College Football

Mercifully the Iowa Hawkeye football season has ended and I’m fairly certain we can all agree that 4-8 sucks.  I’ve covered the Kirk Ferentz thing as much as I care to at this point and since it doesn’t look like there is any sort of movement regarding the staff I’d like to talk about the silly season, it’s coaching carousel time in college football.  There are already quite a few big time jobs open, some medium sized jobs and other smaller jobs which I probably won’t talk about.  Here are some thoughts.

Auburn:  Fired Gene Chizik two years after he won a national championship, couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.  I’ve never been a Chizik fan, mostly because I think he’s arrogant and yes partly because he was ISU’s coach, but I also believe he cheated to win the national championship.  I have no proof and who knows if the NCAA will ever find any reason to strip Auburn of that national title but if they ever do it will surprise me as much as the day the NCAA strips Kentucky of their basketball championship under John Calipari.  Talk about “what have you done for me lately”, granted Chizik did just lead Auburn to the worst record ever two years removed from a national title and he went winless in the SEC but damn that’s a quick trigger.

Rumored replacements:  Come on this is so obvious who should get this job.  Bobby Petrino.  Auburn once tried to replace Tommy Tuberville with Petrino when he was at Louisville and this is a match made in heaven.  A guy who once left the Atlanta Falcons before completing his first year to the school that fired a national championship coach two years later, what could possibly go wrong?  This has to happen these two deserve each other.

Tennessee:  Fired Derek Dooley after three seasons after he replaced the one-and-done Lane Kiffin.  How bad has this job gotten that the obvious front runner David Cutcliffe chose to stay at Duke instead?  The good old days of Phillip Fulmer seem like a distant memory and that was only four years ago.

Rumored replacements:  They are lucky this is an SEC job and there are only 14 of those out there.  The usual suspects as far as SEC replacement coaches are Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, Louisville head coach Charlie Strong and Arkansas St. head coach Gus Malzahn and these three should just get together and decide who gets which job.  My favorite rumor for Tennessee is Jon Gruden, I will be absolutely stunned if Gruden takes a college job.  Maybe it would be a good thing because his intense style might play better to guys that only have to put up with it for 4-5 years and then they are gone.  My question is does Gruden really want to put up with boosters?  Um…hell no.  Recruiting?  No way.  And this isn’t Tennessee 10 years ago you actually have to recruit and convince kids to come there now.

Arkansas:  Fired Bobby Petrino in the spring for his “spring fling” and hired John L. Smith who proceeded to take a preseason top 5 team and go 4-8.  Turns out that 10 month contract they gave Smith was two months longer than necessary.  Time to right the ship.

Rumored replacements: Gus Malzahn should be the first call and Charlie Strong should be the second or vice versa.  These two are options 1 and 1A first guy to say yes can have the job.  Gus Malzahn is a high school coaching legend in the state and won a national championship at Auburn as the offensive coordinator for Cam Newton.  He brings instant credibility in the state and stability because he would not be looking to go anywhere else.  Charlie Strong is from the state of Arkansas and has proven to be a fantastic coach not just as head coach at Louisville but also as a defensive coordinator at Florida.  The fallback option should these two turn it down should be UAB head coach Garrick McGee.

Kentucky: Wait I said I wasn’t going to talk about the smaller jobs. Next.

Purdue:  This is sort of a medium job.  They fired Danny Hope after he went 6-6 this year.  I never understood why they hired him in the first place.  Was it because he looked like a thinner version of Joe Tiller?  I think it was the mustache.  Here’s the thing, they hired Hope before Tiller left and made him the “coach-in-waiting” until Tiller retired, has this ever worked?  In the history of coaching has this ever panned out?   Is Jimbo Fisher at Florida St the best success story (the only success story) and they had to force Bowden out to get Fisher into the job so they didn’t lose him if I recall correctly.

Rumored replacements:  The most likely legitimate candidate is Northern Illinois’s Dave Doeren.  He was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin before taking the Northern Illinois job so he knows the Big Ten.  The Boilermakers could do worse, oh yeah, they already have.  The dark horse for this job should be Fresno St. head coach Tim DeRuyter, he deserves a better job.  Also Michigan St. defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi should get a look.

