look for him to have a great senior season that propels him into an NFL camp.  And then, there is our 6-7 target in C.J..  Earned his chops on special teams last year, but he will become a very focal part of the offense this season.  And why not – toss the ball up there; let a linebacker or safety try to go up with him to get it.

How good can this offense be?  I certainly think they can get to the 28.9 average we had in 2010.  What are opposing defenses going to do?  Put 8 in the box to stop Coker?  That leaves single coverage on the likes of Marvin, and you generally lose sight of tight ends when you are so focused on stopping the run.  We have the playmakers in the places they need to be, James just has to get them the ball.

As we are Iowa, our success will once again require very solid special teams play.  Don’t want to be giving away that hidden yardage!

Kicker: #96 Mike Meyer, sophomore.  6-2, 180.
Back up: #8, Trent Mossbrucker, junior.  6-0, 204.

Punter: #6 Eric Guthrie, senior.  6-6, 245.
Back up: #15 Johnny Mullings, redshirt freshman.  6-3, 210.

If our punters ever get into a fight with the other team’s kickers – we’ll win.

Meyer was thrown into the fire last year, as the season started he was just going to do kickoffs you may recall, but then he stepped up and stole the job.  14 of 17 in field goals last year:  that should ease the minds of those who are in a constant state of worry over the Iowa kicking game.  You know who you are. J

The two deeps don’t list who the kick returners are going to be.  Here we might see one of the young tailbacks that we are eager to see on the field – out of Troy, NY, #33 Jordan Canzeri.  There is also a very good chance Micah Hyde will be back there, owing to his excellent skills in the open field when snagging a pass.

Lots of those youngsters that we will see taking on prominent roles in the future will refine their craft on kickoff and punt coverage this year.  When we have success that is something we are good at. So it is something we have to watch as the season goes along.

And then, there is the rebuilt Iowa defense.  Much maligned for late game failures last year, Norm’s health issues probably didn’t help the situation much.  But for now, he seems fine, and by having him around we may just see the Iowa D return to norm.

What is most interesting about these guys is this: this is probably the fastest, in terms of raw speed, defense that Iowa has ever had.  Seeing as we now face a predominance of spread/option type offenses, you begin to wonder if the Iowa coaches might start tinkering with our 4/3 look.  By tinkering, that means much more liberal use of blitzes, the nickel and dime in obvious passing situations, and potentially, even shifting out of the 4/3 to get four speedy linebackers onto the field.  Now, even in what seemed an ‘off year’ our D only gave up 17 points per game, so I am not advocating wholesale change just for the sake of it.  But in the modern era of spread/option football, having speed on the field to contain it may be the best way to stop it. We’ll see.

End: #58 Lebron Daniel, senior.  6-2, 256.
Back up: #79 Dominic Alvis, sophomore.  6-4, 255

Tackle: #87 Thomas Nardo, senior.  6-3, 277.
Back up: #71 Carl Davis, redshirt freshman.  6-5, 310.

Tackle: #93 Mike Daniels, senior.  6-1, 280.
Back up: #99 Joe Gaglione, junior.  6-4, 255.

End: #91 Broderick Binns, senior.  6-2, 261.
Back up: #54 Steve Bigach, junior.  6-3, 282.

Now, part of the late game problems the D line had in 2010 was the fact we used nothing more than really a 5, sometimes 6, man rotation.  Per his presser today, Kirk says that is going to be more like 8 men this year.  So all these guys, and others, are going to see critical time in the trenches.  I like it, having 8 guys to chase those running QBs around will only help.  We need Binns to play like he did his sophomore year – last year was a disaster, but he can make up for it by being a leader and regaining his fire.  Can’t wait to see Davis stuffing the run, and I think we can count on Lebron, Thomas and Mike to go out with a bang.  This will be an Iowa D line like we have come to expect.

The back 7. Here is where the speed begins to come into play.  A couple years ago, our linebackers where in a contest with our back 4 to see who could pick off the most passes.  It may be that way again in 2011.  Good reason to think we will once again be among the national leaders when it comes to swiping.

Outside Linebacker: #45, Tyler Nielsen, senior.  6-4, 235.
Back up: #13 Tom Donatell, senior.  6-2, 205

Middle Linebacker: #44 James Morris, sophomore.  6-2, 227.
Back up: #57 Bruce Davis, senior.  6-0, 232.

Weakside Linebacker: #20 Christian Kirksey, sophomore.  6-2, 215.
Back up: #31 Anthony Hitchens, sophomore.  6-1, 224.

Strong Safety: #10 Collin Sleeper, junior.  6-2, 200.
Back up: #4 Jordan Bernstine, senior.  5-11, 205.

Free Safety: #18 Micah Hyde, junior.  6-1, 185.
Back up: #49 Tanner Miller, sophomore.  6-2, 201.

Left Corner: #28 Shaun Prater, senior.  5-11, 185.
Back up: #4 Jordan Bernstine, senior.  5-11, 205.

Right Corner: #2 Greg Castillo, junior.  5-11, 182.
Back up: #18 Micah Hyde, junior.  6-1, 185.

As you can see above, the secondary is still a bit in play, and will probably be that way for a few weeks into the season.  Praying that Jordan can finally have a healthy season and show the potential we knew he had 4 years ago.  You can see here why we might be more inclined to use the nickel and dime, to get all these guys on the field when we know a pass is coming.

Yes, a lot of new faces on the defense.  Might be a few rough patches early, but with snaps come skill and confidence. And they most certainly want to atone for 2010.  The kids will be all right.

So that’s who we know will be seeing the field on Saturday, but with a young team and a few games to get things tweaked before the B1G season starts, things will be subject to change.  Kirk and Co will get the best guys out there, to be sure.

When you add it all up, sure, there are a lot of holes to fill, but this is college football – it happens all the time.  With a young team, it is definitely hard to look four months into the future with any clarity.  But that doesn’t stop me from trying.  Clearly, if we are a candidate to play in the Big Ten Title Game, we can’t do any worse than 7-1 in the conference, maybe 6-2.  Stack the four non-conference wins onto that, and voila, 10 or 11 wins.  Is there a chance we could slip up and blow a game we have no business losing? Always possible, but after last year, I am sure the players, coaches, water boys, everyone is playing this year one game at a time.  And if we can do that, the young team will get better every week.  Hop on now before the bandwagon fills up!

Week 1 Tennessee Tech

Here we are again, opening against a Div 1/AA team, so there is no official line for this week. Haven’t been able to find much on the Golden Eagles, but as they return 21 starters, we can go to the stats page, which provides some good insights for Saturday.

We hope to get Marcus and the running game going early, that will obviously open up the downfield passing game.  In 2010, TT allowed a rather terrible 215.6 yards per game on the ground – good for 110th out of 126 FCS teams.  So, even a year older, you don’t get the impression they are going to contain Coker or any other Iowa tailback.  Keep in mind this is their first game against a Big Ten school. Much bigger offensive linemen, tight ends, and faster wideouts.  They allowed 31.7 points per game, which had them at 98th in the FCS rankings.  They won’t be able to routinely stop the Iowa offense.

When it comes to offense, the Eagles rushed for 158 yards per game (47th) and passed for 168 yards (85th).  So they have balance.  This added up to 22.1 points per game, ranked 71st.  The Iowa defense routinely takes team’s scoring average and cuts it by about two thirds.  So we’ll give the Eagles a touchdown.

That would be an improvement over their loss to Arkansas to open 2010 (44-3), though I think the points they give up will be about the same.

Now, the Eagles are probably going to employ a hurry up type of offense, so we’re going to see the D line rotation right from the start.  This might work in the Ohio Valley, but it’s more likely to just give the Iowa offense more possessions as they quickly go three and out.  And it’s virtually certain the if the Hawks can get the run going, the Eagles will be ground down to a pulp in the 2nd half.  So their offense will press, and we’ll get a head start on our race for the NCAA interception lead.

As we can expect, Iowa will not look to run the score up on an overmatched team, and we won’t want to show much in the way of new wrinkles to ISU or Pitt scouts anyway. Pretty much run, and then get the ball to the playmakers on the outside as the linebackers and safeties come up. With those extra possessions, the Hawks should be able to pile up 6 touchdowns.  42-7 Hawks.  Two rushing for Coker, one for another tailback, and James with td passes to Marvin, Davis, and Herman.

That will be the start we are looking for, and it will strike fear into a rebuilding Iowa State. There is a fair chance they could lose to UNI on Saturday night – and then we’ll come calling 7 days later.

*And now, as a public service, I am here to explain to you how to cram as much college football into this weekend.  Real football Thursday night, Friday night, all day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Times eastern.

Thursday Night:
Start with Murray State at Louisville, 6:00 pm, ESPNU.
Then switch to a game we care about, UNLV at Wisconsin, 8:00 pm, ESPN.
Then the last kickoff that has national coverage is Western Kentucky v. Kentucky, 9:15 pm on ESPNU. Go there when the Badger game ends.

Friday Night:
Just two games, Youngstown State at Michigan State, 7:30 pm on the BTN.
Then at 8:00, TCU at Baylor on ESPN.

Saturday:
Guess – yes! Tennessee Tech at Iowa, 12:00 pm, BTN.

Post Iowa game, the 3:30 kickoffs.  Choices:
USF at Notre Dame, NBC.
Western Michigan at Michigan, ABC/ESPN2 (regional).
Minnesota at USC, ABC/ESPN2 (regional).
Chattanooga at Nebraska, BTN.
Arkansas State at Illinois, BTN.

Between 7 :00 and 8:00, have some food and water to refuel.

8:00 pm kickoffs:
Oregon at LSU, from Cowboy Stadium.  ABC – a top 5 showdown.
Boise State at Georgia, (from Atlanta), ESPN.
Finish the night with Colorado at Hawaii, kick 10:15, ESPNU.

Sunday:
Bethune-Cookman at Prairie View A&M, 12:00 pm, ESPN.
Marshall at West Virginia, 3:30 pm, ESPN.
SMU at Texas A&M, 7:30 pm, Fox Sports Net

Monday:
Miami at Maryland, 8:00 pm, ESPN.

During the times that there are head to head games, you will want to find yourself in a sports bar with lots of tvs.  By my count, you can watch 11 entire games over the 5 days, minimum.

All right friends, when these Game Notes find their way into your inbox, we will be just hours away from the kickoff of a new football season.  There is nothing quite like it on the sporting calendar. Join us as we begin the ride to more January bowl game glory!

GO HAWKS!!!

Sedge

Last Week: Michigan State

Hello again to my Hawkeye friends, near and far. Suffice to say, I did not quite see that
coming, but the Notes were out before final word that Norm would be in the stadium on
Saturday. Once it was certain that morning, I revised my own pick to Hawks 35-13. The
boys were fired up enough to do even better than that.

Yes, they did play with 60 minutes of nearly flawless execution, and it was especially
nice to see the team take care of business with all their first half opportunities. We even
got some young guys some very valuable minutes – but as I must gripe about something,

we could have done even more on that front.

What a beautiful day it was as the cameras opened up on Kinnick – 62 degrees, sunny,
but a stiff wind coming in from the open end of the stadium. The Blackout participation
was – not so good, especially in light of the striping effort. But the place was full and
rocking, and sure enough, I think they did cause some fits for the Spartans, who had yet
to really face a road crowd.

The Hawks won the toss and as sure as the sun rising in the east, took the ball first. DJK
didn’t get a chance to run, as the Spartan kickoff sailed deep into the end zone.

Adam to start, but State knew that was coming so he only gains 3 feet. Fine, they want to
crowd the line, so KOK dials up an end around to DJK, moving from right to left, and he
gets the corner turned for 17 yards and a Hawkeye 1st down. ARob then, a 3 yard carry
up the middle, then one more for just a yard. Facing a 3rd and 6, Ricky drops back, and
quickly finds Reisner on the far hash, a quick stop route, that’s good for 8 and another 1st
down, at the MSU 49.

From here, Ricky attacks, and floats a pass from the far hash over to the near sideline,
targeting Marvin, who gets completely turned around, but then sticks out one arm to snag
the ball (over his shoulder) and pull it into his chest, and yes, get both feet in (ready for
the next level), that goes for 17 yards. Visions of Willy Mays flash through sports fans
heads, made all the more surreal by the fact that catch was in game 1 of the 1954 World
Series – the last time the (New York Baseball) Giants had won the thing – until Monday.

Hawks now at the 32, and the Spartans guess pass and blitz, but the line gives Ricky
enough time to find Reisner over the middle, the dump off goes for 9. Adam cleans
up the 1st down with 3 yards, and then he gets it again, going right, and spins out of a
tackle at the line to gain 7 more. Once again, but this time off tackle left, ARob blowing
through tacklers at the line to advance it 7 yards again, first and goal Iowa from the MSU
6. Spartans call timeout, seems their defense is gassed already. If they only knew…

After the break we try sneaking Morse through the line, he gets 3. 2nd and goal, Ricky
drops back, and has the time to survey left, quickly, but them comes back right, and fires
a strike into very a tight space, where Sandeman snags it for the Hawkeye touchdown,
and yes, the kick is good, 7-0 lead. Drive, 12 plays, 80 yards, 6:12 off the game clock.

Just what we needed to open with, and now with Norm up above, we would see if we
could get that quick 3 and out.

The Iowa kick goes to the 6 and is brought out to the 32. Cousins starts in the shotgun,
and fires a quick slant to his outside receiver, but Prater drills the kid and the pass is
dropped. 2nd down, Spartans run a read/option looking play, but pull it down for a pass
to the far hash, that’s good for 9. 3rd and 1, they now try to get the running game going
with a handoff to Baker, but he is met in the hole by Hawkeye linebacker James Morris,
the true freshman out of Solon, who was making his first start for Iowa. James wins the

battle, and stuffs the run for nada, and the Spartans are forced to bring out their punting
unit.

Which prompted the Hawkeyes to come out in the punt-safe formation, but this was no
fake, and the kick sails to the Hawkeye 18, where Colin muffs it, but he is able to recover
in the scrum.

From our 17 then, Adam gets it, but he gets popped good right at the line and only goes
for one. Ricky tries a quick pass to the right, but it’s knocked down at the line, so we
faced a 3rd and 9. Stanzi drops back and notices that MSU is only bringing 4 this time,
everyone else is in coverage. The pocket begins to collapse, so he steps up, and soon
realizes there is lots of space if he can get the corner turned – that linebacker Jones is
there, but Adam gets in his face and Ricky is gone! 10, 15, 20, 25 yards, Stanzi finally
steps out after 29, but then Hyde the Elder drills him, and the flags fly, personal foul, 15
more, MSU 41 is the line of scrimmage.

