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.

Future

This victory was a major victory for the Hawks. Shonn Greene got the National Player of the Week Award and Norm Parker got the Defensive Coordinator Award. It generated buzz everywhere and Iowa was even declared the National Team of the Week. It completely turned their season around and somewhat made up for their other losses. Now they can look to go 8-4 and have a very good season. If they do finish strong and win the next two games, they will look for a good bowl bid and set themselves up for next season when they should be very good. I was looking at bowl projections and one expert had them in the very good Outback Bowl against South Carolina, and the other had them in the Champs Sports Bowl against Virgina Tech. I don't know if they predicted different records or what but that's a huge difference. If they win the bowl game, depending on what bowl game it is, they could start next season out in the top 25 rankings and become the team they were a few years ago. And if Shonn Greene does decide to return next year, though doubtful, they would be a team to reckon with and would possibly be one of the strongest Hawkeye teams we've seen in a long time. And it all started with this win. This win showed it was possible to do and that this was a great team with missed oppurtunities. It gave the confidence and hope all across the state to be able to do great things and now has high hopes for what's to come.

Miracle

It couldn't be done. That's what everyone thought about Iowa beating Penn State. If you look at my last post even i said it. Penn State was ranked number 3 in the nation and Iowa was unranked. Penn State was dominating everyone and was undefeated while Iowa had lost 4 games. But on that cold afternoon, everything felt different. The Iowa players were pissed and you could tell. They had lost 4 games this season by a combined 12 points and they were sick of it. A good family friend had talked to defensive tackle Matt Kroule on the phone earlier in the week and he had told him that all the players were pissed off and were ready to play and win against Penn State. And that's exactly what they did. In the first minute you could tell the mood they were in after they burst through the line to crush the quarterback, Daryll Clark, two plays in a row. On the second hit they managed to knock the ball loose and though it looked like Iowa got it in the endzone for a touchdown, Clark had somehow managed to get it back. They punted but Iowa got it on the 35 yard line with great field position. And two plays and two great runs later, Shonn Greene ran it in. The game was looking great. Then Penn State finally started playing. They drove on Iowa over and over again but Iowa wasn't giving up anything only allowing field goals. Then Iowa had two turnovers, a fumble and an interception, that gave Penn State great field position both times and led to 10 easy points for them. It wasn't looking good at 16-7 when in the 3rd quarter, Ricky Stanzi found DJK in the endzone on a long pass. Penn State scored again on the next drive to make it 23-14. Then Iowa struck again in the fourth quarter to make it 23-21. With about 6 minutes left in the game, Penn State started driving again until Iowa managed to stop them on their own 35 yard line. They went to punt but an Iowa defensive player somehow brushed by the punter drawing a bogus roughing the punter flag giving Penn State the first down. All of a sudden, a game that Iowa had a sure shot at, just got harder to win and everyone thought it was over. Penn State continued to drive and got in field goal range. Iowa's only hope was for a turnover, or hold them to 3 points so they only needed a touchdown to win. That's when Tyler Sash picked off Clark and it was a whole new ball game. This time Iowa began driving. On 3rd and 14, Stanzi through an incomplete pass that drew a pass interference flag and gave them a first down. Then they got in field goal range and made the field goal a lot easier after Stanzi completed a pass to DJK on the 15 yard line. After two more runs by Greene to get in premium position for the kick, Daniel Murray came out. There was six seconds on the clock and he was ready. After a timeout by Penn State to ice him, he kicked a perfect kick right throught the uprights. 24-23. Penn State was stunned. Iowa fans started to rush the field but there was still a second left so they had to be forced back off the field so Iowa could kickoff. Iowa kicked a squib kick that was perfectly covered and they ended the game. Iowa fans and players rushed the field once again and the celebratin began. They had done it. They had done the impossible