California: Fired Jeff Tedford after 11 seasons.  Okay so he went 3-9, this guy built Cal football but everyone saw this coming.  Another “what have you done for me lately” firing except he never won a national title.  Tedford is the best coach Cal has ever had; seriously name another coach in Cal history.  Some team is going to get very lucky hiring Tedford to take over their program.

Rumored replacements:  Who wants this dead end job?  How about a couple of guys with dead end jobs in smaller conferences, Tim DeRuyter from Fresno St. or Mike MacIntyre from San Jose St.  Good luck gentlemen you have to compete with USC and a rejuvenated UCLA for the best California talent and your chief rival Stanford happens to be on a roll.

Colorado:  They fired Jon Embree, best career move ever…for him.  This job has turned into a black hole.  Supposedly their first call was to Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun, do yourself a favor Coach Calhoun hang up.

North Carolina State:  They fired Tom O’Brien and they apparently want James Franklin from Vanderbilt, NC State is not a step up from Vanderbilt at the moment. Hang tight Coach Franklin there will be a better opportunity for you than NC State.

Boston College:  Fired Frank Spaziani, maybe they should rehire Tom O’Brien.

There are other open jobs but I don’t really know anything about or care to know about UTEP, Idaho or whichever directional Michigan school’s coaching searches.  I do know that there are some good smaller conference head coaches like Gus Malzahn, Dave Doeren and Tim DeRuyter who deserve to move to major conference jobs.  There are up-and-coming coordinators like Kirby Smart and Mark Stoops who will get interviews and possibly job offers and there are guys like Charlie Strong and James Franklin that coach in major conferences but deserve a shot at big time schools.  I called this the silly season before because inevitably someone will make a move that is laughable.  Last year it was Arizona St. hiring Todd Graham to his fourth or so “dream job”, this year I can only hope it is Auburn hiring Paul Rhoads to replace Gene Chizik just so I can watch the Auburn faithful lose their minds.  It should be fun watching Colorado fumble around trying to get someone to take that job; I think Rick Neuheisel is available.  I hope Kentucky realizes they are an SEC job in name only and I hope good coaches realize that NC State, Colorado and California are not the premier jobs their Athletic Directors are making them out to be.  I love the ridiculous rumors, Gruden to any college job, Rex Ryan to Kentucky (yep I read that somewhere) Bob Stoops to Iowa (wait that’s more wishful thinking than rumor).  The funny thing about ridiculous rumors is that once in a while Charlie Weis actually takes the Kansas job.  Let the carousel spin.

