I like being the underdog in this one, Hawks will set 'em straight. I'm confident we'll be ok in this one plus I played a simualtion of this game on NCAA 2011 and Iowa turned out a 35-6 win.
This will for sure be a tough game; AZ has a lot of speed on offense and some pretty big hogs on the O-Line. Provided we can contain Grigsby and keep up with their WR's, we should do ok. I watched most of the Toledo game and really thought that their D was average at best. Toledo ran a very slow developing spread/option style offense that operated about as smooth as sandpaper and the game was really not blown out of reach until the 3rd Q. Obviously they (AZ) are prepping big time for this one as they know they've had a cake schedule up to this point and it'll be interesting to see if the whole time change thing really affects the Hawks. Hope to see 3-0 for Iowa.
No way Stanzi loses a game on 9/11.
Very tough to predict the score but I really don't think it'll be too close at the end of the game with the Hawkeyes pulling ahead by a couple scores. I was very unimpressed by ISU's defense and the NIU QB missed some huge open opportunities. Enter in our WR corpes, A-Rob and Jewel. The offense was decent, good QB and one WR but now facing the Iowa D line and the rest of the crew and ISU is looking at trouble. I'll go crazy here and say something like 35-10 ISU gets a FG on the first drive and a TD early in the 4th Q but stil can't catch up.
Hey Mike What's your take on the playcalling? I love using the TE's but we had I think only 1 throw to DJK (and an end around) Marvin had only 2 catches and the one miss on the deep ball. We only threw 26 times, half of which were to a RB or TE. Is this just a way to get the QB's and the O-Line in a comfortable rhythem and saving some things for IA St. and AZ in the coming weeks?
Ok, ISU did look pretty good, had some glimpses of greatness but lets not jump the gun here. If you watched the game you saw several things: ISU was relatively consistent in running and passing effectively but NIU sloppy everything (3 missed FG's, stopped on the goal line, missed passes, turnovers) helped win the game for ISU not solely stellar play. Sure all these things happen in football but please. Both teams were not very good on 3rd down (under 50%) and another crazy stat is 93 pass yards for NIU. This is NOT because ISU played good D, it was becuase the NIU QB was overthrowing everyone. He missed a couple homereun balls and made some poor decisions. ISU rushed for 138 yards...cut that i half agianst the Iowa D. Combine a pass rush X10 with a good Iowa secondary and that spells Turnover City for the Arnaud and ISU offense (who tossed 2 INT's against a poor NIU secondary).
To answer Hugs4u above...cyclones should get used to using lawnmowers, I think they export more gardners the country of Mexico.
From what I have heard (from very reputable sources) Brandon has a couple of significant obligations that might be costing him most of his personal time for, say, the next 18 years. I hope he is able to return at some point in the next couple years and contriubte to the team as he did last year but I think he has more important things to worry about than football. We'll see I guess.
Speaking of Tie games, interesting history here from ESPN: 10. No. 1 Notre Dame 14, No. 20 Iowa 14, 1953: The Hawkeyes dominated this game, yet the Irish scored the tying touchdown in the waning seconds. Notre Dame had those waning seconds because a few Irish players feigned injury to stop the clock. The tactic earned national scorn for the team and coach Frank Leahy, so much so that the NCAA Football Rules Committee felt no need to change the rules to outlaw the practice. Leahy retired after the season.
Awesome Meatloaf reference.
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