Iowa Hawkeyes: Road To The Final Four

Last Saturday as you stomped, bristled, swore and denigrated your favorite college football team’s opposition, we down-home folk from Iowa were attending to business during an off week.

Clearing the fields, herding the livestock and beheading a few chickens…exactly what the Iowa Hawkeyes will be attempting to do in the next four weeks—as we polish off another potentially stellar football season.

After back to back wins over Indiana on the road and Wisconsin in Iowa City, Hawkeye bowl futures look “rosier.” 

On October 18th, the offense, energized by the sublime Shonn Green, whacked Wisconsin 38-16 in a contest not as close as the score. For one thing QB Ricky Stanzi avoided a sack all afternoon and Iowa didn’t turn the ball over. 

These are huge improvements for a team whose offense sputtered disastrously at the start of the Big Ten season.

Greene managed another +100 yards rushing against Wisconsin just as he has for every game this season. He finally surpassed 1000 total yards for the 2008 year. 

One prominent sportscaster from Cedar Rapids when speaking about Greene’s performance alluded to the—dare I say it aloud—Heisman assemblage later this year in New York. He feels that Shonn should be invited.

OK—maybe that is a bit of a stretch, but we are speaking of the Cedar Rapids Gazette here, folks.

Iowa travels to Illinois this weekend. A test to be sure. The Illini claim to have a pretty good QB nick-named “Juice Williams” but this is not the Illinois team of a year ago. So far pundits have summarized 2008 as a “building year” for Iowa’s neighbor.

I believe in 'sports land', this is how we excuse poor performance. 

Wisconsin finally notched their first Big 10 win of the season by upending the Illini in Badger land last Saturday. This is the same Wisconsin team Iowa waxed the week before…need I say more?

With the leading defense in the Big 10, Iowa will send the Fighting Illini back to their sidelines, red-faced and empty handed.

The following week we are hosting those big boys in blue – the Penn State Nittany Lions. By then, Penn State will be number one in the nation after Texas Tech knocks off Texas. Exactly. The odds are in our favor to knock them off. 

That is how it works this year, right?  Luckily, we will not be ranked number one even after this apocalyptic upset.

Since Penn State and Ohio State have November 1st off, the Nittany Lions will have plenty of time to ruminate over their fate in Iowa City.  This is what is known as a scheduling coup de grace…

By this time, Iowa will be ranked in the top 25. 

We welcome the hard-luck Boilermakers to Kinnick Stadium on November 15th where they meet inevitable defeat. Let’s face it – it would be hard to lose at home to such a defeated and deflated football program. Too bad really with this being Joe Tiller’s last season. 

By this time we are sitting 8-3 overall with 5-2 record in the Big 10.

Our last regular season game looms large. Iowa has only to face the Golden Gophers in the Hubert Humphrey Dome in Minneapolis on November 22nd—probably the worst place to play college football in the Midwest, or maybe the world. 

It has all the charm of a bombed-out shopping mall…adorned with massive Cha-Chia plants.

Aesthetics aside, the Gophers so far have had a charmed season…unlike last year when they won one game. When they face Iowa on this fateful Saturday they will be reeling with two consecutive back to back losses to Michigan and Wisconsin who finally found their game after their first Big 10 win over Illinois.

Iowa will win this hard-fought low scoring contest and go on to the great panacea in Pasadena—the Rose Bowl, while Penn State and Ohio State enjoy other BCS venues…

A post-script…last time I wrote about the Iowa football team…many of you suggested that I was crazy, or on something.  This goes without saying—so don’t.  Just watch and learn…you see a lot clearer on fumes from chicken feed and manure dust…