Stanzi is one lucky Manzi...

Saturday's near-disaster performance by the 21st-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes against in-state "FCS" (1-AA dammit!) powerhouse Northern Iowa will either go down as a legendary "wake-up call" for the ages, unveiling the quintessential next-man in, blue collar attitude that so binds the fabric of the Hawks, or a flimsy, luck-fueled abberation, a la Syracuse in 2006, when a passionate goal-line stand led to a 6-7 season. Iowa's offense sputtered and slumped their way through an uninspiring 17 points in 4 quarters, including only 3 at halftime, in this insanely odd, unconventional 17-16 victory over the scrappy UNI Panthers. My Hawkeyes were thoroughly thumped and trounced, out-played and smacked around by UNI's bigger O-Line, left clawing at the brand new synthetic turf as Panther QB Pat Grace sharpened the surgical tools and methodically dissected the shaky Iowa secondary, already hurting with inexperience and injuries, fooling them with fakes and finding receivers so open you'd think the Hawkeyes were trying to catch up on riding lawnmowers. UNI was the better team on Saturday, yet they did not win. Coach Farley did an amazing job inciting his troops and instilling them with the attitude that they are the best team in the state, that they could come into a golden rush of over 70,000 Hawk fans and silence every single one of them. They did. Yet in a shockingly un-karmic middle finger to the values of hard work and perseverance, as well as simply better play, the football gods thankfully rained on UNI's supposedly impending parade (Farley said it's not a matter of "if" UNI will beat Iowa, but "when") and gave us the unnaturally good fortune of two blocked kicks in a row, in 7 seconds, to somehow pull this ball game out of our magic hats. I'm not sure what that kicker could have done to deserve such misfortune (besides live in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and kicking field goals with as much arch as a Shaquille O'Neal free throw), but whatever he did, thank you. Because the tears were already welling up in my eyes, the anguish ready to explode from my chest, as I frantically thought of ways I would cope with watching MY Iowa Hawkeyes, the hot preseason sleeper pick in the Big Ten (at least before Hampton's injury that is), at my first collegiate football game as a student at my dream school, lose the opening game of the season to a school not even classified as Division 1. That, my friends, is called misery. Thankfully, I didn't have to skip my post-game ritual of calling Dad and discussing the game, on account of sobbing, as the Hawkeyes miraculously found a way to block those two kicks, even after a heartwrenching rulebook nuance allowed UNI to kick again with one second remaining after the first block failed to cross the line of scrimmage, when just about every Hawkeye fan across the nation was ready to unload a shotgun shell into his/her battered brains. Farley can talk all he wants about "woulda, coulda, shoudas" (forgive the cheesy colloquialism), but at the end of the day, my favorite cliche remains true: a win is a win, and the scoreboard says the story.

The question now is, however, where do we go from here? Next week is the big (well, in Iowa I guess) rivalry week, ISU-Iowa, and while this game usually has zero bearing on how the rest of the season plays out, and making predictions is about as wise as sticking your hand in Pat Angerer's drink during dinner, I actually believe this contest will go a long way towards determining if UNI was the spurring catalyst to success that we needed, or a blinding light exposing our every weakness and plethora of gaping holes. Iowa State beat some Dakota directional high school program something on Thursday night, winning in semi-impressive fashion and moving the ball fairly well through the air with Austen Arnaud humming along at QB. That's what worries me, as our secondary was exposed as faulty on Saturday, and I still contend that had Phillip Bates not played last year, Arnaud would have led ISU to a victory at a sloppy Kinnick field. I'm not worried about their running game, because quite frankly, nobody runs on us, and their defense looked lackluster at best against competition that wasn't even close to UNI's quality, so if Ken O'Queef decides to hand Stanzi the reigns, as he should, instead of manically striving for a "balance" that isn't there, I think we can move the ball with relative ease and make this thing a surprise shootout. We all know Iowa has struggled mightily in the corn-y confines of Lames, Iowa this past decade, as something about a shoddy high school stadium and ugly women cheering for flabby farmboys and scrawny Jucos just gets our boys nervous. Yes, Iowa will play tight, and Iowa State will play like General Patton just gave the pre-game address, but even with an unproven running game, we have the better team, and that is undeniable. Before I make a final prediction, I'll go over some positives and negatives from Saturday's game, with thoughts centered specifically on any lineup changes, injuries, or demotions.

Stanzi, for being sacked and faced with pressure on so many occasions, had a more-than-solid game, passing for about 250 yard and a touchdown. Protection was inconsistent, and the running game didn't give him much of a security blanket, but Ricky had the play-action working to perfection in the 2nd half, and developed a beautiful, easy rapport with Tony Moeaki. He also had a few nice passes to Trey Stross, Allen Reisner, a conspicuously absent DJK, and Marvin McNutt. Stanzi will be fine, so Kirk/KOK, let's make it become known that this is his team, Stanzi-ball or not, because with his arm and bravado, he gives us our best chance to win every week (as well as our best chance to lose). Adam Robinson will be the back, no questions asked, against the Clones. He has burst and runs hard, with something to prove. Paki runs hard as well, but that's about it. His one shining chance in the sun was an epic fail, to say the least, as he showed none of the burst or vision required of a D1 back. I'm a huge Paki fan, and I love his energy, but there is just no way in hell he can be our running back with his physical defects and inability to pick the open holes and go. I'd love to see Brinson factor in there somehow, as he appears to be the most physically imposing of the three, with the best chance at being an everydown back, but he has missed a lot of practice, and if you haven't played before, Kirk won't cut you much slack in that department. A lot of that will depend on this week's practice. Wegher appears to be an emergency situational option at this point. Our O-Line was solid, but with injuries and inconsistent shuffling abound, they were not the dominant, monogamous unit that they were last year, and not even close to matching the preseason hype. In pass protection they appeared to miscommunicate/get beat numerous times, but in the run game they opened up plenty of holes that just weren't always hit. We all took Shonn Greene for granted, that's for sure! They will be aided by the return of potential All-Big Ten Kyle Calloway from a one game suspension, as well as the gradual return of two-year starter Julian Vandervelde. The other major concern is our defensive secondary, which is young and overly dependent on one player, future NFLer Amari Spievey, for production, especially until Shaun Prater's return from OWI suspension just in time for the Arizona game. Greg Castillo was attacked on numerous occasions by the savvy Grace, while William Lowe appears a bit undersized to be a lockdown option at that position. UNI picked us apart in the two minute offense, and we have to get more pressure on the QB, conservative schemes be damned. We can analyze defensive match-ups and offensive line play all week long, but everything goes out the window against ISU, so I'm predicting a rare, close 24-21 thriller, with Daniel Murray coming through again!