Go Tell It On The Mountain   About one year ago, the Everson/Satterfield coverup allegations went from "smoldering embers" to "towering inferno" when Sally Mason disclosed that a box of related documents (including the infamous letter from the victim's mom) were withheld from investigators pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  Of course, the vast majority of the redacted documents had nothing to do with FERPA, which was designed to protect student's grade reports from public disclosure.  When grilled about this expansion of FERPA to redact documents not remotely within the law's scope, Mason caved:

The original thinking that federal law known as FERPA, designed to protect student privacy, prevented the letter from being shared with our Board of Regents leadership is just not tenable. There is no excuse for the failure to turn over those letter as part of the investigation that you directed the Board of Regents office to conduct in the wake of the report of the assault.

I will make it clear to all member of my administration that our obligation to maintain the privacy of student records should never be interpreted as preventing us from sharing information that you request in pursuit of your governance responsibilities.

Mason proceeded to can UI general counsel Marc Mills like he was tuna for withholding these documents, and rightfully so; the wholesale concealment of douments on FERPA grounds, just because said documents include a student's name, is incorrect, and any general counsel worth his salary would know it.

The reason we're reopening this can of hell?  Apparently Iowa isn't the only one hiding behind FERPA:

The Columbus Dispatch has done some yeoman's work in recent months examining the increasing veil of secrecy placed over the activities of ostensibly public -- and therefore FOIA-vulnerable -- athletic departments. ADs now use FERPA, a law narrowly tailored to prevent the release of student grades and transcripts, to shoot down or bowdlerize public information requests of all varieties.

MGoBrian is right.  Marc Mills' argument could very well have been "everybody else is doing it, so why can't we?"

Across the country, many major-college athletic departments keep their NCAA troubles secret behind a thick veil of black ink or Wite-Out.

Alabama.Cincinnati. Florida. Florida State. Ohio State. Oklahoma. Oregon State. Utah. They all censor information in the name of student privacy, invoking a 35-year-old federal law whose author says it has been twisted and misused by the universities.

Former U.S. Sen. James L. Buckley said it's time for Congress to rein in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which he crafted to keep academic records from public view.

A six-month Dispatch investigation found that FERPA, as it's commonly called, is a law with many conflicting interpretations. And that makes it virtually impossible to decipher what is going on inside a $5 billion college-sports world that is funded by fans, donors, alumni, television networks and, at most schools, taxpayers.

Brian goes on to discuss the NCAA's newest method of preventing document disclosure: Keeping documents that would otherwise be available to the public pursuant to a FOIA request on a secured server to prevent pubic disclosure.  By keeping them on an NCAA server, the Indianapolis-based Leviathan claims, these documents are the property of the NCAA rather than the schools, and therefore not subject to state public institution disclosure laws.  Brian's conclusion is absolutely correct:  If the NCAA wants to conduct its business under the same veil of secrecy that the NFL and MLB do, it should be paying the same taxes those leagues do.

RIP, Billy Mays   Is it wrong that this means more to me than Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett combined?

Caring Remains Creepy   Iowa picked up 2010 recruit #7 over the weekend, in the form of 6'5", 260 lb. Wisconsin defensive end Mike Hardy.  He turned down offers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue and Iowa State.  He was also the state discus champion, so he should have no trouble picking up Norm Parker's controversial "spin around with your arm extended and smack the opposing lineman until he's senseless" pass rush technique.

Not Mike Hardy

We knew Mike Hardy was disappointed in his brother's championship match DQ win over CM Punk at last night's pay-per-view, but we never imagined he'd leave the family business to pursue a career in the Big Ten.  We're glad to have him, though it remains to be seen how the Twist of Fate will translate to the football field.

As for Wisconsin losing an in-state recruit (which never used to happen), Hardy's defection could be due to the fact that nobody wants to go to their games anymore.

Footnotes   David "El Presidente" Palmer will transfer to Northern Kentucky for his senior season.  Let's hope he gets a fairer shot than he did here...Phil Steele, he of the VHT, predicts Iowa will play Alabama in the Capital One Bowl.  As you know, Phil is always correct, so order your plane tickets now and beat the rush.  If you want to start getting prepared, I suggest you start here...Chuck Long is pulling a George Costanza on San Diego State, though, to be fair, it's not really his fault.

(Note:  INPIYL2I will return to its usual self on Monday -- HS)

RIP, Coach Thomas   The horrific, senseless murder of Coach Ed Thomas has dominated the Iowa blogosphere over the last few days.  Here, a compilation of the eulogies from friends of the BHGP.

