When is the Iowa Spring Game? Will we have one with the turf change?
ok back to politics.

This is certainly not the way I expected 2009 to roll out, but I cannot say I’m surprised. I mean, who of you thought the price of housing would continue to rise forever and 0% down made sense.

About 10 things have struck me to say, “I need to go post that” but I haven’t, because I have so much to say I don’t know where to start. There are times when I feel like Alice gone through the Looking Glass.

The last thing that struck me to think of posting hit me at a time where I had a moment to post. Since Saturday Night Live doesn’t have a republican president to make fun of any more, they are making fun of the republican (minority) in congress. I continue to question the ability of the comedy writers of the world; they are cracking each other up. whatever… even though this skit was kept from being shown during the election, making fun of democrats.

There is some good news. The Iowa House refused to vote a Union sponsored bill into law by one vote. Now usually bills don’t go up for a vote unless the group submitting it believes they have the votes. They ended up one short as 5 democrats voted with 100% of the republican House to kill the bill, at least for now. It will probably come back later in the session but this was a big victory for Iowa. There are three more such bills this session – Democrats will approach those with much more care moving forward.

We’ve got some incredibly dedicated legislators, (Jeff Kaufmann, Tom Sands, Dawn Pettengill to name a few of my favorites) and it’s inspiring to watch their dedication to the task at hand.
http://iowahouserepublicans.com/

Iowa is not in bad shape as compared to other states; but with the devastation of the flooding in the Cedar and Iowa River valleys not cleaned up, we are short of ready cash. In the last 2,3 years we’ve spent more than we should. Good thing Iowa mandates operating with a balanced budget, although there’s some robbing peter to pay paul (but that’s a post for another day).

Iowa is already listed as 2nd to last (read this) best place to have a business (12% corporate TAX rate) but now we need to add a bunch of Union issues to the mix? I don’t think so. We’ll be reporting on those labor bills as they move forward.

One of the reasons I haven’t been active on the blog is that the new State Republican Chair (Matt Strawn) has brought the state party into the 21st century asking everyone to build a presence on FaceBook and is setting some other communication links that will help us in the next election cycle. So free time has been spent there. But nothing stirs up the base like Union issues at the statehouse. And our College Republican Group @ Iowa State has been getting some publicity this weekend too – you can read here and here if you don’t already follow this Iowa news.

Financially, I’m so sorry, but these are the things my parents taught me that apparently was not conventional wisdom of the majority of Americans:
1) if it’s too good to be true, it probably is
2) if you work for something (earn it) you’ll take better care of it
3) hard work will pay off
4) the housing you buy should represent no more than 3X your annual NET salary
5) keep enough in the bank to last you a year without a job

Worse, our current government is making my parents out to be liars.
1) you should expect the government to provide for you
2) you don’t need to work
3) doing nothing pays off
4) you can buy housing for 0% down and NOT TO WORRY, we’ll GIVE you 10-20% of the purchase price in free money (just tack it on to that loan) – because the value of your house will go up X% in the next years.
5) who me? save?

There are problems on Wall Street too – so why should we watch or care about price of stocks? All this
“too big to fail” and funny stuff going on… But I did get a kick of out Rick Santelli’s rant, and who could blame him?

Mayor Bloomberg was interviewed last week about the financial situation of NYC and he was very clear about the “cost of raising taxes”. Actually he sounded like Rudy in this interview.

“One percent of the households that file in this city pay something like 50% of the taxes,” explained the Mayor. “In the city, that’s something like 40,000 people. If a handful left, any raise would make it revenue neutral. The question is what’s fair. If 1% are paying 50% of the taxes, you want to make it even more?”

ok enough for one post… I need to get to bed, make sure I get to work early to contribute to the success of the corporation I work for so I will keep my …. oh wait, maybe I don’t.

when is the Iowa Spring Game?
Combines are this weekend – check out Shonn’s stats

Next Post – why you can’t blame W.

