Iowa's Preview

Now hopefully next year will be a different story and they beat Michigan State. But as always the Iowa Hawkeyes are very unpredictable. 
              Kirk Ferentz, coming into his 17^th season at Iowa. A lot of people thought it would be the end of his career at Iowa if something didn’t change. But after looking at the regular season as a whole, things turned around for the better. Partially for the new quarterback and I also think it was Ferentz. This year he was willing to take risks. Such as going for the 1^st down, or doing a fake punt on fourth down. The little things are what made Iowa 12-0.

               C.J. Beathard and a couple of other players really made the difference this year. Coming into this year Beathard only threw a total of 109 passes, for only being a junior it’s not a bad number. But with the number of touchdown passes thrown this year alone of 15, we are looking at a pro style quarterback. (Pro Style is a quarterback who doesn’t throw a lot, but can hand the ball off just nicely.) The completion percentage of the junior is fairly nice of 61.4%, and a touchdown to interception ratio of 15:4. I can’t complain about these stats here.

                Now looking at the top three running backs at Iowa are Jordan Canzeri, LaShun Daniels Jr., and Akrum Wadley.  Now those 3 guys alone make up of just about three quarters of the entire rushing yards for Iowa Football (2048 yards). With Canzeri being the senior it would make the most sense for him to have the most rushing yards and he does. What doesn’t make sense to me is the fact that his longest run is only 75 yards. For a back like he is and the amount of speed he has, I would have thought he would have a run longer. Maybe even multiple carries of 75 yards.

               Matt Vandeberg and Marshall Koehn are two guys you probably have heard about. Matt Vandeberg is leading receiver for the Hawks with 639 yards. And Beathard’s favorite receiver, because “He can turn a play from nothing into something very quickly.” With an average of 10.8 yards per catch, I think he would a great addition to any pro team, but for now he should stay with the Hawks.

               Marshall Koehn has only really been in the news for his kick against Pittsburgh. Now this was just your average field goal to win the game. No. this was a 57 yard field goal to win the game. That’s something you just don’t hear people do in college football. 

"Iowa Football." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 26 Aug. 2015. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.  

UNI Football Review

With the hard loss from Iowa State (31-7). Iowa State pretty much destroyed UNI. There just isn’t a good way to put it. Iowa State really came out in the second half and just did work. What hurt both teams the most was the penalties, UNI had ten penalties and Iowa State had 5 penalties. Throughout the game you can see each team having similar amount of total yards (UNI 302 and ISU 310.) Bailey rushing for a career high 22 carries and 85 yards, followed by Tryvis Smith’s 7 carries for 37 yards. Things just weren’t gelling for UNI.

Northern Iowa quickly bounced back to beat Eastern Washington. Looking over the game stats, you see Northern Iowa did not dominate the game so much. While passing Eastern Washington had 526 yards of total passing compared to UNI’s 194 yards in the air. When you look at the total offence you want to say Eastern Washington (552 yards) won the game and UNI lost (460yards). That’s the beauty of football, EWU beat them in everything, but rushing yards. UNI didn’t just have 15, 20, or even 30 more rushing yards than EWU. No they had over 240 more rushing yards. That just shows how dominant their running game was and still is.

Rushing yards was a whole different story for UNI. Eastern Washington had 26 total yards, not in the first half. No, in the entire game. I’m not going to sugar coat this, but that was piss poor pathetic. EWU just couldn’t find the right combination to run the ball, they were having more luck in the air than anything else. For UNI the longest run came from their backup quarterback Aaron Bailey with a 41 yard run. Again, Bailey also had 19 carries for 134 yards which is very surprising for a quarterback of his size.

Now for a quick Recap, UNI got a beat down from Iowa State, They quickly bounced back to beat EWU. UNI needs to start off strong. From what we saw in the Iowa State game, UNI had a terrible start. They have all the tools needed all they need to do is execute. What they need now is a steady passing game and a heavy run game to beat this Cal Poly team. Northern Iowa will be a tough team to beat in the Playoffs.

