The shocking exit of Authorccurrier left many wondering if the Hawkeyes could find a good enough replacement to compete in the Big Ten. They believe they have found one in their new head coach, kicker10bog.

What kicker10bog lacks in recruiting experience, he makes up for in dedication. It will be interesting to see how his career goes at Iowa.

We have finally gotten cards made for our day 1 signings! Say hello to your future stars!

Let's do a positional analysis of the new Iowa Hawkeyes:

QB: The Hawkeyes are hopeful that Thomas Brown can play above his ratings. He has good arm strength and decent accuracy. His real upside is throwing on the run though. Expect to see him perform well under pressure.

HB: Francis Carey is a freshman who should grow into a solid running back for Iowa. He has good speed, acceleration, and strength. He looks faster when he is Careying the ball and is secure with it. He is also a receiving threat out of the backfield. The depth behind Carey isn't great, but the team is confident his backups can perform in a pinch. There's a couple young guys here who could bloom into solid HBs as well.

FB: Iowa never signed a true FB, but they did sign three more HBs and some TEs who can play FB. TE Robert Davis will get the first crack at blocking for Carey, but there are other options if injuries occur.

TE: The team spent some early energy on Cory Thurman and made him their fifth signee. He is expected to be a receiving threat and a great blocking TE. Keep an eye on him this season because he is a star in the making.

WR: The Hawkeyes have a solid receiving corps, including their first signee, Steven Gartman. Gartman is expected to compete for the Heisman, if not this year, then in the years to come due to his obvious talent. He is also expected to earn master's degree in whatever field he chooses. Behind him are Matthew Reid and Carl White who are both solid WRs, but not superstars like Gartman.

OL: The team made sure they had a solid offensive line to protect the QB and open wholes for the HB. This group is led by Valentin Gilley who is likely to play either tackle position.

DL: The defensive line is led by DT Robert Murphy, the team’s third signee. However, there isn’t much highly touted talend beside him. It looks like the team may rely on a couple of linebackers to play DE, especially player=1969]Robert Kiefer[/player] and Robert Backstead.

LB: The Hawkeyes have a pretty strong LB corps led by their second signee, MLB Bryan Beyer. Beyer will be expected to quarterback the defense because he has the intelligence that will also make him a good candidate for a master’s degree down the road. There’s also two solid LBs next to him in SLB James Barragan and WLB Paul Speight.

DB: Iowa perhaps waited too long to go after DBs and may suffer for it. There is still a lot to be determined with this group such as who will start where. There a few good players in this group but no one that is likely to be a gamechanger. Their first DB signed was Joseph Lui in round 12. Hopefully he can lead this group to success.

ST: K Michael Jenkins was the twenty-fifth signee for the team and he is expected to provide consistency at this important position. The Hawkeyes don’t plan to lose games because of missed easy field goals. P Derrick Rivera is expected to pin som teams deep in their own territory with his accurate punting. Maybe the defense can take advantage of those situations. The return game has yet to be sorted out, but likely options ar HB Carey and WR Gartman.

Training camp has ended and the once optimistic Hawkeyes are a little less optimistic now. A large portion (24) of the players underperformed and may have even regressed. However, some (14) players exceeded expectations.

Notable players who underperformed:
WR Steven Gartman
RB Francis Carey
TE Cory Thurman
OL Valentin Gilley
LB James Barragan
Fortunately, the coaches are confident these players won't continue underperform much more. They should level out soon.

Notables who exceeded expectations:
DL Robert Murphy
WR Matthew Reid
OL Stuart Mizrahi
DB Charles Shaw
Coaches are hopeful these players will continue to improve as well as some others who can earn starting spots if they improve even more.

In their first scrimmage, the Hawkeyes came up just short, losing by a score of 34-33 on a last second FG.

Starting QB Thomas Brown played well before being replaced at halftime. He went 14 of 19 for 165 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and a rating of 117.21. This is a promising start for such a young player.

RB Francis Carey only had 5 Careys, but those 5 carries went for 59 yards, an average of 11.8. He also had 2 receptions for 29 yards, an average of 14.5. He returned 1 punt for 5 yards and 3 kicks for 160 yards including a 99-yard TD. He should get more touches in the rest of the games.

WR Steven Gartman pulled in 4 receptions for 44 yards, averaging 11 yards. He'll be asked to do more when the regular season begins, but this is a solid performance for only playing the first half.

