Iowa vs. LSU in the Outback Bowl
I haven’t seen a lot of LSU this year but I did catch a few games and I was seriously impressed by their skill position talent. WR’s Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry are both top notch and Jeremy Hill is a terrific RB. Terrence Magee offers a nice change of pace to Hill in the backfield and while the offensive line is pretty young it is very talented. All of this would scare me as a Hawkeye fan if senior QB Zach Mettenberger wasn’t injured or if the Tigers had someone with actual experience taking over for him. True freshman QB Anthony Jennings is Mettenberger’s replacement and while he looks like he could have a fantastic future his inexperience is going to be his undoing against a veteran Iowa defense with over a month to prepare for this game. After watching Phil Parker’s defense dismantle Nebraska’s inexperienced QB in Iowa’s last game my feeling is that this could be more of the same. The Cornhuskers had a great running game that Iowa seemed to stuff at every turn and while LSU has far superior WR’s it is a moot point if the defense can confuse the QB. LSU may make a big play here or there but it will tough for their offense to sustain drives.
All of this means that this game will likely come down to how Iowa’s offense plays against LSU’s defense. The Tigers are missing the big name defenders they have had in the past like Patrick Peterson, Tyrann Mathieu or even Kevin Minter but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good. The DT’s Ego Ferguson and Anthony Johnson will make it tough to gain yards up the middle and safety Craig Loston is a veteran in the deep middle. Iowa needs to use its power running against the edges as LSU’s DE’s and LB’s are not very big. The Hawkeye’s have struggled at times offensively against the better defenses they faced this year and while LSU’s defense is better than Nebraska’s they aren’t in the same league as Michigan St.
If the Hawkeye’s can avoid turning the ball over, play defense like they have most of the year and be efficient on offense they will win this bowl game and I believe they will do just that. That would be a good thing considering how the Big Ten has looked so far.
Quick Hits
– Black Monday started late on Sunday night in the NFL as the Cleveland Browns fired Rob Chudzinski after only one season as head coach. This was the WTF moment of lunacy we seem to see every year. There is always that one coach that gets fired and everyone say “What?” This year it was Chudzinski, not because his 4-12 record was so spectacular that no one could believe it but because he was just hired last January and he basically had to juggle QB’s all year due to ineffectiveness or injury. This is why the Browns are the Browns and can’t seem to make any headway. In the NFL it helps to have some continuity at QB and at head coach.
– The least surprising firing was that of Mike Shanahan in Washington. Shanahan sealed his fate a few weeks ago when he benched franchise QB Robert Griffin III which basically made Dan Snyder’s head explode. Snyder is going to go throw a bajillion dollars at Baylor head coach Art Briles because he already has a relationship with RGIII. I hope Briles is smart enough to tell Snyder to shove it; there isn’t enough money on the planet that would make working for Snyder worth it.
– Greg Schiano got the boot in Tampa Bay and GM Mark Dominik followed him out the door. The Glazer family realized they needed a reboot let’s see if they actually figure it out this time.
– Jim Schwartz got the axe in Detroit and that’s just what happens when your team takes a step forward a couple of years ago and then takes about 15 steps backwards over the last two years. I do think the GM should get canned too; Schwartz isn’t the one that has neglected the secondary and the offensive line for years.
– Leslie Frazier is out in Minnesota and I’m guessing Christian Ponder and Josh Freeman won’t be far behind. This is what happens when a coach refuses to play the one QB (Matt Cassel) that actually played half way decent (until it was too late anyway).
– Shanahan is probably going to go home and collect his $7 million salary from Daniel Snyder for a year and then see what he wants to do. Chudzinski is reportedly due a $10.5 million buyout from the Browns so he can be picky about his next job as an offensive coordinator. Jim Schwartz will be a coveted defensive coordinator candidate and I’m guessing Jeff Fisher has already made a call because he needs a great defensive coordinator to help him in St. Louis or he might get the boot next year at this time. Leslie Frazier will also get a lot of calls to be a defensive coordinator for someone. Greg Schiano is probably headed back to the college game and he may find a mighty soft landing spot at Penn St. once Bill O’Brien takes the Texans job as rumored.
– Rex Ryan has been retained as head coach of the New York Jets (the bettors took a beating on this one). Somehow Jason Garrett appears safe in Dallas. That leaves just Mike Munchak of the Titans and Dennis Allen of the Raiders as coaches that might get fired. The early dismissal of Gary Kubiak in Houston combined with the five firings on Black Monday/Sunday night means the NFL is already at its average of six openings meaning the Titans and Raiders decisions are a pick ‘em.
– The one other big job out there is The University of Texas job about to be vacated by Mack Brown. Very little has been said about candidates since Brown made his resignation public and I give Texas credit for letting him coach the bowl game without the constant chatter of his replacement. Texas has the money and the ego to aim high at guys like Jim Harbaugh, Chip Kelly and Nick Saban but I think they are going to find that even though the paychecks at Texas would be bigger the Texas job isn’t better than the jobs they already have. This is how I see it playing out; Texas hires someone from the B-list (Mike Gundy, Bo Pelini, Les Miles, good coaches but not on Texas’ A-list), said coach is there 3-4 years but fails to live up to Mack Brown’s legacy and then Texas replaces that coach with a guy like Chad Morris (current offensive coordinator at Clemson) after he has had a head coaching job for a couple of years. As they say it coaching “it’s better to be the guy replacing the guy who replaced the legend”.
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