Yeah, I don’t believe it either.
The Iowa Hawkeyes just celebrated their much needed bye week with a commanding lead in the Big Ten West division, a top 10 ranking in the AP poll (11th in the Coaches’) and they are staring at a very manageable schedule that could lead them to an appearance in their first ever Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis. If you had told me back in January that I would be writing that sentence at this point in Iowa’s season I would have asked one simple question…So who is Iowa’s new head coach? Kirk Ferentz has proven me wrong by proving me right and I couldn’t be happier about it. He has proven me wrong by making the changes necessary to get the Hawkeyes back on the winning track and he was able to do it with the same coaching staff in place. I didn’t think that was possible. He also did it by using the play makers the Hawkeyes actually have on the roster which I was right about, they were there they just weren’t being used. Brian Ferentz deserves a special mention too because not only has the running game been exceptional after he was named run game coordinator in the off season but his work as offensive line coach has been nothing short of incredible. Losing starting OTs Boone Myers and Ike Boettger didn’t slow the offense down and the running game has been dominant regardless of the which guys are lining up on the line and which RB is taking the handoffs. Moving Sean Welsh to RT for the Northwestern game was incredible recognition of the best possible O-line combination. Kudos to both Coach Ferentzs (or is it Ferentzi, I’m not sure)
There has been a lot of talk about the Hawkeyes remaining schedule and I’ll admit it doesn’t look very intimidating especially with the way they are playing but not enough attention is being paid to the schedule they have already played. Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and Northwestern are 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2 respectively and 3 of the 5 losses they have combined are to Iowa. Illinois St. may be a FCS team but they are a very good one and I’ll grant you the Iowa St. and North Texas wins don’t mean much but every college football team has a couple of those wins. The Illinois win isn’t hurting or helping at this point. Iowa’s five remaining games? Maryland comes to Iowa City on Halloween with an interim coach and a QB completing less than 50% of his passes, against Iowa’s defense that’s not going to end well for them. At Indiana might be the most challenging game because Indiana can score but Iowa’s defense is very tough and the Hawkeyes might run for 400 yards against the Hoosiers and never let their offense touch the ball. Minnesota comes for a night game in Kinnick and they have looked less than impressive. Then Purdue comes to town and with the way NCAA football coaching jobs are going right now it’s 50/50 on whether or not Darrell Hazel is still coaching the Boilermakers at that point (I’m going to go with he won’t be). Finally the matchup against Nebraska in Lincoln on Black Friday doesn’t look so tough especially after the Huskers just dropped one at home against Northwestern. There is a better than average chance that Iowa has the Big Ten West title in the bag when they go to Lincoln as they have a multiple game lead over everyone given their win over Wisconsin gives them the tiebreaker. I don’t believe I just jinxed the Hawkeyes but I’m going to remain skeptical of this awesome turn around because it’s been working to this point and I don’t want to change a thing. So if anyone asks I’m “really worried” about the Maryland game.
Unfortunately for Iowa if they make their way to Indy they will probably be facing defending National Champions Ohio St. and that I would be worried about. I know, I know there is a scenario where OSU, Michigan and Michigan St. all end with one conference loss each and all hell breaks loose with the tiebreakers and we won’t know who represents the Big Ten East in the championship game until the Tuesday before it. Yeah that was all a possibility until Urban Meyer finally came to his senses and listened to my advice and benched Cardale Jones for JT Barrett…damn me and my brilliant advice. Who knew Urban Meyer reads my blog? The Buckeyes do have to get by Michigan St. and Michigan but they found their mojo this weekend and his name is JT Barrett (we should call him mojo, it’s a way better nickname than JT). I’m not going to write this Hawkeye team off if this matchup comes to fruition but 12-1 after an appearance in the Big Ten Championship game would still be an incredible turnaround for this Hawkeye program. My only fear then would be the contract extension Gary Barta would hand Kirk Ferentz for $8 million dollars a year until 2030 with a $80 million dollar buyout. I know I shouldn’t actually write that down but what are the odds both Urban Meyer and Gary Barta read my blog? Hold on…where’s that edit button on this thing?
College Football Hott Reads
- The Miami Hurricanes fired head coach Al Golden (yes it’s becoming an epidemic) after their shellacking by Clemson, the 58-0 loss was the worst in school history. Golden was a dead coach walking and the Clemson game was the knife to the brain that finally ended it. Golden is a solid coach and the problems at Miami extend beyond him. College football is an arms race whether you like it or not and Miami is using a pea shooter. Their stadium is nowhere near campus and they have no indoor practice facility either. In today’s college football climate those are the basics and no matter who gets the job (if I were a betting man I’d bet on Greg Schiano) I would make sure that an indoor facility was priority #1 or I would take one of the other good jobs available.
