There it is friends, from the University of Iowa official Twitter account:

If I was a good blogger, I would have started this feature a few months back. But I'm a half-assed blogger, so you'll just have to live with getting it now (and for the duration of the season). What is it? Pretty simple: I ask questions of an opposing team's blogger, they answer. A truly revolutionary idea, no? First up: Friend of the Pants Loretta8 from excellent just Northwestern blog, Sippin' On Purple.

1) Iowa's main defensive weaknesses are an inability to defend the post and a propensity to be victimized by good three-point shooting and effective ball movement. Be honest: is Northwestern's offense going to kill our defense or totally MURDERDEATHKILL our defense?

Yes, that match up would certainly appear to favor Northwestern, what with their #12 in the nation offense per KenPom (ahead of Ohio State, THATS RIGHT, SUCK IT BUCKEYES) and all. Although you won't have to worry about defending the post; I'm pretty sure the BHGP staff could shut down Davide Curletti and Luka Mirkovic. (Ed. Note: This is entirely possible since Patrick and HFMR are giants. -- Ross)

2) John Shurna has an unconventional shooting stroke. Would you say that it most resembles: (a) an otter having a stroke, (b) a chasing dog finally catching that elusive car, (c) a death row inmate being electrocuted, or (d) a fish flopping into a vat of acid?

I'm going with (e) an albatross with two broken wings.

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Lost in the hullabaloo surrounding the never-ending defensive coordinator search and the departure of Ken O'Keefe are two other openings on the Iowa staff: The defensive line coach spot vacated by Rick Kaczenski and KOK's own quaarterbacks coach spot. As Rick wrote yesterday, all indications are these two spots have been filled internally.

Defensive Line Coach: LeVar Woods

It was widely assumed that, regardless of what happened this offseason, Iowa would find a spot on the staff for administrative assistant LeVar Woods, who has been patiently waiting for a chance at a position coach position since 2008. Woods is a graduate of West Lyon High School in northwest Iowa, and played linebacker for Kirk Ferentz in his first two years at Iowa. After bouncing around the pro ranks for seven seasons, Woods returned to Iowa City to act as a non-coaching assistant, a position in which he has served during the last four years. Woods also runs an offseason football camp in northwest Iowa with other Hawkeyes from the early 2000s like Dallas Clark, Bruce Nelson and Nate Kaeding.

Woods has a story to tell: Despite being self-described as "not the most athletic kid in my class" at a small high school a stone's throw from South Dakota, Woods worked seven hours a day milking cows for a local dairy farmer, using the money earned to pay for speed & acceleration training, eventually earning him a scholarship at Iowa. His energy and work ethic are beyond reproach, his pedigree as a Ferentz player and assistant precisely what is necessary. On top of that, Woods coached defensive line during bowl preparation and has been holding himself out as defensive line coach during his first round of recruiting (the act of recruting itself being a strong indicator of the fact that the job is his). It looks like a fait accompli: LeVar Woods is the defensive line coach, and is a perfect fit for the spot.

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The last two years the football off-season was full of conference realignment talk and program investigations. Perhaps this year the talk will be about the future of the BCS and maybe, wait for it, a playoff. The Big Ten was the first to kick off the discussion. Jim Delany, Big Ten Commissioner, has a proposal that if anything, may get the idea of a playoff rolling.

The Big Ten's proposal is to place the top four teams in the BCS into a playoff bracket and have the two semifinal games played on the home turf of the higher seed. The championship game would then be available for bid, similar to the NFL's Superbowl. This idea could raise criticism from fans from the South because of the possibility of inclement weather in the Northern states. States where Big Ten teams are located.

Adam Rittenberg, of ESPN.com, points out that bowl games are essentially a road game for Big Ten teams.

With this new proposal Delany says he'll will fight to protect the Rose Bowl and it's Big Ten tie-in, just as they did with the current BCS system.

There's a new era coming, and in the discussion is not just a playoff but a requirement of seven wins to become bowl eligible. There's a possibility that new win requirements could eliminate a handful of bowl games. See, seven is the new six.

