Break The Rock

This is kind of a lazy post today, which is semi-ironic because it's about Iowa's Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Chris Doyle, who is probably the epitome of non-laziness when it comes to Iowa Football. Coach Doyle works year round with the players and gets them to do amazing things. He is one of the main reasons for Iowa's reputation for great player development.

A day after landing a verbal commitment from Henry Krieger-Coble, the Hawkeyes pick up the 5th member of the 2011 class. Austin Vincent became the 3rd receiver (and second Austin) to commit. He is currently not rated by Scout or Rivals.

Iowa picked up 3 commits early in the spring (Marcus Grant, JaCorey Shepherd, and Austin Blythe), but it has been relatively quiet on the recruiting front since then. Yesterday, the silence was broken as the Hawkeyes picked up the 4th commit for the 2011 class. Henry Krieger-Coble is a tight end from Mount Pleasant High School. From Iowa, he grew up a Hawkeyes fan...plus it doesn't hurt that his cousin is Iowa Basketball great Jess Settles (who is actually on Mount Pleasant's coaching staff). Krieger-Coble gets 3-stars from Rivals but is not ranked by Scout.

The watch lists for all the end of season awards have been trickling out for a while now. Yesterday, two more were released and 3 Hawkeyes made the cut. Not surprisingly, Adrian Clayborn and Tyler Sash are on the Bronko Nagurski watch list. The Bronko Nagurski Award is given annually to the best defensive player in the nation.

Perhaps somewhat more surprising is that Karl Klug is on the Outland Trophy watch list. The Outland Trophy is given to the best interior lineman, which is tackles (offensive or defensive), guards, and centers.

Hawkeye fans often gripe about how Iowa gets no respect, especially in the polls. Take last year for example...Iowa rolls into Happy Valley and beats Penn State only to end up ranked 4 spots bellow the Nittany Lions in the Coaches Poll. By the end of the year after a dominating Orange Bowl victory, the voters got it right (as they usually do in the final poll) and placed Iowa where they deserved to be.