Hawkeye Football

Fourteen years is a long time.  You can become a doctor in less than 14 years.  You can start grade school and graduate from high school in less than 14 years.  I’ve been out of high school longer than 14 years.  In 14 years the game of college football has changed and unfortunately Kirk Ferentz hasn’t changed with it.  I don’t want to disrespect the job Ferentz has done at Iowa, I was here when he took over and I know how far down the program was when Hayden Fry left and my final year in college was 2002 when Iowa won a share of the Big Ten title and played in the Orange Bowl.  I’ve seen the highs and the lows up close but even back in 1998 and 1999 this program wasn’t this low.  Back then there was a sense that things were going to get better, a new coaching staff, new players and an optimism that things could be turned around.  You won’t find any of that in Iowa City right now.  Fourteen years is a long time to coach in one place especially in today’s game.  The era of Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno coaching in the same place for decades is gone, like it or not that is reality.  Look around college football and Ferentz isn’t the only example of people itching for something new.  Mack Brown has been feeling the heat at Texas the last few years and even Bob Stoops at Oklahoma hears grumbling that things are stale in Norman and both of those guys have National Championships.  Blame it on the instant gratification society we live in today or the over blown sense of entitlement fans feel when they buy tickets to the games and donate money to the athletic departments, whatever the cause it is the sports world we live in.  I want Kirk Ferentz to go out on top but that just doesn’t seem realistic.  It is, however, equally as unrealistic to think the University of Iowa is going to come up with the $20 million it would take to buy out the remaining years of Ferentz’s contract and fire him after this abysmal season.  He’s going to get more time because the University is not going to fire a good man because of a bad season the real problem is that this season is becoming closer to the norm for the Hawkeyes than the two Orange Bowl seasons we have experienced in the past 14 years.  The issue I have with Coach Ferentz is that not only is he ultra-conservative in his approach but he refuses to evolve with the college game.  Offenses in college football are now run by coaches like Urban Meyer, Chip Kelly and Dana Holgerson, the spread offense is not a gimmick and it’s not going away.  It is the standard not the exception.  When Ferentz took over at Iowa the only coach that had heard the phrase “spread offense” was Joe Tiller and now the revolution has taken over and Ferentz is left in its wake.  Ferentz seems determined to prove himself right by sticking with a quarterback that is historically bad but I can tell you that if you can’t beat Purdue you probably aren’t going to beat Michigan or Nebraska.  Vandenberg was only a part of the problem against Purdue instead of the entire problem like the previous few weeks.  The defense has been a major disappointment the past few weeks after starting the season pretty well.  The defense lacks talent on the line and I’m fairly certain I’ve beaten that dead horse more than a few times in this blog.  Unfortunately poor line play on defense leads to tough days for the linebackers and asking too much of the secondary in coverage.  The struggles on the offensive side of the ball aren’t just about a lack of talent at quarterback and wide receiver (although those are huge problems) or the new offensive system.  It’s not just about poor decisions by the QB or the revolving door at RB.  It isn’t just about throwing a 2 yard pass on 4^th and 3.  It’s not just about punting with 4 minutes to go in a game when you haven’t demonstrated once that your defense can get you the ball back.  It is all of it.  I can go back to last season’s loss at Iowa St.  I know I don’t want to talk about it either but stick with me.  Iowa couldn’t stop Steele Jantz all game long and yet with the game tied and Iowa getting the ball back with about a minute and a half left in the game the Hawkeyes kneeled on it and played for overtime.  When asked why he didn’t try to score on the last possession Ferentz said he thought the defense had a good chance of stopping them and we could win in overtime.  What game was Ferentz watching?  The Hawkeyes couldn’t stop Jantz when they had 80 yards behind them why would he think giving Jantz the ball at the 25 was a good idea.  That was the beginning of the end for me with Ferentz.  I didn’t even know it at the time but I’ve come around to the fact that Ferentz just seems to be going through the motions.  Every press conference is the same coach speak regardless of the outcome of the game.  He seems oblivious to the most blatant problems and he refuses to even engage about them.  It is one thing as a coach to not throw your players under the bus but willful blindness is unacceptable.  The critics would say to me “How many college football games have you coached? What do you know?” and they are right I have never coached a football game but Kirk Ferentz has spent 14 years coaching in the Big Ten and it doesn’t seem to be doing him a whole lot of good at the moment.  As with any relationship if it is going to end ugly the best thing to do is end it quickly unfortunately I believe it is going to end ugly but not quickly.  I hope beyond hope that Kirk Ferentz has an epiphany during the offseason when he’s sitting at home over the holidays instead of going to a bowl game.  I hope he realizes that college football today has changed and he has to change with it or get out of the way.  Otherwise I hope that when his good friend Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli gets fired he lands a new job with a team that needs a coach and he calls up his old buddy Kirk Ferentz with an offer he can’t refuse.  Neither of these scenarios have a high enough likelihood to make me feel better.  Fourteen years may be too long to coach at one place and I’m afraid we are going to find out how bad year fifteen can be.

Hawkeye Football

Okay first the unpleasantness that is the Hawkeye football team.  I’m not in the “we need to fire Ferentz” camp because I know it isn’t realistic but I am squarely and whole-heartedly in the “bench James Vandenberg” camp.  Seven games is plenty of time to come to the realization that Vandenberg isn’t going to turn it around and lead this team to victory.  The four wins have come in spite of Vandenberg and not a single one of them has been because of him.  The Hawks beat Michigan St. because their QB sucked worse than ours and that is our only good win on the year.  The only argument against the QB change is the coaches see the players in practice and they know who gives the Hawks the best chance to win.  Really, I’m supposed to believe that the coaches that only found Mark Weisman after two in-game injuries and an illness left them no other choice but to play him can make the correct decision on the QB.  The same coaches that only put Jordan Cotton in on kick-off return after Greg Garmon’s injury when clearly Keenan Davis was not suited for the role (Cotton has two returns for touchdowns and yes I know one was called back but he didn’t need the block in the back to score). You want me to trust the coaches that thought Don Shumpert was the third best WR on the team early in the year.  Ever heard the phrase you can’t see the forest through the trees, I have to assume it is something like that happening here.  The coaches are too close to it and their loyalty to Vandenberg is mystifying.  I don’t know why Vandenberg is so unbelievably inaccurate but his pass that was picked off by Mauti was the last straw for me.  How do you not see the best defender on Penn St’s team and then throw a pass that even if Mauti hadn’t been there stood no chance of reaching the intended receiver.  I don’t know if Jake Rudock is ready to step in or if he’ll be any better but how could he be any worse?  He certainly isn’t likely to complete less than half his throws, which is where Vandenberg is headed.  Maybe Rudock isn’t the answer but I know for a fact that Vandenberg isn’t.

