Iowa Related

Freshman season tickets = awesome lunchbox
This is a couple weeks old but I just found it today. Incoming freshman to The University of Iowa who buy season tickets for football and men's basketball get an awesome Iowa lunchbox. They also get a bunch of other cool stuff all courtesy of the athletic department.


At least it's college football related

Recruiting and Reporting
This article has an interesting point about the internet recruiting services. These sites have reporters that spend a lot of time talking to recruits and the people running them are generally big fans of the university. The schools and coaches have many restrictions around the recruiting process, however these reporters can lobby for their team, slander against rivals, and pretty much post whatever that want on their websites. But the people (including me) want to know about recruits even though the whole process may be over-hyped.

Tennessee latest commit is 13 years old
Why Lane Kifkin, why? There are a million stories on this, because it is so ridiculous on so many levels.

Today Matt Hoch became the eighth player to verbally commit to the Iowa Hawkeyes. He is the seventh defensive player and fourth defensive lineman joining Louis Trinca-Pasat, Anthony Ferguson, and Mike Hardy on the line. Hoch is a 3 star, as rated by Rivals and Scout, defensive end from Harlan, Iowa.

High School:
Matt Hoch goes to Harlan Community High School in Harlan, Iowa. The school has an unfortunate nickname of the Cyclones, but at least there isn't some bird head on the mascot. As a junior, Hoch helped his team reach the 3-A quarter finals, where they got a taste of the Hawkeye's incoming freshman Brandon Wegher as they were beat by Heelan.

Hoch had a good season himself with 96 tackles, 21 for loss, and 8 sacks (according to Scout, Rivals only shows 20 tackles for loss). He also had an interception and a fumble recovery all while missing 2 games and playing with a minor knee injury. His performance earned him a place on the Second Team Defense All-State for the second year in a row.

In high school, Matt Hoch is also an accomplished wrestler. He finished 9th place in the state tournament at 215 pounds. He also is on the track team and does shot put and discus.

Quick Glance:

DE Matt Hoch - Harlan, Iowa
Recruiting:
Rivals	3*, #22 DE
Scout	3*, #73 DE
Other Schools	ISU, Mizzou, K State, Stanford
Stats:
Size	6'4", 240 lbs
40 Time	4.9 sec
Bench	300 lbs

Iowa Related

Iowa finished #45 in Directors' Cup
The University of Iowa finished in 45th place in the Leerfield Sports Directors' Cup. The the Directors' Cup is kind of a who's the overall best at sports competition. Iowa finished with 474.30 points, 54 of which were earned by the football team last fall. In comparison, #1 Standford finished with 1455 point. Here's the run down of all the Big Ten teams…Iowa has some catching up to do, but the Big Ten had a very strong finish.

School	Rank	Total Points
Michigan	5	1131.8
Ohio State	10	1015.8
Minnesota	14	975.75
Penn State	19	813.1
Illinois	20	808.75
Michigan State	27	708.05
Purdue	38	569.63
Wisconsin	41	535.5
Northwestern	44	483
Iowa	45	474.3
Indiana	55	389.25

Hawkapalooza - September 3, 2009
The week before the 2009 Iowa Football Season kicks off is going to be busy. Fry Fest is already scheduled for Friday, September 4. Now add Hawkapalooza, a pep rally/concert to mix and we should get a pretty exciting build up to the UNI game.

At least it's college football related

CFN Iowa State Preview
CFN did a good job on Iowa's preview so I took the time to read Iowa State's preview. Pretty much just states that the offense should be good once it adapts to the new system (the offensive line is learning zone blocking) and the defense will be bad again but very aggressive.

With only 10 weeks left until the 2009 Iowa Football season kicks off, the Hawkeyes land their seventh commitment for the 2010 class. Mike Hardy, from Appleton, Wisconsin, became the sixth defensive player to commit to Iowa yesterday. Though the name Hardy may bring back bad memories for Hawkeye fans, this Hardy will hopefully create new, good memories for us fans. He is ranked as a 3 star defensive end by both Scout and Rivals.

High School:
Hardy attends Kimberly High School "Home of the Papermakers" in Appleton, Wisconsin. As a junior, Hardy had 10 tackles for loss including 6 sacks. He also handled punting duties and had 15 punts with an average distance of 33.1 yards per kick (so I don't think he'll be punting for Iowa). Hardy was a large part of Kimberly's stellar defense. The team only gave up 77 points during the regular season. The incredible defensive play led them to a perfect 14-0 season winning the Division II championship in Wisconsin. In the championship game, Hardy contributed with a tackle, a pass breakup, and a 32 yard punt. Hardy was also selected First Team All-Conference unanimously.

In addition to Hardy's success on the football field he was also a state champion in discus and runner up in shot put. He also played center for the basketball team at Kimberly. The Papermakers went 13-5 last season and Hardy averaged 3.6 points per game.

Quick Glance:

DE Mike Hardy - Appleton, Wisconsin
Recruiting:
Rivals	3*, #27 DE
Scout	3*, #68 DE
Other Schools	ISU, Minn, Neb, Pur,Wisc, Ind
Stats:
Size	6'5", 260 lbs
40 Time	5.0 sec
Bench	260 lbs

I just wanted to inform everyone that I've added a new "gadget" to the sidebar. It's for the 2009 Iowa Football Starters. At this point I'm just guessing who is going to start week 1. I'm assuming that Calloway won't be playing with his moped incident and Vandervelde will miss the first game with his mystery injury. Anyway, just hover over the position on the field and the player information will display. It's still a work in progress...if you click on the position it just takes you to the top of the page (I'll try to find some place more useful) and I'd like to get the players pictures at some point. Other than that it should be working though.