The Hawkeyes might be catching Purdue at the right time, one week after one of the greatest wins in their football program's history. Thanks to YouTube we can live vicariously through the Decker family and experience the joy of rushing the field after an upset win over previously, and still unranked, Ohio State.
Warning: Turn down the volume. There are a lot of WOOOOS! and YAAAAAS!
College Football Purdue vs. Ohio State 2011 (2/3) (via DeckerFamily2002)
Back on October 29th, Michigan hosted and soundly defeated Purdue, 36-14. MGoBlog's Fee Fi Foe Purdue film breakdown shows us Purdue's offensive and defensive tendencies. The Boilers run a "ton of zone running out of the shotgun." On the defensive side it's a base 4-3 with the occasional nickel. It is also noted that Purdue's secondary will match-up in mostly man coverage and that statagey didn't work very well against Notre Dame's Michael Floyd.
On Purdue's defensive side, Kawann Short (DT, #93) is their best player. Short recorded three sacks against Ohio State last week and earned National PotW honors for his effort. Jon Miller, on his Hawkeye Nation message board, has a scouting report on Short.
Another Purdue defender to watch is strong safety Logan Link. The senior has a walk-on-to-starter story that Iowa fans can relate with. Link had nine tackles in Purdue's win over Ohio State last Saturday.
Purdue safety Albert Evans called Iowa "a traditional Big Ten offensive team." The Boilermakers surrendered 600 yards and 62 points to the Wisconsin offense earlier this season. The South Bend Tribune calls the Wisconsin offense and Iowa's similar. Purdue coach Danny Hope pointed out that ""They (Iowa) run a physical style, but it's not quite as power-oriented as Wisconsin's offense." That's a PC way of saying that the Hawks aren't as good, and he's right.
The predictions for Saturday's game with Purdue are rolling out. At ESPN.com, Rittenberg and Bennett are split on the winner.
Marcus Coker's number of carries this year already have him in Iowa's top 10 for carries for a season. Marc Morehouse has the numbers, Coker is currently at #7 with 232 carries tied with Ladell Betts (2000). Coker tells Morehouse that "I'm beat up a little bit, but nothing too serious."
Broderick Binns has really big hands and you know what they say about big hands -- they knock down a lot of passes. Binns currently ranks second in the nation among defensive linemen for pass break-ups.
Hawk Central's Rick Brown has a preview for tonight's hoops game against Northern Illinois. When asked about the use of the full court press McCaffery said,
"I think we're all in in the sense that we're going to do it pretty much every game," McCaffery said. "But not to the point where we're Loyola Marymount, and we're going to commit to it on every possession and every chance we get. I'm not there yet."
Brown also noted that for the first time since 2006 Iowa has scored over 90 points in back-to-back games. Northern Illinois is, well, not good, and there is a chance the Hawks do it again tonight.
After two games (three if you count the exhibition), Hawkmania's Don Doxsie writes that the freshman are hard to guage. Frosh Josh Oglesby is 1-9 shooting on the season but despite the poor percentage he still has the green light from McCaffery.
If you're on the fence about attending the game tonight in Carver maybe this will persuade you. It's four pack night. Four tickets, four hot dogs, four Cokes all for forty bucks.
Looking ahead, Creighton defeated UAB last night in Birmingham. Creighton, Iowa's opponent Sunday, is now 3-0 on the season.
Other links of interest:
- For a deeper look inside the numbers (Iowa vs. Purdue) take a look at TitoHawk's post at HPP.
- Kirk Ferentz is the 5th highest paid coach in college football
- Women's hoops defeated Albany 82-60
- Former Hawkeye hoops recruit Cezar Guerrero dropped 29 points on UTSA
- Gary Pinkel's mug shot
- Iowa baseball signed the #3 rated class in the Big Ten
- Iowa and California are the only two schools with a 1,000 yard rusher and 1,000 receiver on the season