Last minute edit here: On Tuesday at his press conference Kirk Ferentz was asked many questions about the QB situation and basically said he was sticking with Vandenberg.  When asked point blank “Is Jake Rudock ready to play?” Ferentz’s response was “We won’t know until he starts playing.”  NO KIDDING, why the hell didn’t he play in the blowout loss to Penn St then Coach.  Ferentz’s just basically admitted that practice isn’t enough to know how someone will play in a game, well we know how Vandenberg plays in games give Rudock a chance.

The Good News…….Iowa Hawkeye Basketball season is just around the corner. 

Since it is obvious that the Football team is a lost cause (as long as Vandenberg is starting) let’s take a look at the sleeper team in Big Ten basketball…the Iowa Hawkeyes.  Coach Fran McCaffery has his most talented and deepest team yet and probably the best Hawkeye team since the days of Horner, Brunner and Haluska (hopefully with a better NCAA tournament outcome).  McCaffery has said he plans to start two freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors so apparently the starting line-up isn’t going to be a secret but who gets what minutes will be the really interesting part.

The Starting Five

PG:  Mike Gesell Fr.

Gesell is the slightly less heralded freshman behind new center Adam Woodbury but he was a four-star recruit and he may make a bigger impact than Woodbury.  This kid brings shooting, athleticism and floor leadership that this team needs.  His biggest contribution is that he allows Devyn Marble to move to a more natural position, which leads me to…

SG: Devyn Marble Jr.

This is Marble’s team without question; the Hawkeyes go as far as Marble takes them.  He stepped up last year and played out of position at point guard because the team needed him to and Matt Gatens was the starting shooting guard.  This year Marble moves off the ball where his scoring ability can be better utilized.  It won’t be his job to get everyone involved in the offense it will be his job to be the offense.  While he isn’t a great shooter (although he was pretty good last year in the NIT) and he isn’t overly athletic he just has an ability to score, let’s just say it’s in the genes.

C: Adam Woodbury Fr.

The big man we beat out Roy Williams for (I’ve never said that about Iowa basketball) was a top 25 recruit and a legit 7 footer.  He’s got good size and good athleticism and he can keep up with this team’s preferred pace.  He’s bigger than Eric Hansen and more fleet-of-foot than Jared Reiner and he gives Iowa a presence in the middle.

SF: Aaron White So.

Last season’s most pleasant surprise isn’t going to be able to sneak up on anyone this year but that shouldn’t be a problem given his basketball IQ.  Playing small forward will be a slight change since White saw most of his time last year at power forward but he could be a match-up nightmare for smaller SF’s.  He and Marble combine to give the Hawkeyes one of the more talented duos in the Big Ten.

PF: Melsahn Basabe Jr.

Technically since McCaffery didn’t actually name the official starting five he just gave their classes Zach McCabe could be the starter since he is also a junior power forward but Basabe is the guy McCaffery wants to be the starter.  Basabe is lighter this year like he was during his freshman season and that is music to my ears.  Basabe brings athleticism to the front court and he’ll be more of a shot-blocking presence than Woodbury is at center.  If the Basabe from his freshman year shows up it will be a sight to see.

The Bench

Zach McCabe PF Jr.

McCabe is the jack-of-all trades and master of none.  He will see time at SF, PF and probably C which means he will likely be the first man off the bench.  He brings toughness and versatility to this team and that’s what makes him more valuable off the bench than he would be as a starter.

Eric May SF Sr.

May is the lone scholarship senior on the team and if his back is healthy he can find a role on this team.  The best thing about this team is that they don’t need to rely on May to be a major contributor.  He can bring athleticism and leadership and if he can make himself into a tough on-the-ball defender he could be a very valuable reserve.

Anthony Clemmons PG Fr.

Clemmons is the other freshman PG that will also allow Marble to not have to play out of position.  McCaffery has said some nice things about Clemmons and fully expects to use Clemmons with Gesell in the back court.  Clemmons gives us depth we haven’t had a point guard in a long time.

