[Bumped, and I'm kind of in lust with these. But it's normal, totally normal, don't fight it yo.--AJ]

"The Scottish Play"*

Kirk Ferentz: M./the Scottish King
Mike Stoops: Banquo

The parallels are striking to Iowans conversant in the Bard.

ACT I, Scene 1.  A desert place.  (Not unlike Tucson.)

MacBee is a tragedy so we concede the Scottish King's death at the end of the play.  Not withstanding, there is no denying that he is f-ing king by that point!  [cue William "Deal with it" Shakespeare]

Old friends and compatriots, M. and Banquo have fought valiantly together (back in the 1980s).  But a prophecy is revealed that only one shall be king.

Banquo (Stoops) gets in the way of M's (Ferentz's) ambitions and so Banquo must be killed (metaphorically on the football field).  The Scottish King's assassins, Stanzi and Clayborn (joined by a mysterious third person who rises up in the game) and they summarily dispatch Banquo's soul from this earth.

Banquo's young son, Fleance (Foles), looks promising in the beginning but disappears by the end.  In football parlance, the Hawkeyes fall behind early before getting their act together.  All looks lost until the tide turns and victory is theirs.

In fact, the three witches said it best:

When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost, and won.

* In the theatre world, uttering the name of the play is bad luck for the utterer.

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See Part I: Iowa State Cyclones