Now Stanzi gets a little greedy and fires it deep down the middle to DJK – who does get
his hands on it, briefly, but can’t bring it in with the double coverage that is all over him.
A draw to Adam goes for 5, so 3rd down appears again. On the drop back, Stanzi has
enough time to check that yes, Notre Dame has lost to Tulsa, and then he comes back to
the left and fires a rope to Alan, who snags it and gets down before the blows can arrive,
that’s good for 8, and a 1st down at the Spartan 27. Adam gets the ball on a sweep right
and gains 4, and then he goes off tackle right for 5 more – almost gets to the yellow line,
but can’t spin out of the tackle. 3rd and 1, surely ARob is good for this, but no, Jones cuts
off his cutback lane and the line gets him for no gain. Ball at the 19, and Meyer trots out
to try the field goal. No problems with this one, it’s high and true, 10-0 Hawkeyes. So
far so good, we need to keep the gas on the pedal.

Our next kickoff lands at the 5, and the MSU returner gets clobbered by Nordmann at the
Spartan 20. State begins with an end around, and it goes for 11. Cousins fires a pass over
the middle that is caught, but then Sash flies in and hits the receiver, who flips over and
loses the ball as he hits the ground. It’s reviewed, down by contact, it goes for 13 yards,
MSU 1st down at their 47.

Now Sparty tries a handoff to Bell, but Daniels has simply pushed aside the center and he
smothers the tailback for a 4-yard loss. Flags fly, oh no, but it’s another illegal formation
call, at first they mark off the 5, but then figure out we want to decline the penalty, so
it’s a 2nd and 14. 2 passes to the right side – both under Prater’s roughly 10 yard cushion
(bend, don’t break) gain 8, and then 9 yards, and here was State, at the Hawkeye 41.

Ok boys, now would be a good time to tighten the hatches. Cousins is in the shotgun,
and as he surveys the field, Sash and Greenwood are deep in the middle. At the snap,
State tries the play action diversion, but they fail to realize that Sash has started moving
to the far side of the field – underneath the wideout, with Hyde behind him playing the
deep coverage. In the heat of the pass rush Cousins fires that ever-dangerous near hash to
far side throw, this looks to be intentionally short, a come back route, but the receiver is

not the one who is there when the ball comes down – it’s Sash, caught! Hawkeye ball at
the 28! Tyler runs about 6 yards and then he what!!?? flips the ball back to Hyde who is
about 3 yards behind him! That intended receiver gets a weak shot at Micah, who gets to
the 50, and then he cuts it back across the field – careful, this is where block in the backs
occur, but no flags fly! He gets to the near side, and breaks a flying tackle at the 28,
20, 15, 10, 5, dives, pylon! Touchdown Iowa!!! 72 yards! A pick-6 for the ages! It’s
reviewed, and confirmed. The kick is good, and the Hawkeyes lead 17-0 with 10 seconds
left in the 1st quarter.

I have to wonder, did Tyler and Micah discuss the possibility of this play before the
game? Or practiced it at some point? Hyde didn’t look surprised at all as Sash flipped
the ball back to him, as if they had indeed prepared for the possibility. In his post game
comments Sash says it was just spur of the moment, Micah is a great athlete, and he
knew he could do some damage with the ball. Sure enough. A play that will live long in
Hawkeye fans’ memories.

Our next kickoff is a bit of a pop up, so State snags it with a fair catch at their 29. Baker
gets a carry and goes for 5, and that brings an end to the 1st quarter. Sparty has got
to wonder what has been going wrong to start games, and if they have another 0-17
comeback in them.

The 2nd quarter starts with another Baker run; it goes for nothing as Ballard hits him at
the line. 3rd down, a quick underneath pass to the rights nets 5, 1st down MSU. Bell is
now in, and he heads right for 3 yards. 3 more are gained on a quick pass to Bell in the
flat, Ballard makes sure it goes for no more. 3rd down and 3, the Spartans complete a
pass to the right for the 1st down, but a flag flies – no wait, it’s an Iowa timeout.

Ok, take two on the 3rd and 3. Another pass to the right, underneath Prater’s coverage,
gets 9 yards. State is on the Iowa 43. Back to the running game, Baker gets it and goes
straight up the middle for 8. They try the same basic run once more, but this time Daniels
is once again there in the backfield, 2-yard loss, 3rd and 4. Here we go again, another
quick underneath pass right gains 9, 1st down State, ball at Iowa 30.

Baker gets a carry and tries to go left, but can only gain 2. On this pass Cousins goes left
and tries to hit Bell on a dump off, but Tyler is tired of these little dinky passes so he flies
in and ponds the tailback for no gain. Finally, ABC shows Norm up in the booth – and
Hawkeye fans everywhere erupt in joy. Strange, but what happened next almost seemed
as if Norm had willed it from high above.

Cousins is in the shotgun for the 3rd and 7. He drops back from there, and tries another
pass to the right underneath Prater. But – this time, he is on the near hash, and he is
trying to get it to the far sideline. Mistake. Shaun has been baiting him, and now he sees
the throw he has been waiting for – he plants his foot in the ground and explodes forward,
snagging the ball in full stride at the Hawkeye 15, and here he his streaking down the
far side of the field! 30, 40, midfield, one man to beat (Cousins), and he can’t, as the
Spartan QB finally gets him shoved out of bounds at the MSU 43. A 42 yard return! The

cameras flash across the visitor section, and Spartan fans are beginning to think that this
day would not be theirs.

Ricky drops back after the fake to Adam, he hit Reisner for 10 yards, 1st down. Adam a
carry now, stuffed, no gain. 2nd and 10. At the snap, Ricky fakes the ball to Adam, and
then drops back – Robinson slips through the line and starts to head downfield – with
that All American linebacker Jones trailing behind him. Ricky has to step forward as the
pressure comes in from the right – as he does so, he sees Adam in the clear, and he floats
the ball deep down toward the far side – ARob reaches up, bobbles it once, and then
the ball settles into his arms as he cross the goal line, touchdown Iowa! 32 yards! The
first receiving touchdown for Adam Robinson in the Black and Gold. And it was extra
special, as the replay clearly shows, he has beaten the soon to the NFL linebacker to earn
it. Meyer takes the field, and oh no, he seems to have a little too much juice on this one,
it bounces off the left upright and falls to the turf. 23-0 Hawkeyes, somewhere in the
recesses of the mind, some start to wonder if that point is going to matter in the long run.

No, but obviously, we can’t be leaving those points on the board as we move ahead.

Spartans now start at the 19. Baker in, he runs for 4. A quick pass to the right – gains
6, 1st down. A run to the left gains 3, but the flag flies, holding MSU, 1st and 20. Bell,
4 yard run. Another short pass to the right, 10 yards, 3rd and 6. Cousins rolls to the left
and hits his man right at the 1st down line, but another flag is on the field, and that man
had been open because the Hawkeye defender had been tackled, that’s pass interference
offense, now it’s 3rd and 21. Another pass underneath for 7 yards is only notable because
Tarp has made the stop – he is enough back from his injury to play 3rd down passing
situations. Made it through the game ok, hoping to get more from him this week – our
linebacker situation is getting pretty thin, we sure could use him on the field.

Hawks are in punt-safe, the ball sails over their heads and Colin catches it at the 30, no
return.

Now Coker gets his shot, and he hauls his first carry right up the middle for 6 yards, and
then he gets it again for 3 yards. 3rd and 1. How bout go with another carry or perhaps
a QB sneak? Nope, KOK dials up the attack, and Stanzi goes into the deep drop after
faking the handoff.

The pressure quickly comes right up the middle, but Ricky gets the pass off, and he floats
it deep down the far side, just outside the numbers – Herman and Hyde the Elder arrive
at the ball at the same time, and both leap for it – but then somehow Brad comes down
with the ball at the MSU 40 and he stays on his feet! Hyde has gone down, there is no
one there! 30, 20, 10, 5, finally he is knocked out at the MSU 4. 59 yards, the longest
catch of Herman’s carrer to date. Spartan defense, stunned, and they give us 2 yards free
by having 12 men in the huddle. One handoff to Adam does the trick – he gets hit before
the goal, but he spins out of it, and then blows right through another weak arm tackle, and
falls into the end zone. Touchdown Iowa, the kick is good! 30-0, clock at 1:01 of the
2nd.

Meyer’s kick sails into the end zone, so MSU starts from the 20.

They then inserted the backup QB Nichol into the game, and he tries running with it, but
ended up running for his life, that’s a 3-yard loss. The 3rd tailback Caper gets a handoff,
but as soon as he crosses the line, Ballard plows into him and the ball pops out – for just
a second it looked like we could grab it, but then it bounced again back toward Caper and
he was able to recover it. Hawks now call timeout with 7 seconds left – and the MSU
bench looks displeased.

Especially after they run it again and gain 3 yards, but we call timeout again with 3
seconds left, and the Spartans facing a 4th and 7. I guess Ferentz was just seeing if they
would make another mistake – fumbled snap, ill advised pass. They don’t, the half ends
with a run that nets 4 yards.

ABC never does give us a stat box coming out of halftime, but who cares, we are up 30
zip, and we had other things on our mind anyway. Namely, we had some very special
visitors at Opal this past Saturday. The Cleveland off week had Matt Roth in town, Tim
Dwight was in the house, and we had former Hawkeye Pat Boone, who lettered from 92-
94. All 3 guys were very nice and courteous, posed for pictures with anyone who asked,
and as they were all Hawkeyes, they were right there celebrating with the crowd with
every big play. The word is out, the Best Game Watch Outside of Kinnick is indeed right
here in NYC.

All right, back to the football game, if MSU has any hope of making it at least mildly
interesting, they must do something now. The kick is brought out to the 22, and the
Spartan offense takes the field.

Running game to start, Baker gets the ball and goes nowhere – Morris again, in the
hole. They try it again and get 3 yards, but I’m not sure it was worth it with the lick
Clayborn puts on Baker. 3rd and 7, Cousins is in the shotgun, and he rolls left on the snap,
and then tries throwing it downfield along the hash – into about quadruple coverage,
with one wideout – i.e. an about 7.5% chance a Spartan would catch it. He doesn’t, it’s
Greenwood, who picks it, and he shakes and bakes it all the way back to the MSU 15 –
but the flags fly, and the Hawks are called for a block in the back on the return, ball back
at midfield. Here is our chance to end it right now.

Alas, we can’t. Adam for 2 yards, and then a pass is dropped by DJK, and Ricky misfires
to Reisner on a pass in the flat, so Donahue finally takes the field, and promptly bounces
the ball the MSU 5, where it’s downed at the 4.

Spartans can do nothing with their 3 plays, so we get the ball back at our 39 after the
punt.

Adam starts this with a 2 yard run, then Stanzi drops back and hits Herman over the
middle for 16. Now ARob find his footing – off tackle right for 11 yards, and then
straight up the middle – in a huge pile of bodies, but they can’t bring him down until he

has plowed forward for 10 yards and another Hawkeye first down. One more time, but
Adam can’t get out of the backfield this time, so he is dropped for no gain. 2nd and 10
from the MSU 22 as Ricky looks over the defense at the line.

At the snap, he fakes to Adam again, and goes into the deep drop – where he quickly
finds McNutt at about the 15, it’s really just a dump off into the flat, but Marvin gets the
corner turned with a sealing block by Morse, and McNutt sprints into the end zone for the
Hawkeye touchdown and 37-0 lead. The only real question now, is can we shut out the
Spartans, and will our 2nd team offense be able to get us a couple more scores?

Both teams trade futile possessions from here, and MSU gets the ball back at their 11
with 2.45 left in the 3rd.

This drive start with a pass over the middle that nets 14. Another quick pass left, 12
yards. False start, 1st and 15. Pass left, quick, 10 yards, how bout another left, 6 yards,
1st down. One more underneath pass to the left gains 10, and the Hawkeye defense starts
creeping up to kill this underneath stuff for good.

Well, Cousins drops back and heaves the ball way downfield toward the far sideline –
Prater has the coverage if the pass if far enough, but it’s underthrown, and he can’t make
the cut back to get the ball as the receiver hauls it in at the Iowa 6. 34 yards.

Kinnick reaches a fever pitch, urging the Hawkeyes onto making another stop deep in our
red zone. The 3rd quarter ends with Cousin’s throwaway pass under heavy pressure.

After the timeout, the Hawkeyes expect pass on the 2nd and goal, and we charge the line
with the rare blitz – Cousins gets it away, it’s a slant, caught, touchdown Spartans, they
go for two, but Morris once again makes the play, and he knocks down the Cousins pass
right at the goal line. 37-6 Hawkeyes, and that would be it for scoring on the day.

The Hawkeyes would have 3 more offensive possessions, but the closest we would come
was the one where McNutt tried to hit DJK after he took the end around hand off. Too
bad he didn’t catch that one, hard to believe in a day in which we scored 5 touchdowns,
Darrell didn’t have a single catch. So he remains tied for the Iowa all time catch lead,
look for him to break that in the first drive this week.

Here is my main and only gripe for the game – those last two possessions, we had
many backups in the game – but not Vandenberg. Michigan State could hardly have
complained if we had our entire 2nd team offense in and running the full playbook. It was
a chance to get valuable game minutes for James; I’m not sure why Kirk and KOK never
decided to put him in.

So it was Stanzi who handled the final two victory formation snaps, and the Hawkeyes
had just put their worst ever beat down on a ranked team. All while sending notice to the
balance of the Big Ten that you are not winning this last regular season title without a
fight.

Well, I don’t know how much Norm had to do with it besides his presence (seems he was
not actually calling the plays, more of an advisor role), but the Hawkeye defense did way
better than holding the Spartan rushing attack to half their average. In fact, MSU net on
the ground was a scant 31 yards. Sure, they passed for 227 against us, but that was on
25 completed passes for a measly 5.8 yard average. Dink and dunk. And when Cousins
grew tired of the small stuff and went down field, well, that didn’t work out at all well.
And we didn’t trade any of those three turnovers – back-to-back games without one,
and you can see from the stats above where that has us in the national rankings. For his
carrer high 10 tackles and one interception effort, Shaun Prater is your Big Ten Defensive
Player of the Week.

Ricky, a very business-like 11-16, 190 yards, with 3 tds. That now has him at #2,
nationally, for passing efficiency.

