Iowa Related
Iowa Football Tidbits
James Morris wants to start a band with fellow 2010 commit Jim Poggi (Morris sings and Poggi plays guitar). Maybe they could be called The Jims (nope…there's already a band named The Jims, but based on their website I'd say Morris and Poggi probably don't want to associate with these guys). Well, even if they don't form a band, I hope these guys do develop a nice chemistry as I think the two of them well be playing along side eachother at linebacker a lot in the coming years.
Tim Dwight's Football Camp
Tim Dwight had his annual football camp this week. Ricky Stanzi and A.J. Edds joined Dwight and helped out the 8 to 18 year olds (hopefully future Hawkeyes) learn more about football.
TE Anthony Schiavone leaves Iowa
Anthony Schiavone spent just one semester at The University of Iowa before desciding to transfer else where. He graduated high school earlier to enroll in college during the spring and he even participated in spring practice. I'm not sure why he's leaving. Maybe he felt like he didn't have a shot at playing with all the tight ends on the roster or maybe he was just home sick (he's from Connecticut).
At least it's college football related
FIU loses its cheerleaders
It's a sad day in Miami. The Florida International Golden Panthers will play football this year with no cheerleaders on its sidelines. This comes after FIU already cut the marching band. So when FIU scores a rare touchdown (sorry for that cheap shot, but FIU is just not that good) there will be no peppy co-eds kicking and screaming and no band blasting out the fight song. That hardly seems like college football.
Off Topic
Google Wave
Okay, so this is a month old, but has anybody watched this video? It's only like an hour and a half. Google Wave looks pretty awesome. I've signed up to be alerted as soon as it is made public. Maybe it'll be something the Hawkeye community can use to spend even more time talking about Iowa Football.
Archive page 133
Links For Iowa
Iowa Football Related
Varsity Numbers: Defense Stats
Varsity Numbers gives us an interesting look at defensive statistics. They some how weigh in strength of schedule. Iowa comes in at 11th in the "Defensive '+' Rankings for 2008, but the article predicts a potential drop off due to Iowa's large disproportionality between the defense's effectiveness on passing downs compared to standard downs.
Rivals: #71 Best Football Player
Pat Angerer was ranked the #71 best player in America by Rivals.
At least it's college football related
Black Shoe Diaries - Penn State Game Times
Nittany Whiteout - Shorter Tailgates
Bleacher Report - Why no season tickets?
Yesterday the Big Ten released the TV schedule for the first 3 weeks of the 2009 season, including 2 more Iowa games. Penn State's first three games will all be on the BTN with 11:00 CST (it'll be 12:00 in Happy Valley if you can't do the math) start times. Apparently that's too early for some Penn State fans, but what do you expect with games against Akron, Syracuse, and Temple. The funniest quote is in the Bleacher Report post:
BSC says no to MWC
Surprise, surprise. The BSC rejected the Mountain West Conference's plan to have a college football playoffs.
CFN Roundtable on Big Ten
The Big Ten's reputation has not been the best lately. While the question was "Why does the Big 10 stick?" I think theses Roundtablers for the most part offer good reasons why the Big Ten is better than is perceived. I liked this quote in particular and it think it's the very reason the Big Ten is perceived as a weak conference:
Not even football related
USA Shocks Spain
The USA Men's Soccer Team beat the number 1 ranked team in the world, Spain, yesterday breaking Spain's 35 game unbeaten steak.
Varsity Numbers: Defense Stats
Varsity Numbers gives us an interesting look at defensive statistics. They some how weigh in strength of schedule. Iowa comes in at 11th in the "Defensive '+' Rankings for 2008, but the article predicts a potential drop off due to Iowa's large disproportionality between the defense's effectiveness on passing downs compared to standard downs.
"The next team on the list, Iowa, has had a reputation for always having solid defenses under Kirk Ferentz, but until 2008 they had not finished in the Top 15 in Total Defense since 2004, so this surge back to near the top of the rankings will probably come with at least a slight fall in 2009."
Rivals: #71 Best Football Player
Pat Angerer was ranked the #71 best player in America by Rivals.
"Angerer is a throwback defender, from the days when folks watched football on a black-and-white TV. Watching his hard-hitting style, you get the sense Angerer would play without a helmet if he could."
At least it's college football related
Black Shoe Diaries - Penn State Game Times
Nittany Whiteout - Shorter Tailgates
Bleacher Report - Why no season tickets?
Yesterday the Big Ten released the TV schedule for the first 3 weeks of the 2009 season, including 2 more Iowa games. Penn State's first three games will all be on the BTN with 11:00 CST (it'll be 12:00 in Happy Valley if you can't do the math) start times. Apparently that's too early for some Penn State fans, but what do you expect with games against Akron, Syracuse, and Temple. The funniest quote is in the Bleacher Report post:
"The responsibility of waking up for noon kickoffs when you’ve been out all night before, and all you want is one more hour of sleep, is too much."SERIOUSLY?
BSC says no to MWC
Surprise, surprise. The BSC rejected the Mountain West Conference's plan to have a college football playoffs.
"There was no overall support for the proposal, although some conferences were interested in considering certain elements of it in the future."
CFN Roundtable on Big Ten
The Big Ten's reputation has not been the best lately. While the question was "Why does the Big 10 stick?" I think theses Roundtablers for the most part offer good reasons why the Big Ten is better than is perceived. I liked this quote in particular and it think it's the very reason the Big Ten is perceived as a weak conference:
"the Big Ten will continue to face the toughest postseason match ups in the nation. And the nation will continue to frown on them."
