LUNCH LINKS HAS FIRST ROUND SPEED

So the NFL draft is upon. Personally, I’m the kind of guy who would rather get a bucket of trash dumped on his head than watch the draft, but will still watch the draft. I’m not sure what that says about me.

Anyway, Iowa has the chance of seeing as many as four players get their names called this weekend by NFL teams this weekend. That’s good news for NFL teams that love that HAWKEYE TALENT, but what’s it mean for a college football program that perennially underperforms?

Awhile ago we ran a piece about which Iowa players would be best fits for NFL teams. It’s worth a read.

Anyway, there’s not a bunch going on in Hawkeye land besides that pesky little legal battle the athletic department finds itself in. We’ll have a full update on that tomorrow, but here’s what happened yesterday:

Basically, Iowa AD Gary Barta admitted he fired former field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum because he didn’t think she would change her alleged toxic behavior, while other coaches that he received complaints adequately assured him their demeanor would change.

He then went on to say the main reason he decided to terminate Griesbaum, even though the investigation found no policy violations, was that she was a “coach that was never going to change,” and her previous behavior was cause for concern.

How upset would you be if you were fired for your job not for violating company policy, but a few (likely subordinates) found you disagreeable?

And another thing we gleaned is that Iowa is really, really bad at handling complaints from student-athletes. Like really bad. From Mark Emmert:

Newkirk introduced into evidence the results of Iowa’s 2013-14 student-athlete exit surveys in an attempt to show that many claims of athlete abuse go uninvestigated. Those surveys showed 27 athletes who alleged verbal abuse and 28 who alleged mental abuse.

Barta said he couldn’t investigate because the surveys are anonymous, so he had no way of knowing which athlete was making which claim.

Alrighty then, tell us how we can make your experience as an athlete better? Of course there’s nothing we can do to help you, but fill out this anonymous survey anyway.

And that’s it’s for trial coverage. Let’s get in to some nuggets.

• Desmond King got the full long-form treatment is this piece from NFL.com
• It looks like Ron Coluzzi is starting a kicking-camp business venture of sorts.
• Speaking of kicking, former Iowa walk-on Kicker Cole Hahn flipped his commitment to Michigan State.
• This is the best thing I’ve read in regards to the layoffs at ESPN.
• Ayyyyy who remembers Vince India?

• Surprise! People of the Twin Cities are obsessed with their new Hy-Vee stores.
• Dave Chapelle is an American Folk Hero.
• “Somewhere at Google, there is a database with over 25 million books and nobody is allowed to read them.”

And that’s that. Go forth.