Ok, so Adam isn’t going to rush for 100 every game. He, 20 for 69, 3.5 per carry, which
is down for him, but he should bounce back this week. Coker, 16 carries for 40 yards, his
20+ yard gain was killed with a penalty. Slowly getting his feet under him, look for him
to provide Adam with more rest in the weeks ahead. They other guys that don’t normally
count for running stats had stellar days – Ricky’s one scramble, 26 yards. DJK’s end
around, 17 yards. And Chaney’s; 11 yards. Get the ball into the playmakers’ hands any
way you can, and sit back and watch the good things happen.

We now take leave of the friendly confines to head out on the road for two games that we
should by all accounts win, provided we actually prepare for them and not look ahead to
our return to Kinnick in three weeks.

This Week: Indiana

So ends our two week stretch of normal pro style offenses. The Hoosiers pass-happy
offense was flying right along, beating up on the likes of Towson, Akron, Western
Kentucky, and Arkansas State, but when they started facing some good defenses (i.e. Big
Ten teams), things fell apart quickly. Sure, Indiana scored 35 points in a 7 point loss to
the Wolverines, but they don’t have a good defense. Ohio State does, and they held the
Hoosiers to 10, Illinois (getting better) beat Indiana 43-13, and last week the middle of
the road Wildcats topped the Hoosiers 20-17.

All this has them 0-4 in the conference – it’s a race to the bottom with the Golden
Rodents.

This pass-first offense, run by senior QB Chappell, does complete enough of them to
rack up almost 313 yards per game, which is good enough for #1 in the Big Ten, and 8th,
nationally. But, toss in the 18 tds with the 9 interceptions, and the efficiency stat drops
down to 7th in the conference and 48th in Div. 1.

They are so pass happy, they are dead last, and 110th nationally, in rushing average, only

mustering 98 yards a contest. If you add up the season to date rushing totals of their top
two tailbacks, you still come up about 300 yards short of Adam’s results so far.

Their base offensive formation is the shotgun – sometimes they will line up the tailback
behind this in the Pistol, other times with the tailbacks besides Chappell, in something
like a read/option play. But it’s all really set up to get the ball out quick, complete a
lot of short, underneath passes. Our cornerbacks are going to have to be ready, but this
play into our style of defense, frustrate them with the short stuff, and strike when they
try to go deeper. Last week, the Wildcats were able to get some pretty good pressure on
Chappell with just their down linemen, which produced some pretty erratic throws by the
Hoosier QB. Iowa defensive line > Northwestern defensive line.

There are now in fact more questions on the availability of the Iowa linebacking group.
Hunter is a question mark, Tarp should see more snaps, but now Nielsen is out, perhaps
for a stretch. Johnson, Morris, these guys were the future, but we need them now. This
will be a good test, they won’t have to worry as much about the rushing attack, and of
course, they have our very good safeties behind them.

You might think that with such a pass happy offense, the Hoosier defense would be well
schooled on stopping it. Not really. They are #67 in pass defense, and when you factor
in the 17 touchdowns allowed with only 6 interceptions gained, the efficiency falls all the
way down to #105.

There is late word from Iowa City that Adam may have suffered a low-level concussion
last Saturday. So he may or may not be able to go. Regardless, the Hoosiers allow 168
yards per game on the ground, Coker, Morse, Rogers, if you are called on, you should be
able to move the ball. Clearly, if we have any kind of running success, that not very good
pass defense will be susceptible to play-action strikes down the field.

There is also late word that Chappell was wearing a boot over his foot in practice early
this week – and he is not what you would call a mobile quarterback to begin with.

The special teams played a nearly flawless game last week, it would sure be nice to see
that extended to two weeks in a row – the only real stat that stands out to me is Indiana’s
net punting is ranked #101 in the nation – perhaps there will be some opportunities for
Colin to make some noise this week.

After two weeks of very intense games with the other contenders for the Big Ten title,
is there any reason to think the Hawks will come out flat Saturday? I don’t think so, the
coaching staff does a great job of keeping the focus on just one week at a time, Ricky
will be all fired up to show up a team that picked him off 5 times last year. Norm is not
making the trip east, but the defense will be playing for him – every time we face one
of these gimmick type offenses, their eyes light up, and the D line starts salivating at the
prospects of a team dropping back to pass 40 or more times per game.

The Hawks have a lot to play for, (including Kirk’s 100th career victory) and the Hoosiers

pretty much get spanked every time they face a good team. The boys will remember the
struggle for 3 quarters last year; they won’t let Indiana hang around again this time. If
Adam sits, Coker will have his first 100 yard game, DJK will break the catch mark early
and score two more tds through the air, and look for the Iowa tight ends to have big days
as well. It’s November, and the trends and stats mean something now. Hawkeyes 38,
Hoosiers 14.

GO HAWKS!!!

Sedge

Dave Sedgwick
Vice President
New York Metro Iowa Club
icsedge1@yahoo.com
Class of ‘95

BY DAVE SEDGWICK

Another week, another variation of the read/spread/hurry up/option offense, though up
until last week, this one seemed like the mother of all of them. Sadly for Michigan, that
illusion was finally exposed when the Spartans took the field, with their balanced offense,
and above average defense.

That’s not to say that the Wolverines didn’t have their chance to be 6-0 heading into our
game. State capitalized on some very critical mistakes by assumed Heisman Trophy
winner Denard Robinson, who tossed two interceptions in the MSU end zone, and
completely missed wide open receivers for tds at least twice. Couple that with his
sub-par rushing effort (21 carries, 86 yards, long of 16), and MSU has shown that the
Michigan offense is still a work in progress.

Sort of, they are still leading the Big Ten, and are 4th nationally, with a 297 per game
average on the ground. But the Spartans kept them 140 yards below that, so we can
be optimistic that the much higher rated Iowa defense should be able to as well. We
have yet to allow a rushing touchdown in 2010, probably unrealistic to think that could
continue this week, but I’m sure it’s in Clayborn’s head to keep that streak going.

Still, Shoelace, as he is called, is very fast and shifty, so staying home is going to be uber-
critical until the read has been done, and the ball carrier or pass is committed to. We
must tackle – by that I mean gang tackle, and there will be pass plays where Michigan
wide outs are in open space (underneath), everyone has got to play the game right and get
guys down if they can hit them.

And it goes without saying but here I am typing it, we need the cornerbacks Prater and
Hyde to man up on the outside and let the safeties provide run support if needed. That’s
the main threat to this kind offense, fall asleep watching the run, get burned by wideouts
down the field. Michigan was successful with this until last Saturday. Keep everything
in front of us – the Iowa bend don’t break defense.

And now the fun part of this week’s Game Notes, the part where we talk about the
Michigan Defense against our offense.

How bout some defensive stats – Michigan:
Total Defense 450.7 yards, Big Ten #11, NCAA #112 (120 teams in Div. 1)
Rush Defense 146.3 Big Ten #9 NCAA #55
Pass Defense 304.3 Big Ten #11, NCAA #119
Scoring Defense 26.8 Big Ten #9, NCAA #75.

Suffice it to say, it’s there for the taking. MSU showed that the balance (287 passing,
249) was a great way to wear down the Michigan defense, and of course, limit the
opportunities for the Wolverine offense to have the ball (State, almost 11 minutes more in
TOP).

One of the things I noticed watching this game was the Michigan secondary had a lot of
trouble with crossing routes. McNutt, that’s you. They also seem highly susceptible to
talented tight ends working between the hashes. And play-action passes in general. DJK,
you should be able to head down field.

Meanwhile, Adam has had a week off to shake off any bumps and bruises, getting him
going to get those play action passes open will also be critical. Knowing that points will
be key Saturday, I think KOK might look to dig into his bag of tricks and expand things
beyond the end arounds to Chaney or Sandeman. Last week Michigan State actually

executed a reverse-flip back to Cousins, who threw it 50 yards down field to a wide-open
receiver. What new wrinkles might we see Saturday?

One other thing – the Spartans did not turn the ball over last week. Ricky, be smart, take
what the defense gives you.

As is always the case in the Big Ten, we are going to need the special teams to be just
that. Not worried about the punting of course, it’s just real important for the coverage
team to get down there, down the ball, tackle the guy. Make the Michigan offense drive
the length of the field. And if you think our kicking situation is shaky (Tara), wait til you
see Michigan’s. Well, if we do see it – they did have one successful field goal last week,
I think that made them 2 for 6 on the season.

This is not a week where we are facing a dangerous (stat wise) kickoff return team,
Michigan being #101 nationally, 65 spots below us. I am going to keep calling for it,
DJK is going to break one sooner or later, on the road to shut up the 113,000 (yeah, they
just expanded the capacity) would be a thing of beauty.

You probably heard the news about Norm Parker last week; his diabetes complications
have now claimed a foot. That surgery was a month ago now, and Norm seems to be
well on his way back, though he is not making the trip to Ann Arbor Saturday. The latest
word from Kirk is that Norm will not only finish out the season upon his return, he plans
on coaching into the future, as long as he can. But we know that over this two week
break that he has indeed been a part of the planning for this game, and for the defensive
efforts that we are going to have to show in the weeks ahead – no days off in the Big Ten
this season.

I know games like this are scary, with Michigan’s quick strike capability, and the
potential for a high stress game watch right until the final gun. But they have now played
half their games, and the defensive stats do count for something. We can get points. And
we know that our defense is most certainly relishing the chance to show the Big House
that if they thought they faced a tough unit last week, well, they ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Hawks must start quick; keep Michigan in chase mode, where if they are forced to pass,
they are much less dangerous. Sure it’s not easy in a place like the Big House, but we are
favored for a reason. Expect McNutt and DJK to each approach 100 yards, Adam should
hit the century mark at about 5 yards a pop. That will open it up for the Iowa offense,
and we should be able to pass the 30 point barrier, and that will be enough. The RichRod
hot seat grows ever warmer with back-to-back home losses. Hawkeyes 34, Wolverines
16

GO HAWKS!!!

Sedge

Dave Sedgwick
Vice President

IOWA 24 – PENN STATE 3

BY DAVE SEDGWICK

Last Week: Penn State

Well that was the way to open up the Big Ten season my friends! Another beat down of
the hapless Lions, then the bye week to rest and recover; a bye week to get in more film
time for the challenges ahead.

And I must confess, I was not really confidant that the Kinnick faithful were going to pull
off the striping to anywhere near the perfection that emerged as ESPN pulled back from
the field to open the telecast. Wow – huge props to all the Hawkeye fans for doing their
part on a magical night. Yes, somewhere, posters are being printed up.

Of course, as the stadium looked so resplendent in the Gold and Black, one could not
help notice the boring, plain white water tower in the distance…

Then the cameras returned to the field, and the Penn State kicker launched the ball into
the end zone for a touchback.

They then lined up to stop the run, but the line did its job and Adam clipped off 6 as he
went off tackle right. Ricky drops back and after a quick survey, dumps the ball down to
Morse in the flat for 9 yards and a 1st down.

That’s right, the fullback got the ball on the 2nd play.

Moving on, Stanzi then hits Marvin in the far side flat, that’s good for 12 more. Adam
now, hit about 2 yards downfield, but the pile surges forward for a total of 5. Here is
another end around, Chaney Jr moving from the left side to right, 15 yards, 1st down.
Penn State defense not sure what to expect next – it’s Ricky dropping back, and then
lofting the pass over the top to McNutt – the ball drops in perfectly to Marvin’s hands,
he makes the catch just before stepping out of bounds. 24 yards, Iowa ball at the PSU 9.
Back to Adam again – it looks like he might plow his way through – but is taken down
at the 2. Now the Hawks line up to stuff it in, but the flag flies, and Stanzi is called for
a false start – though in fact the replay showed the movement was on the left side. So
now 2nd and goal back from the 8, Adam is stuffed for -1, and then on 3rd down, Ricky
can’t find anyone on the outside, so he dumps it to ARob over the middle, and he is taken
down at the 3. Hawks line up to kick the field goal and –

ESPN cuts away to the Oregon game – except nothing is happening, just some ducks
walking around. They finally get us back to Iowa City just as the tight-angle kick sails
through the uprights. 3-0 Hawkeyes. Yeah, 7 would have been nice – one bad play
killed the opportunity.

Our kickoff lands at the 5 and is returned to the 35 – further than we wanted, but the
threat was contained.

Paterno has the young QB rollout on 1st down, a wise choice; he dumps it off and gains 7
yards. But the next pass to the near sideline sails well over the target’s head, so they try
Royster on 3rd down – up the middle – the tackle is made for no gain by about 6 Hawkeye
defenders. Here again, the opposition with the opening 3 and out. Thank you.

Adam now up the middle, but just for a yard. On 2nd, he tries it off tackle – left – and
voila! Space to be had, 14 yards, 1st down. Now Ricky fakes the handoff and drops
back, head up, and looking to go over the top once again. He does, aiming for DJK down
the center of the field, but it’s slightly underthrown, and the safety emerges to pick it off.
During the replay it was very obvious – Stanzi had just needed to wait a second longer

(he had the time), that safety was going to have to commit to either DJK or McNutt
crossing the field – had Ricky waited, one of them was going to be wide open. But he
didn’t, and Penn State had the ball at their 17-yard line.

The Iowa defense was not going to allow this development to result in any kind of
momentum change. Royster, -1, stopped by Adrian. The QB tries to run it, sorry kid,
there is that man again, no gain. They now try a quick pass near the sideline, but this one
is also well overshot, 3 and out. Colin takes the punt with a fair catch at the Iowa 49.

You just had a feeling – ball at midfield, the td, inevitable.

And so Ricky flips it to Alan, he stops and shoves the linebacker aside, and picks up
9. Stanzi drops back again, but doesn’t like what he sees, so he pulls it down and trots
upfield for 9 more. Adam gets tripped up for nothing, and then Reisner catches another
one, but he tries to do too much, and actually gives back about 3 of the yards gained to
only net 2. No problem, Ricky has faith in his tight end, and on this snap, Stanzi drops
back, looks to the right, but then quickly comes back left, and fires a strike to Alan who is
running an out pattern on the near hash – a linebacker trailing helplessly behind him. It’s
caught, 16 yards, 1st down Iowa at the PSU 15.

Adam again, 6 more to the 9. Now Ricky drops back, looks to McNutt to the right, it’s
not there, moves his eyes back toward center, and sees DJK as he flashes open, running
from the right back to the left, in the back of the end zone. Ricky fires it high to clear the
underneath coverage, and DJK leaps to snag it, coming down with both feet in the end
zone (ready for the next level), touchdown Iowa, 10-0, clock at 1:00 left in the 1st.