As usual, nobody does it better than Marc Morehouse:

Your high school football coach puts expectations on you that run out after the last time you take off a helmet. Or do they? Your coach’s expectations stay suspended in your life. Don’t try, do. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Morehouse, wake up (film put me in a coma, sorry coach Weitz). It might be simplistic or naive, but your coach’s expectations are still there, at the base, in the work ethic.

Ed Thomas clearly understood this. Something like 90 percent of the male students at Aplington-Parkersburg go out for football, big and small and fast and slow, doesn’t matter. A-P hasn’t been the dynasty it is because 11 kids do all the work every season. Ed Thomas brought everyone in. He was the face of the town after last May’s killer tornado.

He was a "coach," in the highest sense of the word.

In football, the weightroom is the family room. You grow there. You kid, push and cheer each other there.

Wednesday, Ed Thomas was murdered there. A father was taken while tending to 30 members of his family.

Mike Hlas:

Ed Thomas Field. "The Sacred Acre." As much as anywhere in town over the years, it’s the place that has given Parkersburg its sense of community.

Falcon football has been about winning, absolutely. But it’s been about how the things that make people true winners. Wow, was that ever evidenced after the tornado, when the team and its town fought back like state-champions.

"You get beat up, battered," Thomas told the New York Times last fall, "but you get back off the ground."

Thomas, who lost his home in that tornado, spent the last year of his life helping kids and an entire town get back off the ground. He succeeded marvelously.

Then a madman with a gun shot Ed Thomas dead Wednesday morning in a weight room, before several A-P students.

It was a cold-blooded reminder there are much-worse things than tornadoes in this world.

Scott Dochterman, on how Ed Thomas might have singlehandedly saved Parkersburg from death by consolidation (a legitimate concern in small-town Iowa):

Where would that town be today without Ed Thomas? Certainly the school district moves all home football games to Aplington. Maybe the school district decides to build a new high school at another location. It’s not that far-fetched that the school district would have considered combining with another nearby district.

Maybe many in the town decide to move away to other communities, possibly the Cedar Falls-Waterloo area. Instead, Thomas demanded the high school remain in Parkersburg. He picked up debris and glass shrapnel on the football field and demanded the school play its first game following the tornado at the "Sacred Acre."

From cidsports:

Sadly, society saw a lost 24-year old throw his life away, along with the life of a beloved man, who inspired so many that he meet or those who were able to learn from his story in Parkersburg. It is sad that there is so much hatred or anger in the world today.

May we find peace. May our prayers and thoughts remain with those impacted and touched by this tragic day and this tragic event. Ed Thomas was a fine man and much more to those who really knew him.

"Freedom isn't free." That's a line most commonly associated with, in order, military veterans and Team America: World Police. And as long as you equate America's foreign interests with "freedom," that statement holds up well (whose freedom, exactly, we've been fighting for post-WWII is another matter entirely, but let's not get bogged down on that right away).

As you're no doubt aware, Ed Thomas, one of the finest men in the state (either associated with athletics or otherwise) and a most worthy namesake of Ed Thomas Field, was killed when a very disturbed young man--one who probably shouldn't have been on the streets, but for a rather serious clerical error--unloaded his gun into Thomas at point blank range. All of this happened as Thomas was supervising weightlifting for at least a couple dozen of his students. Most saw it happen. And a community still trying to rebuild from tragedy has lost the one man it had come to depend on the most, even before the PF5 tornado flattened half of the town.

All of this is to say, it was one of the most horrific, senseless gun crimes in our country, not matching in scope (but certainly in brutality) the massacres at Virginia Tech or even Columbine.

And it is the real price of freedom in America.

Continue reading this post »

[We're re-running this story from September. We couldn't stand having that mugshot at the top of the page any longer. Much better to have a reminder of how beloved Ed Thomas--the coach, the teacher, and the man--truly was.--OPS]

We, like every other self-respecting blog, take an occasional shot at ESPN.  That being said, we have to give credit where credit is due. If you don't have chills down your back and a lump in your throat while watching this E:60 segment on Aplington-Parkersburg football in the aftermath of this spring's tornado, you probably don't have a soul.

Well, this didn't take long. Authorities have charged the man accused of killing Ed Thomas earlier this morning, Mark D. Becker, with first-degree murder. Becker's only 24, but as first seen in the comments below, has a long rap sheet, which drugs and physical violence both popping up.

