Lunch Links Knows Who Calls The Shots

Eleven days.

The Program

So much has been said about Chris Doyle, yet I feel like we hardly even know him. And that’s exactly the way he and Kirk Ferentz want it to be. Every single year there’s always rumors of an NFL team wanting to scoop Doyle to run their own weight room, but his relationship with Ferentz runs deeper than I think we can understand, which allows this kind of thing to happen, per Chad Leistikow:

Doyle will make $595,000 in base compensation from the university for a one-year period that began July 1, according to information provided by the university in response to an open-records request from USA TODAY Sports.

Doyle’s compensation reflects a raise of $80,000, or 15.5%, over his pay for last year and it matches the basic amounts that Hawkeyes offensive coordinator Greg Davis and defensive coordinator Phil Parker are scheduled to make.

The pay raise also comes with an additional title for Doyle: executive director of football. Sounds flashy, but I don’t think it goes beyond what he’s been doing for the past 18 years in Iowa City.

No Respect

Pro Football Focus ranked the top-15 quarterbacks in college football, and WHERE IS C.J.???

They did rank Austin Blythe as the best center in the NFL for the second week of the preseason... so that helps?

Some Respect?

ESPN released it’s all-B1G team predictions and just two Hawkeyes made the first team: Cole Croston and Desmond King. While you can’t disagree with King, I feel as though Croston is a stretch here.

Fox Sports picked the biggest longshots that could still win the National Championship, and we’re No. 2! At 40:1 odds to win it all, Fox Sports said:

Iowa’s toughest game is a home contest against Michigan. Their second-toughest game is Northwestern, also at home. This schedule is softer than the light in a perfume commercial. The Hawkeyes went 12-0 in the regular season last year and damned if they’re not poised to go back to the Big Ten title game again in 2016. They might even be 12-0 entering the this year's game too. The Hawks might be the most boring good team in football, but there’s something beautiful about that, and teams hate going up against it. Let the three teams in the East division — Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State — cannibalize themselves, Iowa might be there to pick up the pieces and head to the playoff, which — if you haven’t figured it out yet — is where anything can happen.

Getting real sick of people making fun of Iowa’s schedule. We’re playing the greatest football dynasty of the last decade, what more do you want?

We’re a Country Music School

Look at that, there’s gonna be a little show at Kinnick on Saturday, with Blake Shelton headlining the festivities. And there will be booze! I’m not the biggest country fan, but I like beer and Kinnick Stadium, so if I still lived in Iowa City I might be inclined to stop by. And I mean, if it’s good enough for Dallas Clark, it’s good enough for me.

Moar Links

Surprise surprise, high praise for C.J. among his peers.

Former safety Tom Donatell is making a name for himself on the football staff at UCLA.

Ettore “Big E” Ewen keeps on making headlines in the professional wrestling world.

And last. We have this: if this doesn’t send shivers down to your liver and put some dust in your eye, we don’t know what will.

Think about your favorite dorm stories from freshman year ... we’re going to do something with that later this week.