A great Hawkeye blog worth reading – this post at least – I found it when I signed up for TWITTER…     The Greene Party

BTW Shonn won the Doak Walker award – excellent…

Link

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz has led the University of Iowa football program to two Outback Bowl games and he can’t wait for trip No. 3.The Hawkeye head coach said that his staff knew following a 55-0 thumping of Minnesota on Nov. 22, that eight victories (five of them against Big Ten Conference competition), would send the black and gold to either the Alamo, Capital One, Champs Sports or Outback bowl.

“We knew we were going to a good bowl,” Ferentz said Sunday evening at a media conference inside the Hayden Fry Football Complex. “When you talk about San Antonio, Orlando or Tampa, you can’t go wrong and we know that first-hand. We knew we would be playing a good opponent, that comes hand-in-hand with those destinations. It’s nice to know this was going to have a good outcome and we’re thrilled to death with the way it turned out.”

An understandably upbeat Ferentz opened Sunday’s conference with a reference to a tongue-in-cheek comment he made Nov. 11 about his disdain for the holiday drink egg nog.

“I want to start out by apologizing if I offended anybody on the egg nog front last month,” Ferentz said. “I didn’t mean to. Anderson-Erickson was very kind. They sent us probably a months-load of egg nog which is upstairs in our refrigerator and everyone in our office has been enjoying that. It’s not that I hate egg nog, believe me. It’s just that I didn’t want to sit around drinking it in Iowa, so maybe I’ll have a glass when we’re down in Tampa.”

The Hawkeyes are playing in their fifth January bowl game in seven seasons. Kickoff against South Carolina will be 10 a.m. (Iowa time) on Thursday, Jan. 1 from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“The people down there are hospitable and everything about the Outback Bowl is great,” Ferentz said. “We’ll enjoy it. It’s nice to be down there. The Outback Bowl does a great job of not over-burdening the players, but they provide real nice opportunities. You want the guys to enjoy the experience, you want them to focus when they have to and get their work done, but also to have the chance to relax and have fun, too, and enjoy the area a little bit.”

Iowa is 3-3 in bowl games under Ferentz. The Hawkeyes defeated Florida 37-17 in the 2004 Outback Bowl (following the 2003 season) and dropped a controversial 31-24 decision to the Gators in 2006 (following the 2005 season).

Much has been made of Iowa’s young team and qualifying for a bowl game provides an invaluable chance for an extra month of practice.

“That’s great side benefit of going to a bowl game,” Ferentz said. “We missed out on that opportunity last year. It’s great for the team to be together for another month. You talk about the value of having younger players around guys like (Matt) Kroul, (Mitch) King, (Rob) Bruggeman, Shonn Greene — that’s a pretty powerful thing. It’s hard to find anything bad about bowl games. I always go back to what (former UI defensive coordinator) Bill Brashier said: `There’s no such thing as a bad bowl. Some are better than others, but there is no such thing as a bad one.’ I think you can say that about the experience in general. We would have been thrilled to go anywhere.”

“I know having our fan support is a real plus for us. That helped us, but I also feel like for anybody who selected us, it wasn’t going to be hard to sell this team, mainly because of the way we finished. Then we have a few players who are interesting for people to take a look at. I don’t think anybody has to be embarrassed about picking us and we’re certainly not embarrassed about the season we put together this year.”

UI head coach

The bowl-seasoned Hawkeye players will also be counted on to show the bowl rookies the proper way to approach the postseason festivities.

“The older guys will help the younger guys understand what they need to do,” Ferentz said.

Sunday was not an opportunity for the media to receive loads of information about the Gamecocks. UI defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski was offensive line and wide receivers coach at South Carolina from 1999-2001.

“I know Kaczenski worked there and I know they have a famous head coach (Steve Spurrier),” Ferentz said. “Outside of that, I don’t know much else. Being a (Southeastern Conference) team, I know they’re going to be extremely talented and there’s a reason Coach Spurrier has won that many games there. They’re going to be ready to go.”

