An hour later

Jim Delany wants to push kickoff times an hour back to noon and 3:30. Of course it's not really his decision to make. Sure the Big Ten Network will air games whenever the Delany wants them, but it's the ABC/ESPN deal that could get in the way. It would take an across the board shift to make it work. We can't have B1G games at noon bleeding into the first half of a 2:30 SEC game. Delany might just be powerful enough to start this movement though.

Mike Hlas asks the obvious question: which do you prefer--11 and 2:30 or 12 and 3:30? Personally I'd love a 2:30 start every week as it perfectly nests between my ideal travel/meal schedule for game days. Though, 3:30 would be just fine by me. The games would end a little bit late for my liking, but not bad. And, a 12:00 kick is preferable to an hour earlier. That would everyone some extra time in the morning to travel or tailgate. The only issue I would have with the proposed time changes is if the night games also got pushed back. After the late game in Arizona last year, I don't need any more games lasting past midnight. If I want to watch football that late at night I'll turn on a Hawaii game from the comfort of my own couch.

DJK's Road to Redemption

DJK is everywhere these days. I think the post-Michigan-game interview is probably the only chance to talk that he has ever declined. In a move to tell his story, redeem his image, stroke his own ego, and just to talk (a lot) DJK has been busy doing interviews.

The schedule for the night games are just starting to trickle in for the B1G this fall. Nebraska and Wisconsin just announced that the Huskers' introduction to the conference would be played under the lights. Iowa's home slate on the schedule doesn't look like it has a night game on it, and Gary Barta agrees: "We haven’t yet been asked to play a night game so they still have a couple of weeks to still be determined. It doesn’t look like there would be one, but they still have an opportunity to pick us over the next couple of weeks."

So before any game times come out, I thought I'd take a shot at predicting the kickoff time and TV coverage for every game this year.

Tennessee Tech | 09/03/11 | Home
Prediction: 11:00 AM, BTN
Early home game against a FCS school...enough said.

Iowa State| 09/10/11 | Away
Prediction: 11:00 AM, FSN
This game has garnered a little more attention the past couple of years and was actually a 2:30 regional ABC game last year. However, I think this falls back to the early time slot this year.

Macon Plewa and Kyle Anderson to walk on

Despite the nasty weather last weekend, Saturday turned out to be a good day for Iowa in terms of recruiting. After visiting Iowa City during spring practice, two players have decided to walk on this fall. HawkeyeReport.com is the only one who has been finding these walk-ons lately and again has the scoop on linebacker Macon Plewa and quarterback Kyle Anderson.

Plewa is familiar with another incoming Hawkeye, Melvin Gordon. The two squared off this past season in Wisconsin. Plewa had the game-sealing interception while covering Gordon. He also racked up some pretty decent stats this past year with 131 tackles, 22 TFLs, and 5 INTs. Here's his highlight video.

Anderson was the quarterback for Ames High School last year. He is more of a dual-threat spread quarterback than pro-style and his film shows a lot of run plays. I don't think he will be challenging Vandenberg for the starting spot, but looks like a good athlete that could potentially help out at another position. Or, as a dual-threat guy he could be a good player to have running the scout team to emulate all the running quarterbacks that the Hawkeyes will have to face this year in the B1G.

Kickers

Mike Meyer earned a scholarship after handling the placekicking duties for the Hawkeyes last year. The starting spot is still an open competition though and both Meyer and Trent Mossbrucker are battling for it. During the practice, Mossbrucker ended up being the more accurate kicker connected on 3/4 field goals from 36 yards and making both from 42. Meyer was just 4/7 on the day missing 1 from 36, 42, and 52.

However, I wouldn't be handing the job over to Mossbrucker just yet. His kicks were consistently very low and often just cleared the crossbar. He's had this problem in the past and it's what led to the blocked PAT that should have tied the game in the 4th quarter against Arizona last year. The line-drives may have helped in the windy conditions Saturday, but they won't be helpful when the opposition is going full out to try to block the kick.

Meyer's kicks looked much better, even though he missed 3 (none were off by much though the 52-yarder was quite a bit short). He appears to have the stronger leg than Mossbrucker, so I would bet he will at least be handling kick offs again.

An area of slight concern from practice was the snap for field goals. Iowa's long-snapper the past couple of season, Andrew Schulze, was a good one. I can only remember one bad snap in his 4 years. In practice on Saturday one snap was really low and Wienke (who's the holder) actually picked it up and looked to throw. Another snap was a little off and Wienke got it down in time but Meyer missed the field goal.

Iowa's video coordinator Matt Engelbert, who was just named the 2011 Collegiate Sports Video Association’s Big Ten Conference Video Coordinator of the Year, posted a highlight video of the Hawkeyes' 2010 season on his blog tonight. Give it a watch or two.