We'll try to confirm this later today, but for now:

6/20/09 Eluding Parkersburg Police Department
6/20/09 Reckless Driving
6/20/09 Failure to Stop at Yield Sign
6/20/09 Speeding 20+ Over
3/2/09 Speeding 6-10 Over
12/19/08 Criminal Mischief 4th Degree (86 days in jail)
11/18/08 Assault Causing Bodily Injury
1/26/07 Speeding 20+ Over
9/8/05 Safety Belt
1/10/05 OWI 1st Offense
9/24/04 Speeding 1-5 Over
8/4/03 Unsafe Approach to Stationary Vehicle

(EDIT: Some charges previously listed were dismissed, and so are no longer included)

Back to the shooting. First-degree murder means premeditation, and that seems sufficiently likely here. There's nothing to suggest this killing was an accident or a crime of passion; Becker (allegedly) went to Thomas' workplace and shot him multiple times, including at least once in the head. We don't know if Becker tried to flee or where he was apprehended, but that's barely relevant at this point.

There's no word yet on where the gun came from, if it's his, etc. Maybe the killing was preventable. Maybe it wasn't. That's a matter for the days and months yet to come. For now, we reel and mourn.

(Oh, and that's probably an old mugshot; considering his already prodigious crime streak, the Courier probably already had a mug of his on record. We hope it's old, anyway; otherwise that smirk would be truly haunting.)

We're going to try to pick up the pieces after the news about Ed Thomas, which we're still in shock about. Here are some jokes; most of these were written before we heard the news, so none of this "now's not the time" business. Maybe it isn't, but it was the time three hours ago. Anyway.

Don't do this to us! We need easy jokes!: We may have an entry for Shortest Iowa Career Ever, though frankly, it's debatable whether it even started to begin with. Anthony Schiavone, a DE/TE (as roughly 75% of Iowa recruits are), joined the Hawkeyes this spring semester after graduating early... then promptly quit the team yesterday.

Pat Harty, you want to weigh in on this whole join the team early thing?

   I don't agree with that theory because there is no evidence to support it and because you only go to high school once. So why be in a hurry to finish such an important and enjoyable part of your life? And besides, a college football player has four or five years to make his mark. That's enough time to prove yourself.

We've taken it easier on Harty over the past year because his writing has been unquestionably better, especially pertaining to basketball, but holy smoking tittyballs is that some incoherent copy. Construction, premise, determination, all one giant train wreck.

Look: if someone wants to go to college early, maybe they don't want to be in high school anymore. We sure enjoyed the summer after our senior year, and Harty probably did too. So did most 18-year-olds, because c'mon, you're 18 and it's warm out and you can do things like sleep until 10:30 a.m. and your lady classmates want to "hang out." Buuut suppose, for whatever reason, you'd prefer to be in college already. Friends are too immature, heard good things about Iowa City, eager to play some real ball... whatever. It happens. Everyone's got their own situation, and to apply blanket philosophy on 18-year-olds' decision-making is laughably insane.

But getting back to the topic at hand, Schiavone's departure means we're robbed of 4-5 years of opportunities to make gratuitous WCW references. We feel robbed. So here, have this video of Tony Schiavone (the one with the moustache) in his prime, knowing when to step aside and let Ric be Ric, and shed a tear for the Hawkeye who never was:

Not going to lie, we saw his name and just assumed he was Caribbean: Morehouse has more (house) on recent Iowa commit Louis Trinca-Pasat; to say he's interesting would be an understatement. For one, he's the first American in his family, being the only child of five to actually be born in the states; his parents are Romanian ex-pats who emigrated here 20 years ago. Being that the all we know about Eastern Europeans, we learned from terrible movies, we can only conclude that LTP (the player, not the blogger for that team that's just Northwestern) smokes a shitload of cigarettes and is involved with organized crime.

Further, homeboy is going to go play football in Australia over the summer. Not Australian rules football, thank god, but real football (no, not this real football). That seems nice, because according to our map, Australia is right by Romania. Put another shrimp on the dingo! LOL Crocodile Dundee, so true.

Eric May is unfuckingstoppable: It's the summer, which means it's PTL time, and Scott Dochtermann (which sounds like a Nazi name if we ever heard one) is filing reports on the summer league, and if we had to sum it up in 10 words or fewer, it'd be this: Eric May dominates, Brennan Cougiill, ehh, not so much. Hey, we only used nine. Wheeee.

