Tiger Hawk Blog » Rants & Raves

Iowa is the Underdog of College Football

P Murphy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:20:05 +0000

The Iowa Hawkeyes (5-0 Big Ten, 9-0 Overall) are currently setting in the fourth spot in the most recent BCS standings. They also hold the nation’s second longest college football winning streak with 13 wins. The nation’s longest streak goes to Florida with 17 wins. Iowa is the only team in college football to win nine games so far. Winning the first nine games of the season is also a first for the Hawkeyes. tigerhawkblog end

The Hawkeyes are now in the college football spotlight and everybody is talking about them. Mostly they are talking about is how overrated Iowa is and how they don’t deserve to be in the BCS National Championship Game. This is why Iowa is considered the underdogs of college football.

I have noticed some sports analysts are now coming out defending Iowa’s football team. I have even read articles on sports sites about how Iowa deserves to be ranked fourth in the BCS as well as others writing about the opposite.

Why Iowa is the underdogs of college football? Iowa has squeak by winning games by a small margin of points or even fighting their way back into the game to win it. Teams like this make college football very exciting to watch. One close game is better to watch then several other games were one team is winning by 30 plus points.

This is why they play football games against each other is to prove who is the better team between them. People can compare Iowa against all the other teams in the top ten, but this is only a comparison on paper and is only worth as much as the paper is worth. I’m not saying that the comparison is not right, but it is not 100% correct either. Remember the Ohio State – Purdue game.

I watched an advertisement for College Football a couple weekend’s ago, I saw a statement that sums it all up. I believe it was on my local ABC network. The statement was “Every Underdog is Dangerous”. This is why I believe Iowa is still undefeated.

Now onto another subject that got my attention.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as they don’t go overboard with it and some are going way overboard with the bashing of Iowa. Now I’m seeing people not only bashing Iowa’s football team, but bashing the individual players in Iowa’s history. This is why I’m writing this next paragraph.

LEAVE NILE KINNICK OUT OF THE BASHING. He is a hero as well as an icon in the state of Iowa. He is the Hawkeyes only Heisman winner and a veteran of WW II. In 1972, the stadium was renamed Kinnick Stadium from Iowa Stadium in his honor as a football player as well as a veteran. This was sparked by a Nebraska fan bringing his name up in an article that was bashing Iowa. His article also cause others like to react to it like this article by Tim Weideman.

Iowa Could Finish 12-0 And Be Looking In From the Outside.

P Murphy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:53:13 +0000

That’s right. Iowa could finish this year perfect and still be watching the BCS Championship Game from home. Everybody can thank the AP and Coaches Polls for this. The AP and Harris Polls make up two thirds of the BCS rankings and the Computer rankings make up the other third. tigerhawkblog end

Iowa is currently ranked 11th in the AP, 11th in the Harris, and 12th in the Coaches Polls. However the Hawkeyes are ranked much higher in the computer rankings. They are also going to be ranked 10th in the BCS if it came out today.

There are several reasons this can happen. They include a poor Conference ranking for the Big Ten (6th in the Sagarin rankings), Iowa’s schedule only having two or three ranked teams in it, Iowa’s beating Penn State is being forgotten, the AP and Coaches Polls have to be turned in by Saturday or Sunday night, or that the AP and Coaches Polls are turning into a popularity contest instead of the true value they are supposed to be judging.

That’s right a popularity contest and Iowa is not a popular liked school in these polls. Every year I see a team that gets the short end because they are not as popular as some of the other schools in the polls. There are also teams in the Top 10 that should be dropped lower than Iowa. One of the teams is fifth ranked Boise State. The Broncos barely beat Oregon (19-8) and last night they barely beat Tulsa (28-21). Iowa has a better overall record and schedule than Boise State. Did everybody forget that Iowa beat South Carolina last year 31-10 in the Capital One Bowl? South Carolina was a top six school in the SEC Conference last year.

The computer ranks have Iowa ranked as high as first (Colley Matrix) and as low as ninth (Sagarin). The other Computer rankings for Iowa are as follows: Wolfe doesn’t release rankings until the 18th of October, fourth Massey Ratings, eighth in the Billingsley Report, and third in the Jeff Anderson & Chris Hester Ratings.

The best thing about the computer rankings is that they are not a popularity contest. They crunch the numbers based on performance.

At least the CBS Sports line website has Iowa ranked ninth in the country. Iowa should be a top 10 team.

Ever time Iowa is talked about, they keep bringing up Iowa only beat FCS team Northern Iowa 17-16 in the last seconds of the game. Has anybody look at UNI since then. UNI is currently ranked fourth in the FCS Polls and is one of the favorites to win the FCS this year. UNI also have blown out every opponent since playing Iowa. UNI has scored as low as 30 points to as high as 66 points since the Iowa- UNI game.

So stop bringing up this game as a negative against Iowa. I’m pretty sure that UNI can beat a few teams in the top 25 as well as a couple teams in the top 10 in the FBS polls.

Just give Iowa a chance before shooting them down as a National Contender as well as a Big ten Contender. I hope after the next two games (at Wisconsin, at Michigan State) everybody will start seeing what Iowa fans have been seeing the last few games.

