Hawkeye countdown ends Saturday
There’s a clock affixed inside the Iowa football complex that counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the next kickoff.
For the 241 days since the Hawkeyes last played a football game, their wait for competition has been filled with idle chatter about preseason expectations, preseason rankings, preseason honors and dealing with all of the accolades.
For the 241 days since Iowa won the Orange Bowl, the Hawkeyes have flipped open preseason publications and found themselves ranked in the top 10, they’ve seen defensive end Adrian Clayborn listed on nearly every All-America team, they’ve read about how great their defense should be, how explosive their offense could be if the line overcomes the graduation of three starters and Ricky Stanzi cuts down on the interceptions, how they just might be a national title contender if all of the pieces come together.
For the past 241 days, it’s been all talk about Iowa football. For the Hawkeyes, it’s been all work and no play. The clock finally hits zero at 11 a.m. Saturday when ninth-ranked Iowa opens the much-anticipated 2010 season against Eastern Illinois at Kinnick Stadium.
“I look at it and I’m like, ‘It needs to come faster,’” running back Adam Robinson said. “I’ve been looking forward to this ever since the end of the Orange Bowl. I look back and I’m like, ‘Wow, that was a great season and I can’t wait for the next three years.’ All offseason while we were training, all I could think about is getting back on the field and trying to outdo what I did before.”
Topping last season could be quite an undertaking. The program’s first 9-0 start, the school’s second 11-2 finish and Iowa’s first victory in a bowl game of BCS ilk since 1959 were just three of the landmark achievements for the Hawkeyes.
Yet for everything Iowa accomplished last season, there was an undercurrent throughout the year that pointed to even bigger things in 2010. With 26 seniors, this is the most veteran team coach Kirk Ferentz has had in 12 seasons at Iowa. On paper, the Hawkeyes might have their best defense since the 2004 crew that carried Iowa to the Big Ten title and their best set of skill players since the explosive 2002 outfit that delivered Ferentz’s first conference title.
You can see where this is headed.
Yes, the Hawkeyes have title aspirations. They’ve been thinking about titles for 241 days. They’ve been hearing about titles for 241 days. Not just the Big Ten title, either.
“We haven’t beaten Eastern Illinois yet,” receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos said at the start of training camp when someone asked about a national championship run. “To talk about a national championship would be crazy. … We haven’t won a game yet. We’ve got 13 to get. This is my last year. That’s the only thing I want to achieve. But how can we achieve that without beating Eastern Illinois? We saw what happened last year in the first game of the year. We got out of there by the skin of our teeth.”
The season that ended with a victory in Miami nearly started with a colossal upset in Kinnick. Iowa needed two blocked field goals in the final seven seconds to avoid a loss to Northern Iowa. The Hawkeyes haven’t forgotten. They’ve used that experience as a reminder for what could happen today. They say they’ll be ready.
“It’s good that we are finally in a game week,” Ferentz said. “I think, probably like everybody in the country, we’re eager to get started here and find out where we’re at.”
They’re eager for the talk to stop and the games to begin. They’re ready to see the countdown to kickoff hit zero.
“You almost have to take a step back and remember how much time you put in,” Stanzi said. “When you start to get down to the last couple practices, you’re so focused on what you’re doing you almost have to look back and remember all the stuff you did as a team, working out in the summer when it’s hot and all those little things that are hopefully going to pay off throughout the summer. But it’s kind of crazy how it all unfolds during a season and it’s a feeling you can’t recreate until the ballgame hits. We’re very excited to be able to go back at it again.”
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