This Iowa kickoff is returned to the 26, and Royster is only able to gain 2 on 1st down.
Now Bolden drops back, but he needed to get it out quickly and he didn’t – Ballard splits
a double team and fires right up the middle, sack, -8 yards. So ends the 1st quarter – total
yards, Penn State 1, Iowa 148.

After the break the Lions try a quick pass but Nielson breaks it up, another 3 and out.
The punt lands at the 42, another fair catch.

This drive starts with a ARob run that is stuffed for -1, and ends with a pass to Colin that
gains 8 on the 3rd and 10. So we now punt, and the Penn State return man is tackled at
the 14.

We finally allow the Penn State offense a bit of daylight. The drive starts with Ballard
chasing down Bolden as he tries to scramble; the run only gains 2 yards. But now he
fires a pass to the near hash that is caught, and that nets 15 and an actual 1st down. The
next pass, again too high over the middle. Now they try a pitch right, to the back up
tailback, who breaks about two tackles as he runs it for 19 and another 1st down. This
gets them all the way out to the 49, but from here the Hawkeye defense throws up a wall,
and the 3rd down pass deep down the left side is close, but the receiver falls down as it
arrives, no good. Punt, fair catch at the Iowa 16.

The Hawks get one first down on a pass to DJK and a run by Adam, but then stall, and

punt it back to the Lions, ball at their 33.

They now try an end around – and our defense sees it coming all the way, it goes for a
two-yard loss. Sash nearly snags the next pass, but can’t quite get all the way around the
receiver, who then actually catches it, that’s 25 yards for Penn State. They are now at
our 42, but in the next 3 plays, they can only manage to lose 6 feet. The resulting punt is
both weak, and bouncing back toward the line of scrimmage. It rolls out of bounds at the
Iowa 32 for a net of 12 yards.

KOK comes out firing. Stanzi rolls out and finds Marvin to the right, 18 yards. Now he
drops straight back, and finds McNutt again (on the left side) for 18 more – the pass, a
bit low, Marvin stretches down to snag it just before it hits the turf. Adam tears through
weak tackles at the line and carries it for 6, and then he gets 6 more for a 1st down, inside
the Red Zone.

Why not – Adam, right up the gut for 7 more, not just breaking arm tackles, but actually
blowing up linebackers who are flailing helplessly to stop him. How bout one more –
he goes off tackle right, and the corner pylon is there – he dives and…is knocked out of
bounds inside the 1. Well, he might have been a bit gassed, as he can go nowhere on
the 1st and goal from the 1. But Ricky makes the smart move and snaps the ball as soon
as everyone is set, and the line surges forward, and Stanzi follows them in for the Iowa
touchdown and 17-0 lead. Clock at 1:41, let’s see what the Penn State offense can do in
the two-minute drill.

Umm…more than I think we expected. The kickoff is only brought out to the 17, so we
were poised to stuff this attack. A 1st down deep pass is knocked away by Hyde, but then
the Lions toss a screen pass, and that gets into open space and nets 17 yards. A quick
pass to the left gains 7, and PSU calls time out.

They now complete a pass for 10 more, but the flag flies, and holding is the call. Another
screen is tried, but this time the Hawks have it sniffed out, and stop it after only 4 yards.
Now Bolden drops back and tries the deep pass down the near sideline, but the secondary
knew it was coming, and Greenwood steps in front of the receiver to pick it off – but
back behind the line, Clayborn is called for roughing the passer, hardly an extreme
example of the penalty, so the drive lives on. Ball now on the PSU 49, and a quick pass
left is no good. It should have ended right here, but somehow Prater allows the Penn
State wideout to get behind him, and the long pass is caught inside the Iowa 10, with
Shaun finally recovering to knock the guy out of bounds at the 3. PSU calls a timeout,
and they seem like they will take one quick shot into the end zone, it’s either a td or no
good, and then they can kick the field goal. But, thanks to some clock management
issues, they are actually called for a delay of game coming out of the timeout, and from
the 7, they don’t want to risk a play, so the PSU field goal is good, and halftime emerges
with a 17-3 Hawkeye lead.

So, we are all feeling pretty good with the halftime lead, sure the 21-3 lead would have
been better, but we have 30 more minutes to put some distance between us. ESPN never
does give us a classic halftime stats box, but we can glean from some quick pop ups in
the 3rd that the total yards were in favor of Iowa 235 to 144, and we are averaging 6.8

yards on 1st down, while PSU was only managing 1.2.

All right, 3rd quarter now, we just need to stuff the Penn State opening drive to leave no
doubt, and coast our way on home from there.

It didn’t quite work out that way. A quick pass and Royster run bring up a 3rd and 3,
but State connects on a pass over the middle for 11 yards and a 1st down. Another pass
is dropped on the left side, and then Royster for 5 yards, here is another 3rd down, but
the Hawks can’t stop the quick pass for the 4 yards needed. Oh wait, the replay shows
us why – Clayborn is triple teamed – but what the replay also shows is that not one, but
two guys were holding him. Not called, so the drive moves on. Another very quick pass
nets 3, but then the Hawks are burned on a slant pass for 18 more, that’s a 1st down at the
Iowa 20. Another slant gains 9 more, and the Iowa bend-don’t-break defense is about at
the breaking point. About.

The fullback takes the quick handoff but is only able to gain 1 yard up the middle. A
shovel pass to Royster gets the ball to the 5, and then a run by him gets close, but he
falls forward to the 1. 3rd and goal, from 3 feet away, State tries the quick handoff again,
but Ballard has blown past the O-line and drops the fullback for a yard loss. State calls
timeout before facing the 4th and goal.

At the snap, Bolden is in the shotgun, and he rolls out to the right – but there is no one
there to pitch the ball to, so he is going it alone. The Iowa defense is prepared for this;
and they are able to string him out farther than he wanted to go. Finally he makes his
move, but Hunter drills him to stop his momentum, and then Ballard swoops in to wrap
him up and bring him to the ground. At full speed it was hard to tell – but then the side
judge put one hand up and stepped onto the field to mark the ball at about the 1-foot
line. They play is reviewed, and sure enough, Bolden’s helmet broke the plane, but the
ball never does. Iowa ball, 1 yard line, the bend-don’t break defense has lived up to the
billing, once again.

Whew, so in those last two possessions, Penn State could have made it a 17-14 game.
But thanks to their lack of execution, and our defense stepping up to make the critical
play, it remained 17-3, and we were reminded again why Penn State has only beaten us
once in the last decade. Many of these games have been close, but someone always steps
up to make the difference, just as we had witnessed on that drive.

That drive had used up more than half of the 3rd; we get the ball back at 7:11 on the
clock. We are then able to get the ball off the goal line and out to our 35, but stall from
there, and Ryan punts the ball to the Penn State 30.

This drive starts with a bang, an option run by Royster nets 21 yards to get the ball
to midfield, but from there, 3 straight incomplete passes (two of which were near
interceptions) kill the Penn State effort. Punt, ball out of bounds at the 20.

This started a stretch where if you took a nap, you didn’t miss much. Iowa drive, 3 and
out, punt back to Penn State, where they end up with it at the 49. But, they go 3 and out,
and punt it back to us, where it’s downed at the 4.

It seemed like the Iowa offense had then awakened, Stanzi hit Morse for 21, and then up
top to DJK for 45 more, and we were at the PSU 36. But from there, nothing, punt back
to Penn State, ball at the PSU 7.

So begins the series where after State gains a first down, they fail to block Clayborn, who
almost-sacks Bolden, he didn’t because the QB tossed the ball away while going down.
Alas, no one was there, that’s intentional grounding, 15 yards, and loss of down. Drive,
dead, but the punter gets all of this one, 74 yards to the Iowa 15.

Hawks, 3 and out. State fair catches the punt at the 41. Clock, 6:11 of the 4th.

Oh look, another 3 and out. Iowa ball after the punt, at the 21. After 5 plays and one
holding call, Donahue is called out again, another punt, this time 45 yards, caught – no
muffed! – at the Penn State 20, but they fall on it. Living to fight another down. Well, in
this case, one more down.

Bolden goes into the deep drop, and the Iowa defense isn’t expecting anything other than
a pass. The ball is actually pretty badly underthrown, and it’s Prater who snags it, and
then follows his blockers to move all the way across the field, and into the end zone for
the pick-6 and 24-3 lead. Penn State would get the ball one more time, and the backup
QB would get the ball all the way to the Iowa 12, but then the clock hit 0.00, and the
Lions were left with their worst loss to the Hawkeyes, ever.

By point total, that is, I don’t think they really expected to win the game coming in, and
after we snuffed out their back-to-back scoring chances around halftime, it was pretty
much over. I would expect they are on the way to a .500 type season, I don’t see them
being able to score enough against the heavyweight defenses coming up, but the young
offense will be better in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, based on the start that we had, it certainly seemed like we could have put the
game away sooner, and done more with some of our offensive possessions. Fortunately,
those weaknesses were not exposed, and we have had 14 days between games to work on
some things.

Of course, there is a rather big difference between Penn State’s defense (#27 nationally)
and the one we are facing next. Then again, the scales are flipped 100% when it comes to
the offenses from the last game to the next. In that regard, the two weeks we have had to
prepare should be critical to our success on Saturday.

BY Dave Sedgwick

Ah, Penn State week. Got to bring a smile to Hawkeye fans faces, what, with the fact that going all the way back to 2000, they have only topped us once – in 2007, in Happy Valley, in what we consider a down season for Iowa football.

You may also recall how in the last two seasons we were the first to knock them off, both times with State being in the top 5.  In 08, it was the last second field goal that denied them a shot at the national title game, and then last year was of course the Clayborn field goal rain soaked game.  You may also recall that in the Game Notes for Penn State week last year, I stated that by no means would a win by Iowa be considered an upset.  It wasn’t, and as the season ended, the final polls confirmed that.

That was mainly because the Lions had to replace so many starters last year, and hadn’t played anybody before we came in.  This time they have more starters back, and they have in fact played somebody, falling 24-3 at Alabama in week 2.

Otherwise they have topped Youngstown State, Kent State, and Temple – but the win against the Owls last week was far from easy.  Temple had a 13-9 lead on the Lions at halftime, and the 2nd half Penn State turnaround and 22-13 win was probably more to the fact the starting tailback for Temple was knocked out of the game for the 2nd half than Penn State’s execution.  Speaking of execution, though the Lions racked up 439 yards on Temple, they totally fell apart when getting close to the goal line, as their kicker was forced to kick 6 field goals, making 5 of them.  So State only put up 1 offensive touchdown against the Owls 109th ranked total defense.

Suffice to say, our defense is a bit better.

Penn State will attack our defense with a true freshman quarterback, Robert Bolden.  I am sure you heard the news during fall camp; this is the first and only time that a freshman has started the season at QB for Paterno in the 2 centuries he has coached there.  So far, he does look kind of freshman like, with 5 interceptions and 3 passing tds (1 rushing).  Add to that the yardage he gets and his passing efficiency ranking is at #90. Stanzi, by comparison, is #4 in the country.

Of course, you help a young QB along by having a strong running game, and Evan Royster was going to be the key to that when the season started. But through the first 3 games, he was only averaging about 35 yards per contest, so there was a lot of concern in Happy Valley.  But then he exploded against the Owls, racking up 187 on 26 carries, to the tune of 7.2 yards per touch.  Then again, Temple gives up 95.3 rushing yards per game MORE than we do – so we can obviously see what Norm is putting up on the big board in his hospital room (actually, he might be out now, but not coaching in the stadium this week).  Kill the Penn State running game and make the freshman QB beat us.  Late word out of Happy Valley, their right tackle is making his first career start Saturday night – replacing the injured and out for the season starter.  He will at times have to block Daniels.  Good luck.

When we have the ball the Lions will counter with a rushing defense that allows just over 117 yards per game, so we are going to be able to move it on the ground to some degree. State does boast a robust pass defense, ranked a few spots ahead of us at #17 nationally.  But they did give up 229 yards and 2 passing tds when they faced a good team in Alabama, so we should be able to do much the same, provided the line plays well and gives Ricky the time he needs.

And Ricky must continue to play well, take what the defense gives him, and be smart on roll out plays, throw it away if no one is open.  No reason to think he won’t, and the fact we are at home for this one should have he and the rest of the players comfortable and focused on the executing, and that is where we have dominated the Lions – when it matters – in recent years.

Then there are the special teams, obviously such a huge key to our winning success against the Lions lately.  One week after shutting down the talented Ball State return team, State comes in with the 8th best return unit, averaging 29 yards a return.  We know Meyer has the leg to boot touchbacks when we have the wind.  But last week, it seemed that some of those kicks that landed around the 10 or so might have been higher in the air than normal.  Perhaps that was an adjustment the coaches made?  Boot it a bit higher to let the tacklers get downfield more? Maybe I am just seeing things, we just need to stay in our lanes and make the tackle when the opportunity is there.  Still thinking we could see DJK take another one to the house – boy it would be nice to open the Big Ten with one of those!

You might be surprised to learn that Sandeman leads the Big Ten and is #18th nationally with his 14.33 yards per punt return.  That would be even better had the zebras not thrown the bogus flag on his long return last week.  Maybe it’s time for him to find the Promised Land.

I know, Penn State is going to be all fired up to knock off the Hawkeyes after a decade of futility. But they have been all fired up to beat us regularly in the past decade, and as is often the case in football, the better teams will withstand that initial surge and pull away as the execution and fundamentals take over.  And this game is in Kinnick, so the Lions won’t be getting any emotional lift from the sidelines.

How does it all add up?  We don’t have a problem getting the ball into the end zone when we get close.  DJK with a 30+ yard TD catch, McNutt with a fade pattern TD from inside the 15, and Robinson with 2 rushing TDs gets us to 28. Believe it or not, the very young defense that Penn State faced in Alabama simply isn’t as good as ours is – yet.  It will be a long day for Royster and Sash finally gets 1 of the 3 Hawkeye interceptions. Hawkeyes 31, Penn State 13.

If you are heading back to Kinnick this weekend, please be aware there is a dress code to sit inside historic Kinnick stadium. From the home office:

Lastly, remember: If you are to be sitting in an ODD-numbered section of historic Kinnick Stadium, the UI hopes you will participate in Black and Gold Spirit Night by wearing BLACK. If you are to be sitting in an EVEN-numbered section, your color is GOLD. If you are a UI student, BLACK is your favorite color this week…and every week!

So there it is! The entire stadium striped in black and gold.  If it can be done, it will look fantastic under the Musco lights.  And then the Hawkeyes will take the field, and the road to the Big Ten title will begin for real.

GO HAWKS!!!

