On Iowa with Marc Morehouse

Glen Mason digs the Iowa D . . .

Glen Mason, the former Minnesota coach, is now doing analyst work for Big Ten Network. He's doing the Iowa-Indiana game for the BTN this weekend. Those of you saddled by the confines of Mediacom might not know that Mason was doing this. Mason did the Hawkeyes' home game against Syracuse and was terrific. He's fresh off 10 seasons at Minnesota, where he compiled a 64-57 record, including a 4-6 mark against Iowa.

I respect his opinion, so I sought it out for the story I did on Iowa vs. Indiana's spread offense for Thursday's paper. The story ran long, so I had to take out some stuff that I wanted to keep in. I lose those battles some times. Or I should say I let editors win. Lets them feel like they matter. I feel I should throw them a bone every now and again.

Mason had high praise for Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker and his work at Iowa.

"I'm a big fan of the Iowa defense and what Norm Parker has done year after year after year after year. They don't have to make wholesale adjustments [against the spread] and they hold up pretty darn good no matter if you're throwing the ball or running the ball, if you're in a two-back set or a one-back set, if you're a spread offense or an option offense.

"You have to out-execute them because you're not going to out-scheme them."

Mason said Iowa's coaches are "fundamentalists," meaning they coach and teach football and don't rely so much on tweaks and gizmos and "exotics."

"Everytime I talk from a coaching perspective, I say there are two kinds of coaches, there are fundamentalists and there are schemers. With every system you can do that, but Iowa is definitely fundamentalist. They are sound. They are well-coached. And you know what? You're going to have to out-execute them to beat them because you're not going to out-scheme them."

So, there's a little extra. Before this blog, this would've been deleted. I don't know if it's worth it or not, but hey, the internets is free, right?

Now I have to go back to simultaneously mourning and cursing Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz, who this morning died at age 77. The guy was an American success story who just happened to ruin one of the three sports franchises that have been with me for my 40 years (Packers and Cubs are the others). He pulled a "Titanic" on the Hawks, crashing them into the ice and leaving everyone in the murky depths.

Hey, we're sports fans, too. In my house, the big college football passion was . . . Loras College. We lived across the street from the Rock Bowl.

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