The university has done a pretty good job marketing Saturday's homecoming game against Penn State as the Black and Gold Spirit Day. I know I've received at least one email on the subject and seen countless tweets. But in case you need another reminder, let me tell you that Saturday has a special color scheme: Black and Gold stripes. The basic plan is if your seats are in an odd numbered section, then wear black. If your seats are in an even numbered section, then wear gold. Students are to wear black. In case you need additional help, I put together a "what to wear" tool to assist you. There is also a chart that was released by Iowa that is helpful. My wife and I are sitting in an even section, so gold for us.

Scheels...I'm on to you
So, tonight after work I headed over to Scheels in Jordan Creek Mall with my wife and son to look for a new gold Iowa shirt for my wife (if only we were in an odd section we would have already been set with our black shirts). As a smart move by Scheels they had a big sign next to all the Hawkeye apparel that advertised the upcoming Black and Gold Spirit Day.

There are 25 teams still unbeaten and 25 spots on my ballot. You can do the math. It means no Iowa, no Texas, no Miami, etc... A few sets of 4-0 teams are facing off this weekend, so this will be the last week of a no-loss BlogPoll ballot. Other than that, most everyone previously on my ballot took care of business so moved up in place.

Ray Hamilton
W Lakewood 3 - Strongsville 42 | (3-2)
After a poor 0-2 start, Strongsville has rattled off 3 straight wins including this week's rout of Lakewood. I couldn't find any of Hamilton's stats, but here's his take on the game.

Next Game: at Medina - 10/01

Austin Blythe
W Williamsburg 42 - South Tama County 6 | (5-0)
Another week, another big win for the top-ranked Williamsburg Raiders. No mentions of Blythe were found.

Next Game: vs. Benton - 10/01

Austin Vincent
W DeSoto 49 - NOAH Homeschool 18 | (4-1)
NOAH started off the game trying to catch the Eagles off guard with an onside kick. It failed and DeSoto, with excellent field position, went on to score a touchdown. From that point on, DeSoto never looked back going up 35-6 at halftime and ultimately winning 49-18. Vincent caught a pass in the endzone for a successful 2-point conversion.

Next Game: at North Mesquite - 10/07

It took Iowa a little bit of time to get rolling, but the second half was nearly perfect as Iowa scored on 4 straight drives. Ball State on the other hand, barely put a drive together and spent almost all of its time on its own half of the field.

FULL SCREEN VERSION

Athletic Directors across the Big Ten all had the same idea setting up their team's schedules this year...finish the non-conference schedule with a tune-up game to get ready for conference play. Iowa did just that on Saturday cruising to 45-point win over Ball State. This game was never in question and actually went better than I was expecting. There was little, if any, hangover from the loss last week as Iowa for the most part came out sharp (let's just say those drops were because of a wet ball...) and executed like they did the first two weeks.

Star players
Adam Robinson: Without any experienced player to back him up, Robinson is going to need to be the featured running back this year. To date, he has lived up to his end of the deal. On Saturday he accounted for 190 of total offense carrying the ball 22 times for 115 yards, and catching the ball 3 times for 75 yards.

Ricky Stanzi: If it wasn't for a few drops, Stanzi might have had a perfect game. He ended up 19/25 passing for 288 yards and 3 TDs. That is Stanzi's fourth straight good performance and he currently is sitting at #5 in the nation for passing efficiency. It is still early, but it appears that whatever he did this off-season to work on not throwing interception and not starting off slow, worked (knock on wood...knock on a whole lot of wood).