Pros: Well, ditching McNabb in favor of Christian Ponder seems to be a tentative step in the right direction. Minnesota managed to beat Carolina yesterday... whether they get a stadium deal done is another matter entirely, but it was a rare ray of sunshine in a gloomy football weekend.
High School: First round of the playoffs was last Wednesday- City High beat Kennedy at home 48-26, Iowa City West stomped Dubuque Wahlert 66-32 and Iowa City Regina beat Davis County-Bloomfield 59-3. Second round is tonight, with City High taking on Cedar Falls at the UNI Dome and West taking on North Scott out in Davenport. Regina gets West Liberty at home.
College: Well, can't avoid the big turd in the room forever. Iowa lost to Minnesota for the second straight year in a row by 1 point. 1 miserable point, 22-21. That rankled me some- that, my friends, chaps the old behind just a wee bit, but when Jerry Kill announced his confidence that his team could win at least one Big Ten game after getting pasted by Nebraska last weekend, I thought: 'Yeah, that game is probably going to be against Iowa.'
I wished it wasn't so, but I just had a little tickle at the back of the old oxipetal about it. We've had issues on the road this year- and we needed the win badly. The rest of the season contains 3 ranked teams, 2 at home, one away and a trip to Purdue- who is not that bad this year. After drowning my sorrows in jello shots up in Austin,MN this weekend, I abandoned my cynicism and am now willing to predict that we'll go 1-3 down the stretch. 2-2 if we're very lucky. (We could also go 0-4 very, very easily.)
I'm not going to join the internet lynch mob just yet, but I will say that I think Iowa fans have been spoiled by success. A trip to the Orange Bowl and what was it, 3 straight Bowl wins? 4? What goes up, my friends, eventually must come down and we're coming off a nice cycle these past couple of years and now we're down and they've got to figure out how to get off the mat again. We knew this year would be dicey. Our defense was gutted- but Vandenburg's got a good arm, we've got a deep corps of recievers and a damn good running back with Coker. Offensively, we've got a good foundation. Defensively, we need help. A blurb in the P-C caught my eye: Coach Ferentz is looking at bringing on some JUCO players to shore up the D. Good, solid move on his part- but we're also reaching the point where there needs to be a shake-up. It's the biggest test of Coach Ferentz's tenure so far: when the formula that brought you so much success stops working quite so well, how do you adjust to that? Can you?
The answer to that question, I expect will define Iowa's football program for the next 2-3 seasons.
While I was ready to begin a countdown to basketball season, I've come down off the ledge. As disappointing as this was, I find some solace in the fact that we FINALLY beat Northwestern- that's still very satisfying. A win against Minnesota would have been the icing on the cake, but you can't have everything... and you know what? Kinnick is still Kinnick- I still bleed black and gold and so do a lot of other people out there. So, Go Hawks! Beat Michigan! Let's git up off the mat and get ready to chomp on some Wolverines!
UPDATED: Iowa City West is through with a convincing win over North Scott 38-7. Regina stomped West Liberty 55-13 (and faces also unbeaten Mediapolis in the next round. Should be interesting.) Last I saw, City High was down 14-0 to Cedar Falls at the half. Dig deep, Little Hawks! Let's GO! Sounds like Linn Mar and CR Washington had the marquee thriller of the night, with Wash sneaking by Linn Mar 28-26.
UPDATED AGAIN: City High lost to Cedar Falls, 21-7
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