Twelve Days of Hawkeyes: QB Ricky Stanzi
Ricky Stanzi reminded fans of his interview skills during a recent question and answer session with ESPN's Dana Jacobs.
The Iowa quarterback appeared on ESPN2's First Take, where he fielded a number of questions ranging from movie preferences to the Orange Bowl.
Jacobs started the interview off by asking Stanzi about last year's Orange Bowl. He replied that it was important, but that the team can't expect the past to provide success in the future.
"We're a new team and we've lost a lot of experience so we have to be very sure we're doing the right things right now to get ready for the season and not so much worry about what happened last year," he explained.
During the interview, Stanzi was also asked about Iowa's upcoming battle with preseason No. 2 ranked Ohio State on November 20.
National Football Post Grades Four Hawkeye NFL Prospects
A few Hawkeye players are already having their NFL stock analyzed.
The National Football Post is a website where news, information and insight comes "through the voices of experienced NFL executives, agents, and current and former NFL players." One of the site authors, Wes Bunting, is in the process of writing a series where he breaks down the top senior prospects from each conference, using the new NFP grading scale.
His post today was on the Big Ten, and graded four Iowa Hawkeye seniors who could be ready for the NFL.
Defensive end Adrian Clayborn received a grade of 6.9, the highest rating for a Big Ten prospect. The grade is given to a prospect who possesses physical attributes that will create mismatches against most opponents.
Twelve Days of Hawkeyes: S Tyler Sash
It only took three-and-a-half months into 2010 for an Iowa football player to make a college football award watch list.
Hawkeye safety Tyler Sash was the first to be named to a 2010 Lott Trophy Watch List, which comes as a surprise to no one watching Big Ten football. The Lott Trophy, named in honor of former college and NFL Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, is presented annually to the college football defensive player of the year.
In addition to the Lott watch list, Sash was also named to the Bronko Nagurski watch list. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is awarded annually by the Football Writers Association of America to the nation's best defensive player.
Sash was an All Big Ten selection last season, as well as a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. Coincidentally enough, he also makes the Thorpe Award watch list this year.
Sash, a sophomore from Oskaloosa, Iowa, has 11 career interceptions heading into his junior year as a Hawkeye. He is on pace to break Nile Kinnick's career interception total, should he not decide to leave school early for greener fields in the NFL.
2010 Iowa Men's Basketball Schedule Released
Amid the college football news overload, the University of Iowa released their 2010-11 men's basketball schedule.
The schedule includes seven weekend home dates and a minimum of 18 regular season appearances on the Big Ten Network. The league will be airing all regular season and postseason game will be nationally televised on the conference television network.
"With the schedule being released, that means the season isn't too far away and that's exciting," said Head Coach Fran McCaffery in a statement released with the schedule. "We have a solid core of talented players who can compete in this league and we're excited to start the season."
According to HawkeyeSports.com, the Hawkeyes will play seven of their 12 non-conference games in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, with only two true road games and three other contests on a neutral court. Iowa will play Wisconsin and Penn State only once during the regular season.
Hawkeyes Preview Airing on Big Ten Network
Forget HBO's Hard Knocks.
Big Ten Network hosts Gerry DiNardo, Howard Griffith and Dave Revsine stopped by the Kenyon Football Practice Facility on Aug. 19 to preview how the Hawks will do this year. Tonight, that footage airs tonight, and should be every bit as spectacular as the tweets last week indicated.
For the fourth straight year, Revsine, DiNardo and Griffith traveled nearly 3,000 miles during a 15-day stretch to bring fans an hour-long, on-site preview show on the Big Ten Football Preview Tour. Revsine, DiNardo, Griffith and the Big Ten Network production crew conducted interviews with head coaches, coordinators and selected returning players to measure each conference team's progress for the upcoming 2010 regular season.
During their visit, the hosts were impressed with several Iowa players. Jewel Hampton, C.J. Fiedorowicz, Keenan Davis, Mike Daniels and Shaun Prater all put on a show worthy of a tweet or two by the network's analysts.
Don't forget to tune in or set your DVR's to record the Big Ten Network tonight, Thursday, Aug. 26, at 7 PM (CST).
Twelve Days of Hawkeyes: Cornerback Shaun Prater
Iowa football has been quietly funneling defensive backs into the NFL during the Kirk Ferentz era.