Josh Oglesby SG So.

The designated shooter.  He’s more than that but hopefully on this team he gets to fill that role and anything else he does is just icing on the cake.

Gabe Olaseni C So.

Gabe is the athletic jumping jack back-up center.  Shot-blocking and rebounding need to be his main focuses.

Patrick Ingram SG Fr.

Ingram will need to carve out a place for himself as a defensive specialist if he wants to earn minutes.

Kyle Meyer PF Fr.

The most likely player to redshirt this season simply because he may not be needed.  He’s talented but he may have to wait his turn.

Looking to the future. 

The greatest news about this team is that there is one scholarship senior meaning the Hawks have a couple of years with this group to make some noise.  Also, transfer Jarrod Uthoff from Wisconsin will be sitting out this season but will be practicing with the team and will make practices that much more competitive.  To say that I am excited for this Hawkeye basketball season would be a huge understatement.  A good, deep, talented team led by a very impressive coach, been too long since I could say that about Hawkeye Basketball.

The Hawkeyes

As I usually do I am starting off with the Hawkeye football team.  I skipped last week because I couldn’t write about the ridiculously bad performance of the Hawkeyes against Central Michigan.  I also couldn’t stand the idiocy of the Hawkeye fan base after such a bad loss.  Yep, let’s fire Kirk Ferentz, buy out his contract for $20 million dollars and then see what kind of coach we can afford to replace him.  I’m not a Ferentz apologist, I think he needs to take a long hard look at what changes he needs to make to keep up with today’s game, but I also see that he has made some changes and those changes need time to take effect.  I follow Hawkeye recruiting closely so I know that this team’s struggles are a direct result of the bad recruiting and retention of the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes.  The reason Iowa has no real pass rush to speak of is because of a failure to recruit DE prospects that are true pass rushers.  We have taken many of the guys we have recruited over the past 4 years as DE and turned them into DT and we haven’t found many guys to turn into DE from other positions like we have in the past.  Go back to the days of Aaron Kampman or Matt Roth, both LB’s initially, Christian Ballard and Adrian Clayborn were TE prospects and even our best interior pass rushers like Mitch King and Karl Klug were beefed up from other positions.  The attrition at D-line is appalling over the last several years and as many people know it was largely due to our former defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski.  His personality wasn’t a great fit with the players or the coaching staff which is why he is Nebraska’s D-line coach now.  Kirk Ferentz would never throw a guy under a bus or try to hurt a guy’s career which is why you would never hear it from him but it isn’t a coincidence that Nebraska now has defensive linemen quitting their football team.  Reese Morgan’s move to the defensive line coach position is a breath of fresh air and should pay dividends for years to come.  I’m not absolving Ferentz of the blame for any of this as a matter of fact it falls squarely on him.  The level of recruiting (especially the low level of 2008 and 2009) is on him and the problems created by his choice of position coach (Kaczenski) are also on him.  It wasn’t just the choice of Kaczenski it was the fact that he was replacing a beloved position coach Ron Aiken with a guy that had a completely different personality.  I don’t want to make this out to be entirely the defensive line’s fault because they haven’t played terribly I use them only as an example.  If you look at the 2008 recruiting class 12 out the 25 signees either never made it to Iowa or transferred out and there are 4 more that have made little to no on-the-field contribution to the team.  The 2009 class is only slightly better having 7 guys either not make it to school, transfer out or simply quit football altogether, this is not a good way to build a team.  The good news is that Iowa is having better luck recruiting over the past several years and more help is on the way next year, the bad news is we aren’t Alabama and we can’t just plug in another 4 or 5 star recruit when one guy doesn’t work out.  Ferentz’s teams have always been about development and Iowa struggles when that development doesn’t pan out and it takes time to make up for the misses.  I believe Ferentz can turn it around because I’ve seen him do it before (I went to college here during Fry’s last season and Ferentz’s first 4), Fry left the cupboard far more bare than it is right now for Ferentz and his new staff members like Brian Ferentz, Levar Woods and Greg Davis are forcing Kirk to look at things differently.  And on the defensive side of things it brings me great joy when Phil Parker actually puts in a nickel defense when teams go to multiple WR sets and it will give me even greater joy next year when he can’t use Greg Castillo anymore as our nickel back.

