Soil Compilation

Online Content
In Conversation with “Dis/Comfort: Confronting Histories of African Art in the United States”

On October 15th, I had the pleasure of a guided tour through the student-curated art exhibition “Dis/Comfort,” created by a class that collaboratively uses a semester to build its own African art exhibit for the Stanley Museum, “Curating African Art for the American Museum.” Being who I am, naturally I wanted to highlight this extremely valuable opportunity to have a hand in professional curation for college students. For my class this semester, How to Write About Art, we were given the opportunity to have a guided class period through the exhibit with the help of two students who worked on … Continued

Hello and welcome to the first of a brand new series from me where we will analyze big plays and other sequences in football games from this last season. So, what better place to start than the biggest of them all(so far), the national championship game. Unless if you have been living under a rock you would know that by now Alabama has won it all once again for the 5th time in the last 9 years Although, Bama was the favorite it was definitely not their prettiest of championship wins. Alabama hadn’t lead in the entire game, was down … Continued

Keep reading...

A big move in the world of the NFL occurred last week. That move was ignited by the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs agreed to send their quarterback, Alex Smith, to the Washington Redskins for cornerback Kendall Fuller and a third round pick. This trade leans towards Kansas City’s benefit. They not only cleared $17 million in cap space with sending Smith off, they ended the quarterback debate. It is now Patrick Mahomes time. Mahomes was selected 10th overall in last year’s draft and started one game last season. He is now 1-0 as a starter. As both teams are … Continued

Keep reading...

An escape. They’re dramas. Plays. An act on the gridiron. A dance on the hardwood. Sports are so popular in today due to the world needing an outlet. A place to diverge our attention from the everyday life. Baseball, the national pastime. Football, the modern-day gladiators. Athletics are so popular due to their ability to create storylines. Magic vs Bird. Steelers and Cowboys. Yankees and Red Sox. Rivalries drive sports. But, even more so than rivalries, fans fall in love when the sports meet the outside world. Iowa has had the best of luck with these kinds of stories. Just … Continued

Keep reading...

After what has been a pretty impressive season for the Minnesota Vikings, there are a lot of positives to take away from this team. The run game is finally a dependable aspect of their offense, thanks to the upgraded offensive line. The Vikings offense, which ranked 28th last season, is now a top 10 offense in the NFL. Lot of props should and will go to the offensive line, but some should also go to their diamond in the rough QB, Case Keenum.   Case and Point The Vikings acquired Case Keenum in March of 2017, mostly for the role … Continued

Keep reading...

IOWA CITY – Entering Week 8 of the 2017 season, the NFL never ceases to amaze its fans. Rookies have grown throughout the first 7 weeks. Some have flourished, others have stalled. The league’s elite continued their stride. The veterans’ show off their leadership as they enter decline. Thus, the cycle of the NFL moves on. This period of the season, known as the midseason, is one where teams attempt to regroup for the final push. The playoffs are on the horizon. However, if the season ended today, how would the awards shape up? While the annual NFL Honors show … Continued

Keep reading...

On the Right Path In 2015 Blake Bortles was coming off his rookie campaign in the NFL, which was sub-par to say the least. The first year is always rough for a rookie Quarterback in the league, so the optimism was still there for Bortles after year one. Sure enough, Bortles made the stride that everyone had hoped for his second year and all the sudden the team from Jacksonville was a threat to compete in the AFC South. During his 2015 season Bortles put up statistics some of the best QB’s in the league. He ranked top five in … Continued

Keep reading...

If someone was asked to sum up the career of former Denver Bronco and Chicago Bear Jay Cutler in one word, that someone would be wise to describe him as polarizing. As a resident in the Chicagoland area throughout the duration of Cutler’s 8 year career, I can assure you that very few talking heads had an opinion of him that wasn’t on the extreme end of the spectrum. Cutler has been the poster boy for the “you either love him or you hate him” cliche. What bothers so many people in the Cutler fan camp is how he has … Continued

Keep reading...