Last season the Hawkeyes were bowl-eligible with a 6-6 record, but were not invited to a bowl game. Ferentz said that adds extra significance this season.

“It’s like a player missing a year,” he said. “I think they appreciate their opportunities a little more. Certainly for us to be back and playing in a great bowl, that’s going to make it that much better for us, so we’re thrilled.”

As he has done many times throughout the season, Ferentz emphasized that his staff and the Hawkeye players do not take their incredible fan support for granted. Ferentz said the Hawkeye fans always impress the bowl scouts and combining that with the Hawkeye performance on the football field makes for a noteworthy combination.

“I know having our fan support is a real plus for us,” Ferentz said. “That helped us, but I also feel like for anybody who selected us, it wasn’t going to be hard to sell this team, mainly because of the way we finished. Then we have a few players who are interesting for people to take a look at. I don’t think anybody has to be embarrassed about picking us and we’re certainly not embarrassed about the season we put together this year.”

Iowa won its final three games and five of its last six to finish the regular season 8-4 overall.

The entire media conference wasn’t spent talking about the Outback Bowl or South Carolina. After being asked if any current student-athletes could become academic casualties at semester, Ferentz put an end to gossip that has been circulating of late.

“I did hear a rumor the other day that one of our notable players wasn’t going to class,” he said. “If he’s not, then our academic support folks are way off base. We just had an academic meeting the Monday before Thanksgiving and got great reports there. That one might go into the same category that he was up to 280 or 300 (pounds) at one point. I think you can put both those in the same box.”

Shonn Greene Data 

It’s only starting for Shonn Greene; and it couldn’t happen to a nicer young man.  Brown (currently #2 in the total yardage race) has a game this weekend, so he will probably out pace Shonn of that national honor but we’ll see – I think they add Bowl games into the final totals.

Go Hawkeyes – hoping for the January 1 – the Capital ONE Bowl against South Carolina!!!

===============

chicagotribune.com

SILVER FOOTBALL WINNER

Iowa’s Shonn Greene wins Chicago Tribune Silver Football

10th Hawkeye to take home honor

By Teddy Greenstein

Tribune reporter

10:02 PM CST, December 4, 2008

(IOWA CITY) A reporter handed Shonn Greene a 2008 Big Ten football media guide and asked him to look at Page 20, which listed Iowa’s preseason depth chart.

First-team running back: Paki O’Meara.

Second team: Nate Guillory.

“Wow,” Greene said. “No me.”

So if you were taken aback by Greene’s three-month rise from nowheresville to the nation’s leading rusher, you’re hardly alone.

A year ago Greene was taking classes at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City and working at a furniture store for $8 an hour. Bad grades had cost him his scholarship.

But after running for 1,729 yards and 17 touchdowns for the 8-4 Hawkeyes, Greene earned the 2008 Tribune Silver Football, awarded annually to the Big Ten’s best player as determined by a vote of conference coaches. Greene won in a landslide, garnering seven first-place votes. (Coaches can’t vote for their own players.)

Greene is Iowa’s 10th Silver Football winner and the Hawkeyes’ first since quarterback Brad Banks, who similarly rose from anonymity to the league’s top gun in 2002.

Greene is the only Division I player to top 100 rushing yards in all 12 games this season.

“This guy is clearly an elite player,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.

Greene has a year of eligibility left. But the 5-foot-11-inch, 230-pound back will turn 24 in August — he attended a prep school before Iowa — and could go as high as the second round if he declares for the NFL draft. Greene said he would decide after Iowa’s bowl game.

“I told him that when the time’s right, we can put him on the phone with three or four people who know what the draft board looks like,” Ferentz said. “I also said, ‘Keep your options open.’ ”

Greene’s options look way better than they once did.

