Amid the numerous pictures brought to us by local newspapers covering the game, one really stood out to us, and not in a way the papers intended. With the original caption:
Iowa's Mitch King (47) celebrates with teammates after their 17-5 win over Iowa State in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Again, that's the picture and the caption visible here. Seems all fine and good, shut up ISU, go Iowa, etc. etc.
But it begs one question: Whom were the players gesturing toward?
It definitely wasn't the ISU fanbase. If you'll look behind the players, there's a heavily red section in the east corner of the north stands. That's no accident; that's where Iowa sells visitor seats. For orientation's sake, there's no press box above those stands, so they're the north seats.
So what's in front of King and Dalton?
Oh, that'd be the student section.
Looking at this diagram (the shaded sections are student seating), there is absolutely no way King's and Dalton's derisive "shhh" gestures were directed toward anywhere but the student section. Why, you ask, would the football team treat its home crowd like hostile intruders? Oh, Jake Christensen might know.
This is the obvious downside to dropping boos, no matter how well-intentionedpfffhahaha (sorry, couldn't type that with a straight face) they may be. You never know when you'll need that player again. And as Jake proved Saturday, success has a short memory.
Football players, however, do not have that same short memory, especially in their late teens and early twenties. Their fingers at their lips served as a damning message to the "faithful" Hawkeyes in the student section: SHUT YOUR STUPID WHORE MOUTH. That one-series goat from just seven days ago just so happened to do more for the Iowa scoreboard in one drive than the previous QB did in three quarters. And as long as Iowa's undefeated, the mantra stays the same: Win, baby, win. Who's under center as they do so is largely irrelevant (and certainly not worth your time either way).