Soil Compilation

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Around the Big Ten – Week Four

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Week three of college football was the final tune-up for the Big Ten before the conference schedule began. This week, we’ll talk about Iowa’s 55-0 victory over Northern Iowa, Northwestern’s final game before moving into Ryan Field, and the Southern California showdown between USC and Oregon.

Sports
Sports

Special Teams Were Special in Hawkeye Shutout

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Image by Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports Iowa blanked Rutgers, 30-0, in front of a crowd of over 61,000 at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. All three phases had great success, but it was the special teams unit that stole the show. Rutgers punter, Adam Korsak, did all he could to stifle the Iowa offense in the contest, booting seven of his 10 punts inside the 20 yard line. Due to his precision – and plenty of help from his hands team – the Australian marksman downed Iowa inside its three-yard line four times. In fact, when beginning a drive after a … Continued

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First To The Punch: Iowa’s offensive line aims for quicker starts in 2019

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A phrase heard often among the Iowa offensive lineman on Friday was “First to the punch”. The phrase came about from the group’s desire to start games faster in 2019 than in 2018. Iowa’s stalwart offensive tackles, Tristan Wirfs and Alaric Jackson, echoed that sentiment while talking to the media. “A big thing for us is just starting fast, coming out here to practice we want to set the tempo and set the tempo in the game,” Wirfs said. “Coming off the ball, hitting people in the mouth is gonna be a big stepping stone in getting our run game … Continued

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Switch in defenses shows no problem for veteran Iowa group

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Halfway through the 2018 season, Phil Parker and Kirk Ferentz made the executive decision to switch Iowa’s long-standing, trademark 4-3 defense to a 4-2-5 defense, similar to what teams in pass-happy Big 12 run. But, as history shows anywhere, a major change in philosophy usually results in growing pains. The initial runs went well against Minnesota, Indiana and Maryland, as they were teams who didn’t possess the firepower to exploit the new look. That all changed in the Hawkeyes loss to Penn State, which was the first of 3 consecutive losses that dashed Iowa’s hopes of getting to Indianapolis in … Continued

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Nurse, Iowans celebrate Carroll native’s first NBA Championship

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JEFFERSON, Iowa – A small, yet spirited crowd of friends, family, locals and proud Iowans filed into the Wild Rose Casino outside of Jefferson to celebrate the accomplishments of Carroll native and Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. Prior to the event, Nurse met with a handful of reporters to discuss life after winning an NBA Championship for not just a franchise, but for an entire country, as the Raptors became the first team outside the United States to win an NBA Championship when they defeated the Golden State Warriors 4-2 in the 2019 NBA Finals. “The last two weeks … Continued

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Definitive Douglas Draft Board: 2019 NFL Draft 1st Round Mock 2.0 (UPDATED)

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The NFL Draft is coming up on Thursday Night and the mock drafts are running rampant throughout the football social media world. I, unfortunately, do not have the time nor knowledge to put together a multiple round mock draft, but the first-round should be plenty. So without further adieu, the Definitive Douglas Draft Board: 1) Arizona Cardinals: Kyler Murray, QB, Oklahoma Despite reports coming out of the Cardinals camp that the organization is moving on from the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, we have seen smokescreens like this before. Kliff Kingsbury’s offensive philosophy matched with Kyler Murray’s dual-threat prowess is just … Continued

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Iowa silences noisy Illini in tournament opener, 83-62

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Many weren’t sure what to expect from the Hawkeyes in their opening game of the 2019 Big Ten Tournament. Since Fran McCaffery took over, the Hawkeyes had a record of only 3-8 in Big Ten tournament play and had been the only team in the conference that had failed to reach the quarterfinals since 2014. Iowa was also on a four-game losing skid. For 40 minutes, the Hawkeyes beat Illinois like they stole something. Iowa scored their first win since their overtime victory against Illinois back on February 22 in Carver. The Hawkeyes had four players in double figures and … Continued

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Cole McDonald’s Long Journey to Iowa’s Friday Night Starter

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(Photo Credit: Iowa Athletics) IOWA CITY – It would have been easy for Cole McDonald to give up. The Hawkeye senior right-hander has had a circuitous journey throughout his baseball career. But when Iowa opens the 2019 season on February 15 against George Mason in Kissimmee, Fla., the first Hawkeye to take the mound for head coach Rick Heller’s club will be McDonald. “[McDonald] epitomizes Hawkeye baseball,” said Heller at Iowa’s media day on Tuesday. “Development, on and off the field, being a winner, he’s all of those things.” A number of circumstances arose that seemed like they would have … Continued

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Hawkeyes dominate 5th-ranked Michigan, 74-59.

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Iowa’s season was at another crossroads: They had just had a bad loss up at Minnesota, giving up 92 points and were still reeling off a huge, 2nd half collapse against Michigan State at home. The foe was #5 Michigan, and very few gave Iowa a chance. So what did, Iowa do? They went out and beat the Wolverines by 15 points. The win was as dominant as the score indicated, as Iowa led for 30:44 of the game’s 40 minutes against a Michigan team that prides themselves on controlling the tempo. The Hawkeyes forced the Wolverines to shoot 33 … Continued

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Iowa barrage buries Illinois in the 2nd half, 95-71

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Iowa’s offense had struggled in the first half, outside of Joe Wieskamp knocking down four threes on four attempts, the Iowa offense had been pretty quiet. The Hawkeyes held for the final shot where Connor McCaffery found Isaiah Moss wide open for a three, which Moss nailed as the buzzer sounded on the first half. That was only the beginning. For the next three minutes of game play, the Hawkeyes nailed SIX three pointers and took their lead from 43-31 to 58-42. Isaiah Moss buried four threes in the second half, five in all as he finished with 21 points … Continued

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All are involved in Hawkeyes demolition of Savannah State

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It’s not very often in Division I college basketball that you get the chance to empty your bench the way Iowa did on Saturday afternoon. It’s even more rare when everyone scores, including all of the walk-ons. But, that’s exactly what happened in Iowa’s 110-64 win against the Savannah State Tigers. In the win Iowa set a new school record with 19 made threes, ironically the previous record, 18, was set in 2016 against the same Savannah State team. “It depends on the style you do it in” Fran McCaffery said of the 42 threes Iowa took as a team. … Continued

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