May went 11-13 on the night, which will definitely happen all the time in actual Big 10 play. He "sank a pair of 3-pointers and had one thunderous dunk. He was competitive, physical and athletic," according to Dochtermann. Awesome! So, 3rd place in the BXI next season, right?

Briefly... This is utter genius, right down to the standings... Iowa State clearly plans to lose by 90 points in June... Great advice on placekicking from former Hawkeyes, just in case any of our readers were planning a career in the one-bar helmet... Kingston Stadium got field turf, meaning the Hawkeyes are keeping pace with Cedar Rapids Washington... Finally, Maize n Brew with imponderables that will make your head hurt. The Indiana idea needs to happen with a quickness.

Wow. Ed Thomas, shot at point blank range multiple times, died at Waterloo's Covenant Hospital this morning. We really don't know what to say, other than that we're glad no kids were attacked and that the suspect's in custody. Past that, this is such an unbelievable tragedy that we're speechless.

Thomas was the high school football coach of Jared DeVries, Aaron Kampman, Casey Wiegmann, and a ton of other Hawkeyes. He won two state titles, was named High School Coach of the Year by the NFL in 2003, and was the rock the town of Parkersburg needed as they rebuild from that massive tornado that flattened the town 13 months ago.

The school even officially renamed their Sacred Acre "Ed Thomas Field" a while back; now, that designation seems more grief-soaked than congratulatory.

This is a giant loss for the town, the state, and sports in general. Rest in peace, Ed.

It's about that time again.  For the next three months, BHGP will be previewing this year's Iowa Hawkeyes, position-by-position.  Naturally, as the earth revolves around the sun, things will change.  Therefore, we're starting with the position where we are most certain, and ending with the position of which we are least certain.  To date:

1. Quarterback
2. Offensive Tackle

Tonight: Safety

Sigh.

The Starters

FS:  Brett Greenwood (#30, 6'0", 205, Junior) - Much like when we previewed Jake Christensen last year, let's not let the debate over Greenwood's relative quality as a safety obscure the fact that he has no challengers.

But what a debate it is.  Greenwood, a former walk-on entering his third season as starting free safety, has caused more disagreement.  Fighting out of the red corner, Marc Morehouse:

A lot of internet folk are down – way down — on Greenwood. The complaints range from bad angles to missed tackles to few big hits. I’m still throwing it out there for concrete examples. I know there are missed tackles, but I can’t think of one from Greenwood that led to a loss or a big play. I’m not saying that example isn’t out there, though. None jump out at me.

Greenwood’s first start — at Penn State in 2007 — was tough. That one stood out. He had a lot of "teaching moments" during his first season, when he made the transition from walk-on. Last season, Greenwood was one of Iowa’s most improved defenders. He finished tied for third on the team with 68 tackles last season, two picks and six pass breakups.

I’m not saying he’s an all-American, but Greenwood is a plus for Iowa’s defense, perhaps an all-Big Ten candidate next season. He didn’t make the same mistakes he made in 2007. Follow that growth, he should be a year better this season.

We can argue now. Bring specifics and, please, be respectful.

The man wants specifics.  Mr. Pow Surprise?

There was Pittsburgh:

On Pitt's first and third touchdowns, both long runs snaking through the Iowa secondary, FS Brett Greenwood was caught laughably out of position. The first run was especially egregious, as one unremarkable juke move left Greenwood with two broken ankles and utterly incapable of laying even a hand on the rusher five feet in front of him. Greenwood hardly made his presence known against this first tough opponent of the season (notable exception: saving a 20+ yard run with a dive tackle on McCoy's ankles in the second half), and we're thinking the comparisons to Sean Considine and Derek Pagel can wait until Greenwood cuts down on the mental errors that were famously absent from his predecessors' play.

Then there was Indiana:

Indiana found success by attacking one member of the Iowa defense, and only one. Regular readers of BHGP know exactly who the lone weak link of the defense is: FS Brett Greenwood. Being that this is--for all intents and purposes--the same ultra-conservative Iowa defense that Norm Parker was trotting out in 2002, offensive coordinators should know exactly what to expect Iowa defenders to do on 1st and 10 or 2nd and reasonable by now.

That in mind, it's clear what quarterbacks need to do to have success passing against Iowa--find Brett Greenwood, then throw at him. INSTANT SUCCESS. Don't be fooled by Greenwood's pick in the first half--he was merely the closest player to a tipped ball. I can't recall a single good play in coverage by Greenwood all week long. Iowa has multiple strong safeties who are capable of starting. You're telling me none of them can shift over to FS? Hard to believe.