For the record, Iowa has never finished in the Top four of the BCS (they were #5 in 2002). The last Big Ten team to qualify in this new proposal was Ohio State in 2007.

Want a little more information about a couple of new Hawkeyes? The Quad-Cities Online has this story about Mitch Keppy and Reid Sealby. The future teammates are not friends yet. That's because Keppy and Sealby are heavy weight wrestlers and Sealby is ranked #1, Keppy #2.

It's still not clear if David Raih has been promoted from grad assistant to Iowa's coaching staff. FootballScoop.com reported yesterday that fellow GA Charlie Bullen has moved on to join the Dolphins. If you want to know more about Raih then this is a must read. I hope he gets the gig, his salesmanship and energy could work wonders on the recruiting trail. Ferentz may announce Raih as a new addition at his press conference Wednesday at 4 PM (CT).

Ken O'Keefe spent 13 years as Iowa's offensive coordinator. Now he is saying goodbye to Iowa City. As you can imagine, O'Keefe recalled memories and was thankful for his experiences at Iowa. He told Marc Morehouse,

"It's just a unique opportunity right now. I'm so grateful for the time Kirk Ferentz gave us here at Iowa. It's an unbelievable place."

Why the sudden departure, the big life change?

"It's a unique opportunity," O'Keefe said. "I've known Joe since he was 17-years-old. It's hard to walk away from this because of [Iowa head coach] Kirk [Ferentz] and the kids, obviously, and the community of Iowa City, which has been so good to us, as well. It is a little unique because of our relationship, and the timing just happens to be right."

After the jump, more links.

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Oh my.

All credit to KCRG for digging up this gem featuring the famous 1986-1987 Iowa basketball team displaying their peerless rapping skills. In a just universe, the 2011-2012 team would be inspired to create their own version as an homage to their forebears. (Although if they do go down that path, I hope Aaron White gets drafted on to the Shirts team; the world isn't ready for that much pasty ginger-ness just yet.)

But that video... the hair, the shirts, and, my word, the shorts... I will not soon be able to erase the image of Jeff Moe's shorts from my brain.

(H/T NBC Photo Blog / Chris Trotman / Getty Images)

First, congrats Tyler Sash. You're a Super Bowl champion!

The cat may be let out of the bag. Last night, newly signed Hawkeye Jaleel Johnson posted on Facebook,

"The Iowa hawkeyes will be gettin a new defensive coordinator....the LB coach from the NEW YORK GIANTS!!!!"

Patrick Vint has already discussed Hermann via the "Short List," to review read here. Johnson's comments could mean a multitude of things. It's not clear if he has inside information or if he's speculating like the rest of us.

The last we had heard from Hermann, he was telling Mike Hlas, "I haven't talked to anybody (about the Iowa job)" Hlas added this,

If Herrmann knows all the ins and outs of Hawkeye football, he's a good actor. Because he asked me if Norm Parker had retired as Iowa's defensive coordinator, and he asked who Iowa's offensive coordinator was. He said he didn't know if Ken O'Keefe was still the OC or not, and called him "a real good coach."

Another Iowa coaching candidate, Brian Ferentz, isn't talking about Iowa's open positions. He is talking about the Patriot's loss to the Giants. When asked about Iowa's openings Ferentz told Mike Hlas,

"My job is the coach of the New England Patriots' tight ends. I'm trying to do that to the best of my ability today. What happens in the future, whether a year, two years, 10 years from now, I'm focused on doing my job."

Recruits are saying LeVar Woods is Iowa's newest defensive line coach. Hawk Central reports that recruit David Kenny said,

"I had a chance to meet the new (defensive) line coach, so that was good," Kenney said. "His name is LeVar Woods and we really just made small talk."

There was also talk that David Raih was introduced to recruits as Iowa's quarterback coach too. Iowa hosted several high school juniors yesterday as recruiting for the 2013 class is starting to ramp up. I believe the Raih stuff comes from 24/7 and Rivals but I've yet to see an article to link that isn't pay-per-view. One thing to remember, Raih and Woods may have been filling-in for camp purposes. We'll find out Wednesday.