Sedge

Dave Sedgwick
Vice President
New York Metro Iowa Club
icsedge1@yahoo.com
Class of ‘95

BY DAVE SEDGWICK

Now that the pre-season has ended, I think we can say that the Hawkeyes have done most of what we expected.  That is, blow out all the home games to date. The Debacle in the Desert (part II) aside, we showed that we are a team that has the various components to make a run at the Big Ten title.  Sure there will be some tough games, but provided we don’t give them away as in Tucson, we should be in all of them.

What could be better than announcing our attentions than by laying a 45-0 beat down on a MAC team?  Ok, so the whole Big Ten pretty much beat up on MAC teams last Saturday – whoops, unless you count the Boilermakers and Gophers.  And to some degree, even the Nittany Lions.

Thinks did get off to a bit of a slow start for the Hawkeyes.  Mid 50s with rain on and off – may have taken the players a bit longer to get the blood flowing. After DJK returned the opening kickoff to the 30, Adam got stuffed after just half a yard.  Ricky then had DJK alone across the first down line, and hit him right in the belly, but it bounced away for an incompletion. On 3rd down, Stanzi finds Reisner, and he holds on and rambles for 18 and a 1st down.   ARob gets drilled for nada once again, and now Reisner drops a right-in-his-hands pass over the middle.  Now Ricky finds Alan alone in the flat, and he stretches out with the ball while being driven out of bounds – it’s close, can’t really tell, but ends up being short.  Seems the Iowa bench doesn’t have any idea, either – the play comes in late, and the 4th and inches becomes 4th and 5 with the Delay of Game.  We are reminded that Norm is in the hospital, not KOK.  So ends the first possession, Ryan boots it to the 5 – this time, the guys are not there, touchback.

Now the Iowa defense takes the field, and they seem to have no issues with the chilly air.  On first down, the Cardinals try a pass to the left, but Hyde arrives just as the ball does, no good.  A delayed handoff nets 5, but then a pass over to the right is too high, and Ball State has tossed in the obligatory 3 and out.  The punt sales to the 31, Sandeman brings it back to the Iowa 44.

Now the Iowa offense had finds some rhythm.  Stanzi rolls and finds Alan for 11.  Then DJK for 9, and then Reisner again for 6 more.  Ricky is taking the underneath stuff, what the defense is giving him, not pushing it in the iffy weather.  ARob gets the next snap and gains 4 out of it, and then on 2nd down, gets a draw play, and rumbles for 10 more and a Hawkeye 1st down at the Ball State 14.

Might as well stick with what’s working, Adam for 9 more to the BSU 4 yard line.  Once more with feeling, he gets the ball to the 1, that’s a 1st and goal from 3 feet away.  Hawks try to stuff it right down the middle, but both 1st and 2nd down fail to move the ball more than a foot.  Finally, on 3rd down, the Iowa play callers figure out that the Cardinals are crashing the gaps – thus, Adam gets it off tackle left, and strolls in for the Hawkeye touchdown and 7-0 lead.  We are surprised to see that true freshman Meyer is doing the scoring kicks as well as the kickoffs (apparently, Mossbrucker’s blocked extra point last week was too low – benched, Murray nursing a slight injury).

Then we all hold our breath as the Iowa kickoff team takes the field.  This kick lands at the 15, and is returned to the 30, but the Cardinals hold, so they start from the 19.  This drive starts well, with a dump off pass that nets 15 and a 1st down.  But from here, an illegal motion and false start penalties doom the drive, and the punt is booted from the BSU 27.

This kick is pretty good, and Colin snags it at the Hawkeye 20.  He moves left, and the return team sets up a little bit of a screen – he breaks a tackle, gets the near sideline, and there is no one there!  50-40-30-20-15! And down at the 12.  No wait; there is a flag for a block in the back.  The replay shows that in fact there wasn’t – the Cardinal was cleaned out with a perfectly legal block to his side.  Of course, the flag isn’t picked up, so we start with the ball back at our 31.

Adam starts this drive with a bang, blowing through about 2 arm tackles en route to a 15-yard scamper.  Stanzi hits Reisner for 8, then ARob cleans up the 1st with 2 more.  Another 4 yard run is followed by a 15-yard strike to McNutt, and here we are at the Ball State 23.  Adam then finds nothing, and a pass to DJK is broken up, bringing up the 3rd and 10.  Here Ricky finds Marvin again, but it’s just for 4 yards, and the 1st quarter ends with the Hawks up 7-0, and lining up for our first field goal of the 2010 season.

Too bad for Meyer, I’m pretty sure before your first college field goal, you just want to run out there and kick it.  Instead, he has to wait for the extra long quarter changeover timeout – and though he has plenty of distance, the kick just hooks left.  Ball State takes over from the 20.

Now the Cardinals insert the running QB Page.  As we could have guessed, he carries it and gains 8 yards.  We stuff the 2nd down run, and BSU is called again for illegal motion, bringing up a 2nd and 7.  This time, the Iowa defense is slightly fooled by the option, and the tailback takes it 9 yards for a 1st down at the Ball State 32.

After this play, the Cardinals bring back the throwing QB, Wenning.  This time, the Iowa defense guesses correctly.  The line is applying the heat, and I don’t think Wenning can really see what is going on downfield, because he heaves it down the near sideline, but the only ones there when it falls to earth are Hyde and Sash.  Micah has the ball drop into his belly as he falls out of bounds – but he has the feet on the green, and that’s a turnover, Hawkeye ball at our 27.

This looks really promising – ARob for 16 to start the drive, then a little pass to McNutt in the near flat gains 4.  On this play, Marvin is not really hit – the cornerback just kind of grabs McNutt’ s leg to bring him down.  But Marvin gets up slowly and walks off, and that was the last we would see of him for the game.  Kirk said afterword that he’s fine and should be good to go. Keenan Davis now enters the game, and he would have his moment as the game moved on.

But this drive ends with a pass to DJK that he dives for as he flies out of bounds – he had in when in play, but didn’t come down with it, so that’s incomplete, Donahue drops the punt down at the 14, where there is a fair catch.

Ball State starts with a 4 yard run, but then on 2nd down, Daniels flies thru the offensive line and drops the tailback for a 4-yard loss.  The 3rd down pass into the flat nets about 8 feet, and the Cardinals are once again punting, this time from their 15-yard line.

Colin parks himself at the Iowa 48 for the fair catch, and the yellow hankie flies again – it’s on Ball State, for an illegal formation on a punt.  Last time you saw that?  Cardinals, very generous, giving us those hidden yards that we really didn’t need.

So now from the BSU 47, Adam gains a lonely yard, and we hold on top of that, for a 1st and 20.  Welcome to the game Keenan, he makes a diving grab for 4 yards.  Now Davis slips unnoticed into the zone gap along the near sideline, and Ricky finds him for 20 more, and a Hawkeye 1st down.  This snap is fumbled, but Stanzi is able to pick it up and fire to DJK, but it comes up short.  Adam now, first for 8 yards, and then 5 more for a first down at the BSU 20. 3rd time is the charm, he goes off tackle left, and rumbles for 13 more to a 1st and goal from the BSU 7.  Ricky now rolls out to the right, and has enough time for Keenan to streak across the field – the window is rather small, but Stanzi fires it in there, it’s caught, Davis, touchdown Iowa, 14-0.  The Cardinal defensive back drills Keenan after the catch, and that’s determined to be a personal foul – 15 yards, to be applied to the kickoff.

Which is now from the Iowa 45, return this Cardinals, Meyer just misses booting the ball through the uprights – touchback.

Clock is now at 5:40 of the 2nd.  BSU starts with a 5-yard run, and then a pass for 11.  Binns and Tarp stuff the next run for -2; and then Adrian gets in on the action, and the tailback finds him squarely in the hole he hoped to run through.  No such luck, that’s no gain.  Now the passing QB is under pressure, and he takes off to the left – he gets about 4 yards before being hit – and somehow Hyde flies in from nowhere and dives underneath the falling quarterback. This knocks the ball out of his hands a millisecond before he hits the ground, and Hunter falls on it.  The play is reviewed, we see it about 8 times, but there is not enough there to overturn the call on the field.  Hawkeye ball, Ball State 38 yard line.

Ricky hits DJK for 11, and then Adam runs for 5 more, bringing up 2nd and 5 from the BSU 22.  Stanzi drops back, and it doesn’t take him long to see that DJK has gotten behind the cornerback and safety – how that happens in a 20 yard field, I’m not exactly sure.  The pass is right on the money, and DJK collects it carefully in the now more intense rain, and carries it across the goal line, touchdown Iowa, 21-0.

Meyer boots this kick well into the end zone, no return. A pass nets 4 yards, but then on 2nd down, BSU tries a draw play, only they again forget to block Daniels – that’s a loss of 4 yards.  Hawks call timeout.  Another haul nets only 3, and after the Iowa timeout, the Cardinals punt the ball to the Iowa 46.

Ok, here we go.  1:32 on the clock, 1 timeout, let’s do this Hawkeyes!  Ah, we do have the middle screen in the playbook – it’s to Adam, and he rumbles downfield 20 yards before being tripped up.  Stanzi is now called for a false start, so we fall back to 1st and 15 when Ricky finds ARob again for 10 yards, on a dump off right down the middle.  We are at the BSU 32, well in field goal range, but we want more. Alas, this snap is also fumbled – rain not helping the exchange, obviously, though couldn’t really tell from this replay if fault is with Ricky or James (Ferentz).

We kind of expected the Cardinals to just kill off the remaining time, but no, they try to hand the ball off, and this time Daniels is almost close enough to grab the ball.  Which he misses, but he does not miss the tailback, and he blows him up and plows him right through the helpless quarterback for a 5-yard loss.  BSU learns the hard way, and downs the ball to bring an end to the 1st half.

I imagine that in the pink locker room, the coaches were reminding the players that BSU was getting a cool 800k for this appearance. Through 30 minutes, that had bought them:

24 rushing yards – Iowa 103
30 passing yards – Iowa 178
54 total yards  - Iowa 281
3 first downs  - Iowa 15
time of possession
BSU 11:22, Iowa 18:38

Big Ten booth guys are going out of their way to mention that the Ball State coaches are in a rebuilding mode; a very young team, they are targeting 2012 to be their return to the top of the MAC and bowl appearances (last one after 2008).  The game is working out well for both of us, they get their money, and we get our tune-up.

Meyer boots the 2nd half kickoff to the 11, and the Hawkeye coverage team makes the tackle at the 26.  The running QB Page is back in, and tries a read/option run, hands it off, but for no gain.  2nd down, he rolls out looking to pass, but the coverage is there, and he is forced out of bounds for a 2 yard loss.  He rolls out again to the right and completes a 6 yard dump off, but that’s not enough, 3 and out to open the 3rd quarter. The punt is downed at the Iowa 34.

Adam now for 3 yards, and then Stanzi finds Davis for 15 yards down the sideline, 1st down Hawkeyes.  ARob again for 8, but the zebras determine he achieved this through holding, so we are back to our 45.  Stanzi drops back and scans the field, but nothing is there deep, so he just tosses to Adam over the middle.  He makes the catch, and turns to find 3 Cardinal defenders just in front of him.  Even at full speed it looked like slow motion – as he surged to get the corner turned, the Ball State guys kind of stumble over themselves and – he’s in the clear!  40-30-20, DJK is man-handing the cornerback as Adam chews up the yards behind him.  But at about the 15, Adam is forced to cut it back inside, and the pursuit catches up, he is downed at the Ball State 7.  48 yards.  No rest for the weary, Adam once more, almost there – but downed at the 1.  Now a play action pass to Herman, all alone to the right of the end zone, in his hands…and dropped. Enough of this, Stanzi hands it to Adam and he follows his fullback as the gap opens to the right, touchdown Iowa, 28-0.

This kickoff lands at the 5 and is returned to the 25. So far so good, no nervous moments from the kickoff coverage team.  Hawkeye defense has just forced a 3 and out with a Ballard sack, but he gets a piece of the QB’s facemask, that’s a penalty, 1st down.  A run gains 3 yards, and then Hyde steps in front of a quick pass and nearly picks it, it falls incomplete.  At this point, the Big Ten Network puts up a stat box with the total yardage by Adam Robinson, 190, and Ball State’s offense, 65.

Back to the game, a run nets another 1st, but then they gain nothing for two plays, and the drive is finally killed off when Page drops back to pass and finds Daniels once again roaming the offensive backfield.  That would be a sack, the four tackles for a loss + one sack earn Mike Daniels the (co) Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.  Ball State punts, and the ball is downed at the Iowa 26.

It turns out that would be it for Adam, his day was done, and the Hawks began inserting some younger guys into the lineup.

It wasn’t Coker who replaced Adam to start with; it was redshirt freshman tailback Brad Rogers.  At 5’10 and 215, he’s a bit of a load.  First carry, 9 yards.  How bout another – 10 yards, but we are called for holding. Three more Rogers carries net 3, 4 and then 18 yards, for a Hawkeye 1st down at the Ball State 45.  The play action then sucks in the Ball State linebackers, and Ricky has all day to watch DJK once again gain space behind the defense.  He fires it over the top and right down the middle – 4 players converge at the goal line as the ball arrives, but it’s DJK who is in the back, and the pass settles into his hands as he falls into the end zone.  Touchdown Iowa, 45-yard pass, 35-0 lead.

So ends Ricky’s day. Not a bad way to hit the showers.

Ball State’s next possession does gain one first down, and also sees the 3rd quarter come to an end, but it ends with another near Hawkeye interception, and the Cardinals punt from their 40, into the Hawkeye end zone for a touchback.

Vandenberg now takes the field, along with the Coker, and the rest of the 2nd team offense.  Here you go Marcus; his first Iowa carry gets him 3 feet. But he was just getting warmed up. KOK then calls an end around to Chaney Jr, he hauls it 17 yards down the near sideline, 1st down. Back to the running game, Coker for 6 yards, then 5.  He then drops a pass in the flat, but James then hands it to him again, that’s 8 yards.  Why stop?  Coker takes the handoff and surges up the middle, plowing through meek arm tackles along the way.  When it’s done, he has galloped 22 yards downfield, and the Cardinal defenders have no choice but to bring him down with the facemask. That’s a penalty, 15 yards. Hawkeye 1st down at the Ball State 13.

Marcus gets one more carry, and he moves it to the 10-yard line.  Now Vandenberg rolls out, but finds nothing, and gains 3 yards as he steps out of bounds. Facing a 3rd and 3, James drops back, and fires it over the middle to Sandeman, he’s in, touchdown Iowa, and finally we have crossed the 40 point plateau – 42-0 Hawkeyes.  And a very nice 10 play, 80 yard drive by the 2nd team offense.