And that's not mentioning the multitude of sarcastic "Nice Tackle" comments we heard/read throughout the year.  To ask for specific instances of his ineptitude is merely asing us to select individual blades of grass from the outfield at Wrigley.

Greenwood's problem is not a lack of effort; you don't walk onto a BCS-conference program and start as a redshirt freshman unless you (1) went unnoticed because you played your high school ball in Gabon, or (2) worked your ass off.  Nobody questions his commitment.  It's just that, in Iowa's defense, a safety has to be in ideal position, tackle well, and stop the run.  Too often, Greenwood doesn't.

Morehouse makes one unquestionably valid point: If the rest of the defense wasn't as good as it was, the spotlight on Greenwood's shortcomings wouldn't have been nearly as bright.  The fact that we can spend so much time examining the shortcomings of a safety only proves the point that he was merely mediocre on a defense full of stars.

There is no real challenger to the throne, and (despite missing the spring with a shoulder injury) Greenwood will almost certainly be the starting free safety throughout 2009.  We hope this season is his Great Leap Forward.  If not, expect more of the same, both on the field and in the comment threads.

SS:  Tyler Sash (#9, 6'1", 210, Sophomore) - Tyler Sash, on the other hand, firmly entrenched himself as the designated guided missile on the Iowa defense early last season and only improved from there.  Sash, a universal 3-star recruit from Oskaloosa, finished last spring as the third-string strong safety.  He rocketed from there, earning the starting spot over senior Harold Dalton by week 2 and recording 10 tackles in week 3 against Iowa State.  After a minor step back against Pitt and a nagging injury that kept him out against Northwestern and limited him for Michigan State and Indiana, Sash became a force over the middle, destroying receivers and crashing through holes in the line.  It was Sash's interception of Daryll Clark that triggered the game-winning field goal drive.  It was his interception and return against Minnesota that set up the final score.  It was Sash's first interception against South Carolina that unleashed the tsunami.  By the end of the season, quarterbacks didn't want to throw his direction, and receivers didn't want to be in the area when their quarterbacks did.

It's not that Sash was mistake-free; he was equally responsible with Greenwood for the second touchdown against Pitt.  But where Greenwood tackled (or, too often, didn't), Sash HIT.  Where Greenwood defended, Sash jumped routes.  Greenwood was competent; Sash was dangerous.  It's why Sash plays strong safety, to be sure, but it's also why Chris Smelley made it his New Year's resolution to keep the ball as far away from him as possible.

Sash also missed spring practice with a shoulder injury, but is by all accounts good to go for the fall.  It's an understatement to say that is great news; one more year of development, and Sash has the ability to join the pantheon of Iowa safeties.

Should See the Field

David Cato (#31, 5'11", 205, Sophomore) - Cato (Arlington, Texas; 2* Scout, 3* Rivals) was pressed into service on special teams and in spot duty as a true freshman, and responded well.  He recorded 4 tackles in mop-up time against Minnesota and forced a fumble against Illinois. 

Because of Sash's injury, Cato was the de facto starter at strong safety during spring practice.  Both Phil and Norm Parker praised his performance, but he was unable to break out of the starter's shadow.  Unfortunately, because he was not redshirted, he is in Sash's graduating class, and will need something to break his way if he is to assume the top line.  In the meantime, expect more of the same from Cato this year.

Jack Swanson (#40, 5'11", 195, Freshman (RS)) - Another product of Iowa's recruiting connections in the Sunshine State, Swanson (3* Scout, 2* Rivals) used his redshirt season to add 15 pounds and grow a killer goatee.  Much like Cato, he was pushed into starting duty during spring practice because of injuries and transfers, but there is no indication he is seriously pushing Greenwood for the starting spot.  He's a classic Ferentz-era Florida recruit: Somewhat lacking in stars, but high in those other things Iowa looks for.  Swanson was first-team all-state as a senior, ran track in the spring, and was solid in the classroom (he's majoring in computer science).  Barring injuries, he'll enter the season as Greenwood's backup.

Adam Robinson (#32, 5'10", 205, Freshman (RS)) - Robinson was recruited as a halfback (he played behind Jordan Bernstine at Des Moines Lincoln) and was recruited as such.  At some point during his redshirt season, he was converted to safety and could enter the mix.  Given the position change, however, significant non-special teams playing time seems unlikely.