2008 Silver Football results

[11/23 10:23pm note - it appears that there could be more celebration in Iowa City tonight - from what I can see Brown ran for just less than 100 yards (UCONN vs USF tonight) which gives Shonn Greene the National Individual Rushing championship.  I do not believe any of the three leaders has another game, but I could be wrong.

And I was hoping that the Hawkeyes may crack the top 25 with the win on SATURDAY but they did not.  Consensus about 28 in the national rankings according to all the polls. -pf]

Hawks Bring Floyd of Rosedale Back to Iowa City

Kinnick North has always been a friendly place for IOWA Hawkeyes and last night was no different.  Playing outside in MINN as the last BIG TEN game of the season, (brrrrr) will be a much tougher “house” even though we’ll still probably outnumber the Gophers in the stands.  (this was the last game the Gophers will play in the HHH dome).

After a very tense and hard fought first quarter, where IOWA escaped with a 3-0 lead, the (once 7W-1L) Gophers of the University of Minnesota started to crack.  Penalties, Interceptions and yes, Shonn Greene doing his thing – lead to a 27-0 half time lead.  Shonn was also within 16 yards of a 100 yard game by halftime; a 100 yard game would complete his season.

TOUCHDOWN IOWA! TOUCHDOWN IOWA!

The Hawkeyes continued to pour it on and the Gophers continued their collapse as IOWA cruised to a 55-0 shellacking of the Gophers in IOWA’s quest to keep FLOYD of ROSEDALE in IOWA for another season.

The Gophers stacked the line and blitzed a lot, which opened up deep passing lanes for Stanzi, who had his best collegiate game to date.  DJK, after dropping one of the first passes thrown right to him early in the game, caught everything else in sight for 3 long touchdowns and 188 total receiving yards.

Greene, again was the story of the night as the 2nd place back (UCONN’s Brown) plays to night and has to have a 140 yard night to win the rushing crown.  Brown outpacing Greene is possible but would be sad, as Greene sat out the entire 4th Q due to the blowout.

Greene has carried this team and allowed Stanzi the time to mature as a QB – forcing teams to play 7,8 in the box to stop him.  Hope he has an incredible Bowl performance, but thanks Shonn, for a great season and best to you in your NFL career.

Good news, bad news as always for the Hawkeyes.  We are generally placed about one station above where we should play because IOWA fans travel so well to bowl games.  The Hawks may even get chosen for the January 1 Outback Bowl – which would be amazing – sitting in OCTOBER with a 3-3 record.  All in all though, not a bad season to finish 8-4 when the four loses were decided by a total of 12 points.

Kudos to Coach, the staff and the IOWA HAWKEYE team.

Links to a DMR article

IPC link

video links

University links

Cedar Rapids Gazette article

Shonn Greene does it again.

what an awesome kid – what a huge heart!

You’ve heard the story, a Freshman sensation in 2005 but injury ridden, then grades slipped, wasn’t even at Iowa or playing football in 2007; working at a furniture store going to classes at Kirkwood Community College.  He could have gone home to New Jersey.

Today – Two touchdowns – one 75 yards of beauty; the second, more impressive, running OVER people for a 15 yard run…  30 rushes 209 yards for the game – should keep him at least in 3rd place in the country.  He’s the only player who’s rushed for 100 yards in each game.

He has one more season of eligibility, but I can’t believe he’ll stay.  He’s ready; he’s healthy and he’s 23.  He should have a great future in the NFL; we wish him every success (and a Chicago Bear uniform).

Some hokey-pokey in the locker room today….

Notes on the young man

and here

Iowa 22 – Purdue 17

 

In a “sea of greene” (yeah, the Students and some other Iowa fans all had green T-shirts on today) IOWA stuns Penn State with a last second field goal to win 24-23 today at Kinnick.

Iowa now @ 6-4, have lost 4 games by a total of 12 points.  Cold, wet and windy day in Iowa City, this win was so needed by a good team with great character – this win feels so good.

If I’m not mistaken, Murray’s last field goal attempt lost the PITT game 3,4 games ago.

