LUNCH LINKS: Iowa Football Remains in the National Spotlight

• Chicago Magazine did a killer feature on Olympian Daniel Dennis, where he opened up on how he got to the place he is today. He talks about moving to California, wrestling with high school kids, and how he doesn’t like social media and the Kardashians. Most interestingly, he talks about trying to find motivation again:

Being motivated in anything is a good thing, right? It’s not about just going through the motions and punching the time card. It’s about improving and being motivated to do your job. Wrestling was my job at the time, and I wasn’t motivated to do it. I wasn’t getting better at it, I wasn’t happy doing it...

If you want to read the full interview, and you should, you can check that out here.

• Tom Arnold was recently featured in the Des Moines Register for some pretty weird tweets that he posted in regards to a Hawkeye Football locker he bought. Long story short, he took to Twitter to say he wanted to be buried in it, which isn’t something I guess I’d normally think of doing myself. TMZ caught up with him, and if you want to see video of Tom Arnold messing around with a reporter, feel free to check it out. I never thought I’d ever link to TMZ but here we are. Stay weird, Mr. Arnold. Stay weird.
• Sports Illustrated ranked the Hawkeyes #14 going into the 2016 season, and here’s what they had to say about the team:

The Hawkeyes must find a dynamic wide receiver to complement tough senior Matt VandeBerg, who led the team in receiving last season. Sophomore James Daniels should solidify the center position, but Iowa needs another tight end to emerge to play with George Kittle in the Hawkeyes’ frequent multi-tight end sets.

This unit had just six sacks in its final six games last season, struggling mightily with its pass rush after losing now-departed defensive end Drew Ott to injury. Jaleel Johnson and Parker Hesse are capable pass rushers, but they’ll need help from others to take pressure off Desmond King & Co. in the secondary.

SI interestingly enough has Michigan as the highest ranked Big Ten team, sitting at #4.

• We tackled Iowa football odds this morning, so if you missed that, head on over and take a look.
• C.J. Fiedorowicz is a first-stringer now, so congrats to him on the accomplishment.

In other NFL news, former Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock isn’t likely to make the NFL team after a poor training camp, but the Lions will probably keep him around to develop him as a backup QB.

• HawkeyeNation ranked the top Iowa teams under Kirk Ferentz and you’ll be surprised to see where they ranked the 2015 team in comparison to some others (HINT: they fall far down the list, even behind a team with four losses to its name).

If I were to rank them, I’d probably put 2015’s team up there behind 2002, just edging out the 2009 team. I just can’t bring myself to rank a four loss team higher than an undefeated team, but that’s just my humble opinion.

• Fall practice is still going strong and the people over at Hawkeye Sports have been kind enough to post pictures of the practices each day.
• The Gazette polled a handful of Iowa football players on a variety of things, including who they want to play most in 2016 that isn’t on the schedule and whether or not they liked Desmond King’s cowboy hat.
• Lastly, in non-Hawkeyes news, Purdue hired a new Athletic Director. Their programs have been pretty stagnant as of late and their facilities aren’t the best, so this could be the change they need to get back to relevance.