Happy Tuesday, friends. We’re already a third of the way through the season, if you can believe that. Time for windbreaker jackets and Oktoberfest beers. Just be smarter than the Rutgers AD about where and when you partake.
LOVE IT: As is per usual on Love/Leave, I will start with some notes on our beloved Hawkeyes. On Monday I came across some pretty cool stuff on Twitter. One of the Hawkeye selling points has always been that we’re a family and Coach Ferentz, love him or not, is often thought of as a father figure to many of the players. So that’s why it was a very cool gesture for the Hawkeye program to send some care packages to current Iowa Hawkeyes in the NFL. It’s not like the players need free stuff when they make 10 or 20 times my salary. But it does remind us that little gestures are sometimes the most appreciated.
HUGE! shoutout to @HawkeyeFootball for the incredible care package. #NFLHawks pic.twitter.com/320WK1zBd4
— Austin Blythe (@ABlythe63) September 26, 2016
Thanks @HawkeyeFootball for the blessings! Once a hawk always a hawk #GoHawks #muchlove pic.twitter.com/VDkV6jTZdb
— Christian Kirksey (@chriskirksey20) September 26, 2016
LEAVE IT: I pointed this out in my awesome article this weekend, but 3-11 on 3rd down is unacceptable. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that CJ Beathard desperately misses Tevaun Smith and Henry Krieger-Coble this year, particularly HKC. Last year, when Iowa was facing a 3rd down, CJB’s safety net was Matt VandeBerg and HKC. VandeBerg is starting to get bottled up a bit since he the most reliable threat. Iowa absolutely has to develop a #2 TE to complement George Kittle if they are going to be going anywhere this season.
LOVE IT: Unless you lived under a rock the last 48 hours, you have heard that LSU fired coach Les Miles on Sunday. I’m usually critical of schools for pulling the trigger too quickly on a coach that at least appears successful or is building the program to be such (looking at you Nebraska—still scratching my head after the Solich and Pelini firings). Miles was at LSU for 12 seasons and compiled a 114-34 record, good for a 77% winning percentage, which is outstanding.
Originally, I was shaking my head at the LSU decision, but then I read this article from SI, which had a great headline. I am not going to turn this into a Kirk Ferentz discussion, but changing with the times is a must in today’s college football world. You adapt or die. I applaud LSU for making such a bold move (even if their state is bordering on bankruptcy and could certainly use the buyout money) because they realize that they will never be Alabama or Ohio State with things staying the same. I do hope the Hawkeyes can re-group and adapt to the ever-changing college football world. Only time will tell.
LEAVE IT: ESPN reported last week that the ACC would turn to a private contractor to help it determine a division champion should Clemson beat Louisville and Florida State beat Clemson. This would replace the current tiebreaker which utilizes the College Football Playoff ranking. I don’t outright hate the idea. I’m just more interested to find out why they really needed to go this route instead of having a different procedure in place that left computers out of it.
The contractor is not used for public knowledge generally because its analytics package start at $10,000. And maybe I’m just scarred from the BCS days (how Auburn got left out in 2004 is still beyond me) and suspicious of the computers. But then again, maybe I’ll be proven wrong.
LOVE IT: A quick note that teams like Oklahoma, Oregon, Notre Dame, and Florida State are already basically knocked out CFP contention in lieu of teams like Louisville, Houston, and...Wisconsin (**takes a shower**). Anyone who says that the CFP would weaken the regular season were way off, in my opinion. The do-or-die nature of college football today is much preferred to the BCS days.
LEAVE IT: Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs was in hot water prior to the game with the Hawkeyes. Hobbs was helping oversee a student tailgate party that was started for home games this year when he stepped on stage and took a drink from a brewski that a student handed him.
I’m really having a hard time getting upset at this. The AD needs to be aware of the surroundings and that everything will find its way onto the internet. So, for that he deserves a Leave It for being a bit dumb. But I think the bigger Leave It goes to the Rutgers administration for shutting down a pretty cool idea for a student event. Give Hobbs a reprimand and a stern finger wag, but leave the kids alone.
LOVE IT: I actually thought the Oregon uniforms that were supposed to resemble an actual duck were kinda cool.
But you know what was cooler? Seeing Oregon lose for the second game in a row. Look like a Duck, play like a Duck.
LEAVE IT: Late last night, the news spread like wildfire that VandeBerg has a broken foot and may be out for the season. I think I speak for all of us:
Now we have another reason to drink some beer.