Not even football related
USA Shocks Spain
The USA Men's Soccer Team beat the number 1 ranked team in the world, Spain, yesterday breaking Spain's 35 game unbeaten steak.
Arizona and UNI game time announced
The Big Ten announced today the schedule for more football games this fall. The kick off time for two more Iowa home games were released. The first game of the year against Northern Iowa will start at 11:00 and will be aired on the Big Ten Network. The third game of the year against Arizona will start at 2:30 and will be a regional ABC broadcast showing on ESPN2 in some areas. A total of 7 game times have now been announced for the 2009 Iowa Football Schedule. The only remaining games not scheduled yet are vs. Arkansas State, vs. Indiana, vs. Northwester, at Ohio State, and vs. Minnesota. I would think every game besides the Ohio State game will be 11:00 starts.
Remembering Ed Thomas
Ed Thomas was the head coach for Aplington-Parkersburg football for 34 years. He has plenty of ties to the Hawkeye Football program, the latest being Aaron Kampman. Kirk Ferentz knew Thomas well and released a statement today after learning about the coach's tragic death. I've spent all day reading stories about Ed Thomas and the impact he has had on so many lives around him. He was truly a great man and will be greatly missed. My condolences go to his family, his team, and the whole Parkersburg community.
Spotlight on: Dan Doering
People probably know more about Dan Doering than my previous "Spotlight on" subject, Mike Daniels, but there is only 74 days left until Iowa Football kicks off against UNI and Doering is #74 and could easily be one of the starting offensive guards this fall (especially with Julian Vandervelde's uncomfirmed injury). So, I decided to dig a little deeper to find out more about the heralded 2005 recruit.
High School: Dan Doering attended Barrington High School in Barrington Illinois. As a Bronco, Doering earned award after award. In his senior year he was First Team All-American (by USA Today, Parade, and EA Sports), the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year, and a member of the 2004 Illinois Super Team All-State (along with Jake Christensen, Tony Moeaki, and Dace Richardson). He also played in the U.S. Army-All American Bowl. His abilities earned him scholarship offers from big name schools like Oklahom, Notre Dame, and of course Iowa. He also earned 5 star ratings from both Scout and Rivals and was even named one of the nation's top 10 players by Rivals. So all these accolades led to great success in college, right?...right?
College: I'm not trying to give Doering a hard time or anything, but his play in college has not met the hype he received out of high school. Dan was drawn to Iowa in many ways. His sister attended Iowa and he is good friends with Jake Christensen who had a hand in getting many of the 2005 recruits to commit. Once at Iowa, Doering's freshman year of college he redshirted. Then as a redshirt freshman he was stuck behind the very solid Marshal Yanda, so Doering only played in clean up time in the blow out victory against Purdue. His sophomore year, 2007, was when Doering finally earned a starting spot, but not right away. Half way through the season he was still in backup duty and some complained he was not living up to his expectations. However, he became the starter at right guard by the 8th game of the year against Purdue and started the remaining games helping Iowa beat Michigan State, Northwestern, and Minnesota (I won't mention the last game of the year here). In 2008, he was expected to be a starter again, this time at left guard. However, a hand/wrist injury held him back. He missed the first 6 games of the year with the injury, but then played in 5 games as a backup. With all that said, I expect Doering to finally have a chance to prove his worth this season. Right now he looks like he will be the starter at right guard. With the supporting cast he has around him on the offensive line I expect him to have a good year that should propel him to the NFL.
Other Stuff: In addition to football, Dan Doering is a well rounded athlete. In high school he was a state qualifier in shot put and on the basketball team. He's also pretty good at golf and an avid hunter.
High School: Dan Doering attended Barrington High School in Barrington Illinois. As a Bronco, Doering earned award after award. In his senior year he was First Team All-American (by USA Today, Parade, and EA Sports), the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year, and a member of the 2004 Illinois Super Team All-State (along with Jake Christensen, Tony Moeaki, and Dace Richardson). He also played in the U.S. Army-All American Bowl. His abilities earned him scholarship offers from big name schools like Oklahom, Notre Dame, and of course Iowa. He also earned 5 star ratings from both Scout and Rivals and was even named one of the nation's top 10 players by Rivals. So all these accolades led to great success in college, right?...right?
College: I'm not trying to give Doering a hard time or anything, but his play in college has not met the hype he received out of high school. Dan was drawn to Iowa in many ways. His sister attended Iowa and he is good friends with Jake Christensen who had a hand in getting many of the 2005 recruits to commit. Once at Iowa, Doering's freshman year of college he redshirted. Then as a redshirt freshman he was stuck behind the very solid Marshal Yanda, so Doering only played in clean up time in the blow out victory against Purdue. His sophomore year, 2007, was when Doering finally earned a starting spot, but not right away. Half way through the season he was still in backup duty and some complained he was not living up to his expectations. However, he became the starter at right guard by the 8th game of the year against Purdue and started the remaining games helping Iowa beat Michigan State, Northwestern, and Minnesota (I won't mention the last game of the year here). In 2008, he was expected to be a starter again, this time at left guard. However, a hand/wrist injury held him back. He missed the first 6 games of the year with the injury, but then played in 5 games as a backup. With all that said, I expect Doering to finally have a chance to prove his worth this season. Right now he looks like he will be the starter at right guard. With the supporting cast he has around him on the offensive line I expect him to have a good year that should propel him to the NFL.
Other Stuff: In addition to football, Dan Doering is a well rounded athlete. In high school he was a state qualifier in shot put and on the basketball team. He's also pretty good at golf and an avid hunter.