Someone who surprised us with his nice performance is WR Victor Ross. He is currently buried deep on the WR depth chart, but his stock jumped after this game. He only had 3 receptions, but they went for 82 yards and 2 TDs.

The defense was a bit of a mixed bag of results. The did great against the Gators RBs, but really struggled vs the pass despite registering 4 sacks (LB/DE Thomas Pagan, LB/DE Robert Beckstead, LB Brandon Jameon, and DL Bryan Chong). This secondary will have to improve if the Hawkeyes are to enjoy success.

The Hawkeyes' second scrimmage was a tale of two halves. The starters for both teams played the first half before the backups came in.

Iowa coaches are ecstatic for how the starters played, but the performance of the backups is highly troubling. The first team gave the Hawkeyes a 23-0 lead at halftime, but the second half saw the Sooners score 40 points as they won 40-35.

Notable performances:
QB Thomas Brown had a solid game. He only went 12 of 22, but it was for 236 yards and 2 TDs.
WR Steven Gartman had a large percentage of those yards. He had 140 yards and 2 TDs on 5 receptions. This is what we expect from such a talented WR. Although, we expect these over the course of a full game, not just 1 half.
WR Sammie Quinn also had a good game, catching 5 ***** for 98 yards.
RB Francis Carey Caryed the ball 9 times for 63 yards. That's a healthy 7 yards per Carey. He added 3 receptions for 30 yards.
RB Lonny Thomas had 5 carries for 36 yards, which comes to an even better 7.2 yards per carry. He also had 2 catches for 34 yards.
RB Shawn Aguilar had the worst average among the three backs (1.3), but he also had the only rushing TD. He gained just 13 yards on 10 carries and had 1 catch for 8 yards.
DB Charles Shaw forced a fumble and defended some passes, but had 0 tackles.
DB Joseph Lui also forced a fumble and made plays in the pass game and made 1 tackle.
DL Bryan Chong ALSO forced a fumble.
LB/DE Bryan Speight was the real star on defense. He had 4 tackles, a sack, and an interception.
Other players with a sack were LB/DE Robert Kiefer and DE Jose Vickers
LB/DE Robert Beckstead also had a solid game, posting 7 tackles.

Overall, the coaches are pleased and looking forward to more games. They know this might not be the team's year to win it all, but they also know they have a young group of players who should be good for a long time to come.

In game 3 we saw the inexperience of this squad show itself. This young group of players struggled to produce as well as they did in the first two scrimmages.

The offense scored zero TDs in this game and the defense struggled to stop the Cowboys of Oklahoma State.

Notable players:

QB Thomas Brown went just 14 of 25 for 134 yards and 2 INTs and fumbled once
RB Francis Carey had 17 rushes for only 71 yards and he also had a 96 yard kick return for a TD
WR Steven Gartman hauled in 8 receptions for only 41 yards.
DL Bryan Bradshaw and DL Robert Murphy each recorded a sack
LB/DE Thomas Pagan had 8 tackles
LB/DE Robert Beckstead and LB/DE Bryan Beyer each forced a fumble

Scrimmage four was ANOTHER instance of the Hawkeyes backups losing a lead built by the starters.

IOWA led 23-10 at halftime which is when they pulled all starters. The Hurricanes appeared to play their starters through the third quarter. Amazingly, nobody scored in the third, but Miami put up 17 in the fourth quarter to win 27-23.

Notable stats:
QB Thomas Brown played better this week as he went 9 of 16 for 150 yards and 2 TDs, which is good enough for a 127.60 rating
RB Francis Carey also played better, posting 9 rushes for 112 yards and 1 TD
WR Steven Gartman had only 3 receptions for 38 yards
DB Ronald George recorded an interception
DB Joseph Lui and WR Manuel Davis each caused a fumble
Sacks by: LB Paul Speight (2), LB/DE Gary Mullinx, and DL Bryan Bradshaw (2)

Coaches are not deterred by an 0-4 scrimmage season because the team played well in three of those games when both teams had their starters in. Hopefully the starters can keep this up for four quarters in regular season games.

Well, the same issues from the scrimmages continue to plague this young Hawkeyes team. Iowa jumped out to a large lead again in the first half and then squandered it in the second. Somehow, leading 23-3 at halftime was not enough to to win the game as the final score had the Sooners of Oklahoma ahead 48-42.

