The 2010 Iowa football season is out of the gates and the Hawkeyes look like a team ready to build on their 2009 success. The off season was shorter than normal as the Hawks played later in January than they normally would yet it seemed like the season wasn't coming soon. Thankfully the 2010 season didn't start as rough as 2009 did. A 30 point win over Eastern Illinois is a great way to start the season. Even better that there were no injuries during the game except for Ricky Stanzi's knee scare. Part of me thinks the injury was somewhat staged so that the Hawks could have some experience with the QB going down and the backup coming in. Whether or not it was planned Iowa didn't miss a beat with James Vandenberg taking over. Adam Robinson got to handle the full load of carries, as Jewell Hampton was suspended and Brandon Wegher is taking some time off for personal reasons, and did a very good job with over 100 yards. Paki O'Meara, who I've said is a great special teams player, got some carries in garbage time but also made the special teams play of the game by blocking a punt and returning it for a touch down. The Iowa defense was stellar except for one drive. EIU faked a punt and gained close to 40 yards on the play. They then finished the drive in the end zone. Over half of EIU's total yards came on that one drive. The defense was without Broderick Binns and Shaun Prater; with them in the lineup I doubt EIU would have scored.
This weekend it was the annual battle against Iowa State. It was another good start for the offense as Iowa scored 35 unanswered points (equating to a 70-0 run over the last 2 years). Robinson ran the ball extremely well (over 150 yards) and Jewell Hampton made his return from an ACL tear and looked faster than ever. He even had over 80 yards. The passing game was on fire as well as Ricky Stanzi had tons of time in the pocket and was able to hit his receivers in stride on almost every pass. Iowa State looked very unprepared; their coaching staff needs to step it up a notch in every aspect of the game, especially tackling. The Cyclone defense was trying to arm tackle and wrap-up way too high. You won't win at any level if you can't tackle! Speaking of defense, Iowa's defensive line seemed to be in the backfield all day long. The very first offensive play for ISU was a run in which Adrian Clayborn demolished Alexander Robinson in the backfield. Iowa St had the ball for 3 plays in the first quarter and gained 3 yards. The only way they got offense was through the air and a lot of it came after the first string Iowa defense was off the field (yet ISU's first string offense played the whole game). There were three straight drives in the 3rd quarter for Iowa State that looked good but ended with interceptions; none by Tyler Sash oddly enough, although he did make a great play by breaking up a deep pass. Another thing that stood out to me was the hard hitting done by Iowa on both sides of the ball. The defense was delivering punishing hit after punishing hit and even the offense got in on the act. Hampton and Robinson were running over defenders for extra yards; the offensive line was plowing defenders over; even the wide receivers were doing a great job of blocking. On Friday I predicted the score would be 38-9 Iowa, with ISU getting a TD in garbage time against the 3rd string defense but miss the extra point. I wasn't too far off at 35-7, even got the garbage TD called.
I'm really looking forward to the game this coming weekend at Arizona. I need to find a place to watch since we recently dumped the dish to save some cash. This will be the first real test for the 2010 team and it could really prove that Iowa are contenders not only for the Big 10 championship but also the national championship.
Another game coming up that I'm looking forward to is the Penn St game. There is a really cool promotion going on dealing with the colors of clothes the fans attending the game should wear. More on that in a couple of weeks!
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