August 2007 - Posts
1) Iowa, thanks to a mercifully easy schedule by Big Ten standards, goes 9-3 overall. The losses are to Wisconsin, Penn State and a Big Ten team to be named later. You don't catch Ohio State or Michigan, you don't play a nonconference team that's gotten a whiff of the preseason 25, you catch Minnesota and Michigan State at home with new coaching staffs, you play Purdue the week after it just played Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan in succession, you should go at least 5-3 in the Big Ten without feeling puffy about it.
2) Iowa State will go 3-9, including a loss at Toledo. Those home games against Kent State and Northern Iowa are being put in the win column, but without much confidence. I'm saying 1-7 in the Big 12. Unlike Iowa's, the Cyclones' schedule is sadistic. The trip to a tough Toledo team is the first of three straight road games, followed by visits to Nebraska and Texas Tech. Then come consecutive home games against Oklahoma and Texas. Then a trip to Missouri. And so forth. The Cyclones will have better days under Gene Chizik down the line.
3) Iowa will play Clemson in the Champs Sports Bowl.
4) Hawaii will go unbeaten in the regular season.
5) Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan will throw 63 touchdown passes (hey, he had an NCAA-record 58 last year) and will win the Heisman Trophy.
6) Michigan will end its 3-game losing streak to Ohio State, go to the national-title game, and be humiliated by ...
7) Florida. The defending champs will lose at LSU Oct. 6, but will avenge the defeat in their rematch at the SEC title game. You know the Gators won't get rolled by a Big Ten team in a national-championship contest, especially one in SEC territory (New Orleans).
Not much stuck with me at the Iowa football team's open practice Saturday, but I saw something that would have been played over and over on television had it happened in a regular-season game.
Iowa tight end Tony Moeaki caught a short pass up the middle and was leveled by defensive back Brett Greenwood on the spot. It was the kind of hit that immediately brought that certain noise from the crowd that you hear when a defender has timed a smash perfectly.
Except that Moeaki bounced off the blast and powered forward for more yardage. Maybe Greenwood, a highly regarded walk-on who has played his way high onto the Hawkeyes' depth chart, should have used dynamite.
Iowa lost a real good tight end after last season in current San Diego Charger Scott Chandler. But if I'm an opposing defensive back, I might rather try to pull down the long, tall Chandler than the explosion-proof Moeaki.
Summer is over.
OK, it was 102 degrees when I landed in the St. Louis airport Sunday afternoon, winging my way home from a vacation. And it wasn't much chillier at The Eastern Iowa Airport a little later in the day.
But I came home, flipped on the TV, and there was an NFL exhibition game. Rookie tight end Scott Chandler of Iowa made at least two nice plays for the San Diego Chargers. And, he apparently made one bad one on the interception that pretty much doomed the Chargers in their loss to Seattle.
I heard John Madden say Chandler was a wide receiver in college, which was true, but he didn't say Chandler was a tight end for a couple years after playing wide receiver. Details.
Meanwhile, none other than former Coe College running back Fred Jackson ran for a tackle-breaking17-yard touchdown and had 67 total yards for the Buffalo Bills this weekend. If Jackson makes the Bills' roster this year, what a story it would be for him and Coe. The Bills have a big-time rookie RB in Marshawn Lynch, but there are reasons Jackson was on Buffalo's practice squad last season. The Bills see something in the ex-Kohawk.
Oh, congratulations to Tiger Woods on winning the PGA Championship. The Hlog knew you could win a major tourney, Tiger. Maybe you'll win again someday.