More Hawkeye Notes

-Weisman for Heisman!  Way to go Mark Weisman, from back-up FB to star RB in about 6 weeks time, that is impressive.  Weisman’s running style is a great fit for our blocking scheme and his attitude is infectious.  Offensive linemen love blocking for a guy that will just run over the next line of defenders.

-I want to see us use Damon Bullock as a weapon when he returns from his concussion whether it is as a RB or a slot receiver Bullock can give this offense a playmaker.  Let’s not forget that before Bullock got knocked out of the UNI game he was playing pretty well.  I’m not saying he takes the starting job back, as a matter of fact he shouldn’t, but the kid is a playmaker and we sorely need those.

-Also let’s not overlook the contribution of Brad Rogers, here’s a kid that got sick a couple of years ago (heart issue) comes back last year and when he took over at FB our running game got a lot better, then this year he loses his starting job to Weisman at FB and now when Weisman gets his chance at RB Rogers steps back in at FB and picks up right where he left off.  Rogers is a team player for sure.

-I re-watched the Minnesota game and it’s a good thing Mark Weisman played so well in the first half because after watching it again I saw how poorly Vandenberg played.  He was off all through the first half, throwing high missing short or throwing behind receivers, his inaccuracy was obvious.

Major League Baseball notes

-This is for my friend Bill who I know reads this blog, I had a 5000 word post written about the White Sox that was all ready to go and then they choked and missed the playoffs so I had to scrap it, maybe next year Bill.

-For my friend Pete, I’m glad Fantasy baseball is over and you are now barred from talking about it until pitchers and catchers report and since you are going to win your league you owe me because I told you to pick up Mike Trout, and by the way Miguel Cabrera wins the Triple Crown so he gets the MVP not Trout.

-Congrats Miguel Cabrera!  First winner of the Triple Crown since 1967.

-Bobby Valentine is going to be fired as manager of the Boston Red Sox after one season (a conclusion that is only shocking to the idiot owners that hired him instead of the guy their GM wanted).  To all franchise owners out there this is why you let your GM hire who he wants not the big name you want.

-The Twins were abysmal; the Astros were 11 games back of abysmal.  Former Iowa Hawkeye Bo Porter was named the new manager of the Astros I’m not sure who he pissed off but apparently he is being punished for something.

NFL notes

-The Arizona Cardinal are 4-0 with Kevin Kolb at QB, between this and the Iowa Hawkeyes running a flea flicker last week I’m starting to think the Mayans may be right.

-The Jets are a mess and as a Patriots fan I couldn’t be happier.

-I was sure I was going to win my Fantasy match-up this week I was going up against a team with Chris Johnson and Michael Turner at RB, I try to keep this blog clean so I won’t say what I want to say about those two this week just know it rhymes with buck you.

Fall TV

-Fringe was as good as I thought it would be.

-Revolution looks promising.

-The Mob Doctor is on Fox not The CW like I said in my preview although it’s a moot point because I doubt it will be on Fox much longer, it sucks.

Hawkeye Football

Thank you Hawkeyes for beating UNI on Saturday it is way too early to start talking college basketball.  I will say it is harder to write about the Hawks when they play well (apparently I’m better at criticism than praise).  A couple of things; first Mark Weisman the unknown fullback turned tailback by necessity did a great job stepping in for the injured and sick squadron of running backs the Hawkeyes have.  Damon Bullock took a shot to the head and I’m fairly certain he had no idea where he was for a while, Greg Garmon got 3 whole carries before the Angry Iowa Running Back Hating God (AIRBHG) caused a dislocated elbow, an injury that I assure you looked way worse than it actually was (because there is no way it could be as bad as it looked…yuck).  Walk-on freshman RB Michael Malloy didn’t even suit up for the game due to an illness so the Hawks called on the walk-on transfer fullback and he delivered big.  Second, great job catching the ball Hawkeye receivers I only really recall Garmon’s drop down the sideline  (it helps if Vandenberg doesn’t throw it to Shumpert…I promise that’s my last dig at Shumpert…unless he actually plays next week then he’ll drops more passes and all bets are off).  Finally, the defense is doing a great job of making half-time adjustments now if they can just come out better to start the game they will be fantastic.