What a struggle.  The Hawks gave up 10 points on turnovers (a fumble by Stanzi that looked more like a bad delivery by the center) and an interception.  Penn State had too many field goals that should have been touchdowns – a great bend but don’t break – defense by the Hawks.

The game was televised to 70% of the country – a great game to watch; Shonn Greene still got a 100 yard game (117 in 28 carries)  against one of the nation’s best defenses. I think that’s 100 yards or more for Shonn in each game this season.  Was 3rd in the nation last week.

Looking at some of the final stats, Iowa’s 7-10 3rd down efficiency is remarkable, and there was less than 600 yards of offense total, mostly because of the weather.

This makes Iowa Bowl Eligible with 2 games left.  Hmmm…  This could be interesting.  We play Purdue at home next week (Kinnick should be rockin!) then the last home game at Kinnick North against the Gophers…  [called Kinnick North because typically there are more Iowa fans than Minnesota fans at that game]

Shonn Greene is having a great come back season.  He arrived at Iowa – a MAN – Huge – as a freshman in 2005, but we had a large stable of running backs including Albert Young and Damian Simms.  Not getting much playing time in 2005-2006, he got into academic trouble and ended up at a community college in 2007.  Go Shonn.

He’s a Junior, but watch for him to move to the NFL next year.

Coached thanked the crowd in his post game.  It was a game of halves.  The first half Penn State dominated but could not get into the end zone more than once.  Half time was 13-7. Bottom line – Iowa scored the last 10 points and shut Penn State out in the fourth quarter – job well done.

Just the kind of game I needed after a very tough political week.

THANK YOU HAWKEYES!

Iowa 2007 Football schedule GO HAWKS!

This is a good time to preview the Hawkeye Football season again since scout.com has opened the premium access to their website through JULY 4.

Click here to read more yourself. (access will be limited after July 4)

Updates

I understand Shonn Greene (Running Back) has left the program. Generally understood to be failure to meat academic requirements. He’s left to attend a prep school and still has 2 years of eligibility (plans were to redshirt him in 2007 behind Sims and Young). He could come back for the 2008 season but that rarely happens once a student athlete leaves school.

Standout commits for the 2008 season are Jason Ford 4 star rating at Running Back from Belleville Illinois and 3 star (DL) Riley Reiff from South Dakota. Riley watched the Chad Greenway career at Iowa and had a 34-0 record in wrestling. At 6″ 5″ 240 as a HS Senior this guy could have a great future. James Ferentz (2 star rating, son of Coach Kirk) has also signed on for the 2008 season – he starting his senior year as a center with the Iowa City Little Hawks.

Here is a good, free, (I think) overview of the 2007 season, although they still mention Shonn as being on the roster, he is not. Amari Spievey, (CB) redshirt freshman, has also left the team – I’m assuming for academic reasons.

I usually won’t read much about Da Bears until the regular season starts.

The first Hawkeye game of the 2007 will be unusually exciting in that it will be played in Soldier Field, Chicago – home of Da Bears.

A little Mood Music? http://www.scothawk.com/intro.html

Iowa is looking to regain some respect in the Big Ten and the nation this season after the 2 point loss in the Alamo Bowl to the 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorns put a sad end to the Hawk’s first losing season since 2000.

On to 2007!

The Northern Illinois game is in Soldier Field in Chicago with a 2pm start.

All other games are TBA

Sep. 1 at Northern Illinois   Sep. 8 Syracuse

Sep. 15 at Iowa State         Sep. 22 at Wisconsin

Sep. 2 Indiana                Oct. 6 at Penn State

Oct. 13 Illinois              Oct. 20 at Purdue

Oct. 27 Michigan State        Nov. 3 at Northwestern

Nov. 10 Minnesota             Nov. 17 Western Michigan

You caught that too? Neither Michigan or Ohio State are on the Schedule for the Hawkeyes this year. (don’t like that much)