Lunch Links Has Reason to Celebrate

It’s been a pretty good news week over in Hawkeye land, all things considered. A couple of guys have been named to some award watch lists, a former player got a pretty sweet gig and it looks like Kinnick is getting a dope facelift.

And oh, look at that, basketball season is right around the corner.

Oh, this Tweet:

-I’ll admit I was left scratching my head a little bit when I learned Dale Jones would be making the trip to Big Ten media days alongside Jok, but it sounds to me like he can provide some pretty good leadership to this program. Chad Leistikow had a pretty great column on Jones and his road to Iowa City. I knew next to nothing about Jones, but will now be cheering for him even harder than I normally would have been.

-While Jok made a preseason watch list, George Kittle was named to the midseason watch lest for the John Mackey Award, given to the top tight end. I’m not sure if there’s any other award that hosts midseason watch lists.

-Some pretty solid football alumni news as Marvin McNutt was named the head coach for the Cedar Rapids Titans of the IFL.

Unfortunately, he will not fill the role in a player-coach scenario.

-While one former Iowa quarterback is working his way up the coaching ladder (McNutt was a quarterback at point, if y’all remember) another wants to get started as soon as he can—as long as its with the Hawkeyes. Drew Tate said becoming the quarterback coach at Iowa would be an “ideal situation,” but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him on the Iowa sidelines as a coach as his CFL career comes to a close.

-Speaking of Drew Tate... did you know he had a podcast? Anyway, he had DJK on his podcast this week and ... it was something.

-Kittle, Cole Croston and Anthony Nelson were the top performers in the B1G at their respective positions this week, according to Pro Football Focus.

-Minnesota’s Mitch Leidner sustained a concussion in the third quarter of the Iowa game. Why this wasn’t disclosed sooner, I do not know.

-If you hadn’t heard, Kinnick Stadium might be getting some major renovations. Our own Danny Payne broke those down pretty well over here.

-And finally, rest in piece to Ron Stewart, who served as Kirk Ferentz’s bodyguard from 1998 until retiring in 2014. He had been serving as Hawkeye football’s director of security since 1982, when a threat had apparently been made on Hayden Fry’s life. Go and read Mike Hlas’ column on him, it’s a good one.