Links Galore

A lot has been going on in Hawkeye Land this past week, so let's get caught up.

From the 'thank your chosen deity department,' Ed Podolak is BACK. This is fantastic news, as Eddie is an Iowa Hawkeye through and through and one of the smartest football guys on the air.

Former Hawkeye Paul Burmeister, a draft analyst from the NFL Network (which like 6% of America gets to watch), does an interview for Hawkeye Report about the Hawks draft status.

He thinks Shonn Greene will be off the board sometime in the 2nd Round. This is good for a couple reasons. First and most importantly, I made a bet with my roommate after the Florida International game that Shonn would go in the first two rounds of the draft. My roommate is a Hawkeye pessimist/realist, though he is a big fan. The wager: a 64 ounce container of sweet, green nectar titled Mountain Dew from the local Kum & Go. I literally have never wanted to win a bet so much and waited so long to do so without forgetting about it in my life.

Secondly and less importantly, it bodes well for the school and the program to have star players in the NFL. Running back has never been an area that success as a Hawkeye has translated to stardom in the NFL. The only legit NFL caliber running back is Ladell Betts and he's a back-up, albeit an effective one. Fred Russell declared for the draft early (I know what you're thinking, but he seriously did). I think Greene has pretty decent shot at being a feature back for a team.

Here's a link to a Press-Citizen article about the installation of the new FieldTurf.

Here's a photo gallery of the spring football practice/scrimmage held last Saturday.

Finally, ESPN's Big 10 blogger Adam Rittenberg talked with Coach Ferentz recently and got some spring tidbits.

Most notably, the Hawks have three night games as of now: @ Penn State (possible White Out. Bad for us, good for TV), vs Michigan (Homecoming, haven't played the Wolverines in two years, they sucked last year!!!!!!), and @ Michigan State (blah).

Also of note, remember when the spring two deeps were recently released and DJK was listed behind Colin Sandeman. I didn't think much of it at the time, but Rittenberg also points out that something could be going on.

Here's a quote from Ferentz on the situation from the article:

"He's got to improve just like everybody else," Ferentz said of the man known as DJK. "There's a lot of little things that he can do better. With receivers, when they make plays, it's pretty obvious, but there are a lot of things that go on during the game that go unnoticed by the average person watching. That's a challenge for all the guys."

If you're going to look for any scoop on the Hawks aside from the brilliant work done here at Hawkeye House, read Rittenberg's blog.