After the jump, hoops and more links.

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[Photo credit: Jeff Becker]

Saturday was a feel-good game at Carver: the 1986-87 team was there and received a very warm welcome from the fans, the current Hawks came out in the sharp-looking throwback unis, and the first half went about as well as any the team has had all year. Aaron White was the star on offense and defense, nailing two threes, sprinting behind the defense to catch and convert long alley-oop pass from Bryce Cartwright, and blocking two shots. And the team's defense as a whole was very good. Many times it looked as though Penn State had the ball in position on the block for a layup, only to have a Hawkeye player step in for a charge, or a strip, or a block. That harassment in the post, combined with some terrifically bad shooting by Penn State, made it feel like the Nittany Lions wouldn't crack 20 all game. The score was 29-10 with five minutes left in the half, and the game felt effectively over.

But just to throw a little cold water on the proceedings, note two things:

1. Penn State is a truly terrible shooting team: 320th in the country (out of 345) in effective field goal percentage at 44% and 293rd in three-point percentage at 30.8%. They are also a bad team offensively in general, ranking 258th in offensive efficiency at .938 points/possession;
2. That same Penn State put up 45 points on an eFG% of 65% in the second half, making 8/16 threes; that was good for a second-half offensive efficiency of 1.36 points/possession.

To say Iowa let up would be an understatement. They seemed to take the foot off the gas as soon as the second half started, using up almost the entire shot clock on every possession on offense and allowing Penn State open look after open look on defense. Iowa got to the line 23 times in the second half and that was enough to stave off a Penn State comeback, but just be aware of that context when you think about whether Iowa's defense has turned the corner. You have to grade teams on a curve when it comes to defensive performance, and Penn State represented a very easy defensive test. Iowa aced the first 20 minutes, then just filled in "C" for every question on the last 20.

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(ORIGINAL PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Ray / SourceMedia Group)

Credit to commenter BVB_Fan(atic) or inspiring the headline.

There isn't a lot to say about this win, frankly. Domination is always fun to see but, honestly, Wisconsin was the worst dual meet opponent Iowa has faced since the Iowa City Duals way back in November (back when we were full of optimism for the season...). They're 5-10 on the season, 0-8 against B1G competition and few of those duals have been remotely close. They started a line-up with four freshmen and three sophomores and while youth alone isn't an excuse -- Iowa and Penn State have had quite a bit of success in recent years with youngsters -- not all freshmen and sophomores are world-beaters out of the gate. Only one -- one! -- of the nine Wisco wrestlers who stepped on the mat today has a winning record this season (Ben Jordan, who Mike Evans dismantled in no time). This Wisconsin team is straight-up horribawful. Iowa probably would have gotten better competition from an intra-squad scrimmage. And the stats of the meet bear that out: Iowa got bonus points in five of nine wins, earned riding time bonuses in eight of nine wins, and had a 36-2 advantage in takedowns (the Badgers' only two takedowns came in the 197 match).

#5 Iowa (11-3, 6-2) 39, Wisconsin (5-10, 0-8) 3
125: #1 Matt McDonough TECH FALL (20-2, 5:00) Austin Hietpas (Iowa 5-0)
133: #4 Tony Ramos TECH FALL (25-7, 7:00) Shane McQuade (Iowa 10-0)
141: #7 Montell Marion MAJ DEC (21-7) Thomas Glenn (Iowa 14-0)
149: Michael Kelly wins by FORFEIT (Iowa 20-0)
157: Derek St. John DEC (6-1) Shawn Perry (Iowa 23-0)
165: #8 Mike Evans FALL (3:23) #12 Ben Jordan (Iowa 29-0)
174: #9 Ethen Lofthouse MAJ DEC (16-5) Frank Cousins (Iowa 33-0)
184: Vinnie Wagner DEC (6-1) Timmy McCall (Iowa 36-0)
197: Jackson Hein DEC (9-7) Tomas Lira (Iowa 36-3)
HWT: Bobby Telford DEC (4-0) Cole Tobin (Iowa 39-3)

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