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Can’t leave Big Ten football alone the game needs me. Notorious B.I.G. once said that he raps about the ghetto because that’s what he knows. And…”if I worked at McDonald’s, I’d be rapping about Big Macs and fries.”
You write and talk what you know and live. And I know Big Ten football. We’re still a ways away from Big Ten football media days. Well, less than two weeks now. The preseason is indeed here, time for some WAY TOO Early Big Ten football power rankings
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The Iowa Hawkeyes have had a mediocre season of college basketball. Definitely a down year by their usual standards. No one’s expecting them to do much in college football next fall because this year was a disaster. They have some nice looking cheerleaders though. And one Iowa Hawkeyes cheerleader in particular has big goal. Iowa Hawkeyes cheerleader Rebecca Hodge, who’s becoming a fitness model after graduation. Rebecca Hodge won the Miss Iowa USA 2012 despite never having ever previously competed in a pageant before.
A co-worker recommended she compete in the pageant, after having received a letter about it.
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University of Iowa senior quarterback James Vandenberg was named to the 2012 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award watch list which annually recognizes the top quarterback in college football. Former Hawkeyes Chuck Long (1985) and Brad Banks (2002) won the award and Ricky Stanzi was named a semifinalist in 2010. Iowa is one of eight schools nationally to have had two or more individuals capture the award.
Vandenberg, a native of Keokuk, Iowa, started all 13 games under center for the Hawkeyes last year. He completed 237-of-404 pass attempts for 3,022 yards and 25 touchdowns. Only 17 returning players in the FBS threw for more yards than Vandenberg. He ranked third in the Big Ten in passing yards per game (232.5), fourth in total offense (237.2) and fifth in pass efficiency (138.5). Vandenberg (6-foot-3, 212) was named to the Capital One/CoSIDA District Six Academic All-America team and is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. He is also on the 2012 preseason Maxwell Award and CFPA Quarterback Trophy watch lists.
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Six members Iowa Hawkeyes were selected in the 2012 NFL Draft. This marks the third straight year the Hawkeyes have had six players taken.
Offensive lineman Riley Reiff, the third Hawkeye junior to enter the draft in the last three years, was a first round selection of the Detroit Lions, becoming Iowa’s third first round pick in the last three years. Iowa joins Alabama as the only two teams in nation to have a first round selection in each of the last three drafts.
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Phil Parker, DBs coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes the past 13 seasons, has gotten a major promotion- to defensive coordinator. Kirk Ferentz announced late last night.
Parker, a member of the Iowa staff since Ferentz took over as head coach, replaces Norm Parker, who retired following this past season. Phil Parker was named by Rivals.com in March, 2011, as a first team member of its College Football Assistant Coach Dream Team.
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The Iowa Hawkeyes announced that sophomore running back Marcus Coker withdrew his application to enroll in spring semester. He also asked for a release from his football scholarship and it was granted.
In other words, he is no longer part of the college football program.
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Iowa Hawkeyes junior offensive tackle Riley Reiff announced he will enter the 2012 NFL Draft, forgoing his final year of college football eligibility.
He figures to be a first round pick, possibly going in the top 10-15.
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Iowa Hawkeyes tailback Marcus Coker goes from 2010 Insight Bowl MVP to 2011 Insight Bowl suspendee today.
Last year he set Iowa bowl records for rushing attempts (33) and rushing yards (219) in the 27-24 win over Missouri. Hopefully, he also got to see the Grand Canyon last year, because he will not be traveling with the team to Arizona.
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On the last Friday of November in Lincoln, Neb., the college football teams from the University of Iowa and the University of Nebraska will square off in the first of what is expected to be a long and competitive and entertaining rivalry between one of the Big Ten Conference’s original member institutions and the league’s most recent addition.
It could be the beginning of a huge rivalry between the Cornhuskers and the Hawkeyes.
“It is the last regular season game, so it may have implications on the Big Ten title game which will be a week later. I have not spoken to the players on how much it will mean but it will be like every game,” said Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne.
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“They’re radioactive,” a bowl official told Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday. “[Bowls] wanted Joe Paterno ‘s last game, not a nightmare.”
The Nittany Lions finish the season at Ohio State and Wisconsin. The OSU game looks like a toss-up, and the Badgers will likely destroy them. That season ending tilt is looking like it’ll be the Leaders division championship game, with the winner going to Indianapolis. So Penn State still has a chance to go to the Big Ten title game and the Rose Bowl; although it looks much less likely given how they performed Saturday.
Remember, the bowl selection process is arbitrary and capricious to say the least, and since PSU is a branding and PR nightmare right now, they could fall to the Ticketcity or Meineke Bowl. If it comes to that, hopefully the school will do the right thing and decline their bid. Even if it doesn’t come to that, and PSU ends up in one of the top five slots, they should do the right thing and decline their invitation.
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When looking at the Big Ten conference standings, and trying to figure out the hierarchy for the college football bowl system, I can’t help but think of one of my favorite lines from the ’80s movie “Fletch.”
“I’d say we’re in a gray area.”
“How gray?”
“Charcoal.”
We do know this however- the Big Ten bellcow is still Wisconsin (get it bellcow, dairy state?). The Badgers, last year’s Rose Bowl representative is still the favorite to go to Pasadena this year.
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There are only two times when doing a power rankings can be fun- way early in the season/preseason, or when everything is jumbled, disorganized chaos and blah. Doing a power rankings when the hierarchy is clear cut is a practice strictly for centrist, vanilla losers.
In the current Big Ten football world, mediocrity, blahness, national irrelevance, and parity reign. And remember that’s PARITY not PARODY! Weird Al Yankovic does not play tailback in college football.
I HATE when writers make that mistake worse than when announcers call coincidence “irony.” Some say the teams beat up on each other and hurt each other’s record. That’s a feeble excuse; because every team in this league is severely flawed in at least one major area. And in the interest of me being my ornery, cynical self, I’m going to highlight each team’s fatal flaw in my snippet.
Numerical rankings are from the latest BcS standings.
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