Madden 2007 - Dallas Clark

This is pretty funny.

This video was made to highlight Madden 2007. It shows a really huge hit on Dallas Clark, a former Hawkeye tight end playing on the Indianapolis Colts these days.

Apparently, he got a little bothered by the whole thing.

So, they made this version to make up, or at least pacify, him.

That is some good former Hawkeye highlights!

The best time to use the bathroom and get food and drinks at Kinnick Stadium

There is only one game left at Kinnick Stadium this year. One last chance to fight the crowds and get some nachos and hope to get back without missing too much of the game. I have learned to manage the clock pretty well over the approximately 80 some odd games I have attended over the years.

Unless you enter the stadium quite a bit before kick off, do not bother with the bathrooms. You will end up missing kick off. Sometimes the snack line is short just before the game, but that seems to be hit and miss this year. Since I always get something at the tail gate, I never bother waiting in line before the game.

About 7 minutes to go in the 1st quarter the first magic window opens. Be ready to go on the next 4th down. I can get from the front row to the concession stand and back before the next series begins pretty easily if there is a TV timeout. And, let’s face it. When is there not a TV timeout between possessions anymore.

Do not think about leaving at halftime. Definitely not worth it anymore. With about 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, you can normally walk straight to the front of the line at both the bathroom and counter.

If you go at any other time, you are doing it at your own risk and will probably end up in a line.

Enjoy the game and Go Hawks!

Technorati Tags: College Football, concession stand, Iowa Hawkeyes

Frustration rant after the Iowa loss to Northwestern

Losing to Northwestern always sucks. No matter how good they might be in any given year, they will always be considered the team you should be able to beat. This year they are not very good. They are worst in the Big 10 in offense and defense. That is quite an accomplishment.

Sometimes a couple of unlucky plays and/or questionable calls can swing the game Northwestern’s way like what happened last year. That is not what happened this year. Northwestern started the game playing better than Iowa and never had a moment where they were not the better team. I have watched Iowa for so many years now that bad years do not phase me that much. They normally bounce back quickly.

Here are a couple events during the game that show just how bad things were.

There are a couple bench warmer guys that like to dance around and joke around during the game. They have a ton of positive energy and great for getting the team fired up. When Iowa was down 14-0, they were still dancing around. The long snapper came over and started yelling at one of them saying, “We’re losing 14-0 to **** Northwestern.” They started yelling back and forth for a few minutes before other players settled down the situation. You know you are playing poorly when players
are not interested in watching a couple of scrubs enjoy themselves on the sideline.

After the Northwestern band played at halftime, one of the Iowa fans yelled, “Now go put your uniforms back on.” Funny, but he had the wrong team. I yelled it correctly at the Iowa band after they played their set.

Losing isn’t the worst thing in the world especially if the Hawkeyes look like they are putting forth any kind of effort. Paying $100 for a ticket and watching Iowa dominated by a bad team really sucks. If there was any time for Iowa to need a good year, this would have been the one. They just spent a ton of money on renovations that added fancy seats for the rich people but did nothing to help the bathroom or concession stand problems. If you leave at the beginning of half time to
get a snack you will not get back until five minutes into the second half…if you do not go to the bathroom. Then they jack the season ticket prices way up to take advantage of the recent success of the team.

It will be interesting to see if they have trouble selling season tickets next year with the prices this year greatly exceeding the outcome on the field. They don’t have to worry about me. If I ever decide to give up my season ticket it will be because of wanting to be around my family more on those weekends. After all, I have watched plenty of bad years and good years and do not base my enjoyment strictly on wins and losses. At the current prices, there will probably be a fair number
of people not willing to pay for season tickets for a team that could end up at the Motor City Bowl.

Technorati Tags: college football, Iowa Hawkeyes, rant

Best snack in Kinnick Stadium

Kinnick Stadium is not the best place to spend your lunch time. I recommend getting a brat or Big Ass Turkey Leg outside the stadium before the game.

Between the lines and the poor quality food, the concession stands are a good place to avoid.

However, when you just must have a snack, there is one thing that is definitely worthy of your belly. The popcorn. $2.50 for small, $4.00 for large. It has the perfect amount of salt and no butter.

I am a big popcorn snob but I still highly recommend the popcorn at Kinnick Stadium. Do you have a different favorite?

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, snacks, concession stand

10 worst Iowa losses since 2002

Pat Harty ranked what he considers that top 10 worst losses since Iowa got hot in 2002. The good news is that Iowa has only lost 15 games during that time (including bowl games) which means that most of the losses were mentioned.

He picked Iowa’s choke job to Northwestern last year and Iowa’s choke job to Indiana this year and the top 2. While they both sucked pretty badly, I don’t see how anybody could not say that the Iowa State loss in 2002 easily topped the list. I would even go as far as saying it was the worst loss of all time. Iowa finished fifth in the final BCS standings released at the end of the regular season thatyear. The two teams ahead of them had losses. Georgia had one and USC had two. The top two teams were Miami and Ohio State, both with no losses.

If Iowa wins that Iowa State game, there would have been three teams overall and two teams from the Big 10 with no losses. Iowa and Ohio State did not play each other that year. That would have brought an interesting controversy to the BCS. It would have forced the Big 10 to consider adding a champioinship game. And if Iowa could have managed to sneak into that championship game, that would have changed recruiting at Iowa pretty significantly. It is not impossible to think of Iowa jumping OSU if they won that Iowa State game. While OSU did win the national championship, they did not really pound people enough to convince everybody that they were really as good as they ended up being.

And lets not forget, Iowa had that game pretty well under control until Iowa State got hot in the 3rd.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, college football

No big name football stars on the Hawkeye football team this year

This year seems a little bit boring compared to recent years and I do not think it is because of the record. It is a little boring to lose the only two games that they were favored to lose and then choke against Indiana. It seems like recently we always win at least one game that we should not lose. Maybe we fans are getting spoiled with the recent success.

I think the real reason that this season is boring is that there are no players on the Iowa team getting any media attention. Normally there are at least a couple players that get mentioned on the sports talk shows. This year we were supposed to have Drew Tate, Albert Young, Kenny Iwebema, Marcus Paschal, and even Scott Chandler were supposed to be on their way to stardom. Then they all missed games with injuries and all of the star power disappeared. The offensive line was supposed to
be a monster, and it seems like they have all been hurt at some point along the way.

All of those injuries have definitely affected the teams ability to play more competitively this season and have taken Iowa out of the media and pretty much dulled down the season.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, College Football

Jake Christensen’s first start

Jake Christensen started his first game as the Hawkeye’s Quarterback this Saturday. His stats were good. He complete about 60% of his passes and had several catchable balls dropped (just like what happens every Saturday). He had one interception that I think anybody would admit was much more Chandler’s fault than Christensen’s. He had one sloppy fumble late in the game.

Most importantly, when the game threatened to swing toward Northern Illinois’ favor in the 4th quarter, he calmly and fairly effortlessly marched the team down the field and into the end zone including picking up the blitz correctly on 4th and goal. Good things are in this kids future.

There is one thing that I would like to see him work on. He did a good job of finding a wide variety of receivers and tight ends, but sometimes he held on to the ball much too long and ended up taking a sack. I think they will be able to show him the tape of the game and work that out, though.

I am glad Tate is going to be ready to start. He is a better quarterback overall right now. I am also thrilled that Christensen was able to get an emergency start this year before he takes over the team next year. I think we are going to be very happy with what we get when he is in charge.

Technorati Tags: Iowa Hawkeyes, Jake Christensen, quarterback