I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard time accepting that The Vest is 4-1 against Iowa as head coach of the Fightin’ Buckeyes of the Olentangy for two reasons. One – it seems like they’ve played way more often than five times in the last nine years. I even went so far as to look it up and sure enough, they didn’t play each other in 2001, 2002 (I knew that one,) 2006, and 2007. Two – I must have taken the 2004 loss pretty hard, because before I looked it up I would have sworn our record against the Hawkeyes would have been around 4-3 or 3-4. The point is, there’s not nearly as much history to examine – compared to some of the other matchups this season – as I would have thought.
Ohio State (9-1, 5-1) at Iowa (7-3, 4-2)
November 20, 2010, 3:30PM EST
Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa
TV: ABC/ESPN3
3 randomly selected previews from elsewhere: The O-zone, The BBC, ESPN
The 2010 football season is much closer to its end than it’s beginning. Those of you still in the Midwest may have seen the sun for the last time until next March or so as the bleak, gray November begins to roll in. Life is probably beginning to get a little depressing. If you want to be even more depressed, consider the following: for Ohio State to win an outright Big Ten title, they need to win out and have Wisconsin and Michigan State each lose once. For them to go to the Rose Bowl, they need to win out and probably have Wisconsin lose. And in the last week of their season, Wisconsin plays a Northwestern team whose QB blew out his Achilles on the game-winning play against Iowa last week. Which means their more likely (although not very likely) loss would have to be this week. Against a certain team up north that has a weasel as a mascot and may or may not be infected with multiple venereal diseases. I don’t know about you, but I may avoid watching that game entirely just to avoid the possibility that I might accidentally root for the weasels. The 2008 Capital One Bowl was bad enough.
But on to this week’s vaunted opponent…
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is a perennial contender for Big Ten Coach of the Year honors, because the perception is that he gets a ton out of players that don’t necessarily have the raw talent a team like, say, Ohio State, can attract. He’s also frequently listed as a potential NFL coaching candidate. Just in case this kind of rumor makes it distracting for his team, I’d like to point out that the Bengals might have a coaching vacancy soon, and I’ve heard (from the voices in my head) that Ferentz is on the short list of potential replacements for Marvin Lewis.
I’d advise Ferentz to pass, should the Bengals come calling. Remember what happened to Hayden Fox when he left Minnesota State to coach the Orlando Breakers? No one else does either, because they all stopped watching. Point is, Ferentz has a good thing going in Iowa City, even if he doesn’t have a Luther van Damm or a Dauber Dybinski on his coaching staff to help him through the tough times.
Okay I’ll admit it, all that was an excuse for me to post a Craig T. Nelson picture because I always used to get Hayden Fox and Hayden Fry mixed up in the heyday of the Screaming Eagles. Moving on…
Iowa has had a disappointing season so far, having shot themselves in the asses multiple times before making a valiant comeback attempt at Arizona early in the season. They lost a squeeeker (with 3 e’s) to Wisconsin the week after the Buckeyes’ own debacle against the Badgers and then last week they managed to find a way to lose to Northwestern again. I wonder if Pat Fitzgerald is paying rent for all that space he’s got in Iowa’s collective head right now. Not only that, they almost lost to Indiana.
On the other hand, they delivered a good, old-fashioned butt-whoopin’ on Michigan State earlier this season that wasn’t as close as the 31 point spread indicated.
So which Iowa team will show up? The one that came within a ground-assisted incompletion in the end zone of getting beat by INDIANA? Or the one that dominated Michigan State, Penn State, and Iowa State? I don’t know about you, but the whole “State” thing makes me nervous.
What I want to see tomorrow:
- Wisconsin losing (but not TSUN winning)
- No turnovers for the Buckeyes
- 100+ yards rushing from Boom
- Fewer than 5 penalties
- The opportunity for us to be thinking about (but not talking about) roses next weekend.
How about you?
What I don’t want to see is Adrian Clayborn camping out in the backfield or all over Terrelle Pryor.
What I want to see is Terrelle gaining chunks of yards with his legs and lots of passes to Dane Z.
Also, I would appreciate it if Cam Heyward and the rest of the leaders start leading in the first quarter, not halfway through halftime.