Now the defense is pretty fully substituted, but it makes no difference to the Cardinal offense, they quietly return to the sideline after another 3 and out.  The punt lands at the Iowa 32, where Chaney Jr catches it.

Now we get a bit of a combination of the young tailbacks. First, Rogers, 7 yards, plus another facemask penalty, 15 more.  Rogers, 7 more.  Then Coker, but this play is blown up for a 3-yard loss.  James then hits Coker over the middle, and he make the catch this time, and stiff-arms his way to 17 yards and another Hawkeye 1st down.  He takes another handoff and goes off-tackle right – there is no one there – that’s 15 more yards, and a 1st down.  Rogers then almost loses the ball as it pops out with the hit, but it flies out of bounds, disaster averted.  But the drive stalls at the Ball State 19, where Meyer once again lines up for his first Hawkeye field goal.  This one, 25 yards, straight and true, and right down the middle.  45-0 Hawkeyes, and that would be all the scoring for the day.

Two more event-less possessions bring the game, and the non-conference slate, to an end.
The Hawkeyes have executed the game plan as it was drawn up, with an easy win, no major injuries, and the ability to get well down in the 2 deep for some live action snaps.

The stats are quite a thing to behold.  Total yards for Ball State 112, Iowa, 562.
The Cardinals could only manage 3/13 on 3rd downs, while we were 8/12.  Stanzi, 19 for 25, 288 yards, and 3 tds.  Adam, 22 carries for 115 yards, 5.2 per haul.  Brad, 9 carries for 66 yards, 7.3 a carry. Marcus, 10 for 60 yards, an even 6.0 per tug.  We knew about Adam already, we saw that Marcus and Brad can also take a hit and keep on going. They should provide us with a nice rotation going forward, provided everyone stays healthy, of course.

So now, the nine week run to what we hope is a Big Ten title can begin for real.  It won’t be easy, I’m sure there will be some very tense moments, and I also think we might surprise a few teams by how easily we beat them.  It all starts Saturday night in Kinnick, in front of a national tv audience on ESPN.  And look who should come a calling, but the program that put us back on the map way back in 2000.

BY DAVE SEDGWICK

Week Four Preview: Ball State at Iowa

The Hawks will look a wee bit different as they take the field Saturday – it’s another
Throwback game, this time saluting the late 50s Hawkeyes of Forest Evashevski.

The Cardinals are off to a 1-2 start, winning in week 1 against S.E Missouri State, then
falling in week 2 to Liberty, and then giving Purdue a bit of a fight before falling last
week 24-13.

They have been using a dual QB set up so far, Wenning being more pure passer, with
Page being a more run pass combo guy. When combined, they only average 128 passing
yards a game, which is #90th in the Div.1 rankings to date. They do run the ball a bit
better, at nearly 180 a game, which gets them up to #44th. Two tailbacks, Williams and
Skyes, both average over 5.0 yards a carry, so we can see from here what the attack

strategy shall be.

That is, take away the running game, which is something we should be able to do, and
then focus on the already below average passing attack.

Oh, and then there is this – the Cardinals average 31.9 yards per kickoff return – good
enough for #6 nationally. As noted above – intense special teams practice this week.
For comparison, we are at 24.8 yards, ranked #4 in the Big Ten, and #29 overall.

Then there is the backup tailback question when we have the ball. It is looking like two
current-redshirt freshmen could get the call-up, #44 Marcus Coker, and #30, De’Andre
Johnson. Neither was going to figure in our plans when fall camp started, so we’ll see
how they look if they get the chance. But as long as Adam is ok, and playing well, he
will most likely be a 20+ carry type of #1 back the rest of the way.

(As of Thursday, it now appears that Coker will be the backup).

Let’s not forget that the loss to the Wildcats was about our lack of execution – you don’t
expect to have an extra point blocked, you don’t expect a pass that hits Marvin in the
hands to pop up into the air, you don’t expect DJK to drop a ball just feet from the end
zone. So we didn’t lose that game because they were better than us, and the way we were
able to rally sent out word that no matter how we might look in one possession or quarter,
the Iowa Hawkeyes are going to fight for 60 minutes. And it only takes one big play or
mistake by the opposition to get us going in the right direction.

But for the next two weeks, we should not have to rely on our amazing ability to come
back. We must be front-runners against Ball State, and put that game away by the 3rd
quarter, so we can get in more backups in the 4th. Then the Lions come to town, with a
true freshman quarterback, and a running game that is struggling to find any success. Oh,
and we open the Big Ten season at home, which is a worthy note all in itself. So we shall
be 4-1, 1-0 heading into our bye week, rested and ready for the tough three game slate in
October. Remember, the Hawkeyes under Kirk get stronger as the season changes and
the conference slate appears. The Big Ten title and Rose Bowl berth, and yes – rematch
with Arizona, are still right there to be had. One tune up game this Saturday, and then the
road to Pasadena starts in Kinnick come October.

GO HAWKS!!!

Sedge

Dave Sedgwick
Vice President
New York Metro Iowa Club
icsedge1@yahoo.com
Class of ‘95

BY DAVE SEDGWICK

Week Three Recap:

Arizona Wildcats 34 – Iowa Hawkeyes 27

Well my friends try as I might, I can’t recall a somewhat recent game where we
experienced such depths of despair, and then sheer elation, only then to be tossed back
down into a pit of misery and agony. Maybe there was one, and I have successfully
blocked it from my memory, as I hope to soon do with this debacle.

But as you might expect, I would look for some kind of positivity, and have found it.

The first, of course, is that this team took the body blows that would have been fatal to
many visiting teams; got up, took a few more shots, then found our footing, and began
slugging back. Notice served to Big Ten opponents – once again, no 4th quarter lead is
safe.

As you saw, the reason we were able to mount that comeback was the 2nd half play by the
Iowa defense. By my count, they basically held the Wildcat offense to 13 points – all the
rest of them came from our special teams and offensive mistakes. So while we did give
up over 300 passing yards, and yes, the game winning drive was way to easy, the Iowa
defense did its job, as we can expect them to do every week.

If the game itself wasn’t bad enough, it was compounded by both inexplicable decision-
making by ESPN, and their downright terrible production quality during the game.
Remember how this was the one and only Div.1 game between ranked teams? You
would think maybe they could have moved the start of the game to ESPN News or ESPN
Deportes? No, it’s on ESPN3. Which you can’t watch if you are in a bar, or you can’t
watch if your have Time Warner as your internet provider, among others. (Personal
gripe).

Then again, certain Hawkeye fans might have begun spontaneous combustion had they
actually been able to see the first 5 minutes. Getting those score updates via mobile
phone was bad enough, seeing it was downright brutal.

Normally I agree with the ball-first strategy that Kirk employs, though I had kind of
been thinking that this game might have started best with the defense on the field. It
didn’t, the Hawkeyes took the ball, and the Arizona kickoff sailed into the end zone for a
touchback.

The stadium was rocking, and the Cats had the boxed stacked, but KOK had Adam run
right into the line twice, failing to gain a yard on either carry. So began a dismal day for
ARob. On the 3rd down, Ricky does have McNutt open down the far sideline; the deep
pass is just overthrown, and falls incomplete. Hawks line up for the punt, and I wonder
just how far Donahue can boot this pigskin through that thin, desert air

Oh, about 3 feet. Hard to tell from the replays, but I can discern the snap was low, that
might have been the critical split second that was the difference – the block came from
the middle, right where Ryan was booting it. The ball bounced around for a few seconds,
and then fell to the Cats, who had the ball at the Iowa 8 when it was over. Punting was
not supposed to be our weak special teams link (and was in fact ok the rest of the game).
If we only knew then how the kicking side would reclaim it’s status as the wobbly
segment in the moments ahead.

So now the Iowa defense accepts the challenge from the special teams, and the Cats give
us a delay of game on 1st down to assist. Foles tries a semi-fade into the end zone, but the
pass is just barely overthrown. Now on 2nd down he completes a pass to the 5, bringing
up the 3rd and goal. This pass was right over the middle, and it sure looked like Sash had
it covered, but the ball slipped through and the Hawks were trailing 7-0. I think some
people were miffed that the Iowa defense hadn’t been able to force a field goal there.

With the extreme hoopla in the stands, and the huge shift in early momentum, I can’t find
fault with the defense allowing a TD from 8 yards out.

Fine, they scored first, now what are we going to do about it? Well, we still can’t see it
on TV, but the play updates were coming through via mobile, and it looked promising.

Hawks start with the ball at the 20 after a touchback. Stanzi takes to the air and finds
Reisner alone down the seam; it’s good for 25 yards and a Hawkeye 1st down. Jewel is
in now, but is stopped for no gain, and then a pass to DJK is no good, bringing up a 3rd
and 10. Somehow the Cats lose DJK this time, and Ricky hits him for 16 and another 1st
down. Now Jewel finds a crack, and explodes through it for 17 yards to the Wildcat 21.
5 plays, here we are at the red zone, tie game coming up.

On this 1st down, Ricky takes the quick drop back, and fires it to McNutt, who is running
a quick slant from the left of the formation. The ball hits him in the hands – but then
pops up into the air, and there is no one around but two Arizona defensive backs. It’s
grabbed by the same guy who had the pick-6 on Ricky last year – but this one was
not Stanzi’s fault. He gives chase, but can’t get the angle covered, and it goes all the
way back, 85 yards, for a touchdown. Hawks trail 14-0, and Iowa fans everywhere are
stunned.

We get the ball at the 20 again, and the drive moves as far as midfield, but stalls. This
drive is noted for the first of the ESPN errors, as there was a run by ARob where the ball
came out (he was down), it was reviewed by the officials, but we never saw a replay on
tv. This is just the 1st time this would happen. We had finally gotten past the all-too
typical questions and answers from the previous post game, and the coverage had come
on during this drive.

Just in time to see Donahue punt the ball to the 12, where there was a fair catch – but
Hyde runs into the guy, so that’s a 15-yard penalty. The Hawkeye defense soon forces a
3rd down and 3, and if they can get the stop, we should have the ball in good shape. But
Foles goes up over the top, and here is Hyde again, a step slow, and the pass is caught for
46 yards to the Hawkeye 15.

Now Grigsby gets the handoff and finds room over the right side. It looks like he is
going to be close, but Tarpinian swoops in and knocks the ball to the turf, where Hunter
falls on it – disaster averted.

All right, ball at the 7, we already have a few 90+ yard td drives this season, let’s
announce that we are not going away by adding another one. Jewel for 3 yards on 1st
down, then 4 more on 2nd. Seems that KOK must have seen something, because we
suddenly go deep-pass crazy. The first one is to McNutt, on this 3rd down. It’s fired
down the near sideline, and Marvin leaps up to grab it, going through the Wildcat
cornerback who is committing pass interference on the play. No matter, it’s caught,
that’s good for 37 yards to the Hawkeye 48. Ricky drops back, and fires deep for Davis,
but overshoots him. Once again, Stanzi drops back, and heaves it for DJK, also down
the near sideline, he is nowhere to be seen as the ball falls to the turf, it’s because he
was grabbed on the route, that’s pass interference again, now we are on the Arizona 38.

This time Ricky hits Marvin for 11 underneath, and then somehow fires a strike (through
good double coverage) to DJK for a 1st down at the Wildcat 5. Jewel is stuffed on this 1st
down, and the 1st quarter comes to a close with the annoying symmetry of another 14-0
score – this time, on the wrong side of it.

But here we are, ready to change that. Ricky tries to hit DJK over the middle – that’s
triple coverage, good to see it sail high and safely out of bounds. We face the 3rd and
goal from the 4, and the Wildcats do us a favor by calling time out

Ricky drops back, and seems to hold it a bit too long, but then Jewel flashes open on
the underneath dump down, and Stanzi finds him for the 4 yard touchdown. 9 plays, 93
yards, 3:50 off the clock. 14-7 now, here we come Cats, Iowa defense bout to bring the
heat.

Sadly, this time, the Iowa kick team pushed the challenge a bit too far. Meyer boots it
to the goal line, and as they brings it out, we seem to have the middle of the field (where
the returner is heading) well spaced and secured. There are at least 3 missed tackles
that I could count, all between the 20 and 35 yard lines. After that, the far sideline is
gained, and it’s up to Meyer to get there and shut off the angle. He can’t, and it goes
for 100 yards and a 21-7 Arizona lead. The shot of Kirk on the sideline tells the story –
something is amiss, because he didn’t prepare his football team to execute like this.

Both teams now trade 3 and outs, and the Hawks get the ball back at our own 44 in the
exchange. Ricky hits Davis for 12 yards on 1st down. Now Stanzi drops back, has time,
and spots DJK streaking down the near sideline behind the defense. The ball arrives right
where it should, at about the 3-yard line – but DJK is just a bit slow to it, and it falls to
the ground off his outstretched hands. Opportunity missed.

3 play later we are punting, and Ryan dutifully bounces the ball at the 6 yard line – we
have 2 guys there to down it – but they somehow lose track of the ball, and it bounces
twice more and into the end zone for a touchback. Special teams botch, those are about
15 of those hidden yards that we have just given to Arizona.

We now see the more classic bend don’t break Iowa defense as the Cats execute a 11
play drive all the way to our 4, but the Hawkeye defense will yield no further, and the
Cats kick a field goal for a 24-7 lead. But we were left to wonder, could they done that if
starting at their 5-yard line?

Our next drive, at 5:42 of the 2nd, starts out well. Sandeman snags a pass for 13 yards
over the middle. Now Ricky scrambles for 17 more. Colin again, 12 yards, now at the
Cat 38. Now Ricky fires for DJK in the end zone – double coverage again, and Stanzi is
lucky that the safety drops a rather easy pick. Now Adam for 2 yards, and the 3rd down
pass to McNutt is again off his hands, and looks scary for a brief moment, but then falls
to the ground. Donahue can’t land this one in the field; it overflies the entire end zone for
another touchback.

The Cats now rather easily move to our 29, but the drive ends when Prater nearly picks
off a 3rd down pass. No problem for the next generation of the Zendejas family, he boots

the 47-yard field goal through, and Hawks trail 27-7.

Davis returns the squib kick to the 42, but Ricky is not able to get off the Hail Mary, so
the half ends with his 7 yard run. Mercifully.

So, knowing our penchant for 2nd half miracles, I immediately update my Facebook status
with ‘We can win 28-27.’

