Monday, October 18, 2004
Hawks Roll
Until Saturday, the Iowa Hawkeyes had not defeated Ohio State in Kinnick Stadium since Chuck Long's sophomore year in 1983. This long streak of futility was at least temporarily interrupted Saturday with their 33-7 rout of the Buckeyes. Ohio State is clearly having a down year, but this has never mattered in the past when they encountered the Hawkeyes. The team is less than two years removed from a national championship for Pete's sake!
This is a big win for the Hawkeyes no matter how you cut it. It was the first win over OSU by Iowa head coach "Captain" Kirk Ferentz. It also preserves Big 10 title hopes for Iowa, provided they win the remainder of their games and Michigan loses twice. Iowa has the benefit of playing Wisconsin and Purdue at home, and must hope that Purdue defeats Michigan next week, a possibility, and that the Buckeyes find a way to beat the Wolverines as well. (Not likely.)
Via the usual Big 10 scheduling quirk, the two undefeated teams in the conference,Wisconsin and Michigan, will not play each other, although if they both run the table than Wisconsin takes the championship as a result of Michigan's loss to Notre Dame.
This is a big win for the Hawkeyes no matter how you cut it. It was the first win over OSU by Iowa head coach "Captain" Kirk Ferentz. It also preserves Big 10 title hopes for Iowa, provided they win the remainder of their games and Michigan loses twice. Iowa has the benefit of playing Wisconsin and Purdue at home, and must hope that Purdue defeats Michigan next week, a possibility, and that the Buckeyes find a way to beat the Wolverines as well. (Not likely.)
Via the usual Big 10 scheduling quirk, the two undefeated teams in the conference,Wisconsin and Michigan, will not play each other, although if they both run the table than Wisconsin takes the championship as a result of Michigan's loss to Notre Dame.
1 Comments:
By 
SportsProf, at
Mon Oct 18, 09:54:00 PM:
Thanks, Villain! Good report as always. What doesn't necessarily hurt is the scenario you describe. What has to hurt Iowa fans was the thrashing they took several weeks ago at the hands of Arizona State, given the beating that the Sun Devils took at USC, losing 45-7. Still, the relatively big win over Ohio State gives the Hawkeyes confidence going into the Penn State game, as Penn State comes off a bye week and played reasonably well (for Penn State) against Purdue two weeks ago.
