In a week filled with unique opportunities, today marked one of the few times every member of the Black and Gold was available for questioning, and many flocked towards the freshmen and forgotten men to maximize the small window.

Linked Coaches Share Respect

As both Iowa and Stanford continue to compare themselves to their Rose Bowl counterparts, David Shaw and Kirk Ferentz share mutual admiration and a similar belief system in the cornerstones of their football programs. Besides sharing the field on Friday, Shaw and Ferentz are also linked by a former boss.

The predecessor to Iowa’s current Athletic Director Gary Barta is Bob Bowlsby, the current Big 12 Conference Commissioner. After receiving his master’s degree in Iowa City, Bowlsby returned and served as Iowa’s AD from 1990-2006, when he left to take the same job at Stanford.

Bowlsby hired both Rose Bowl head coaches, two people who share in their admiration of one another.

“I have so much respect for Coach Ferentz as well as for Iowa, their athletic department and their school, to say ‘there is something that we believe in, and this coach exemplifies it,’” Shaw said. “The hardest thing in major college sports now is longevity: to be at one place to where your message never gets old, to where your ideals don’t get diluted.”

“It’s always been that way at Iowa,” he said.

Ferentz returned the volley an hour later, singing a similar tune.

“What they [Stanford] stand for, to me, is everything great in college football,” he said. “The more you learn about Coach Shaw, it’s just very, very impressive. And to me, what he’s done there in five years in unbelievable.”

Stanford’s “Ogre”

Football season may be more mentally taxing than its physical strain. Some compare it to studying for a final exam each week. Leading the Stanford offense, Mike Bloomgren installed some playful terminology to loosen his players from the mental vice grip.

Prepare to see an ogre on the field Friday.

“[the ogre] is a big human being that can block down and have a big impact on the guy he hits,” Bloomgren said.

Enter David Bright, a biomechanical engineer who wears number 64, and is the latest in a line of ogres at Stanford. The ogre traditionally is a backup lineman who is selectively called upon in multiple facets, including off-field responsibilities.

Duly named when current Outland Trophy winner Joshua Garnett played the role, the ogre galvanizes the team looking for a reprieve from football’s dull details.

“I think [naming positions] is something you have to do, as long as seasons get,” he said. “I think you have to make that stuff fun and interesting for them because it gets them to buy in better. They take a lot of pride in it.”

“Bright ate seven prime ribs last night, so he matched my freshman record,” Garnett said. “He’s actually doing really well with that role. He’s actually a tackle, left guard, ogre, running some laps. [It’s important to] earn your stripes before you can really start on the offensive line.”

Iowa’s Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis does not share the same humor.

“We call our personnel by numbers,” he said.

Life of a Long-snapper

Aside from the select few with personal podiums, the majority of Hawkeyes sat at circular tables with one another, waiting for the hour to elapse. In the back sat Tyler Kluver, Iowa’s long snapper, continuing his “strenuous” bowl prep.

“It’s been a vacation,” Kluver said.

The life of a long snapper is seldom highlighted, and there is no positional award for Kluver to fight for. After reaching the daily goal of snaps, Kluver relaxes and plays the waiting game while the rest of the team continues to strategize.

Still, there is plenty of responsibility in having a hand in punts and kicks. Especially the latter, a play that some outsiders consider a foregone conclusion.

“I take pride in it,” he said. “Some people don’t even think about [snapping] as something that could go wrong. I’m one of the few players on the team that has the ball in my hands every time I’m on the field, and that is a big job to handle.”

Kluver’s importance is magnified by his teammates, people who understand that no football play is ever automatic. Said Dylan Kidd, Iowa’s punter and holder, “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without him.”

Always-Active Leadership

Soon after Iowa arrived in Southern California, Kirk Ferentz revealed that tight end Jake Duzey would miss Friday’s Rose Bowl. Duzey appeared at media day with a brace on his left knee, and used crutches to get around.

But, the senior tight end’s job is not yet done. He is still a valuable resource to teammates for knowledge and support.

“I’m still in all the meetings, going to the practices and helping out the guys any way I can,” Duzey said. “I’m sitting on the sidelines when they come back off the field and let them know the things I saw.”

Duzey’s teammates are devastated he won’t suit up on Friday, cutting short an injury-filled season after he initially injured the knee in spring practice.

“We all feel terrible for him,” said Henry Kreiger-Coble, a fellow, veteran tight end. “When he sees something he’ll tell you. He’s a great presence and a great teammate.”

Duzey is scheduled to undergo knee surgery in Iowa City soon after the team returns. There are six former Hawkeyes tight ends currently in the NFL, and with his collegiate career likely over, Duzey looks to heal and see if playing on Sundays is in his future.

Looking Head

As the week rolls towards Friday, the teams will soon close their doors for good from the outside world. Wednesday, David Shaw and Kirk Ferentz have press conferences, which will conclude the week’s media availability.

KRUI Sports will air a daily radio show from the game’s media hotel, keeping you in the loop on all things Iowa Hawkeyes leading up to Friday’s Rose Bowl Game.

