Insight-ful victory!

So a few days late but I finally get a lil break.  And Wow that felt great!  A great way to end the season that had so much hype and give some excitement for 2011 and actually made it for me that Sept 3^rd can’t come soon enough (only 246 days away!).   The losses to NW and Ohio State didn’t really shock me this November.  But the loss to Minnesota was the worst taste and way to end the season that had us ranked in the top 10, then came the whole month of December up to the bowl game and all that crap that ensued on Twitter and in the media, radio with Rob Howe and Matt Perault and ARob & DJK, the whole world thought that the Missouri Tigers would come down on the Hawks and destroy us.  Have faith in Captain Kirk!  He’s the right fit for Iowa. 



Proof that the overturned call is NOT A CATCH!

Coker looks like the real deal and I hope he can just stay healthy and out of trouble.  VandenBurg I hope is ready to take the reins.  He has big shoes to fill.  Really hope McNutt and Sash and Prater stay, they would benefit and I think so would the Hawks.

And now to the 25 seniors, thank you for everything!  You’ve given me (and hawk fans) a great stretch.  2007 was rough, but 2008-2010 was great!  28 wins to 11 losses, 3 Bowl wins.  An Orange Bowl win!  And a lot of memories.

Best and Worst of the Weekend

I did this on my other blog, and well moving it here, something I’m copying from the Dan Patrick Show, will (try to) post this on here ever Monday.

BEST

Best had to be the Christmas weekend.  This year I was more Grinch than Clark Griswold leading up to the holiday, but a few days before the holiday I saw the my heart grow 3 times its size (yes I’m using Christmas clichés) and got in the mood.  Then seeing my kids open their gifts and their excitement of seeing Woody and Jesse under the tree…it all came back.  My kids loved their gifts.  I got a new Hawkeye sweatshirt and new coffee cup that my kids made me.  The best probably was the HotWheels track that my son got, and we constructed a big ramp in his room and played with that for hours.  He loved it.

The Bears game was awesome too.  I thought it would be a low scoring affair, and it was completely opposite.  A shoot out.  Cutler and Hester and Forte looked awesome.  And THANK YOU Chris Harris for coming back to Chicago!

WORST

Two things…My fantasy football team is losing the 3^rd place game in the D12 league.  If Frank Gore didn’t get hurt I think I would be in the title game, I had that good of a team.  His injury hampered my team a bit that I couldn’t fill that flex spot as well.  Gore-Mendanhall-McCoy was a great 3 backs to team with Roddy White and Jeremy Maclin and Matty Ice.  So kind of disappointing.  And then Well coming back to work….really.  That’s about it.  The weekend was too short.   

2010 Year in Review - Top 5 Sports Moments

I did this for my Sports Moments of the Decade last December and had fun with this, so I'm going to go ahead and do this for the year.  Now again these are what I think, so there will be a local flair and national flair. 

1-Northern Iowa upsets Kansas - The #1 seed gets sunk by Farokmanesh!  The Panthers were the best team in the State for the 2nd year in a row.  2 years ago Drake's Cinderella run was sunk on a last second 3.  Last year Northern Iowa was beat by Purdue in a close 1st round matchup.  In 2010 the Panthers beat UNLV in the first round to set up a matchup with #1 Kansas and lead damn near the whole game.  Ali sank a 3 and the rest is MARCH MADNESS HISTORY!  

They even landed on the cover of SI and even an ESPY.

2-Duke beats Butler in the Championship game after last second shot misses.  In the best championship game in memory.  The team that only had to go 5-15 mins from campus had a chance to win it all (hello college football) and missed out on beating one of the best programs in the world by an inch.  This is what makes sports great!

3-The Thomas family at the ESPYs  --  Ed Thomas was shot and killed by former player Mark Becker in 2009, but in 2010 ESPN honored his family and him and his legacy with the 2010 Arthur Ashe Award at the annual ESPY's.  Great moment for a great family.  Really shows what small town Iowa is.










4-Iowa State wins AT TEXAS - Yea it happened.  What Paul Rhoads has done with road wins at Nebraska last year and now Texas this year.  ISU has found a good coach.  Just needs talent.

5.  Iowa wins the 2010 Orange Bowl - Yea it seems like a year ago, it happened int he 2009 season, but still was in 2010. And it built up the hype machine for the 2010 season that has gone to 7-5 and an Insight Bowl Bid vs Missouri instead of a dream that many fans had of the National Championship or Rose Bowl.









