Loss

Loss is never something that's easy to deal with. Whether you lost someone you care about or it's a team of yours. The latter is obviously much less important but it still sucks none the less. It's even worse when you're school's team is the one thats losing. That's exactly what happened last night at Cedar Rapids Xavier played my school, Cedar Rapids Kennedy. It would have been a great game to any spectator not heavily supporting a certain team, but for any dedicated student with high hopes for the season, it was not a fun night. It started out ok with both teams doing ok. Kennedy definitely looked better and had some steady drives going but had two turnovers that really set them back. But they were in the lead 10-7 heading into halftime and it was looking alright for us except one of our top recievers, Max Martino, was taken out of the game with a concussion. That's when the second string runningback and kick returner, Josh Simmons, hopped off the field after falling awkwardly on his leg. It was broken. Now we had two big time players out with injuries and it was starting to feel much similair to the Kennedy-Xavier game held earlier in the year. We had our starting quarterback, Derek Thomas, and again Max Martino knocked out of the game from big hits. We went into halftime leading but when we came back out, things started looking even more downhill. On one of our first possesions in the 3rd quarter Derek Thomas was sacked for a safety. 10-9. They then managed to score again to put it to 10-16. But the game wasn't over yet and Kennedy managed to get the ball back with 49 seconds left after they stopped Xavier with a 4 and out that only took 20 seconds. But it had also taken all of our timeouts and we were now on our own 8. The following plays included a couple of very long throws that were somehow miracuously caught. Derek Thomas managed to get one more completion to get the ball to the 12 before he had to spike the ball with 3 seconds on the clock. This was the game. They hiked the ball and Derek dropped back to...... lob it to the corner to a reciever who is double covered and the ball is almost intercepted. Game over. End of season.

Being a fan

Well, with the Hawks having a bye week this week, there hasn't been much to talk about. So I'm going to drift away from the regular Hawk Talk and talk about something different: what it means to me to be a fan. I'm a fan of many sports teams. They include the Kennedy Cougars (obviously), the Iowa Hawkeye's, the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago Cubs, and occasionally the LA Lakers. But I've been coming across a problem lately. I'm seeing that I'm sort of a fairweather fan. Now when it comes to Iowa basketball and football i will always be a good fan, but with the other teams my expectations are a little high. As i was growing up and i really started to watch sports, my teams were doing very well. Much above their previous standards. The cubs almost went to the world series in 2003 and that gave me the image that they were a very good team. I expected that from them almost every year but when it didn't happen, i lost interest in them. That is until this year when they were candidates for the world series champion's. But once they lost, i found that I again lost interest in them and don't have much hope for them as a team. The same happened with the Viking's when they were the favorites for the super bowl in 2000 and they collapsed in the NFC championship game. I am still a fan, but a very undedicated one and when they lose, i just sigh and look the other way. The only team i still truly root for is the Hawkeye football team. I have grown up honoring them and being proud of them as a symbol for the state. They've never been a total powerhouse, but in the last 6 years have had a very good campaign and this keeps me hopeful for them: maybe one of the only reasons i'm still a fan of them.

Heisman Hope

After 8 games, it's finally happened. After 1,154 yards, 10 touchdowns, and an average of 6.5 yards a carry. And more than anything, after eight consecutive games of rushing 100 yards or more, it happened. Shonn Greene is on the Heisman watch list. This may not be extremely significant since it doesn't mean he wins or anything like that. But it is the first step and also finally recognizes him on the national level. The watch list puts the top 15 candidates for the Heisman trophy on a list and ranks them. He's 10th. In order to be even close to winning, he's going to really have to step it up and put on quite a show. He's already doing amazing, but he's going to have to be spectacular. And the candidates in front of him are going to need to have one or two off games, but with the way they've been playing that doesn't look likely. But if Shonn Greene remains perfect, and maybe even above perfect, and the quarterbacks ahead of him start declining, he has a real shot. The key game is going to be Penn State. They haven't played any exceptional defenses yet to really challenge him. After the Penn State game we will really know his potential and how good a chance he has at getting the trophy.

