Summer is a lot less cool when you're an adult. It seems to be the busiest time of the year...if only I could take 3 months off of work every year. Anyway, I'm behind on posting so here's a mishmash of stuff that I'm catching up on.

B1G Media Days are coming

The Kickoff Luncheon, part of Media Days, is on July 29 this year. The 3 lucky players getting to attend with Kirk Ferentz are Marvin McNutt, Tyler Nielsen, and Mike Daniels. The selections fall in line with what Ferentz usually does...pick the most deserving seniors. Prater might have been a good choice too, but he probably would have been bombarded with rhabdo questions.

The Media Days will undoubtedly be focused on Nebraska as the new shiny B1G member and OSU for less appealing reasons. Still, they do mark the beginning of football season and are often entertaining and informative to follow.

The award watch lists are out of control

I haven't been following the award watch lists too closely as pretty much every Iowa returning starter is on one. And, when a watch list is comprised of over 100 names, it starts losing its value pretty quickly. However, the list are at least something to talk about and can be mildly entertaining.

So I went back and tried to compile a list of the watch lists. Here's hopefully all of Hawkeyes (I could have easily missed one) on a preseason watch list:
  • James Ferentz - Rimington Trophy (center)
  • Riley Reiff - Rotary Lombardi Award (down lineman), Outland Trophy (interior lineman)
  • Shaun Prater - Bronko Nagurski Trophy (defensive player), Bednarik Award (defensive player), College Football Performance Award
  • Marcus Coker - Maxwell Award (outstanding player), Doak Walker (running back)
  • Marvin McNutt - Biletnikoff Award (receiver), College Football Performance Award
  • Micah Hyde - College Football Performance Award
  • Mike Meyer - College Football Performance Award
  • Mike Daniels - College Football Performance Award, Pony Express Award (defensive combo)
  • Broderick Binns - Pony Express Award (defensive combo)
  • Tyle Nielsen - Butkus Award (linebacker)

I think that's every returning starter except for Markus Zusevics (and some players that just started in a few games--James Morris, Adam Gettis, etc...).

Quick Hits

  • In basketball news, Anthony Hubbard is leaving Iowa. He was in Iowa City and playing in the PTL and all of a sudden is gone citing wanting to play closer to home.
  • Iowa has more active defensive linemen in the NFL than any other school. D-Line U?
  • Single game tickets go on sale July 19. There probably won't be many and won't last long. You can go online starting at 6:00 am and call the ticket off starting at 9:00. It may only be open to season ticket holders at this time. I'm not sure on that.