NFL

Well if you're reading this, you probably know that Shonn Greene decided to go pro minutes after the Outback Bowl. He said that he had done his damage in the NCAA and there wasn't much more to do. Although i wish he would have decided differently, he made the right decision. He's already 24 and if he stayed, he would be 25 going into the NFL which is really old for a rookie. Also there's the issue of injury. If he stayed, he could get injured and never play football again. Sure he could also get next year, but at least he would have made money and could say that he was in the NFL. He's doing what's best for his life, and is making sure he gets his shot at pro football.

Also there was recent talk of Ferentz going to the Browns as head coach but the speculation was shut down as they just picked a coach. It was really a no brainer to me and it was obvious he wasn't going to leave. I know that he started out on the Browns and that's his team, but he still wouldn't have left for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that his son will be a freshman next season on the team and he's going to want to coach his son. He also just signed a contract lasting to 2012 and I think he's going to honor that. Also more than anything, he gets played plenty (getting paid three million dollars this year alone) and he has a sure job. NFL jobs are not a sure thing and they're always switching up coaches. But there's pretty much no chance to him getting fired at Iowa.

Greene is a loss we can deal with since he would be leaving next year anyway and Running Backs are always being replaced by new players coming up. But Kirk Ferentz is one loss we can't deal with. He's one of the greatest coaches in Iowa history and is one of the greatest College Football coaches coaching right now.

Outback Bowl

So, the Hawks did it but it was a little dissapointing. It wasn't the game everybody was hoping for. Yes they did win/kill them. But it wasn't really a game. It was too bad that they couldn't have a decent opponent and not one that turned it over five times. This was said to be one of the least interesting Bowl games of the year, and it turned out to be true.

Also for as bad of an opponent as they were, Shonn Greene didn't do great. He had 121yards and three touchdowns. Those numbers are very good, and were good enough to give him the Outback Bowl MVP award. But compared to the rest of the season and his season highs, those numbers aren't all that amazing. Three touchdowns is good but 2 were one yard gains and the other was 11 yards. Oh and that 11 yards was his longest run of the day. He had an average of 4.2 yards a carry. That is not good for Shonn Greene against an opponent like this.

The defense on the other hand demolished the Gamecocks only allowing them 43 rushing yards and giving them five turnovers.

Maybe I'm just getting spoiled because of their past bowl games. In 2002 they played in the orange bowl and lost to USC. In 2003 they killed FLORIDA. In 2004 they beat LSU with the miracle catch and one of the greatest plays in Hawkeye history. In 2005 they lost to FLORIDA by one touchdown because of some of the worst officiating college football has ever seen. And I'm not just being biased. They were fired after the game. But then in 2006 we lost to TEXAS in a very close game. And then this year, we kill south carolina. The gamecocks. In the past few years, almost every game was close, and even the ones that weren't, we were either killing, or being killed by an extremely good team. I guess this year was just sort of a letdown.

The final score was 31-10 but bigger news followed the game. I'll get back to that later.

Journey

I'm gonna do something a little different. I started this blog mainly as an Iowa Sports blog. Ok mainly an Iowa Football blog. But now that the football season's over for the most part, I'm going to change directions a little. I'll still talk about Iowa sports like the Outback Bowl and Iowa basketball. But I'm also going to talk about a little more.

To start out with, I'm going to talk about the new Journey CD. Steve Perry left the group a few years ago saying he refused to work with them. And since him and his voice basically was the band, he ended it. That is unless they could find a new lead singer with a similar style and voice as Steve. And amazingly, they found him. How did they do it? YouTube. His name is Arnel Pineda and he is Philippino.

When you first hear him talk, you would think no way. He has a small voice with a heavy accent. But then he opens his mouth and sings. When i first heard him, my jaw dropped. Some songs sound exactly like Steve Perry, or just as good in his own way.

The CD includes 2 CD's and one special edition comes with a live DVD of them. The first disk on the CD is 11 new songs. I only liked a few select songs of these, but the ones i did like sounded just like the classics. And in my opinion just as great as them. The second disc is 11 of their most popular songs, rerecorded with Arnel singing.

For 12 dollars, this is a great buy for any Journey fan. The classics sound great, some new songs sound great, and the DVD is awesome.

Inside Laughter

This week, ISU coach Gene Chizik left ISU for Auburn. Apparently he also lied about going before he did. He denied that he would be leaving, but the moment they offered him the job, he left. Now I know that this is a very bad situation for ISU,and i'm a little upset about it. On the outside at least. On the inside, I can't help laughing hysterically at them and their misfortune. I hate ISU, i just try not to show it out of respect to other fans and Iowans. But every time ISU's program gets a little worse, my smile gets a little bigger. Sure i do hope they get a coach, I just hope he's not a very good one.

Shonn Greene highlights

highlights for the season

part 1



part 2

Confirmation!

The Hawks were selected to go to the Outback Bowl. After USC defeated UCLA, Ohio State's spot in a BCS bowl were secured which allowed Iowa to go to a January 1st bowl. That bowl just happened to be the Outback Bowl in Tampa Bay, Florida, where they will be facing South Carolina.

Postseason Hopes

Iowa succeeded in winning their last two games to bring them to have an 8-4 record. They beat Purdue 22-17 in a game that was way too close. Then they crushed Minnesota 55-0. And Shonn Greene continued is incredible performance rushing 211 yards against purdue an for 144 yards in the first 3 quarters against Minnesota. After that he was taken out and the backups came in. Now Greene is 5th on the Heisman watch list and could be heading to New York for the Heisman ceremony. Now the Iowa football team is either going to the Alamo Bowl or Champs Bowl, or depending how other teams do, could go to the Outback or Capital One Bowl. Oregon State lost to Oregon this past weekend so now Ohio State has a much better chance of getting into a bcs bowl. As long as that happens Iowa will go to either the Capital One Bowl or the Outback Bowl.