Wisconsin Wrap-up

Wisconsin started out the year ranked in the top 10 teams in the country. They won their first 3 games with a very good start. That's when they lost to Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in that order. Ohio State and Penn State are both very good teams but Michigan is not at all. So Wisconsin came to Iowa, they were in a slump but were also determined to get out of it. They started out with the ball surprising Iowa. But they couldn't do anything with it. Then when we got control of the ball, we trotted 70 yards down the field where Greene finished off the drive with a nice 12 yard touchdown. The next quarter Greene scored again in an amazing , 34 yard run. He got a huge whole to run through on the right side and shot through to the secondary. From there he juked a Wisconsin defender who managed to get a hand full of his jersey and spin him around. This slowed him down enough for another defender to get to him and get a hold of him. But Shonn just shook him off and kept running. He then avoided two more Wisconsin players on the way into the endzone. This run mainly occured because of poor tackling but it was still amazing none the less. It is considered one of the greatest if not the greatest run in Hawkeye history. It also got Heisman hype going and got people really talking about putting him on the lists for the Heisman candidates. After the half Iowa started to seem lifleless and you could see the momentum drifting towards Wisconsin. It looked like the game could be on the line and Wisconsin was ready for a comeback. That's when Shonn took a draw up the middle and broke away for a 52 yard touchdown. Then the after that the game was effectively finished up when Iowa's Paki O'Meara blocked a punt. Ricki Stanzi finished off the drive by throwing a touchdown to tight end Allen Reisner who had an amazing one handed catch to add 6. In the fourth quarter Greene had another big run of 34 yards to add to the scoreboard, and his total yard. He ended the day with a career high of 217 yards and 4 touchdowns. Pat angerer ended up with 16 tackles and 2 interceptions in a row which is beastly. All in all a very very good day for Hawkeye football

Shonn's Future

The biggest story this hawkeye season has definitely been their outstanding running back Shonn Greene. Every game they have played so far he has had over one hundred yards rushing and is the 3rd best back in the nation. He has run over and through all defenses and has yet to be stopped. When Iowa played Michigan State, Shonn outran Michigan State's Javon Ringer, who is a heisman candidate, 134-91 yards. This has also brought up talk about him potentially leaving Iowa to go pro after this season. He is currently a junior and definitely will go pro at some point. It's just a matter of when. He's already 24 which is old for a junior in college. He won't have as many years as most running backs in the NFL would because of his late start. This late start happened because after high school he didn't immediately go to college. But he went to Iowa in the 2005 and 2006 seasons. He got a few carries there but was only the backup running back. Then in 2007 he had to leave Iowa for academic reasons and went to a junior college to get his grades back up. After he succeeded in doing that he came back to Iowa in the fall of 2008 and immediately started playing and lighting people up. He has impressed with his quickness, awareness, and most of all his strength and toughness. He continues dishing out hits while also taking them. This gives talk about him leaving. He already has a late start on his NFL career. Why wait longer to get started? But me and Hawkeye fans everywhere are praying that he stays. He's been the most exciting player to watch since Brad Banks in my opinion and i also think if he stays he will be a major heisman candidate next year. When asked about what he's going to do he said he doesn't know yet and he's not concerned about it. He's taking one game at a time and just putting all of his focus toward those games. If he does decide to stay next year, he will make a good improving team next year even better and give us the team we've been looking for the past 3 years.

The rise begins

The Indiana game was a very pivotal game for the Hawkeyes season this year. After routing the hoosiers 45-9, the hawkeye season is starting to look much brighter after 3 straight losses. This game was a needed win, especially since it was a descent opponent with descent players. They weren't a nobody team like most of their wins have been. But shonn greene continues to impress and the defense continues to be impenetrable. The big factor in this game though, was the turnovers, or lack of them. All three losses the Hawks have suffered they have lost by a combined 9 points. And in two of the losses they were in scoring position several times only to turn the ball over. If they had simply managed to hold on to the ball and get at least a field goal they would be 6-1 or 7-0. In the Indiana game however they had no turnovers and it showed in the score. Next week is another must win against a Wisconsin team that was ranked among some of the nations best early in the season. If we play like we did against Indiana with no turnovers and a solid defense, we have a very good chance of winning. After that there is a tough road game against Illinois. Following that is the big game. It's the home game against Penn State which is currently ranked 3rd in the nation. They have top notch athletes and will easily be the toughest opponent of the year. If our top notch and highly ranked defense can find a way to stop their great offense it will give us a much better shot. And if greene continues to take charge and gain a massive number of yards this could be a very good game. But there are a lot of if's there and they will all need to click together to get the result that Iowans want.

First post

Hey not sure where this blog is going yet. I'm pretty sure it will be mostly about the Iowa Hawkeyes and Hawkeye sports. So stay tuned for more