The post Rose Bowl Roundup: Media Day appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Hawkeyes ultimately responded the call and will leave Champaign with a 30-14 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini this afternoon.

Jake Rudock had a nice game after struggling last weekend against Minnesota completing 14 of his 21 attempted passes for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns. His counterpart, CJ Beathard came in about midway through the fourth quarter and threw an outstanding touchdown pass to Damond Powell in the corner of the end zone to give Iowa the eventual 30-14 final score.

Offensively, the Hawkeyes put forth their best effort of the season in total offense, as well as rushing yards. Iowa amassed 587 yards of total offense, with 304 of those yards coming on the ground.

Coach Kirk Ferentz was proud of his team after getting a season saving victory.

“We just needed to win today,” Ferentz said in his press conference. “The yardage is not that important.”

Mark Weisman had the best game of his senior season to this point with 134 yards on 23 carries. After the game, Weisman talked about the success of the running back corps as a whole.

“Seeing that 300-yard rushing number was really cool,” Weisman said. “We just took it one play at a time, not looking forward or looking back.” “It is a credit to the guys up front for doing all the dirty work,” he added.

Another senior who stepped up big for Iowa was tight end Ray Hamilton. Hamilton is not known as a pass catching tight end, but for more of a blocking tight end. He ended up catch four passes for twenty yards, but the big kicker was the two touchdowns that he hauled in from quarterback Jake Rudock. Those were the first touchdowns as an Iowa Hawkeye for Hamilton.

He talked about the collective effort of the tight end group, which also saw fellow tight end Jake Duzey catch 3 passes for 110 yards including a 53-yard connection from Rudock to the junior tight end.

“I have gotten a hard time in the past about not having any touchdowns,” Hamilton said when asked how if his teammates have given him some playful jabs throughout his time at Iowa. “We just continue to work together as a group, and we are happy for each other,” he added when asked about his teammate Jake Duzey and the day he had. We just have to keep swinging and keep the foot on the gas pedal, nothing else matters.”

Despite the success of the offense, Iowa struggled in the first half finding the end zone and converting on fourth down. Iowa was among one of the best teams in the country converting on fourth downs, but went 0 for 3 on fourth down conversions Saturday afternoon.

Defensively, it was a bounce back game for a unit that was blown of Minneapolis to the tune of 51 points. The Hawkeye defense only allowed 235 yards of total offense to the Fighting Illini.

The defense got the first points on the board for Iowa after Illinois quarterback Wes Lunt was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone, which resulted in a safety and an early 2-0 lead for Iowa.

John Lowdermilk and Nate Meier led the Iowa defense with seven tackles apiece, Greg Mabin and Jordan Lomax each had six tackles, and Josey Jewell and Quinton Alston tallied five tackles. The defense desperately needed this game to get back some confidence leading up to the last two games of the season.

Iowa still somewhat controls their destiny in the Big Ten West. With Minnesota’s loss to Ohio State earlier today, the winner of the Nebraska-Wisconsin game will take over sole possession of first place in the division. That sets up well for Iowa, as Wisconsin and Nebraska are the two remaining teams on Iowa’s schedule.

“We have some things we need to work on,” Ferentz said about preparation for the next two weeks. “We’re playing two excellent opponents.”

Minnesota plays Nebraska and Wisconsin the two weeks of the season, so if Iowa wins out and Minnesota loses at least one of those games the Hawkeyes would be heading to Indianapolis the first weekend of December to play in the Big Ten title game presumably against Ohio State.

The start time for the game at Kinnick Stadium between Iowa and Wisconsin has yet to be announced. We will have the game on 89.7 KRUI. Jeremy Meyer and Blake Jorgenson will have the call next Saturday, so be sure to listen to the battle between the Hawkeyes and Badgers next Saturday.

The post Weisman, Hamilton lead Hawkeyes past Fighting Illini appeared first on KRUI Radio.

After an afternoon where the Iowa offense looked lethargic and it seemed a Mid-American Conference (MAC) team was about to claim a third straight victory in Iowa City, Jake Rudock rallied the Hawkeyes in the final three minutes for a 17-13 victory over the Ball State Cardinals.

For a program that has a history of pulling out late victories, this has to rank amongst the most improbable of them all with Jake Duzey scoring the winning touchdown with just a minute left on the clock. For freshman Derrick Willies, his first college touchdown was a major factor in this comeback.

“It was a great feeling of relief after what was a hard fought game,” Willies said. “I blacked out for a second[after catching the touchdown] but it was awesome.”

Rudock had a career day with 322 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. He was a calming presence in the huddle and stayed poised enough to lead his team to a win. Rudock attributes that leadership to the way he was raised and taught to play the game.

“I have been playing sports my whole life. It is never going to be perfect and bad things are going to happen,” Rudock said. “It was the way I was brought up with my parents and coaches that kept telling me that its not other and to work hard as long as there is a chance.”

