FOOTBALL: GRI Released, Iowa Moves Up to 7th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

GRI (Gade Ratings Index) - 10/14/09

Rank	Team	Points	Last	This Week
1.	Florida (12)	173	1	vs Arkansas
2.	Alabama (6)	164	2	vs South Carolina
3.	Texas	149	3	vs Oklahoma
4.	Virginia Tech	117	6	at Georgia Tech
5.	USC	92	5	at Notre Dame
6.	Boise State	65	7	at Tulsa
7.	Iowa	52	10	at Wisconsin
8.	Ohio State	51	8	at Purdue
9.	Cincinnati	43	9	at South Florida
10.	Miami (FL)	28	NR	at UCF

Dropped Out: LSU (4).

Also Receiving Votes: LSU 27, Oregon 21, TCU 8.

MEN'S BB: Fantastic ESPN Story about Former Iowa Hawkeye Jake Kelly

ESPN's Dana O'Neil writes about Jake Kelly's transfer from Iowa to Indiana State. In the article, people unfamiliar with the situation will come to understand why Jake left, as well as what type of man Coach Lickliter is.


Photo courtesy of Bob Kelly

Iowa fans were there Jake when he lost his mother, I would encourage them to support him with the Sycamores, as well. This Hawk fan will be.

Good luck, Jake!

FOOTBALL: Latest GRI Poll is out - Iowa is at #10 this week

It's Wednesday and we all know what that means, the Gade Ratings Index is released.

This week's ratings are below

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

GRI (Gade Ratings Index) - 10/07/09

Rank	Team	Points	Last	This Week
1.	Florida (11)	172	1	at LSU
2.	Alabama (7)	163	2	at Ole Miss
3.	Texas	149	3	vs Colorado
4.	LSU	105	5	vs Florida
5.	USC	86	9	OFF
6.	Virginia Tech	82	4	vs Boston College
7.	Boise State	67	6	OFF
8.	Ohio State	38	NR	vs Wisconsin
9.	Cincinnati	36	10	OFF
10.	Iowa	35	7	vs Michigan

Dropped Out: Oklahoma (8).

Also Receiving Votes: Miami (FL) 25, Oregon 13, TCU 11, Auburn 7, NC State 1.

About the GRI: The GRI has been successfully ranking college football teams for 5+ years. The GRI consists of voters from across the nation. Currently at least one of our voters represents the following regions: Midwest, West Coast, Southwest and Atlantic Coast. The first GRI is released each year on the Wednesday after Big Ten Conference play has started. It is then released on a weekly basis for the rest of the regular season. The GRI continues to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to unbiased, comprehensive college football rankings.

FOOTBALL: Why Tate Forcier will Struggle Against the Iowa Hawkeyes

Some basic stats to project Tate Forcier's struggles in the upcoming Oct 10th Iowa game.


PHOTO COURTESY OF (RASHAUN RUCKER/Detroit Free Press)

Listed stats are:
Pass Efficiency Defense
Total Defense
Scoring Defense

Take a look at the defenses (specifically pass defenses) that Forcier has played against.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Western Michigan
PE D - 79th
Total D - 89th
Scoring D - 71st

Notre Dame
PE D - 76th
Total D - 96th
Scoring D - 58th

Eastern Michigan
PE D - 6th
Total D - 72nd
Scoring D - 99th
EM is 6th in PE, but Forcier was only 7/13 for 68 yards because the game was in hand.

Indiana
PE D - 86th
Total D - 46th
Scoring D - 63rd

Michigan St
PE D - 101st
Total D - 49th
Scoring D - 64th

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Now, look what he faces this Saturday -

Iowa
PE D - 4th
Total D - 32nd
Scoring D - 10th

And Tate Forcier has yet to win a game on the road.

Forcier has been pretty good so far. He makes freshman mistakes, though, and Iowa will capitalize on those.

Forcier hasn't played away from home in a stadium like Kinnick with fans like Iowa's.

Forcier hasn't seen a defense remotely as good as Iowa will bring on Saturday.

I think the frosh has supreme talent and potential, but he'll be shell shocked coming into Kinnick - not only because of the environment, but because of what the D will be bringing at him.

UM's hope will be on the ground in this one.

Iowa will handle Forcier, and the Wolverines, this Saturday.

MEN'S BB: ESPN/Sagarin puts the Iowa Basketball Program 10th All-Time in the Nation

Iowa has never been an elite program? Think again...

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2009/1004/cbe1.pdf

Iowa 10th all-time.

Pretty impressive.

Eight Big Ten teams in the Top 15; Five Big Ten teams in the Top 10.

FOOTBALL: Thoughts on the Iowa Hawkeyes Going into the Arizona game

The depth chart was released today....

