One thing I won’t get to do this year when writing about Iowa Hawkeyes football is say Marvin MCNUTT! Because the greatest receiver in UI history and funnest name to say is now gone, haven re-written the Iowa City record book along the way.
2011 was: another solid year, another bowl appearance. Yet another year of the Iowa tailback curse. They keep losing running backs! During the season, offseason etc. Kirk Ferentz addressed how they’ll handle the tailback by committee approach this year at Big Ten Media Day:
“I think our running back situation, it’s very likely that maybe one of those two guys or maybe both of them will end up playing.
So if you look at us historically, you’ve had years like 2000, 2002, 2003, 2008. Fred Russell was our primary back in’02 and’03, and Shonn Greene obviously in ’08. And then you’ll get a year like ’09 where we had basically a committee and a true freshman ended up being the MVP of the orange bowl that year.
“So there’s a lot of different ways to have success. We’re open to any of them. That’s true for all positions, but certainly running back is one of those positions for us.”
2012 will go smoothly if: they’ll be young. So if the freshmen play and play well….if they don’t:
“We got off to a less?than?stellar start. But I never really thought much about it and I still don’t. We kind of take one year at a time. And each and every season we go into, it’s a fresh beginning, and really that began back in January for us after our last ballgame.
We take them one at a time and try to handle the challenges as they come,” Ferentz said.
2012 will be rough if: Their usual strengths, DB and OL are not the typical strengths. Not saying it will happen, but it could. WR and LB will be strong too.
BMOC: Vandenberg, Ferentz, DB Micah Hyde, FS Tanner Miller, WR Keenan Davis, LB James Morris
All Name team: FS Johnny Lowdermilk, SS Nico Law, RB Barkley Hill
Bottom Line: They should be better than .500 as 7-8 wins certainly looks likely
Rankings:
Lindy’s- 41, Athlon- 50, Phil Steele- 50
All the 77s
#36 UCF
#40 Penn State
#45 Mississippi State
#47 Northwestern
#67 Southern Miss
#73 Kansas
#76 Minnesota
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Chicago Tribune.com, Fox Sports, MSN, Walter Football and Yardbarker
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too