In a surprising move, backup quarterback C.J. Beathard started the second series of the game and led the Hawkeyes in a drive that resulted in a missed field goal after a touchdown was overturned. Head Coach Kirk Ferentz said it was part of the game plan heading into this week.

“We never got to it last week.  It’s something we said we’re going to do,” Ferentz said. “We basically thought coming into thegame, we’d do second and third series with him and just see where it took us.”

The real trouble for Iowa started came early in the second quarter, as Joshua Parker fumbled the handoff on an end around and Blake Dueitt ran it back to give Ball State a 7-0 lead.

It was on that same play that left tackle Brandon Scherff went down with what appeared to be a leg, though he came back later in same quarter and played without restraint the rest of the game.

“I stood up [after the tackle] and my leg locked up and I didn’t know what happened and didn’t want to stress anything so I just went back down,” Scherff said.

Though Ferentz had some anxious moments in the aftermath of the injury. He was relieved that he was did not sustain a serious injury and impressed by the way that Scherff came back into the game and played.

“The good news is his knee was stable when they examined it.  He’s a really tough minded guy.  For him to come back and do what he did is a positive,” Ferentz said.

The offense continued to struggle until late in the 4^th quarter when the team knew desperation time was upon it and the only choice was to go out and score.

“We knew that we needed to go down there and get a score but we couldn’t put all of our stock into scoring, we just had to worry about each play at a time,” Rudock said. “It was not too far out of reach and we always had a chance. We are grateful for what the defense did and holding [Ball State] to field goals when they did.”

Though it was a win, there are still some major concerns for the Hawkeyes going forward. Placekickers Marshall Koehn and Mick Ellis went a combined 1 for 4 on field goal attempts. A position that was a question mark heading into the season looks even murkier going forward.

“I’m glad that I was able to put one of them through to help the team but that was completely unacceptable,” Koehn said. “I am going to watch some film and hope to get better next week.”

Iowa has also had problems getting the running game going over the first two weeks of the season. Part of the problem has been finding the right number of carries for a roster that is uncharacteristically filled with healthy running backs. Ferentz stated that it was just good planning on Ball State’s part.

“They had an excellent game plan.  They did a really good job.  We didn’t establish anything really in that run game, especially in the first half,” Ferentz said. “We’re going to really have to look hard at that, but I thought we adjusted a little bit better in the third quarter.”

Iowa now sits at 2-0 and welcomes Iowa State next weekend for the annual Cy-Hawk rivalry game.

The post Rudock Leads Iowa to Improbable Victory appeared first on KRUI Radio.

In 2013, C.J. Fiedorowicz entered his senior year as the number one tight end for the Hawkeyes. His size and strength gave Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock a solid target in the passing game. Rudock and Fiedorowicz connected 30 times, for 299 yards, and a team high six touchdown receptions. Fiedorowicz was selected by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft.

During Iowa’s 2014 media day there were questions about the loss of a player such as Fiedorowicz and its impact. However, Ferentz didn’t hesitate when talking about his current group of tight ends.

“I think we lose an outstanding player in C.J., but I think we have four guys that can absorb that a little bit,” Ferentz said.

With a spot at tight end to fill, senior tight end Ray Hamilton is listed as the number one tight end on the depth chart coming into early August.

“Ray Hamilton is a guy, in my opinion, that is probably better than we think he maybe is,” Ferentz said. “He has done some really good things and I think we’ve seen him grow since last spring.”

Hamilton, a native of Strongsville, Ohio saw action in all 13 games of 2013 for the Hawkeyes. Three of those appearances for the Hawkeyes were as a starter. Hamilton collected eight receptions for 95 yards. With the focus how to filling the spot at tight end, Hamilton reflected on transitioning to the starting spot left by a playmaker in Fiedorowicz.

“There will be more opportunities for myself and for other guys. Whoever’s number is called at that time you got to go out and make a big play,” Hamilton said.

Ferentz stated the desire to use multiple tight ends, possibly three in a formation this season.

“It might be more committee work than one individual, that’s something we like to do and have available if possible,” Ferentz said.

The committee would also include junior Jake Duzey, junior Henry Krieger Coble, and sophomore George Kittle. Talent wise, many look towards Duzey as a promising target at the tight end position. Duzey was able to display his athleticism last year against Ohio State where he hauled in six receptions for 138 yards and notched his first career touchdown. Hamilton echoed the amount of talent within the group of Iowa tight ends.

“We have a lot of talent in our group and guys who can do a lot of different things. When the competition is higher you’re getting the best out of everybody. If everyone keeps pushing forward and keeps pushing each other we’ll have a hell of group,” Hamilton said.

With Iowa’s 2014 media day over and practice getting started, the work has been set forth for another group of promising tight ends at Iowa.

“It’s just put your head down, get to work, and good things will come,” Hamilton concluded.

Hamilton and the Iowa Hawkeyes will have until August 30 to answer any questions in practice as the UNI Panthers will make the trip down I-380 to Iowa City in what looks to be another hard fought instate clash.

The post With Old Shoes to Fill: It’s Time to Work appeared first on KRUI Radio.