The general consensus of the halftime discussion group was that a: that’s as about as bad
as the Hawks can play, and b: those things tend to iron out, so if we count on the defense
to make it tough, maybe some breaks will come our way. If anything, we have held the
ball for 18:36 in the 1st half – the Arizona defense might be gassed as the game moves on.

The Hawks kick off to open the 3rd, and this kick sails safely into the end zone for
a touchback. The Cats mange one 1st down, but the Hawks stuff them from there;
Sandeman returns the punt to the 35-yard line (20 yards).

Hawks call timeout before the 1st snap of the 2nd half. Ricky looks upset, perhaps safe to
assume KOK got the play in late. Ricky runs a bootleg, but the pass is underthrown. On
2nd down, Stanzi gets sacked, loss of 7 yards. Sandeman now catches one to get 7 back,
but it’s 4th down, and Ryan boots it 60 yards, tackle made at Arizona 13.

The Cats start with a 4-yard run, but then on 2nd down, Foles fires it deep down the left
sideline – Hyde is there with perfect coverage this time, and the pass is broken up. But
no, he is called for pass interference, a complete BS call, and even the likes of Bob Davie
up the booth can’t believe it. But the Hawkeyes kill the drive at the Arizona 40, and the
resulting punt is a bad one, bouncing outside the Iowa 30, back toward the middle of the
field, where it rolls out at the 37. After the play, a Cat takes a cheap shot somewhere
(ESPN never shows it to us), so they tack a 15-yard personal foul; here we are at the
Wildcat 48.

Adam runs it for just a yard, then Ricky hits DJK for 11 on the dangerous out pattern –
but no risk this time, Stanzi fired it in there with flames shooting out the back. 1st down
Hawkeyes, and the play action gives Ricky the time to survey the field – when he finds
DJK again, this time on the post route, with the secondary tailing behind. Ricky heaves
it up top, and it’s caught at the 5, with DJK stretching out his arms to break the plane, not
needed as he carries it in. Boom! 27-14, 2nd half magic alive and well.

The kickoff is a touchback, but the Cats rather quickly get the ball to the Iowa 38. But on
1st down, they false start. On that 1st and 15, Tarpinian runs a stunt route, while Daniels
is throwing aside the lineman blocking him – the result is a sack and 12 yard loss. Now
the Cats try some kind of read/option run, and the Hawks blow it up for a 4-yard loss. 3rd
and 31, back to the Arizona 41, the dump off goes for 12 yards, and the Cats are punting
once again, Iowa ball at our 27.

Well, the drive that starts now certainly looked like it had potential, this was the one with
the two pass interference calls, the 2nd one being where McNutt had his helmet ripped off.
But at the very start of the drive, Jewel had carried the ball for 4 yards. It looked like

maybe his knee got banged into on the tackle – he is slow to get up, and needs help to
get off the field. The news came from Kirk today (Tuesday) – it’s a knee injury (not the
same one), surgery is needed, and Hampton is now out for the season. As bad as it seems
for Hawkeye football, I can’t imagine the feelings going through the head of that young
man right now. Hard to say what his future will hold, if he is up for it, I hope to see him
take the field in the Black and Gold again.

This drive eventually dies, and Arizona returns the punt to the 30, but block in the back
while doing so, so ball at the 23. They complete two quick passes for 7 and then 5
yards, and then run for 1 more. On this 2nd and 8, Tarpinian is in there once again, and
drills Foles for a 10-yard sack. But, Clayborn flies in at the last second, and is called for
hitting Foles up high, that’s a personal foul, 15 yards. Now they run for 2 yards, but as
the play ends, the Cats give us a personal foul right back, so it’s 2nd and 27. They run a
wide-receiver screen, but the corner is turned because of a block in the back, 2nd and 33
from the Zona 19. Two passes get 14 yards back, and the punt sails out of bounds at the
Hawkeye 33.

Clock now at 10:11; time to make our move. Ricky tries to hit McNutt, but this one is
tipped again, and almost intercepted. Now on 2nd down, Ricky is sacked, and he feels
the heat again on 3rd down, but escapes, though his pass is knocked down. 3 and out,
Donahue in again, we need stops, time is a wasting.

Ryan’s punt sails 53 yards, and the return man isn’t set long when the ball arrives – it
bounces off his chest, and right into the arms of Prater, who cradles it as he crashes into
the return man and lays on the ground with the ball firmly in his grasp. The Cats emerge
with the ball in the ensuing pile up, but the play is reviewed, and Shaun was down by
contact as soon as he hit the turf with the ball. It took long enough, but it has happened –
there is the break we are looking for, Iowa ball at the Wildcat 18.

Ricky wastes no time, and fires a floater down toward the far pylon, where Marvin can
use his height advantage in the jump ball – he leaps, snags it, and comes down – hard to
tell at first if in bounds or not. The play is ruled incomplete, and a flag is there on the
field, and it’s pass interference on Arizona. The play does go to review, so it’s either an
Iowa touchdown, or a penalty on the Cats. It takes a few minutes – and this time we do
get the replays from ESPN, sure enough, it looks like the moment the ball settles into his
hands, his right foot is in bounds. The referee returns from the hooded monitor, and viola
– Iowa touchdown! 27-21, here we come!

Arizona brings the kickoff out of the end zone, but we make the tackle at the 20, clock is
at 8:12. Shots of Wildcat fans in the stands show scenes of dread and fear. Good reason.
1st down, a 2 yard pass, Hawks swam for the tackle. Now Foles drops back again, but
some of the Iowa lineman trick him, and don’t rush forward, but actually step back into
coverage. He fails to see this and fires a quick out pattern, but there is Binns, the big
guy has no trouble reaching out and intercepting the pass, and the FIELD IS CLEAR
AS HE RUNS IT TO THE 15-10-5 TOUCHDOWN IOWA! A pick 6 of our own! By
a defensive lineman! 27 all, lead coming as soon as we kick the extra point! Chaos at
Opal and every other Hawkeye bar around the nation, among the 12,000 Hawkeye fans in
the stadium, and looks of absolute shock on the Arizona sideline. Hawks line up for the

extra point, and ESPN zooms back for the shot from the other end zone.

And they are so quick to bring in the graphic that covers up the edges of the shot, so we
cant even see how high the ball gets, or where it lands. As they go to commercial the
booth guys say ‘no good’, but at that point, or even after the break, we never do see a
replay of what happened. Seems the kick was too low, and the guys just jumping behind
the line got a finger on it. I still don’t know how close it came to going through, if it ever
did.

So the score now sits at 27 all as we kick off, and it’s returned to the 28. Based on what
happened next, I think that extra point was one of the most devastating mistakes of the
day. If you know Arizona’s recent football history, they have suffered several late and
agonizing losses over the years, and many of their fans were considering this the biggest
out-of-conference home game for them in something like 20 years. So if we had indeed
grabbed the lead there, I think the mental hurdle for the Cats could have been substantial
– and any doubt or hesitation in the players would be feasted on by the Iowa defense.
But because the score was tied, they came out, seemed relaxed, and had no trouble
summing up the courage to attack down the field.

It starts with an over the top pass right down the middle, to yes ESPN we know, Foles
roommate, and he just barely gets behind Sash and Greenwood to dive for the ball.
Caught, a 37-yard pass. Now a pass for 5 yards, and then another for 14 yards, and the
Cats are already at the Iowa 15. Now they tried a pitch to Grigsby, but he can’t get the
corner, and is drilled for a 6-yard loss. 2nd and 16 from the 21, this pass goes for 15 to
our 6. Hawks were just a step slow everywhere on this drive. Timeout Arizona, with the
3rd and 1. Now they hand it go Grigsby, he gets the 2 yard carry, 1st and goal at our 4.

The Hawkeye defense stops the 1st down run for nothing, and the 2nd down pass is
knocked down in the end zone. On 3rd down, the D-line isn’t able to get enough pressure,
Foles is able to step up, and fires the quick strike for the td and 34-27 lead.

No problem, the clock at 3:57, and DJK has just carried the kickoff out to the Iowa 37.
Plenty of time, two timeouts left, if Arizona is thinking we are just going to pass it down
the field, we can do underneath stuff, draws, etc, time is on our side.

1st down, Ricky confidently drills one to DJK, caught, 7 yards to our 44. Now it’s 2nd and
3, and Stanzi drops back from center, but hesitates, and is smothered for a 9-yard sack.
Timeout Iowa, and at the return, we face the 3rd and 12 from our 35. But in the noise of
the stadium, the Iowa line moves, and that’s a false start, now 3rd and 17.

You know what happens next. Ricky drops back again, looks too long, sacked. Now 4th
and 25, he again drops back, but the blitz is coming, and the line can’t contain it, nowhere
to go, Ricky goes down, and with it our hopes for the comeback, and the continuation of
dreams beyond the Rose Bowl.

Guess it is only fitting in a game like this that the breakdowns should show up where it’s
not expected they should. Ok, if we are going to come out on that drive and attack down
the field, how bout having Ricky in the shotgun? He was under center for all four snaps.

Once the 2nd down sack happened, why still trying to throw downfield? We knew they
were going to come at us with everything they had – had about a blitz killing screen
pass. How about a 3-step drop into a quick slant to McNutt? Throw the ball 7 yards and
let him run with it. The corners were playing off of the wideouts – obviously hedging
against long passes. How bout a quick out pass to DJK, let him get the ball in space to
see what he can do? Nope, we ran the entire series like it was just another drive in the 2nd
quarter somewhere. That’s not on Ricky, or the O line for their failure to block – it’s the
play calling.

On top of this mess, the injury news also includes Bruce Davis, the linebacker, it’s a
knee for him as well, and looks likely out for the season. Paki would have moved into
the #2 tailback spot, but he had a mild concussion in the game, so he is likely out. Iowa
Football 2010 is summoning the spirits of Iowa Football 2004. Those parallels keep
popping up. Let’s hope it can end the same way.

The stats for this one were about as ugly as the execution. We only managed 30 net
yards of rushing (sacks come out of that number, there were 6 of them). Adam, 10
carries for 5 yards. I don’t know if something was amiss with him, he didn’t seem to
attack the hole with the usual vigor that his displays, though he was often being hit in the
backfield, so that could be part of it. Jewel was doing better, averaging 4.4 per touch,
I think having the threat of his speed on the final series would have made a difference.
Ricky, 18 for 33 for 278 and 3 tds. The one interception was not his fault this time.

The Iowa defense only allowed 63 net rushing yards; when they are able to do that, we
usually see them clamp down on the passing better than they did this week. But once
again, the 14 points they didn’t actually give up loom large in the outcome; they did what
they had to do to give us a win.

There is good news, and that’s of course that we have Ball State coming in this week, not
to dismiss the Cardinals, but there is a reason we are -28. I think the coaching staff will
have the attention of everyone this week, as there are improvements that can be made by
every unit. And I wouldn’t want to be a special teams player, I think they are in for some
very intense workouts, meetings, and film sessions.

By Dave Sedgewick

This Week: Iowa State

Yes, let’s start with the question that is on the mind of everyone as the ISU game grows ever closer.  Will this be the year that the Clones can score a touchdown against the Iowa defense?  It’s been since 2006 (the 1st half, no less) that we have allowed them to cross the mystical region that is the end zone line.  In past seasons, they have been able to move the ball some, but just not able to get past our bend but don’t break type of defense.  It’s going to happen sooner or later, I’m just not sure if the Iowa defense is going to let it happen in Kinnick.

That’s because, yes, the Iowa defense is indeed fired out about this one. Why? Well the Clones ran for a buck ninety on us last season, and even with the 35-3 shellacking, that left a very bad taste in Clayborn’s mouth.   And he is making sure that the other 3 linemen get the message, which they should, as they were on the field for it as well.

Iowa State fans are probably feeling pretty good about their 27-10 win over Northern Illinois, and why not, you can do no better than 1-0 after one game.  But I watched this game, and it seemed to me that it could have been a lot closer if the Huskies had played a QB who could hit a moving target.

Which is to say, their starter could not.  He was 14-29 for 93 yards, able to hit the check down throws, but nothing down the field or out into the space outside the numbers.  By my count, he had two different chances at wideouts, who were open, behind ISU’s defense, and missed them both.  There were several others cases closer to the line where his guys were open; he just could not hit them if they were moving. It seemed to me that this Clones secondary could be susceptible to strikes down the field all day long.

And those passes should be there, because the Iowa running game is going to get a major shot in the arm Saturday.  Everyone knows that Jewel Hampton is returning after 13 months, and together with Robinson, it has the making of a thunder and lightening kind of rushing attack, Adam with the pounding, Jewel with the speed.  The Iowa line played about as well as we could have hoped, considering, in week 1, so they should be able to make some good progress this week in practice, and find those gaps for the tailbacks to exploit. The Huskies racked up 156 (rushing) on the Clones in a game they were tailing 17-0 at the half.  It should be there for the Iowa running game.

If we can run, Stanzi should be able to exploit the State secondary.  It’s a home game, so the O-line and tailbacks are going to feed off the Kinnick energy, and then when the Clones try to stop it by loading the box, Kinnick will explode when Stanzi finds Reisner, McNutt, and DJK moving freely 25 yards down the field.

Another week, another variation of the read/option attack.  The Clones don’t always use it, sometimes lining up in a more typical pro formation.  The Hawkeye defense must first take away the running game, that’s ISU’s own ARob, Alexander Robinson.  He hit 1200 yards at just over 5 a carry last year, so he is a legitimate threat when he gets the ball – he had a 63-yard td run last week.

At QB, the senior Austin Arnaud returns, and he is of course a threat to run, where he carried for 45 yards on 14 attempts in week one.  He and Robinson are what make the read/option work – holding the ball just long enough to see what the defense will commit to, and then either handing if off to the tailback, or the QB keeps it to run himself.  As we learned in the Orange Bowl notes, the key to stopping this is to play on that fine line where you maintain your spacing on the D-line, and your linebackers cover the gaps, containing the option until the point where it must move forward, and then you swarm and tackle from there. We see lots of these kinds of offenses these days, and our lunch pail kind of defense has very routinely made them look rather pathetic.  In years past, Arnaud has shown a tendency to kind of fall apart when he gets hit and things start to go south – he played a big part in their 6 turnovers last year, so look for the Iowa defense to get him into that frame of mind early.

