5 Takeaways from the Iowa/Iowa State Game

Iowa is now 2-0 and has vanquished their first rival of the year with a 13-3 victory over Iowa State. I love my Iowa Hawkeyes, but let's be honest: This game sucked. I only yelled at my television three times, which is a record low for a game against the Cyclones. I know a lot of Iowa fans like to discount the meaning of this rivalry, but as somebody from the state, I know so many people that are fans of both schools that this game is important, so getting a win, no matter how ugly, still feels pretty damn good. Here are the five takeaways from the win.

AJ Epenesa Is A Stud
AJ Epenesa is fulfilling all Hawkeye fans greatest fantasies. This guy is an elite talent at the college level, and if he keeps progressing like this, he's going to be an elite NFL talent. Although we probably shouldn't expect him to average two sacks per game, he is going to consistently be in opposing backfields causing havoc. Late in the fourth quarter, he basically decided that he was going to end the game, and then he went out there and did it by drawing a holding call, batting down a pass, and then coming up with a strip sack that Iowa recovered. If somebody did that during a game, he might be named the player of the game, this man did it in a matter of minutes. He's very good, and if teams don't give their left tackle help on him, he's going to continue to wreak havoc.

Dijmon Colbert Might Be One Too
Did anyone else fall in love during yesterday's game? Because I sure did, and Colbert is the target of my affection. I don't know how to pronounce his first name, but I am all in on him at linebacker. Going into the game, I thought David Montgomery might be the best player in the game, but due to Colbert being all over the field making tackles, I'm not even sure if Montgomery was the best #32 in the game. Colbert not only made a huge stop at the goal line early in the game, but he was consistently reading and reacting like a senior when he has barely played linebacker in his life. How he looked in his first start would have been impressive for somebody with any level of experience, but considering how little experience he has, the sky is the limit. It will be interesting to see what happens when Kristian Welch comes back, but I saw enough from Colbert to make a pretty strong argument that he keeps the job.

Nate Stanley Is...Fine
It was another uninspired performance from Nate Stanley, and I can't say it is all that surprising. This was what Stanley did last year as sometimes he looked great, and other times, it all came crashing down. I don't think he's been bad, but he has continued to struggle with his pocket presence as the slightest bit of pressure gets him to bail. It's also a question of how good he can be if receivers aren't getting separation. I felt like the offensive play calling was a little too conservative, as I would have really liked to see Iowa use their tight ends to attack the Cyclones safeties. The Hawkeyes are going to need more from him to beat the Badgers in two weeks. To end on a positive, he threw two beautiful deep balls in this game, which is something he may not have done twice all of last season.

Colton Rastetter Might Be Good
The discrepancies between the two punters in this game was pretty incredible. Rastetter has really shined this year as he is consistently getting big yards out of his punts and has shown the versatility to do both rugby and traditional punting. Iowa is always going to be in close games, so having a reliable punter may seem like a small thing in the SEC. But in the B1G, punting is winning, and Iowa is looking like a real contender with Rastetter.

Offensive Line Still Gelling
Overall, I thought the offensive line played pretty well. Things still seem to be shaking out at guard, but it was definitely helpful to have the two tackles back in there. I know the running stats were pretty poor, but Iowa State was selling out for the run and Iowa did not make them pay with the passing game. I think it will be good for everyone to play Northern Iowa next week to (hopefully) help build their cohesion and confidence.

Again, it wasn't pretty, but a win is a win, and I will always take a win against the Cyclones.

5 Thoughts on Iowa vs. Iowa State

1. Very impressed with Rudock on his first drive. He showed some mobility, had some pocket presence, and yes, there is room for growth, but he was solid in all areas. The one really weird thing early on is it looked like he was doing three-step drops when the routes were designed for five-step drops. He wasn't firing quick enough, so it would have been more beneficial to have him drop back more and give him room to step into his throws. That pocket was really tight.

On the other hand, he looked off the chain when rolling out of the pocket. It's a good move for young quarterbacks, because it cuts the field in half and gives them a simple high-low read.

2. I love fullbacks. Adam Cox did a great job opening up some holes for the Iowa halfbacks.

3. Iowa dominated the line play in the first half.

4. One thing that bothered me about Weisman is that in the second half he allowed defenders to get under him and push him to the side instead of getting low and falling forward for an extra yard. I think it had to do with fatigue, since I noticed it primarily in the second half, but that's a sign to give Daniels some of those carries.

