Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Notre Lame and Random Indiana Ramblings





The GNB writers are still in partial letdown mode after last weekend. We know it will be hard to pick on the Hooisers this week for 2 main reasons: 1) Their coach just passed away last year-and from what we know he was a class act of a man and died in a way no one would ever wish on anyone, and 2) Indiana sits in the cellar with our Hawks so there isn't much "downward" looking this week. We'll still poke fun at the university itself (note picture above) and give our fearless predictions this week. Anyone who has ever attended an Indiana football game knows that the opposing teams fans can outnumber Hoosier fans. To shamelessly throw the screwing in the lightbulb joke-at Indiana it takes nine. One to screw it in, and eight to discuss how much brighter it shines during basketball season. Football is not priority at Indiana. Shoot, high school basketball attracts bigger crowds. Academics, basketball, and driving Bob Knight insane are the focal points. To practice humility, I know that our success rate against Indiana has not been good in the past few years. That being said, let's take a few minutes to rag on that other school in Indiana that we all hate: Notre Dame.




What non-Catholic, Big 10 fan does not hate this school? They are the Michigan of the Independent Conference (which isn't an actual conference). As the video truthfully states, they always seem to find their way into the top of the college football rankings at the beginning of the year-even with a horrible season prior. When they have their 1 good season, ND's praises are sang throughout the land. Speaking of their 1 good season-wasn't the Ohio State/Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl of few years ago the most pathetically broadcasted game in the history of college football? How many times did that Hawkeye Bashing Brent Musburger (we are convinced he loves every team around except Iowa) inform us of the connection between AJ Hawk and Brady Quinn? I think I saw more of the girlfriend/sister than the actual game. They have their own contract with NBC which is ridiculous all by itself. It seems like Michigan gets an equal amount of air time on ESPN/ABC even when they are next to worthless this year. From what I read, the only good things to come out of South Bend are he solar-powered flashlight, dehydrated water, and fireproof matches. Whoever thought we'd see a season where we wished we could have played Michigan and Notre Dame?

The GNB writers have been paroosing the Fire Kirk Ferentz Blog over the past few days (which we are officially withholding judgement on KF until Saturday) but we see a potential connection with Notre Dame. If in fact KF has seen his better days in Iowa City, would Gary Barta make a play for Skip Holtz? Again, we are not against Ferentz at this point, but it was something that crossed our minds when talking about Notre Dame.

This is a big weekend for the Hawks. Everyone knows the schedule gets harder and every win counts at this point. We are trying to stay positive but know that a loss this week could put a Titanic sized hole in our season. Take a minute to vote for the most inspirational high school sports movie on the sidebar. For those that are wondering, when basketball starts up, we'll cover that as well.

By request: Throwing a shout out to our friends at the Highlander in Iowa City-
Go Hawks!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are dead on about IU sports fans -- it's all basketball. Things were a little different in the 80s and early 90s when IU actually fielded a competitive football team. But if they are struggling at all, fan support is nil.

It's sad. I grew up going to IU football games, but didn't really go to that many when I was a student there. (I had issues with Cam Cameron and think they never should have fired Bill Mallory.)

Our entire athletic department is struggling right now. Hopefully with some new leadership we can get it turned around.