- Central Florida coach George O’Leary resigned from his position and while it’s not a surprise given the Golden Knights are 0-8 it does bring the number of coaching vacancies to 7 and it’s not even the end of October yet. There are 7 head coaching jobs in the FBS that are open (USC, Miami, Maryland, South Carolina, Illinois, Central Florida and North Texas) and the odds don’t look good on Rutgers’ Kyle Flood or Purdue’s Darrell Hazel to make it through meaning there could be at least 9 jobs open before the season ends. Get ready for a crazier silly season on the coaching carousel, it’s off to a fast start.
- Baylor QB Seth Russell was having an excellent season until this weekend when he suffered a neck injury against Iowa St. The seriousness is not completely known yet but it’s never a good thing to hear the words neck injury at all.
- For the sake of the Iowa Hawkeyes I’m becoming a Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and Northwestern fan for the rest of the year because Iowa’s schedule needs as much help as possible. It’s hard to cheer for the Badgers, it’s nearly impossible to cheer for Northwestern (yeah I hate Fitzgerald that much) but I don’t have a problem cheering for Pitt. Pat Narduzzi is doing a fantastic job so all the best to the Panthers.
- Paul Rhoads fired his offensive coordinator Mark Mangino this week, in a previous life Rhoads was the guy rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In the Cyclones five losses so far this season they have given up 31, 30, 66, 45 and 45 points and he fired the offensive coordinator? I suppose there’s a moral victory in only giving up 45 points a piece to Baylor and TCU. The only thing that can keep Rhoads employed at ISU after this season is the stupid contract Pollard gave him that he doesn’t want to buy out. Oh and if Pollard is hoping to hold onto Rhoads so he can have a Ferentz like resurgence next season just remember Iowa went 7-6 last year and that was an bad year, 7 wins would be dream season for the Cyclones.
NFL Hott Reads
- Congrats to Dan Campbell the interim coach of the Miami Dolphins you’ve won two games in a row, your reward is you get the Patriots on a short week. He has done a fantastic job of turning around that teams attitude and it has made a huge difference. As a Patriots fan I’m just really glad that no matter how well Campbell does I know Stephen Ross will screw up this coaching search if left to his own devices. He’ll go after a big name first like Jon Gruden or Jim Harbaugh (neither of whom he has a shot at) and hopefully he’ll go after Greg Schiano or maybe he’ll take a flyer on recently resigned (not retired) Steve Spurrier (I can dream can’t I?). Todd Haley’s name has been mentioned and he might actually be able to fix Ryan Tannehill but he’s struggled in the top role before. My dark horse for the Miami Dolphins job, Jim Mora head coach of UCLA.
- The Houston Texans are in a free fall and it’s picking up speed as RB Arian Foster just tore his Achilles tendon and that likely spells the end of his days in Houston. Bill O’Brien isn’t likely to get fired but GM Rick Smith may want to update his resume. This team isn’t going anywhere until they fix the QB problem and after watching Penn St. this weekend if O’Brien decides to hitch his wagon to Christian Hackenberg he’ll either be coordinating an NFL offense in two years or coaching in college again.
- I don’t know if Chuck Pagano is really the problem in Indianapolis but he’s going to take the fall for the complete mess they are this season. Andrew Luck has fallen apart and while their division is terrible and they lead it at 3-4 they should really hope not to win it and get themselves a higher draft pick. They also might want to take a run at Stanford coach David Shaw, he’s probably not leaving Stanford for he uncertainty of Indianapolis but it’s worth a shot.
- Todd Gurley is proving to be the beast I knew he would be but unfortunately the Rams still need a QB and Nick Foles doesn’t look like the answer.
- The Patriots are rolling right along and while the Jets played well they lost to a Patriots team that ran the ball 5 times. Yep 5. The Jets run defense is spectacular so Bill Belichick said screw it and went with Tom Brady and the short passing attack and it worked. 54 pass attempts later the Patriots walked away with the win and a solid lead in the division.
- Todd Gurley is a beast…oh wait I already said that…but he’s not the best rookie. That’s where I was going with this. Amari Cooper is a revelation and he’s going to be a top 5 WR in the NFL very soon. He is a legitimate superstar waiting to happen, just a matter of time.
The Hott Read 