5. Iowa won, and that is good. They only won by 6, which a lot of people are saying is bad, but I would just look at it as not as good as it could have been. A win's a win, and Iowa thoroughly outplayed Iowa State for the first 53 minutes. They probably should have been up by four or five touchdowns. Instead, they were up by 20 points and played a very safe style of football. Both the offense and defense failed in just about every aspect in those last seven minutes, and it could have cost them had Iowa State gotten two onside kicks. Let's be honest though, sometimes things go wrong, and Iowa failed to receive yet another onside kick, which is bad, but at least they got the second one. And they won the game; that's all that really matters.

Iowa is never going to win style points, so who cares? They went on the road and won against a BCS Conference team. Yes, Iowa State sucks (I think most sane Cyclone fans would agree with that), but Iowa is nothing special either. 7-5 is the goal at this point, because that would mean a .500 record in conference, which is by no means guaranteed, since right now, I can only really see them favored against Minnesota and Purdue.

But with that being said, they got the win, and they are far more fun to watch this year than they were last year. Is it a great time to be a Hawkeye? Not really, but it ain't bad, and after last year, I'll take it.

4 Ways To Improve College Wrestling

First off, let me just say that I love college wrestling. I believe Folkstyle is by far the most exciting and has the most intelligent rules of any form of wrestling out there. The only thing against folkstyle wrestling is that it is not in the Olympics. This hurts Team USA in international competition, because the best wrestlers in other countries spend their entire lives focusing on Greco and Freestyle wrestling, while our wrestlers focus on a hybrid of both in Folkstyle. But seriously, college wrestling is awesome. But as with all things awesome, it could use some improvements to help the sport grow.

1. Education 
Let's face it, most sports fans are morons, and wrestling is a sport full of nuance. It's easy to understand a guy running across the goal line or shooting a ball in a basket. It's a little harder to describe what constitutes a takedown. I really like most wrestling announcers as they are usually on point with their descriptions of matches, but if I was in charge, I would piss off wrestling fans and tell them to dumb it down. I think announcers need to describe why there are points and why there aren't being points given any time the situation arises. This will obviously annoy wrestling fans, as any junior high wrestler can understand the sport, but wrestling fans will stick around either way, and college wrestling needs to do a better job of drawing new fans in.

Also, this needs to be stressed. Over about two hours, with an intermission, a person will see about 70 minutes of wrestling. Basketball plays 48 for about 2.5 hours, and football gets takes over three hours for 60 minutes of football. The only mainstream sport that compares is soccer, and wrestling is not a sport filled with flopping nancy boys.

2. Exposure 
ESPN, I know we have had our differences, but if you could do me a solid on this one, it would be greatly appreciated. Showing 4-5 Friday Night/Sunday Afternoon duals a year is definitely worth it. Amateur athletics is only growing in popularity, the College World Series, which very few people used to care about is now a very large summer event for ESPN. Showing a few top-notch duals would be cheap to produce and should at least get solid ratings. Iowa-Penn State, Iowa-Minnesota, and Iowa-Oklahoma State would all be worth of a national television audience. And that may seem like I have a horrible bias towards Iowa, but people know Iowa wrestling, so whether people love them or hate them, Iowa is a team that will get a casual sports viewer to tune in. Even AC Slater wanted to go to Iowa:

Plus, the rise of popularity of the UFC makes college wrestlers much more interesting since they are the closest thing to MMA prospects out there. ESPN needs to use that and always show highlights from former college wrestlers, whether it's Cain Velasquez, King Mo, Brock Lesnar, or even Dolph Ziggler. Stress that the wrestlers competing could be the next stars of the UFC or even the WWE.

Also, note to Big Ten Network: Wrestling gets your third highest ratings behind football and basketball, show more meets.

3. Adapt The Rules
The people in charge of college wrestling have done a fantastic job of helping the sport these last few years. They have made major changes to overtime, and this year they are going to be more aggressive on stalling calls as well as letting an opponent pick the starting position after someone takes an injury timeout. These are fantastic changes as less stalling means more action, and wrestlers will stop faking injuries to catch their breath in the middle of a match.

Another change I would like to see is them adapting a rule from freestyle wrestling where a wrestler receives a point for forcing his opponent out of bounds. This would cut down on wrestlers hanging out with their back near the outside circle, so they can just get out of bounds when someone shoots in for a takedown. It is really just another way for them to force action, which will help the sport overall.

4. Eliminate Bad Decisions
What happened in yesterday's Iowa-Iowa State duel was a travesty, and it's those kind of decisions that hurt the entire sport of wrestling. People might think that a decision in a meet that is only shown to Mediacom subscribers in the state of Iowa is not that big of a deal, but it definitely is. Despite it only being available to those select few people, it will still probably be one of the ten most watched wrestling meets this year.

