Oh By the Way- It's Iowa Week! And the new Podcast is Up

I can't remember a more anti-climatic Iowa game that I've dreaded more. Last year, despite the three game losing streak and the Hawkeyes boasting the country's best tailback in Shonn Greene, I was loving that week with plenty of banter, trash talk, and an awesome five hour tailgating experience...that of course led to 55-0 (don't look on the Gopher athletics website for that box score or game recap- you will not find it!).

Three weeks ago I was as fired up for an Iowa game as I've ever been- we had just put up 42 points and 500 yards of offense on Michigan State while Iowa continued to squeak by opponents. They looked vunerable and we had an offense that could maybe move the ball and scare them. Two weeks ago, I was less enthused about the game because of our poor showing against Illinois, but that was balanced with Iowa losing to Northwestern AND them losing Ricky Stanzi for the regular season. As I gleefully posted, the Hawks managed like three first downs and looked pathetic without Stanzi. As bad as we were against the Illini, it wasn't without reason we could bring back the offense and defense we saw against Michigan State and Iowa would be in trouble without their quarterback.

Well we all know what happened last week. We non-lossed to 1-AA South Dakota State with an offense that couldn't manage a touchdown or 300 yards of offense, and we scored three measily second half points. Meanwhile, Iowa lost just like we thought- except they looked incredibly good doing it, as their freshmen QB looked every bit as good or better than Stanzi had throughout the season, finally losing valiantly in overtime. If coach Kirk Ferentz hadn't gone more conservative than Fox News, Iowa might have pulled off the upset.

And so here we sit- it's Iowa week, we won last week like predicted, and Iowa lost like predicted. So why do I feel so hopeless? Iowa knows it has a BCS bowl berth available if it creams us, and considering how things went last year, I'm expecting the worst. Sure, both teams were VERY lucky to beat 1-AA opponents at home, but the difference is Iowa's happened the first game of the season and have never looked back while ours happened in week 11, and we've never looked worse. I can't even muster up any good trashtalk towards Hawkeye fans as I fear another 55-0 route is possible- and that would just be in one half.

Of course, I felt this way before Michigan State when it looked like our season was going down the tubes. Nobody expected the offensive outburst we saw that night just like nobody's expecting even a touchdown, let alone several, for the maroon and gold. We've got one game left and it's against the hated Hawkeyes, and anything can happen. We've probably been preconditioned to know what WILL happen (and it aint good), but hey still, anything can happen.

That's about all I have to go on right now. Preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.