So these are my moments from 2010, what are yours?

Division Champs!

I never thought this year would result in the 2010 North Division Champions.  With the hire of Mike Martz as offensive coordinator, I thought that the Bears season was doomed.  5-6 wins max.  A new coach and staff.  Not only Martz being hired, but Mike Tice.  Yes Mike Tice the former Vikings head coach.  

I didn't think that the OL could hold up, and some games they haven't. Hester returned to form, and Cutler has cut back on the mistakes.  All that coupled with the Vikings, Packers and Lions all being banged up and the Bears 5-0 in the division and we are DIVISION CHAMPS!  I have a new hat to order!

How far can we go in the playoffs....i'm not sure.  I'd love to get the #2 seed and a bye and hopefully a home win.  Then after that the Falcons would loom in Atlanta.  That game would worry me, but thats why they play the games!  Anything is possible.

What I’m asking Santa for…..

Well it’s that time of year.  I took my kids to Santa on Friday and they told him what they want for Christmas.  When he’s not sitting at the mall (or drinking Vodka) Santa is checking his list, making sure he’s got the nice and naughty list right and what everyone wants.   So here’s what is on my wish list this Christmas for 2011.

-           I’d love for the 2011 Hawkeye football season to be a lot more positive than 2010, and to start with a win over the Missouri Tigers in the Insight Bowl and the 2011 regular season to end with a win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

-          The Big Ten to change their division names…really, Leaders and Legends?

-          The Big Ten to keep the championship game and tournament in Indianapolis, it fits, it works.

-          The Super Bowl to be as great as the last few have been.

-          The Hawkeye basketball team to get better and better in January and February and play more than 1 game at the Big Ten Tournament.

-          The Hawkeye wrestlers to…well be the Hawkeye Wrestlers, NATIONAL CHAMPS!

-          The Cubs to play meaningful games in August and September.

-          The NBA Finals to be the Lakers and the Heat, and Lakers win just to spite LeBron and Bosh.

-          The 2011 NFL Season to actually happen, please no lock out.

-          Death to the BCS, please be read by Presidents, ADs and congressmen and end the farce of these bowls and crap of losing money

-          Death to the BCS 2 to come out after the stats of all the schools losing money to the bowls this year

-          Mark Cuban & ESPN to create the College Football Playoff!

-          Tranformers 3, please don’t suck like TF2 did.

-          Captain America to continue the Marvel Comic movie parade

-          Cars 2 please don’t suck also

-          Gas prices to get closer to 2 bucks a gallon than 3 bucks.

-          How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory, do what you’re doing, funniest shows on tv.

-          Politicians…well screw you are mostly all crooks.

-          ESPN to have continue the 30 for 30 series to do 31 for 31.

-          Something to work actually at work….3^rd party vendor sucks.

-          No Favre drama this off season.  Stay or Retire.

-          To be able to get to Kinnick for an Iowa home game this fall.

-          A life time supply of GrainBelt

-          Powerball numbers… J

And finally my kids and family and friends good health and good wishes and a happy new year!

Legends and Leaders?

So right now if you don't know (and if you are a Big Ten fan) you've seen the new logo and the division names.  If not, here you go.  Now while I don't mind the logo.  I get the 1 and the G in the shape of an "0" but could also be viewed as a "6" maybe hinting at something to come?  But I don't care for the shade of blue.  It doesn't look like the POWER BLUE the old logo had. Also I don't care for the stacked look.  But it could be worse.  Like I said I get the B1G and it's font.  But I will saw the Big Ten logo with 11 was a lot better than what this is.

Now for the Divisions.  Legends and Leaders?  What the hell was being smoked in the Big Ten offices?  Was the ACC contacted and asked who you could totally confuse your fans?  No one knows who's in the Coastal or Atlantic divisions.  They also had chances with the Plains and Lakes to do something like that? Now when they go to 16 I think West, Midwest, Lakes and East will be used.  And really when the games get started and kicked off, to the fan it doesn't matter who's in what division, JUST WIN!

Final note on the Big Ten announcements.  Nice that they are going to have awards for positions, but really do you need to multiple players names in the awards?  Have fun with the Greise-Brees award.  It sounds like a wet fart!  The Rimington-Pace award?  Dave Rimington already has an award named after him.  Just name it the Pace Award.  The Clark Award for TightEnd.  And with all these awards wheres the Dwight-Ginn Returner of the Year award?

