#2-IOWA HAWKEYES

By Mr. Thursday Night

The Iowa Hawkeyes enter the 2009 college football season with a veteran team at most positions other than RB. Shonn Greene left for the NFL and sophomore Jewel Hampton has suffered a season ending injury, leaving the position up to Paki O'Meara, Jeff Brinson, Adam Robinson and freshman Brandon Wegher.

With the return of Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, QB Ricky Stanzi has his favorite target. Johnson-Koulianos caught a team high 44 passes for 639 yards as a sophomore. The Hawkeyes will need to find a few new targets to compliment Johnson-Koulianos, but with him leading the way, Iowa’s passing game should be fine. The defensive back seven should be very strong as well. All three linebackers return led by Pat Angerer. With A.J. Edds, the linebacker corps should be one of the best in the conference. The return of three of the team’s four starters in the secondary will make things even better. The team ranked 12 th in the nation in total defense and that could happen once again if Tyler Sash, Brett Greenwood and Amari Spievey can shut down a conference that should have a handful of quality receivers.

However, the defense has lost two of its most important players. Tackles Mitch King and Matt Kroul were the heart and soul of the defense and they will be sorely missed. The Hawkeyes gave up less than one hundred yards per game on the ground and that was almost entirely due to King and Kroul. How much will the defense suffer now that those two are gone? Karl Klug and Mike Daniels have potential, but there is no way those two will be able to replace the production of King and Kroul.

The Big Ten schedule is rough for the Hawks this season, having to play road games at Ohio St., Penn St., MIchigan St., and Wisconsin. A 2-2 mark in those four games should be considered a success. I've got the Hawks going 4-0 in non-conference, 6-2 in the Big Ten, good for 10-2 overall, a 2nd place finish and another trip to a warm weather climante for the New Year.