Names like Matt Bowen, Sean Considine, Jovon Johnson, Marcus Paschal, and Bob Sanders are just a handfull of NFL players who played in the defensive backfield for the Hawkeyes. Sanders is arguably the most well-known name of the bunch, thanks in part to his NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2007.
In recent years, the funneling trend has become more prevalent.
Charles Godfrey was drafted in the third round by the Carolina Panthers in 2008. Bradley Fletcher followed Godfrey in 2009, becoming a third round pick of the St. Louis Rams. Amari Spievey continued things in 2010 when the Detroit Lions picked him with their third overall pick.
Current Iowa cornerback Shaun Prater could be the next in line to continue the trend.
DJK on 2010 Paul Hornung Award Watch List
University of Iowa senior wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos is already starting off his senior season with a bang. Johnson-Koulianos is one of the nation's 48 top collegiate players named to the inaugural Paul Hornung Award.
The Paul Hornung Award will be presented to the most versatile player in college football. It was created in January 2010 by the Louisville Sports Commission (LSC) to recognize and reward versatile, high-level performers in major college football and to help preserve the legacy Paul Hornung, of one of Louisville’s native sons and sports icons.
According to the website, Hornung "won the 1956 Heisman Trophy at quarterback for Notre Dame and was the No. 1 pick in the 1957 NFL draft. He played every position in the backfield during his career with the Irish, where he also punted, kicked, returned kicks and played defensive back."
The criteria for the award included playing multiple positions on offense and/or defense, playing a significant role on special teams, performing as a two-way player who starts either on offense or defense, and making a significant impact during big games and elevating the team’s performance through leadership displayed by excelling in multiple roles.
That's DJK in a nutshell.
Hawkeye Nerd's Big Ten Power Rankings - Preseason
With the 2010 season approaching, and with the new site mostly launched, it seemed a good time to post the first Big Ten Conference Power Ranking of the year. As the season progresses, a conference power ranking will be posted each week.
These rankings will be based on the performance of teams over the last week. In the case of the preseason ranking, the ranking is based on performance in spring and summer. No real science or nerdery goes into the rankings...yet. However, like the rest of the site, these rankings will evolve over time.
1. Ohio State Buckeyes: Jim Tressel's Ohio State Buckeyes return a ton of talent on both sides of the ball for the 2010 season and are most people's preseason favorite to win the Big Ten. In order to do so, they'll have to win in Iowa City, something defensive tackle Cameron Heyward and quarterback Terrelle Pryor look forward to trying. Pryor completed 57 percent of his passes last season for 2,094 yards, 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also ran for almost 800 yards. If Pryor can figure out a bit more of his passing attack, the Buckeyes could be unstoppable this year.
2. Iowa Hawkeyes: Coming off a solid spring performance, Kirk Ferentz's Iowa Hawkeyes are ready compete for the Big Ten title. The Hawkeyes return one of the best defenses in the country, have a deep stock of running backs, and return a veteran quarterback in Ricky Stanzi. As Phil Steele points out, Stanzi has an outstanding 67 percent passing completion in the fourth quarter of play for a pass efficiency rating of 200.2. If Stanzi can maintain that fourth-quarter consistency, Iowa will have no problem returning to a BCS bowl game.
Iowa No. 5 Playboy's College Football Pigskin Preview
A sign that the start of the college football season is just around the corner, Playboy Magazine’s 54th annual Pigskin Preview appeared on newsstands today.
Playboy Sports Editor Gary Cole gives his opinion of the NCAA’s top 25 teams, and predicts three Big Ten teams among the top ten in the country.
Cole has been compiling these rankings for the last 23 years, and was won the All-American Football Foundation's Jim Murray Outstanding Sports Writer Award. He's no Phil Steele, but he knows college football.
Cole picks the Iowa Hawkeyes as his No. 5 team. With talent and experience on both sides of the ball, he predicts an 11-1 season for the Hawkeyes.
Sash named to 2010 Thorpe Award watch list
The 2010 Jim Thorpe Award preseason watch list was recently released and includes 35 of the nation's best defensive backs as the leading candidates for this year's trophy.
Three of those players come from the Big Ten. Iowa's Tyler Sash and Ohio State's Jermale Hines and Chimdi Chekwa all represent the Big Ten this year on the watch list.
Sash was a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award in 2009. To go along with the Thorpe watch list, he has been named to the Lott Trophy Watch List and the Bronko Nagurski Award Watch List.
Sash has started 21 straight games for the Hawkeyes and holds the Iowa record for career interception return yards.