For those who didn't watch (definitely most of you, possibly all of you), Iowa's Vinnie Wagner had just taken down Iowa State's Boaz Beard to tie the match at 9-9. They went out of bounds, and Beard had 1:12 of riding time with 13 seconds left on the clock. Since a wrestler needs a minute of riding time to receive a point at the end of the match, it looked like all Wagner had to do was ride Beard out for the remaining 13 seconds to force overtime as Beard would be left with just 59 seconds of riding time. Beard struggled to get out from under Wagner but was unable to do so and the horn sounded signaling that overtime would follow. This is what EVERYONE thought was going to happen.

Iowa State's coach, Kevin Jackson, argued that there should somehow be a minute of riding time, you know, because in Ames, 12 comes after 13. This is where things got crazy, as he actually WON the argument. The match ended 10-9 with no overtime period. The claim was that there were actually only 12.3 seconds left on the clock, but there are no decimals of seconds on a wrestling clock, while the wrestler had 12.5 seconds of riding time, hence giving him 1:00.2 seconds of riding time.

Even in Ames, the boos far outweighed the cheers for the decision, and Iowa's coaching staff understandably was very upset and had to have some of the coaches hold back other coaches to avoid being penalized another team point. Kevin Jackson remarked to the ref, "They can't be acting like that," and that just shows that he doesn't get it. He and the refs were the ones that were at fault there. Jackson cannot look to take a victory like that, and the ref needs to do what is best for the sport in that situation. Both wrestlers were of the understanding that Wagner needed to hold him down for overtime, and Beard needed to escape for the win. They wrestled as such, and Wagner did what he needed to do to force overtime. The refs need to let the wrestlers decide the winner, not a technicality on the clock. Honestly, it was probably the most entertaining match of the meet from start to finish, so I have absolutely no ill will towards Beard, because him and Wagner both wrestled a hell of an entertaining match.

But it's decisions like this that turn people off from, not only wrestling, but any sport. It's the type of decision where a casual fan walks away and says, "That was stupid. Why would I want to watch this again." Earlier in the meet (I believe it was about a lack of stalling calls), Tom Brands said, "You're setting the sport back." His words rang more true after the ref's decision in this matter as it truly is setting the sport back.

Still, Terry Brands summed it up the best when he said, "Only in Ames, Iowa."

I couldn't agree more.

-Joe

P.S. For some reason, I don't see these autograph sessions happening in Iowa anytime soon, but Steve Alford is still a legend in Indiana:

A Pessimistic Look at the 2011 Iowa Hawkeyes

Somehow The Hawkeyes have looked worse than this.

Optimism is for suckers. Yesterday, a positive outlook on the 2011 Iowa Hawkeyes was posted on this blog. I am here to tell you that the person who wrote that is delusional, because the 2011 Iowa Hawkeyes are terrible. They have a zero percent chance of winning another game this year.

Listen, if you're a Hawkeyes fan, your life is terrible, and it's only going to get worse. You have a good family? You were probably adopted. You love your girlfriend? She'll dump you soon. There's good comedies on TV? They'll probably be replaced by syndicated episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. And you'll always have Natty Light? They'll probably be bought out by some shit beer company like Sam Adams and turned into some awful tasting micro brew. And don't expect the Hawkeyes to get better, because they are so awful that they might get kicked out of the B1G to join some second-rate conference like the Big 12.

Seriously, take a look at these losses.

Iowa @ Iowa State
God hates me and my entire family. My family has attended three schools that Iowa State has played this year, and Iowa State is 3-0 against those schools, and 1-4 against everybody else.  Iowa, Northern Iowa, and Texas Tech somehow can't beat these pieces of shit, but Baylor will put a hurtin' on them. But unlike Northern Iowa and Texas Tech, Iowa should have been a good football team. Now they'll be lucky to win another game this decade.

Iowa @ Penn State
Rob Bolden led a scoring drive. Are you fucking kidding me?

Iowa @ Minnesota State
Okay, with a coach like Hayden Fox having help from Luther and Dobber, yeah, Minnesota State is not going to be an easy team to beat. That's a quality loss...wait, what? You're joking, right? We lost to regular Minnesota? Haven't they been outscored like a billion to seven this season? And they won? Oh, Christ, burn down Kinnick Stadium, we no longer deserve football.

And shit doesn't get better as the season goes on.

Michigan - Expect the Hawkeyes to get Denarded.

Michigan State - That overrated piece of shit Kirk Cousins will mesmerize the Hawkeyes with his crystal blue eyes and give all the sports pundits reason to nut all over themselves with how great of a leader he is.

Purdue - They're good enough to beat Minnesota, which is more than Iowa can say.

Nebraska - This isn't going to be a rivalry, it's going to be a snuff film.

Seriously, Hawkeye fans, don't get your hopes up. This season is over. Next season is over, and after that, they will probably disband the football team to focus on their Club Lacrosse team. Life sucks.