We also get a boost in stopping this by the return of Broderick Binns, so our full D-line is ready to go, with our rapidly excelling backups, Lebron Daniel and Mike Daniels ready to fill in when rest is needed.  Rotation will be key; ISU returns their big and experienced offensive line.  And as is the case whenever we face these kinds of offenses, the secondary has got to be ready, not falling asleep by watching the option and letting it turn into a play action pass down the field.  Sash actually got 3 picks in this game last season (and forced a fumble), so I am sure he is drooling at the prospects of Arnaud putting one up with Clayborn in his face.  He is of course a safety; the corners must man up and contain the wideouts, while helping to string it out if the option running attack moves to the sideline.  I look for Hyde to atone for his brief letdown in week 1.

I’m sure the Cyclones will be fired up by Clayborn’s ‘Only team in Iowa’ comments, which were of course more about the lack of pro teams than a true shot at Iowa State. Regardless, I’m sure it’s all over their locker room in Ames.  But little worry, these kinds of things kind of peter our when the Iowa defense starts planting Arnaud and the O-line starts gashing the Cyclone defense for running lanes.  Once again, it’s about the players, the coaching, and the fundamentals.  As long as we don’t make it easy for them (turnovers), we will have the advantage in all 3 phases of the game.  Yes, it’s a rivalry game, and the hoopla will be in full force Saturday.  But this is one more game on our schedule where we are the clear favorite, and if we are to get where we want to go, we have to play like it matters for the entire 60 minutes.

Many of you have had a chance to meet my brother Jonathan; some of you know that he left his job at Army to take the Head Equipment Manger job for – Iowa State.  Yep, he will be there on the sideline, getting a close up view of this.  I wouldn’t say he is as confident about this one as he was when working the sideline (as a student manager) during the McCarney years.  Maybe it’s cause their Thursday night game allowed him to watch the Iowa game on Saturday…

If you can’t get enough football from just one Iowa State/Iowa game, you are in luck.  It’s a huge weekend for the Big Ten, in particular, with some very interesting games that can shed some light on how the conference is going to do this season.  Of note:

Michigan at Notre Dame 3:30
Miami at Ohio State 3:40
Penn State at Alabama 7:00

Too bad the first two games are the same time as ours.  Please note if you are not reading these notes in Iowa or someplace adjoining it, this game will be on ESPN2.  The ABC coverage map is below:

http://www.hdsportsguide.com/news/2010/abc-coverage-map-for-september-11/

All right my friends, kickoff is now just hours away, and you don’t have to start tailgating before sunup for a 3:30/2:30 kick – unless you want to!

GO HAWKS!!!

Sedge

Dave Sedgwick
Vice President
New York Metro Iowa Club
icsedge1@yahoo.com
Class of ‘95

By Dave Sedgewick

Last Week: Eastern Illinois

That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh uh-huh.

That is, the way the Hawkeyes came out and let the overmatched team know that the day would be long, and the pursuit of victory, fruitless.  And that we achieved this with all the units adding to the domination was especially nice to see.  Sure, the games ramp up in intensity now, but we did what we had to do in week 1, so we can now move on to greater challenges in the weeks ahead.

What a start it was – ball first, and then a 6 play, 65 yard drive to the end zone, highlighted by Brad Herman’s 36 yard snag from Stanzi, only to be stopped from his 1st Iowa touchdown 5 feet short of the goal line.  Robinson then stuffed it home, and the Hawks lead 7-0.  The freshman Meyer than boots the kickoff into the end zone, touchback, and the Iowa defense takes the field for the first time in 2010.

Panthers apparently did indeed dream of Iowa linemen in their backfield, as on 1st down, they chop-block Clayborn, that’s a penalty, 1st and 20. Then a false start pushes them back to the 5, three plays later they would be no further than the 7. A ‘3 and out’. Punt, Sandeman returns it to our 44.

Drive 2, 55 yards, 8 plays.  This was a very nice mix of passing and running to get the ball into the red zone, but the play of the drive was the 3rd and 8 from the Panther 12.  Stanzi hit Robinson out of the backfield, but he was 4 yards short of the 1st when he caught the ball, and was hit immediately – no matter, he spun out if it, and lunged forward to secure the 1st and goal.  Next snap, the Iowa line seals the left corner, and Adam strolls in for td #2, 14-0 Hawkeyes.  Through 2 drives, Ricky is 6/6 for 86 yards, and he hasn’t even eyeballed a bad decision so far.

Panthers then take the kickoff out of the end zone, but only to the 19.  That’s -1 on the hidden yardage calculator.

This drive nets one first down, but stalls with a 4th and 1 at the EIU 42.  They line up to punt, but alas, they seem a bit occupied with the Iowa defensive linemen, and forget about little Paki O’Meara coming in from the side.  He sidesteps a double team and gets his paw up just as the kick comes off the punter’s foot.  Blocked, scooped up, and with a little nifty footwork at the 5, touchdown Iowa.  The trifecta.  A senior now, Paki is probably going to find that his minimal tailback carries are going to go away with Hampton returning Saturday, but he can still have a big impact on our success with his special teams play.

53 seconds left in the 1st quarter, and the Hawkeyes lead 21-0.  That’s about as textbook as we could have hoped, and well onto the Iowa goal (well, mine) of 42 points.

Panthers also return this kickoff to the 19 – kick was right to the goal line, so I guess they had to move it.

This drive starts with an end around that nets 4 yards.  I was so happy to hear the broadcast team correctly indentify this play as an ‘end around’ and not a reverse, as this play popped up several times Saturday.  Anyway, on 2nd down, Hyde knocks down the pass, and then on 3rd down, Ballard busts in from his end spot, forcing the Panther QB to step up into a 1 yard run.  EIU lines up for a punt, and Hawk fans everything are thinking we are going to have the ball around midfield after Colin returns it.

Nope, it’s a fake, snapped to one of the blockers, and it seems like the Hawks can stop it at the line of scrimmage, but no, they can’t, and the run nets 37 yards to our 44. So begins the one bad series for the Iowa defense.  The Panthers come out firing, the deep pass is a floater, but Hyde can’t get there in time, another 37 yards just like that.  Now at the Iowa 7, EIU tries another end around, but the Hawkeyes blow it up for a 4-yard loss.  Seems now that the defense is so ramped up that they somehow allow a wideout to get behind them, into the back of the end zone, and the Panthers finally get on the board.  Once again, it was Hyde who had coverage on this play.  One little hiccup, but the lead at 21-7, and we now get the ball back.

DJK returns the kickoff to our 39-yard line.  Stanzi rolls out to the right, and in a flash, the entire Iowa season seems to hang by a thread as Ricky does not get up after sort of stumbling down to the ground.  He hobbles off, but after seeing the replay from several angels, it didn’t look bad, and as it turned out, it wasn’t.  Vandenberg is now getting his snaps, as the Hawks face a 2nd and 13. Robinson tugs the pigskin for 14 yards, 1st down.  James, not afraid to put it up, hits Sandeman for 9 yards.  ARob is stopped for no gain on the 2nd and 1, but then Vandenberg sneaks it, and Hawks have another 1st and 10 at the EIU 37.

Now, the Panthers give us charity that we really didn’t need.  On that first down, Adam is stopped after 2 yards, but as the play comes to an end, one of the EIU defensive backs drills McNutt – that’s a 15-yard penalty, and now the Hawks sit right on the red zone door, at the 20. James hands it to Adam, who runs into traffic a few yards from the line of scrimmage.  No problem, in the play of the day, he surges forward, with Hawkeye linemen shoving from the back, and helpless Panther defenders collapsing under the weight of the onslaught in front.  When it’s done, Robinson emerges from the bottom of the pile on the 5-yard line – 1st and goal.  One more handoff, and Adam breaks two tackles as he goes over right tackle, touchdown, 28-7 Hawkeyes.  Robinson, who had 5 tds during his freshman season, now with 3 on the day. After that last one, a low murmur of ‘that was Shonn like’ could be heard throughout the bar.  Indeed, Adam seems to have a bit more mass this season, and he appears to relish giving something back before he goes down. And Hawk fans are downright giddy at our tailback potential in the weeks ahead.

Hawkeye defense now fully awake and probably embarrassed, gives up a 17 yard pass to start the next possession, but no more, the 3rd down emphatically stopped with a Daniels sack.  The punt is downed at our 21, and Hawkeye nation lets out a collective sigh of relief as Ricky trots back onto the field, seemingly with no ill effects and good to go.

And KOK certainly thinks he is, as Stanzi drops back on 1st down, surveys the field, finds nothing, then drops it off to Reisner, a 20 yard dump off.  This, the learned Stanzi.  But, on 1st down, he fails to notice the cornerback blitz brewing before the snap – and the line and fullback fail as well, so it’s a rather solid sack, causing a lump in Hawkeye throats, but Ricky jumps back up for 2nd down, so once again breathing is a bit easier.  Now two passes to Herman get back all the lost yards and 10 more, so it’s a 1st down at the Panther 48.  Here, Stanzi tries a pass over the middle – it falls harmlessly to the turf, but seemed a bit frightful when it left his hand.  Still alive for 2nd down, a pass to DJK nets 4, and a pass to Reisner nets 4 more, but then Ricky misses a wide-open ARob on 4th down, and the Hawks turn it over.

Panthers go 3 and out, and then two ARob runs bring the 1st half to a close.  28-7, and aside from the one fake punt drive, no serious threats from the Panthers.  The halftime stats tell the story – Running, us 68, them 50 – but 37 of those were on the fake punt.  Passing, Iowa 143, EIU 76.  3rd down efficiency, Hawks 4/5, Panthers 1/6.  Everything going right, all the units are contributing, and for the first 30 minutes, we have played like a team that indeed is ready to challenge for all the marbles.

Meyer boots the 2nd half kickoff into the end zone, and the Panthers bring it out, but only to the 16.  Minus 4 in hidden yardage.

They begin the 2nd as they began the 1st, with a chop block.  A two-yard run follows, and then Ballard swats down the 2nd down pass at the line.  They throw in a delay of game for good measure, and then get nowhere on the 3rd down run, and so once again crawl meekly back to the sideline with a 3 and out.  Seems like the Hawks may have gotten a small piece of this punt, as it goes sideways and rolls out of bounds at the Panther 38.  Iowa poised to score again.

And we almost did. We now run back-to-back end arounds, first to DJK for 14, and then McNutt for 5.  ARob now, 5 yards, 1st down.   Pass to Reisner for 8 more, and we are inside the 5. Adam is stuffed, and then the Hawks face a 3rd and 1 at the EIU 3.  Surely we can ram this in – but no, Ricky fumbles the snap, and the Panthers recover.  Hard to tell from the replays, but the TV guys said it seemed like the ball never got all the way to Stanzi.  First game for a new Center/QB pairing, not at all surprising, just disappointing so close to the goal line.  Though, it’s much better than that happening at our end of the field.

Iowa defense now foaming at the mouth, as EIU start on the 2.  A swing pass nets 2 yards, then a risky pass over the middle is dropped, bring up the 3rd and 8.  Out of the shotgun, the Panther QB tries to hit the tailback as he sprints to the outside.  Sadly, he misses his target entirely, and the ball then rolls out of the corner of the end zone.  A backwards pass, that’s a live ball, a live ball rolling out of the end zone is a safety.  30-7 Hawkeyes. It should be noted, that even had the tailback been able to catch that ball, there we at least three Hawkeyes that had beaten their blockers, and were ready to bring him down in the end zone for the traditional safety.  They just made it easy for us.

The best part is, we get the ball back!  Sandeman returns the punt to the 39.  1st down, pass, nothing.  2nd down, Morse drops the pass in the flat. 3rd down, Stanzi finds Sandeman for 20 yards down the seam – but as he gets drilled, he loses the ball while going down.  Fumble, the Hawks 2nd turnover of the day, in a day in which we did not get any ourselves.

Panthers manage 1st down in the next drive, but stall at midfield, and the punt is downed at our 16 yard line.

On this first down, the Hawks are called for an illegal shift.  That’s the first flag on Iowa, and it comes at 4:36 of the 3rd quarter.  ARob runs for 6, and then Stanzi hits tight end Zack Derby for 17 more. Now finally, the chance for Ricky to go over the top emerges, and McNutt has done his part and zoomed right by the safety and  - – - no. Overthrown, play of the day remains Robinson’s pile driver run.

We do manage to get it as far as the 50, but then the drive dies just as the 3rd quarter comes to and end.  How refreshing to be going into the 4th quarter with a lead, whereas last year we knew we would end it with one, it was just kind of nerve wracking getting there.

And now, in the 1st snap of the 4th quarter, the Hawkeyes must punt.  I mistyped last week when I said Donahue would drop punts inside the ten.  This one is sky high; high enough that the Iowa coverage guys can get down there and actually catch the ball.  It’s downed at the 4.  Apologies, Ryan.

Panthers, 3 and out. Punt, Sandeman 10 yard runback to the EIU 45.

How bout some running game!  ARob, 7 yards, then 2 more.  QB sneak, 1st down.  Adam, 6 yards. Reisner than makes a circus catch falling out of bounds, 1st down.  Adam, 2 yards. It looks like Stanzi is in trouble but – no! It’s a screen to ARob, he rumbles down the far sideline and up in the box Hayden says ‘that’s a touchdown’ but no, he gets knocked out of bound at the 3, 1st and goal.

What to do here? I was standing next to Bernie, and as the Hawks broke the huddle, he says ‘stuff that ball into the end zone.’ I respond with, ‘how bout a play action pass to the fullback?’  And so it was.  At the snap, Brett sprints out to the right, and Stanzi turns to hand off to ARob.  But no! It’s a play action pass!  And here is the fullback, with the ball floating toward him, no one around – and caught! Touchdown!  37-7 Hawkeyes.

I shall now like to be called ‘Soothsayer Sedge’.

That wraps up the scoring, the most interesting thing left was seeing the backups move the ball from our 20 to the EIU 6 in the waning minutes, where time ran out, and we were not able to cross that 42 point barrier.

Stanzi, 18/23 for 229 and a td.  Vandenberg, 3/3 for 27 yards.  Robinson, 24 tugs for 109 and 3 tds.  Total Iowa yardage, 435.  Eastern Illinois, 157.  3rd down, Hawks 7/11, Panthers 3/13.  Domination in the stat box as well as the score line.

All in all, a satisfying win, with no one knocked out of the game on either side, and the team showed enough with all the units to be comfortable that total team efforts could be the norm this season.  They say that football teams make a big leap from week 1 to week 2, and if that’s the case, look at Clones.  Yes, we have things that we can improve in practice, like punt safety coverage, and the vertical passing game.  And the defense should be not be allowing passes longer than 25 yards to land safely in the hands of receivers.  A win like it should have been, but there is enough there to have the players and coaches acutely focused on the task at hand this Saturday.