Better late than never, I was Business major not in the writing program. Just the Mrs. and I since my buddies did not get on the ball. I tried to recruit but maybe they will make it in 4 years. I had missed USC and UCLA due to work and HS sports and was not missing this one. Flight from Norcal to Seattle is a piece of cake. Sat behind the OG Eppy Epenesa so you know that is a good omen. Train from Airport to downtown Seattle is cheap and easy and negates the need for overtaxed rental cars (Sorry TK is that too political). On a serious note Seattle traffic can be brutal so the set up in Seattle makes it easy to get around. Went to the Hawkeye Huddle and I screwed that up by not confirming my registration online even though I did register. Don't make that rookie mistake. After patiently waiting they let us in and I think they said there was over a 1000 in attendance. Lucked out and got to talk to Coach Speraw in the beer line. What a great guy and wonderful rep of the University. No earth-shaking news but confirms most of what TK and Swarm tell us. He did clarify that Fran got not much NIL help his last year but is obviously rooting for Ben to do well but Iowa is still fighting uphill on the payroll side. I think that is consistent with TK reporting and obvious to me that Beth wanted to move on. It was interesting that even in Womens VBall Iowa has about 175K total and top outside hitters can command $1 mil. The money is crazy and could no doubt ruin college sports. As we finally got our turn in line, they were out of beer. Cmon man. Do I need to prepare out of town venues for Hawk fans? Should Busch Light just roll a couple of semis on road trips? The unofficial beer of Iowa City. And while I am on a rant how come no beer girls with big tubs of beer, I have seen this crazy tactic deployed in Iowa City and Madison.
Game day went and explored Seattle in the morning, but it was cold and drizzly, not surprising in Seattle as the days get shorter. Headed over to the University district around one for some appropriate pregame activities. Very nice campus and bar area I was impressed but surprised by how many Asian restaurants there were. Nothing wrong with that but it may be time for Hardees and Rocky Roccos to make a comeback. Once again, every bar and resturant was not ready for the Hawk invasion. I order double on occasions like this to avoid the line but boy I am not a fan of Rainier and had to choke two of those down. After a good meal we headed over to the stadium area to check out campus and the sail gaiting scene. The library is stunning architecture and the area by the lake is amazing, but I am guessing that you have to donate buku bucks to get the dock sites.
Headed in early had great seats 4th row at the 20 behind the Iowa bench. Interesting to see John Lynch chatting with Tom Moore on the sideline. Kirk may not be perfect but to see NFL royalty hanging on the sideline pregame tells you all you need to know about how things are run and how those who KNOW RESPECT Kirk and Iowa. I felt confident Iowa would play well but Washington had played well against USC. Iowa physically mauled UW on both LOS and it looked to me that UW was just undermanned on both sides of the ball. Great to see Kamari go off and house it, he was so close on a couple last year. It is whole lot of fun when the game is never in doubt. The UW crowd was not impressive nor was their student sections. I will give them a small pass that a Friday night game has to be a brutal commute in a major metro area. I did question how poor UW set up to stop the run but talking to Purdue fans they are not missing the coach. It is possible that the OL was that dominant and instead of big runs they would have just given up 5 or 7 playing base. My other observation is that Iowa has not been able to get home against good teams rushing four. I feel the future is very bright at DE, they are long and athletic and will keep getting better. It may not be long until they can rush 4 and create havoc. Heck played great and is no doubt a gamer, he gets it out quick and moves very well. I am not going to hate on Hank because I think he is good qb too and have not forgot how bad Deacon Hill was and how Iowa had no chance vs. TN in a bowl with Marco Lainez back there, I think it would have gone better direct snapping the RB that day. I was hoping the Fort Wayne kid would get a couple of snaps and create a controversy for next year. All in all be thankful that BF in no longer in charge of the O and I don't know why you would ever hire someone that hasn't played QB to run the O. Walking out of the stadium I had the same feeling as in Madison in 2015. Iowa should win out and hopefully I will see some of you in Indy. The wife and I are committed to Oregon next year and while the travel makes no sense for most sports having the Big 4 out west is cool as Heck for football. Maybe I will meet the world famous TK in Eugene next year. Go Hawks! Destroy the Jim Jones lead Gophers this weekend, it was not a fair catch!
Game day went and explored Seattle in the morning, but it was cold and drizzly, not surprising in Seattle as the days get shorter. Headed over to the University district around one for some appropriate pregame activities. Very nice campus and bar area I was impressed but surprised by how many Asian restaurants there were. Nothing wrong with that but it may be time for Hardees and Rocky Roccos to make a comeback. Once again, every bar and resturant was not ready for the Hawk invasion. I order double on occasions like this to avoid the line but boy I am not a fan of Rainier and had to choke two of those down. After a good meal we headed over to the stadium area to check out campus and the sail gaiting scene. The library is stunning architecture and the area by the lake is amazing, but I am guessing that you have to donate buku bucks to get the dock sites.
Headed in early had great seats 4th row at the 20 behind the Iowa bench. Interesting to see John Lynch chatting with Tom Moore on the sideline. Kirk may not be perfect but to see NFL royalty hanging on the sideline pregame tells you all you need to know about how things are run and how those who KNOW RESPECT Kirk and Iowa. I felt confident Iowa would play well but Washington had played well against USC. Iowa physically mauled UW on both LOS and it looked to me that UW was just undermanned on both sides of the ball. Great to see Kamari go off and house it, he was so close on a couple last year. It is whole lot of fun when the game is never in doubt. The UW crowd was not impressive nor was their student sections. I will give them a small pass that a Friday night game has to be a brutal commute in a major metro area. I did question how poor UW set up to stop the run but talking to Purdue fans they are not missing the coach. It is possible that the OL was that dominant and instead of big runs they would have just given up 5 or 7 playing base. My other observation is that Iowa has not been able to get home against good teams rushing four. I feel the future is very bright at DE, they are long and athletic and will keep getting better. It may not be long until they can rush 4 and create havoc. Heck played great and is no doubt a gamer, he gets it out quick and moves very well. I am not going to hate on Hank because I think he is good qb too and have not forgot how bad Deacon Hill was and how Iowa had no chance vs. TN in a bowl with Marco Lainez back there, I think it would have gone better direct snapping the RB that day. I was hoping the Fort Wayne kid would get a couple of snaps and create a controversy for next year. All in all be thankful that BF in no longer in charge of the O and I don't know why you would ever hire someone that hasn't played QB to run the O. Walking out of the stadium I had the same feeling as in Madison in 2015. Iowa should win out and hopefully I will see some of you in Indy. The wife and I are committed to Oregon next year and while the travel makes no sense for most sports having the Big 4 out west is cool as Heck for football. Maybe I will meet the world famous TK in Eugene next year. Go Hawks! Destroy the Jim Jones lead Gophers this weekend, it was not a fair catch!