-Joe

P.S. Okay, so not even I can be completely negative. Steel Panther's album drops today. And I cannot wait for Tomorrow Night (by the way, there is nothing safe for work about this video).

Live Blogging My Friday Night

Last weekend, I went to my buddy's bachelor party. Next weekend is the wedding which could get just as ugly. So this weekend I am going to take it easy and blog my Friday night. I will be focusing on the Iowa State-UConn and Boise State-Toldedo games, with a little bit of SmackDown thrown in.

6:55 CST - My buddy calls me to go out. I tell him of my plans. He calls me a vagine. Good start to the night.

7:00 - Edge is on SmackDown, games haven't started yet, I'm going to take my laundry out.

7:10 - UConn is letting the ball fly, and Iowa State just got called for a terrible pass interference call on Jeremy Reeves.

7:12 - Ted DiBiase just attacked Cody Rhodes while wearing a paper bag over his head. Very smart move, and much less boring than the ISU game.

7:15 - UConn scores by running it up the middle. They're making ISU look pretty awful, which Iowa probably should have decided to do last week. Yeah, I'm still bitter.

7:20 - Just switched to the Boise St. game, and holy shit, Toledo scored a touchdown. They didn't get a PAT, but 6-0 Rockets. I am a legitimate Toledo fan as I once stood in their student section on the road when they played Iowa State. I was more cheering against ISU, but I made some good Toledo fan friends that night. I was obviously very drunk.

7:21 - Steele Jantz is now playing like the real Steele Jantz, not the one who sucked off the devil to beat the Hawkeyes last week. I may have to stop watching this game, because as much as I love watching ISU lose, this is only going to make me more bitter about last week.

7:22 - Scratch that, UConn throws it right back to ISU. Great football assclowns.

7:25 - Nobody makes things look easier than Kellen Moore. A real nice touchdown pass down the seam for Boise's first touchdown.

7:31 - I don't think Sin Cara deserves special lighting for his matches. This aggravates me to the point where I can't watch his match against Daniel Bryan.

7:33 - Glad I checked back in; there are not one, but TWO Sin Caras. My mind is blown.

7:37 - Teddy Long just tried hating on my boy Zack Ryder. Not cool Teddy; you are no Broski.

7:39 - Steele Jantz with another interception, SHOCKING.

7:46 - Steele Jantz with his third interception of the first quarter. Somebody clearly punked me last week when they showed Iowa State winning. There is no way that happened.

7:49 - Trish Stratus just recognized Long Island Iced Z as the Internet Champion, WWWYKI!

7:54 - Kellen Moore is just a fun quarterback to watch throw the ball. There isn't much zip on it, but it's always right on target.

8:05 - Got bored with wrestling and football, switched to an old episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker. This guy seems douchier than normal.

8:15 - Toledo is doing just enough to hang around in this game. Due to Boise's history, I'm kind of doubting that this lasts.

8:33 - Kellen Moore just threw a perfect fade route. Of course he did. I'm out on that positive note. Have a good Friday night everybody; I'll be rocking some laundry, and maybe clean up my room in case I pull some tail back to my place after the wedding. Holler.

-Joe

P.S. Iowa State still sucks.

My Genius Idea for the Iowa-Iowa State Trophy

Luckily, the shitty trophy above will not be awarded to the winning team (Iowa) when Iowa and Iowa State face off in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.

There are many ideas out there for a replacement trophy for this game. They could create a trophy with Nile Kinnick (an American hero) representing Iowa and Jack Trice (a murder victim) representing Iowa State, but they'd probably have to be arm wrestling for corn, and it would end up looking shitty and making everybody regret that idea. Let our heroes die in peace.

Instead, let's try something different. As happy as I am that Iowa Corn has chosen to change the trophy, I feel like they missed a golden opportunity with the backlash against this trophy. They don't have enough time to create a new trophy for the game, so ideally, they would be inventive. What I propose is that they actually keep that monstrosity of a trophy for the winners of this year's game. But instead of them hoisting it high above their head in jubilation, they also get a sledgehammer to smash the thing to pieces. Smashing things is awesome, and I guarantee the players would be excited to give that trophy its proper burial.

But they'd still need a trophy for next year's game. Don't worry, because I've already given them the perfect idea. All they need to do is get Triple H's signature (optional) and get it bronzed (preferable), and the sledgehammer that smashed that old shitty trophy becomes the reward for winning the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.

Yes, I am brilliant.

-Joe

P.S. Chael Sonnen in cartoon form; this is also brilliant.

UPDATE 8/25: Just thought of this, make the hammer part look like corn on the cob. Boom! Now all parties are satisfied.