Something tells me Bullock is not likely to play this week against Central Michigan, Garmon may play if his elbow feels alright and they can find the right brace for him.  Malloy should be back and Ferentz says he’ll play this weekend.  Jordan Canzeri is supposedly close to ready coming off his ACL tear in the spring and now we have Weisman.  I’m afraid if they list Weisman at RB then AIRBHG will take him out and hopefully Canzeri coming back so fast doesn’t anger AIRBHG because that might cause Garmon’s arm to actually fall off instead of just looking like it did.  I’m not sure Weisman can look as good as he did against UNI playing against Big Ten competition but at the very least we found a short yardage back.  No more running Damon Bullock into a nine man front on first and goal from the 2.  Although with the way the Big Ten looks at the moment maybe Weisman will look like a Heisman Trophy candidate against them.

The Big Ten

The good news is that if the Hawkeyes can get their offense going they can compete in the Big Ten this year, the bad news is that this is because the Big Ten sucks.  There are only 3 undefeated teams left in the Big Ten after week 3, Ohio St is one, and can you guess the other two?  I didn’t.  Let me save you some time, Minnesota and Northwestern, trust me it ain’t staying that way very long.  Michigan St. has a great defense but their offense is downright offensive, sound familiar.  Michigan looked great…against UMass…but they struggled with Air Force and got trounced by Alabama.  Wisconsin almost lost to UNI and Utah St. and they did lose to Oregon St.  I don’t think Montee Ball is making it back to the Heisman Award show, who knew the immediate transfer QB thing wouldn’t work out again.  Nebraska…well…they’re still coached by Bo Pelini…say hello to 8-4 for forever.  Penn St. has 2 loses already…you’re not convincing me Purdue is winning anything…Minnesota and Northwestern yeah right…Illinois and Indiana um no.  So that leaves Iowa and Ohio St. let’s just say I’m not counting on the Big Ten getting two teams into the BCS this year…thank god for the Big Ten’s automatic qualifying status ( and that’s the only time I will ever thank god for anything related to the BCS.)  Saying this is a down year for the Big Ten is an insult to down years.  Go Hawks.

NFL Quick Hits

-The Cardinals beat the Patriots on Sunday with Kevin Kolb at QB.  The Cardinals are 2-0 and the Patriots are 1-1.  Clearly I’m working too much overtime and my mind is playing tricks on me.

-The replacement refs suck, of course they do if they were good they would be the regular refs.  This stalemate isn’t going away you know why?  NFL refs aren’t full-time they have other jobs.  They aren’t missing paychecks they are missing extra money it isn’t like when players are locked out and can’t support their lifestyles (or their child support payments) these guys work regular jobs.  They won’t budge, the league won’t budge and nothing is going to change until something goes seriously wrong.  I’m talking a brawl gets out of hand and someone gets hurt kind of wrong.

-My fantasy team is struggling but it’s early and my Doggs will pull it together.

Fall Television Season

Okay so this has been a sports blog until now but I’m a television fan and I thought I’d throw out some things and see who likes what I like.

I’m looking forward to:

Fringe: If you haven’t seen the first 3 seasons don’t bother watching this year but if you like sci-fi you should check out the first 3 seasons and then catch up.  It’s going to be awesome.

Revenge: Total guilty pleasure, I shouldn’t even admit I like this show but it’s really good and I love Emily Van Camp.

The Voice: Adam Levine is the best celebrity judge on any talent show ever and his bromance with Blake Shelton is awesome (I like Blake too even though I couldn’t name a single song of his).

NCIS: Los Angeles:  Daniela Ruah is back on my DVR next week, hell yeah!

Nikita: Maggie Q is kick ass, the show ended last season on a game changer.

Blue Bloods:  Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg what more could you ask for.

Hawaii Five-O: Who doesn’t love Dano?

I’m not looking forward to but I’m going to watch anyway:

Grey’s Anatomy: It’s like that girlfriend you’ve been with way longer than you should have been but you just keep going back, no matter how many times you say you’re done you just can’t help yourself.

Criminal Minds:  I’m going to miss Emily Prentiss and I can only hope the change goes as well as it went when Paget Brewster joined the show but I’m not optimistic.

NCIS: I like this show but I don’t know why.

New Shows I want to like:

Revolution: It better be more like Lost and less like Heroes, unless it’s like the first season of Heroes then we’re good.

Mob Doctor: I know it’s on the CW but I love Jordana Spiro I just don’t know if she can pull off being a doctor, she was an excellent sportswriter on My Boys…maybe that’s why I love her.