This game has shed more light on the Hawkeyes team then any scrimmage could have, and we hope coaches can adjust the gameplan to better fit this team. Many pundits believe Iowa put too much on the shoulders of their young QB as he made 40 pass attempts and was sacked 7 times. Many believe Brown can be a solid QB, but he's never going to compete for the Heisman, so they should consider lightening his load.

Let's examine player performances and try to decipher what happened.

QB Thomas Brown: He completed 22 of 40 passes and was sacked 7 times with a passer rating of 90.73. His 22 completions went for 391 yards, 4 TDs, and 3 INTs. Interestingly, all of his INTs came in the second half, and he had 2 TDs in each half. He also recovered his only fumble. We're not completely sure why there was such a dropoff for him in the second half. Perhaps he was tired from throwing so much. Or maybe his WRs were tired and not completing their routes.

RB Francis Carey: The RB had a solid game, but showed frustration at the play selection since he only had 13 rush attempts, but those Careys went for 85 yards. That's a healthy 6.54 ypc. He also added 3 receptions for 19 yards and a TD. He also fumbled twice. Overall, he played well and we expect to see more from him, but he must get better at protecting the ball.

WR Steven Gartman: This kid was an absolute stud and the star of the game. He hauled in 7 catches for 263 yards and 3 TDs. There really isn't much else to add as the numbers speak for themselves.

DB Joseph Lui: He recorded Iowa's only interception of the game. His teammates were able to knockdown several passes though.

LB Bryan Beyer: Beyer recorded an impressive 9 tackles and 1 sack and forced a fumble.

DB Wilfredo Barber: He recorded (an also impressive) 8 tackles.

DL Bryan Bradshaw: He had 5 tackles and 1 sack. Bradshaw also forced 2 fumbles.

DL Steve Bass: Bass only had 3 tackles, but he also forced a fumble.

So, what happened in the second half? Did the pressure get to the young team? Did they simply tire out? Was there not enough quality depth? Of courser, how could we forget the 2 kick return TDs allowed in the second half? That had to be a huge de-moralizer. Different pundits will give different reasons for the catastrophic breakdown, but many will agree that multiple factors played into it. The real question now is: will the team adjust its strategy heading forward?

Week 2 saw a big change for the Hawkeyes as they appeared to shift from a pass-heavy offense to a run-heavy offense. It also looked like the coaches trust their starters to play better tired rather than putting in fresher backups. These adjustments seemed to work as Iowa cruised to 49-3 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils in a game many thought would be much closer.

Let's take a closer look at what happened.

The final box score shows that the Hawkeyes heavily favored the run and benefited from it. Was that really case though? Rewind to halftime and you'll see a much different story. At the half, Iowa had only run the ball 10 times for a measly 25 yards. Yikes! However, they were 15 of 18 passing for 185 yards and 2 TDs. The second half is when the run game took off. But why?

When some teams get a big lead, they tend to lean on the run more to eat up time. So, that may be one reason Iowa ran more in the second half. Another possible reason is they were in better situations to run the ball. Bigger gains on first down setup running situations on second and third down. So, the reason could be either of those or a mix of them. There could also be some other reason we aren't stating here.

The one negative to really show in this game is the OL's inability to keep the QB clean. Brown was sacked 6 times, which is just too much. Now, these olinmen are young and will only improve, so the coaches may be patient with them.

Now let's look at some individual performances:

RB Francis Carey: This young man earned the offensive game ball and feels slighted for not being offensive player of the week, but he won't let that get him down. His 25 Careys for 213 yards and 2 TDs were impressive. But wait! There's more! He also added 4 receptions for 98 yards and 2 more TDs! That's a total 311 yards and 4 TDs on 29 touches! He also had 3 KRs for 63 yards.

QB Thomas Brown: The signal caller had a strong first half before Carey went on his rampage to seal the game. Brown finished 18 of 22 for 218 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs for a rating of 147.54.

WR Steven Gartman: His overall production dropped this week thanks to Carey's amazing performance, but he still hauled in 7 receptions. This time for only 46 yards and no TDs.

LB Bryan Beyer: This young man was EVERYWHERE! Beyer earned the defensive game ball by making 13 tackles. 13! My goodness, young man, learn to share.

Players who registered a sack: DL Robert Murphy, DL Bryan Bradshaw, and DL Steve Bass (safety).