Ok, now Iowa.  WTF is going on in Iowa City?  Wegher gone.  Jewell gone?  DJK and drugs and all the speculations going on.  I love my Hawks, but c'mon guys get it together.  It's a privilege to wear the black and gold, pull your heads.  If the rumors of the fight after the OSU game are true, then I have a ton more respect for Adrian Clayborn.  Just hope we find out more news tomorrow.....I think.

Iowa High School Football Playoffs – Picks by Round:UPDATED

So since I made picks weekly I’ll do it by round, but my brackets are posted and that’s my official beginning picks.  Here are my 96 round 1 picks.

4A	3A	2A	1A	A	8M
Dowling	Harlan	Sheldon	Hinton	Gehlen	Remsen
Valley	Rock Valley	Kuemper	West Lyon	Clay Central	Graettinger
SC East	Heelan	South Cent Calhoun	Emmetsburg	Bishop Gerrigan	Armstong-Ringsted
Ames	Lewis Central	West Christian	HMS	West Hancock	West Bend Mallard
Ft Dodge	Clear Lake	West Marshall	DM Christain	Madrid	Glidden-Ralston
Ankeny	West Delaware	Bondurant Farrar	Nodaway Valley	Van Meter	East Greene
SE Polk	Decorah	Pella Christian	CB St. Albert	Bedford	Fremont Mills
CB Abe Lincoln	Webster City	North Polk	Panorama	Guthrie Center	Coon Rapids
Bett	Union	Columbus	AP	MC Newman	NEH
Hempsted	Williamsburg	Beckman	G-R	Postville	Clarksville
Xavier	Solon	North Fayette	W-G	North Tama	Preson
North Scott	Grinnell	Sumner-F'burg	St. Ansgar	Rockford	Tripoli
Cedar Falls	Pella	Regina	Starmont	Waco	Moravia
Assumption	ADM	Mediapolis	Turkey Valley	HLV	Adair Casey
Marion	Carlisle	Sig-Keota	West Branch	BGM	Lenox
Iowa City High	Oskaloosa	Camanche	Wapsie Valley	Lisbon	Murray
(12-4)	(13-3)	(16-0)	(12-4)	(15-1)	(11-5)
Dowling	Harlan	Sheldon	Hinton	Gehlen	Graettinger
Ames	Heelan	South Cent Calhoun	Emmetsburg	West Hancock	Armstong-Ringsted
Ankeny	Clear Lake	West Marshall	DM Christain	Madrid	Glidden-Ralston
SE Polk	Waverly-Shell Rock	Pella Christian	CB St. Albert	Bedford	Fremont Mills
Bett	Williamsburg	Beckman	AP	MC Newman	NEH
North Scott	Solon	North Fayette	W-G	North Tama	Tripoli
Cedar Falls	Pella	Regina	Starmont	Waco	Adair Casey
Iowa City High	Carlisle	Sig-Keota	West Branch	Lisbon	Lenox
(6-2)	(6-2)	(7-1)	(4-4)	(8-0)	(8-0)
Dowling	Harlan	South Cent Calhoun	Emmetsburg	Gehlen	Armstong-Ringsted
Ankeny	West Delaware	West Marshall	CB St. Albert	Madrid	Fremont Mills
Bett	Solon	North Fayette	W-G	North Tama	NEH
Iowa City High	Pella	Sig-Keota	West Branch	Lisbon	Lenox
(4-0)	(3-1)	(1-3)	(2-2)	(3-1)	(3-1)
Dowling	Heelan	North Polk	CB St. Albert	Madrid	Armstong-Ringsted
Bett	Solon	Regina	West Branch	North Tama	Lenox
(1-1)	(2-0)	(2-0)	(0-2)	(2-0)	(2-0)
Dowling	Solon	Regina	West Lyon	Madrid	Lenox
(1-0)	(1-0)	(1-0)	(1-0)	(0-1)	(0-1)
4A-Totals	3A-Totals	2A-Totals	1A-Totals	A-Totals	8M-Totals
(24-7)	(25-6)	(27-4)	(19-12)	(28-3)	(24-7)
0.767	0.800	0.867	0.600	0.933	0.774
Reg Seas	(79-21)
First Rd	(79-17)
Second Rd	(39-9)
Quarters	(16-8)
Semis	(9-3)
Champs	(4-2)
Total	(226-60)