Trip to Fun City in Burlington, Iowa

P Murphy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:46:40 +0000

Last week my family and I took a trip to Fun City in Burlington for a couple days of relax and rest. The swimming pool was awesome and the Arcades were great. My oldest son had a blast and it only cost me a fraction of the money due to vouchers from my work that I used. I would recommend going to Fun City at least once a year if you have kids. It is cheap entertainment if you watch what you are spending.
Now here are the bad parts of our visit to Fun City. The food is high price and basically sucks. I had the French Dip sandwich from the Restaurant Boogaloo and it was dry and over cooked. There are other places to eat inside of Fun City around the Casino areas that I never tried eating at. There are also plenty of fast food places close to Fun City. The breakfast in the morning was moved from Gasoline Alley to a buffet place right next to the casino. It was a descend walk to get to it and the food really suck. I had to wait for about 15 minutes before the cook decided to stop hiding in the back to get pancakes that was getting close to burning on the stove. And yes she left food on the stove when she took off. This concerns me also. Next time we will eat breakfast at the Perkins up the street from it. For the same price I would have gotten better service and food at Perkins.
For the casino part, the security is very tight and they check everyoneâ€™s ID when they went into the casino part. The casino is about normal size and by the look of some of the jackpots, the casino is not paying out too much, so I would drive the extra hour and go to the Quad Cities casinos. At least they pay more times than the one in Burlington one.
Final note about Fun City is that it is a fun place to enjoy if you just visit and stay there, but I would eat outside of Fun City and save your money. I would also check out the water park too. It has a lazy river and some awesome slides. This is just my opinion and observation of the place. The place has gone downhill since the last time we went there last year. tigerhawkblog end

Iowa Football Game Tickets

P Murphy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:01:13 +0000

I’m not too happy with how football tickets are being sold by the University of Iowa or Iowa State University this year. tigerhawkblog end

First I’m going to talk about Iowa State University and what they are pulling.Â The game is Iowa vs. Iow State at Ames.Â The only way you could buy these tickets is if you buy season tickets to the Cyclones.Â What the ****?Â How can this be fair to fans of both teams and how can the NCAA allow them to do this.Â Personally I think Iowa State should get an NCAA violation for this stunt.Â This is not fair to any of the fans just because Iowa State doesn’t have a good team to sell out their stadium.Â I think this is bull****.

Now how about Iowa.Â Since this new ticketing system was put in place it is very hard to buy tickets to the game.Â I love going to the football games at Kinnick Stadium, but I haven’t gone to a game since 2005.Â This is because I can’t get any tickets without having to pay 100 to 200 dollars for them.Â This new system makes it so easy for scalpers and ticket sellers to buy tickets.Â I don’t make a lot of money so prices are important to me.Â Now if I want to buy tickets for a game and set at the 50 yard line Â Â Â I have to pay $50 for a ticket and $600 for the seat.Â What the ****?Â The University of Iowa is making it hard for true Hawkeye fans to go to the games.Â To things need to be changed with the ticket process at Iowa.Â First if a fan buys season tickets then they must use all of the tickets to qualify for season tickets next year or they should be suspended 1 year from season tickets and get to start over in priority.Â I have been to several games that was sold out and there was several empty seats in the stands.Â ****ing ticket brokers and scalpers.

I biggest thing that gets me going is a Senator from the Iowa State Senate wanted to buy 250 tickets to the Iowa vs Iowa State game this year.Â I see they are spending my tax dollars for their own personal stuff.Â People like this should only be able to buy a max of 5 ticket per game and no more.Â The fans that buy more than 5 tickets are very selfish and only thinks about their selves like this Senator from Iowa.Â He should feel very bad for robbing fans of the University of Iowa rights to buy tickets.Â My question is what the h*** does he need 250 tickets for a single game?Â Everyone knows he used his position to get these tickets.Â Thank you for screwing me out of tickets to the only game that means to most to me Senator.Â I hope you are proud of yourself for stealing a ticket from a 4 year old little boy and for abusing your power in office to get these tickets.

The Senator should give me 3 of those tickets for a apology.Â But everybody knows that is not going to happen from a selfish self center person that should be voted out of office the next time his office is up for grabs.

THe question I have is where was this Senator at when Iowa finished 1 – 10 a few years ago.Â I know he didn’t want to go see them because they stink.Â But I did.Â I’m a very loyal Hawkeye fan.Â Enough of my Rant and Rave on this subject.

NASCAR Daytona 500 finish for 2007

P Murphy — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:40:56 +0000

I watched the last lap of the Daytona 500 race and realized NASCAR only cares about making money and don’t care about the drivers in it. As Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded the last turn when Martin was leading the race there was a huge crash behind them starting with the third place car and back. NASCAR officials would not bring out the caution flag until Harvick passed Martin and cross the finished line. tigerhawkblog end

I have one question. WHAT THE HELL WAS THEY THINKING?

They should of brought up the caution flag as soon as the crash started no matter if it would end the race right there or not. Several cars could of missed being in the accident if the caution was brought up like it should of been. What would of happen if a racer was killed in that crash and it could of been stop if the caution flag was brought up at the correct time. If they let the race finished without the caution flag, then they should of not even brought it out. That was the most stupidest move Daytona 500 officials ever made in there life. I remember the last time Daytona 500 officials was being so stupid. Now we can not ever see #3 drive his car anymore.

I believe if Daytona 500 Officials can’t call the race correctly then they need to shut down the Daytona Race track until there are officials that can think about the drivers before their freaking pocket books. Fans don’t go to the races to watch their favorite drivers getting hurt.

This is my opinion and no I’m not a Mark Martin fan. My favorite driver finished 23rd in the race and close to the crash site on the last lap.