Hawkeyes Football Update
The Iowa Hawkeyes released their two-deeps for the first game next weekend against Northern Illinois at Soldier Field. Here are a few notes.
FB- This is the one spot with a real surprise, Mark Weisman over the returning starter Brad Rogers definitely qualifies as surprising. After watching Weisman during the open practice a few weeks ago he certainly showed enough to look like he could contribute, my only question is whether this has to do with Rogers missing some time (like the open practice) and is this a reflection of Weisman getting more reps in practice.
WR- Keenan Davis and Kevonte Martin-Manley are still the starters, which is no surprise at all but Jacob Hillyer and Steve Staggs being listed as the back-ups is a bit of a shock. The freshmen receivers, especially Maurice Fleming and Tevaun Smith have been talked up during camp and I’ve been waiting for them to move into the depth chart. Hillyer doesn’t surprise me as much as Staggs since he was talked up quite a bit last year while redshirting and my only guess with Staggs is that it could be a bit of the “Jason White” scenario where the veteran is listed on the depth chart but the younger guys get the playing time.
TE- CJ Fiedorowicz is the starter as expected. Ray Hamilton taking the back-up job from senior Zach Derby is a pleasant development. No disrespect to Derby and I’m sure he will get his fair share of playing time but Hamilton is younger and has more potential so it’s nice to see him making a move into the depth chart.
DE- Steve Bigach is listed as the co-starter at both DE spots with Dominic Alvis and Joe Gaglione and since I’m fairly certain Bigach can’t start at both spots I’m going to go with this being a 3 man rotation with Melvin Spears getting back-up snaps. Alvis is likely the other starter but all three guys will play plenty.
CB- Micah Hyde and BJ Lowery are the starters and that’s great news, the good news is that true freshman Kevin Buford is listed as one of the back-ups the bad news is Greg Castillo is listed as the other one. I’m not a Castillo fan and I was hoping either redshirt freshman Torrey Campbell or true freshman Sean Draper would win that spot let’s hope this is another “Jason White” situation.
SS- Tom Donatell and Nico Law are listed as co-starters at strong safety, something tells me this battle may go on for a while.
P- It looks like true freshman Connor Kornbrath has beaten out converted QB John Wienke for the punter job and while I normally don’t like freshman in a position like punter I really like Kornbrath’s potential.
RB- Using the term depth chart to describe the Hawkeyes backfield feels a little ridiculous but Damon Bullock is the listed starter and 4 star true freshman Greg Garmon and true freshman walk-on Michael Malloy are the back-ups. Junior college walk-on transfer Andre Dawson is the only other true RB on the roster that is healthy (although Jordan Canzeri is trying to make it back from his spring knee injury) meaning depth is in short supply. The changes here include the removal of Brad Rogers, who was listed as a co-starter with Bullock, from the position altogether and the loss of Barkley Hill to an ACL tear. It’s safe to say the Hawkeye running attack may look different than it has in the past. Bullock, Garmon, Malloy and possibly Canzeri offer a different type of RB than the Hawkeye faithful are used to seeing. These guys are more edge type runners and less between the tackles kind of guys. Garmon has a little more size than the other three but if the Hawkeyes need a tough yard we may see Rogers or Weisman get the call or even Dawson for that matter.
The Dodgers and Red Sox make a huge trade.
The trade deadline in baseball was about a month ago but that didn’t stop the Red Sox from dealing about $260 million worth of contracts to the Dodgers. The Red Sox gave up 1B Adrian Gonzalez in order to rid themselves of the cancer that Josh Beckett had become and the albatross of a contract that Carl Crawford is now and they threw in Nick Punto for some reason. They got back James Loney, who I guess you can say is a first baseman just not a very good one, two good pitching prospects Rubby de la Rosa and Allen Webster and a few other prospects they hope turn into something. The Red Sox hit the reboot button on the team because they were paying a lot of money for a terrible product, Gonzalez is a great first baseman and giving him up was the cost of ridding themselves of Crawford and Beckett. The Dodgers, who are about to become flush with cash from a new TV deal, were willing to take on Beckett and Crawford to make the upgrade from Loney to Gonzalez at first. The Dodgers are fighting for a playoff spot this year and their new ownership is willing to spend to make a playoff run but this deal isn’t just about this year. Gonzalez just signed an extension this last year so they get to keep him for the foreseeable future. Gonzalez joins Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Hanley Ramirez in what looks like a very formidable lineup for the next few years. Beckett could be a bit of a steal in this trade considering he goes from pitching in the AL East to the NL West and now he’s most likely the fifth starter instead of the staff ace he once was in Boston. Crawford is a sunken cost; $20 million a year for an outfielder that just had ligament replacement surgery on his elbow, best case scenario is he comes back for a playoff run late next year. The Red Sox are hoping de la Rosa and Webster can become a couple of pieces in a new starting rotation and that they can go out and spend the money they saved in this deal on new free agents. Red Sox fans are hoping they spend the money wiser than they did when they signed guys like Carl Crawford, Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey. Dodger fans are just happy to have owners who are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on actual baseball players and not on a divorce. I don’t know how Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine feels about this trade but it’s safe to say the Red Sox of today are not the team Valentine signed on to manage this year, maybe it’s time to hit the reboot button on that decision too.
Lance Armstrong gives up the fight
I believe Lance Armstrong was doping when he won his 7 consecutive Tour de France titles and the reason I believe it is because so was everyone else. The sport of cycling is so rampant with doping that I am glad I don’t give a damn about the sport. I’m glad that this year the Tour de France was going on an I didn’t know it until one day in the middle of July I was watching Sports Center and they mentioned who won the 16th stage (no I don’t remember who it was) and I thought “oh yeah the Tour de France is going on now”, I have no idea who won the whole thing this year and I couldn’t care less. Go check out the list of guys that finished behind Armstrong in his seven Tour wins. Let me tell you what you will find, doping allegations, some proven some not just like with Armstrong. Armstrong’s toughest competitors like Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso would come under suspicion in a major doping case and later winners like Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador would be stripped of Tour titles and banned from the sport. Given the rampant nature of doping in cycling it amazes me just how few people actually get caught by the blood tests, Armstrong never tested positive during his seven year run of dominance and many of the guys who finished behind him were only implicated by their association with Operacion Puerto case. I don’t think it is right for professional athletes to use performance enhancing drugs but in the case of Lance Armstrong I don’t think we can say he gained a competitive advantage by using I think he leveled the playing field. Armstrong has never admitted using PED’s and this week all he did was stop fighting the Anti-doping Agency because regardless of how many blood tests he passed in his career (and it numbers in the hundreds) he felt like he could never prove he didn’t cheat and he’s right. If all those blood tests came back negative and they still don’t believe him then there is no path for him to prove his innocence. My solution is this, instead of banning the riders for doping just end the sport all together, if the participants can’t play fair then they shouldn’t be able to play at all.
Until next time
Nate
The Hott Read 