Shaun Prater Named Big Ten Defensive Player Of The Week

with 12 yards rushing. Hey, at least it’s positive.

Luck has been talked about as a high NFL draft pick for well over a year now, which has kept him in the discussion (and it’s what kept Locker in the mix for so long, despite a total lack of wins and multiple unimpressive stat days). Moore’s team just keeps on winning and he’s been in the national spotlight for a few years now. The preseason read on Stanzi was that he was a winner but that he made a lot of bad decisions and costly mistakes and people have had a tough time moving past that. (And it doesn’t help that Iowa already has two losses, so it’s easier for people to pay little attention to him)

If you don’t have those things going for you before the season starts, the only way to get in the conversation is to have outrageous stats (Robinson this year, Gerhart last year) and/or be the focal point on a surprisingly really good team (Newton this year, Suh last year).

The Minny job’s already open, Indiana and Michigan may very well come open in a month, and Penn State’s could be open if JoePa retires (yeah, I know we say this every year, but his health and age makes it a viable question). That would be pretty wild.

And I agree about Stanzi this weekend; the only thing that might cause that not to happen (aside from poor weather) is if Iowa can get the running game humming along and A-Rob (and possibly Coker, too; don’t laugh — Greene and Hampton both went for 100+ against Indiana in 2008 and I think they had a better defense then) has a big day.

With Stanzi getting All Big 10. Also, what are the chances ARob lands on 1st team? He’s got 4 regular season games left to get 200 yards to hit 1K. I’m guessing Clay will get 1st but who would the second one be? I’m not saying ARob is the first or second best back in the Big 10, I just have no idea who the best in the Big 10 are considering this is basically a QB year for the conference.

I’d love to see Iowa kick it up on offense by letting Ricky go, but why would we throw against Indiana at all, unless we can’t run. I’d say the odds are better that ARob goes for 150 on the ground, Coker 100, than Stanzi getting 300 throwing.

I have no idea why Weinke didn’t come in to hand off, although it’s not as though Stanzi was in much danger of getting hit when all he was doing was handing off. And they may have thought it was useful for he and Coker to work on their timing, too, if the hope is still to get Coker a few carries to spell A-Rob in the last month of the season.

Don’t get me wrong, Tate was a fine qb (most of the time), but really, unless it was Long Ricky was approaching, blasphemy isn’t quite fitting. On a related note, my boss (who holds no collegiate affiliation except being a goofer season ticket holder) was all smiles before the season when the Manzi was ranked as the most overrated offensive player in the conference. I make sure to give him Ricky’s stat line every Monday morning, sometimes Saturdays via text!

As SMA has said many times, we don’t feel anyone can sustain a 15 play drive without eventually making a mistake (damn you Wisconsin!). Our secondary just capitalized on the mistakes Cousins made. Hell yes Cousins’ interceptions were late, slow and bad – does anyone expect him to be able to put snap on every one of his 30 attempts? If you do you are going to be consistently disappointed in your quarterback. He just ran into a secondary that takes advantage of it. Sash said he saw his interception play about a 1000 times on film but if Cousins makes a perfect throw it is a completion.

Coach Parker summed up what all defense is during the I-club dinner video – Prater was effectively playing the defense he was taught to play – 1. keep the offensive player in front of you, 2. funnel everything to the middle of the field where you can find help and 3. tackle well. He screws up any of his seven solo tackles the play goes for a big gain, none of them did and Sparty scored 6 in garbage time. Fuck ‘em and their first downs, they couldn’t score.

Last year’s Indiana game. Every incompletion Stanzi threw a guy behind me “bench his ass!” Then proceeded to go wild with each TD Stanzi threw in the 4th. My dad said something to me to the effect of “I almost wish they had benched Stanzi so this guy could see what a dumbfuck he is.”

That’s how the cover 2 defense works. Its all about zones, not really about press coverage. If you press and the reciever gets behind you your “zone” is that much bigger and forces the safety into a must make tackle or there is no one left to stop the score. It’s the bend but don’t break principle. You either take the 4-6 yards they are allowing you and eat the clock, or you get impatient and throw to areas that look open or you throw into double coverage. It pisses you off to see easy completions when the game is close or Iowa is behind, but makes it understandable when they are dominating the game.

The TE was coming out to make a play on Sash, and after the pitch Sash dropped it into low gear and blocked the fuck out of a couple guys (he thought Micah was coming up the sideline, but Hyde had already started across the field).
It was heads up all around, and amazing to witness. Everyone just kept shaking their heads for about ten minutes afterward, going “that was insane and awesome.”

… if it goes in you look like a cold-blooded genius, but if it fails you have to go deal with the coach.

was only going to possibly gain an additional few yards, and therefore was a big risk that probably wasn’t worth it. Sash and one other hawk went to block along the far sideline (I was on press box side). At that point, I didn’t think it was such a great move.

But, the lateral provided an additional second for Hyde to look across the field and then to use his speed. Sash said that he wanted to get it into Hyde’s hands because of Hyde’s athleticism.

The play might not have been as pivotal, to this game ,as the Clayborn block-TD was. But, this play could really be pivotal to the team for the rest of the season. Hyde must have been feeling a lot of pressure to perform this year. This has to be a big boost for the kid’s confidence to contribute a huge play, in a huge game.