IOWA OFFENSE
WR ....... 7 McNutt , 15 Johnson-Koulianos
LT ......... 79 Bulaga, 77 Reiff
LG ........ 78 Richardson, 73 Gettis, 68 Kuempel
C ......... 52 Eubanks, 67 Koeppel
RG ........ 63 Vandervelde, 74 Doering
RT ........ 60 Calloway, 56 Zusevics
TE ......... 81 Moeaki, 82 Reisner
QB ........ 12 Stanzi, 16 Vandenberg/14 Wienke
WR ....... 86 Stross, 26 Chaney, Jr.
RB ........ 32 Robinson, 3 Wegher
FB ......... 36 Morse, 47 Leppert

IOWA DEFENSE
DE ........ 94 Clayborn, 58 Daniel
DT ........ 95 Klug, 61 Meade
DT ........ 46 Ballard, 93 Daniels
DE ........ 91 Binns, 64 Hundertmark
OLB ...... 49 Edds, 45 T. Nielsen
MLB ..... 43 Angerer, 48 T. Johnson
WLB ..... 42 Hunter, 33 Tarpinian
LC ......... 10 Lowe, 28 Prater
SS ......... 9 Sash, 31 Cato
FS ......... 30 Greenwood, 20 Conklin
RC ........ 19 Spievey, 2 Casti llo
PT ......... 5 Donahue, 6 Guthrie
PK ........ 1 Murray, 8 Mossbrucker

My thoughts:
1.) That offensive line is killer. I love it! I love it! I love it! I hope that five can go all year with Reiff get some spot minutes at OT.

2.) Iowa's WR Corps is FANTASTIC. I think it is easily Ferentz's best squad he has ever had at Iowa. Easily.

3.) Does anyone really think Prater won't get most of the minutes on Sat? I think he will. Although, give Lowe credit, he looked good vs. ISU.

4.) Our safeties are pretty seasoned for their age. Almost like having Jovon Johnson and Antwan back there, but with more talent. Greenwood is to Allen and Sash is to Johnson. Obviously not a perfect comparison as two player CB and the other two played S, but it still will lead to stability in the backfield.

5.) I don't have any problem with Robinson ahead of Wegher. He didn't do anything to lose carries last game. Averaged (I think) something like 5 YPC and held onto the ball, what else do you need? Split carries between the two freshman will help them make it through the season... it's a long one.

6.) Our TE squad is stacked too. Without taking time to look, I'd say Iowa's TE squad is best in the Big Ten for sure.

7.) Stanzi has the weapons, he needs to know how to fire them accurately now!

MEN'S BB: First Glance at the New White Basketball Uniforms

No Script wording on them unfortunately, but here's a look at them.



Asst Coach, Joel Cornette, put a goal out there that when he hit 200 Followers on Twitter, he would post the pic.

Why not Script font next time?

FOOTBALL: Discover ISUISU.COM: Iowa State Fans are Already Looney... Oh Boy

http://www.isuisu.com/2009/09/2009-iowa-state-cyclones-football-season-prediction/

9/12 Iowa (2008 record: 8-4, 2008 result Iowa 17 Iowa St 5) – It would appear that both offenses are going to have big advantages over the defenses. Iowa State, with the spread offense, should have luck moving the ball down the field against a defense that will be missing its top two DB’s for the contest. The Hawkeyes will play a 4-3 defense that the Cyclones should be able to exploit. Iowa has a very good offensive line and should be able to lean on an undersized ISU front seven. However, the Hawks will most likely be missing OL starter Julian Vandervelde and the RB’s are still unproven. The Cyclones have won the last two against Iowa at Jack Trice and Iowa is team that gets better as the season moves along.
Prediction: Iowa State 30 Iowa 28
Win (55% chance of victory)

Ok, let's get this straight.... a team that had 10 losses last year (a current 10 game losing streak mind you), went winless in the Big XII, has a new coach/new system has a 55% chance to beat a nationally ranked Iowa team coming off a News Years bowl win, having won 6 out of their last 7 games.

Look, I know... I know... Iowa plays like donkey crap against ISU, especially in Jack Trice stadium. However, some of this stuff is just ridiculous.

• First things first, Iowa was 9-4 last year, not 8-4.
  
• ISU's offense will have an advantage over Iowa's D? The same Iowa D that is arguably the best defense in the entire Big Ten?
• Iowa will be missing its top 2 DBs? Is this foresight to say Amari Speivey will be injured? How often do spread offenses exploit Iowa's 4-3? Better do some research on that one too.
  
• And the post says Julian is out, so supposedly that's going to have some affect on the line's play... huh? JV is a very nice lineman, but Iowa is deeper than the Pacific Ocean at OL. Seriously.

Wait, wait there's more... check out the About Us page.



So... what exactly is that dude pointing? Hmmm.......

MEN'S BB: 2010 Iowa Basketball Recruits All Ranked in Top 175 per Gibbons

Link courtesy of Jonathon Brust (jdbrust on Twitter).

All 4 of 2010 Iowa BB recruits in Gibbons top 175!
http://tinyurl.com/Iowa175
Larson #103, Brust #136, McCabe #150, Marble #161

MEN'S BB: Iowa Basketball Will Be Better Than You Think PART FOUR OF EIGHT (ANTHONY TUCKER)

In an eight part series written for Hawkeyenation.com, I am out to prove Iowa Hawkeye Basketball will be better thank you think.

Part Four (Anthony Tucker) is up on Hawkeyenation.com

Read it HERE