Opening Day

    With baseball being the greatest sport on the planet, it finally Opening Day!!!! Now Opening Day is a sacred thing. It’s one of the most exhilarating events besides the Olympics, the Superbowl, maybe the birth of your children. Still, Opening Day is an amazing day.
    Since the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays were the first to square off this 2016 season many things looked promising for both teams. On the offensive side of the ball the most surprising part of everything is the reigning MVP Josh Donaldson had three strike outs and a hit and a run scored. The three strike outs is what concerns me the most.  I get that it’s the first game, but its three strike outs. The only person that had a better first game was Troy Tulowitzki. Even though he went 2 for 3, but it was a good 2 for 3. I know that it doesn’t sound good. But it is good. There is a down to his 2 for 3 though. He struck out twice, which I bad. But the only hit he had he scored, plus he hit 2 people in. the downside to the whole Blue Jays team was that they had 16 total strike outs.
    On the flipside Tampa Bay did everything right, but they couldn’t score runs. Pitcher Chris Archer pitched one hell of a game. With throwing five innings, twelve strike outs, three walks, and only two earned run. I think it was a pretty good day. Now Evan Longoria had the best out of the whole Tampa Bay Rays squad. With having only one strike out and 2 runs batted in. Things went well for the whole team. But they just couldn’t run the bases. With only seven strike outs the team was on top of everything. Even with the only 1 walk that should have been an easy run. But the Rays just couldn’t keep up with the Blue Jays.

Review of the Cubs & Mets Matchup

The Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are not the best team in baseball, but could be the worst team. This year things are taking a little turn for the better. With the Cubs being 6.5 games out of 1st place, they have a great chance of winning the Wildcard this year.

Offensive Side

Chicago has one of the youngest teams in baseball right now. The average age of the whole starting team is about 26 and a half years old. Compared to other teams who have an average of at least 30 years old. Besides having the youngest team, it’s the young guys on the team that stand out. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant have an outstanding 99 RBIs (runs batted in) each. But as for Home Runs, Rizzo (31) and Bryant (26) are both leading the team. Looking through all the statistics we found the only statistic Bryant and Rizzo don’t lead in is runs score. The leader is Dexter Fowler with 102 runs, but behind him is Rizzo and Bryant.

 Defensive Side

 The Cubs have two aces, Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta. Jon Lester is a 31 year old (Left Handed Pitcher) with 10 years of experience. Lester has a pretty impressive resume, with a 3.55 ERA (Earned Run Average) and an average WHIP (Walks Hits per Innings Pitched) of 1.26. The 1.26 means Jon Lester gives up just over 1 walk or hit per every inning he’s pitched. Jon Lester has also logged 1664 SO (Strike Outs) in his career, but he averages about 166 SO per year. Which isn’t bad.

Jake Arrieta on the other hand is good, but not as good as Jon Lester. Arrieta in my book just doesn’t have the experience that Lester has. Jake Arrieta is a RHP with 7 years of experience in the MLB.  Arrieta has a 3.70 ERA, with only being in the MLB for a short period of time that’s fairly good! One of the only thing that Arrieta beats Lester in at the moment is his WHIP, which is 1.18. The thing that interests me the most about Jake Arrieta is his Strike Out numbers. He threw 374 strike outs in his first 5 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. But with the Cubs in two seasons he’s thrown 403 Strike Outs. He’s doing real well or a young pitcher!

In the end, The Chicago Cubs have a very young team. But they’re doing very well, and I personally hope they go deep in the Post season. Maybe even make it to the World Series.

The Season Wrap-Up

As we see the baseball season come to an end, few players start to peak. And some teams are starting to pull away from the Pack.

We have to Blue Jays of Toronto who have three players who have hit more than 100 Runs Batted In. also with more than 30 Home Runs (Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, and Edwin Encarnacion). With Josh Donaldson with 39 HRs and 120 RBIs, nobody can stop him. He’s on an unbelievable pace to have at least 150 RBIs by the end of the 2015 season. With the New York Yankees only 3.5 games back, the Blues Jays first place spot could be in jeopardy. The Blues Jays ace David Price having an ERA (earn run average) of just under two and half. He’s doing really well with a 16-5 record with both the Detroit Tigers and the Blue Jays. The stat that really jumps out at me the most besides his 212 strike outs is his WHIP. A pitchers WHIP is calculated by the number of hits and walks per amount of innings pitched. David Price allows just over 1 walk or hit per inning pitched. Which is why he’s the top Pitcher for the National League.

                Now heading into National League with the New York Mets. The New York Mets have been taking charge of the National League East for some time now. Ever since acquiring Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets took an unbelievable turn for the better. With Curtis Granderson leading the team in Home Runs, RBIs, OPS, and hits. While David Wright being injured the past few months, Cespedes and Granderson have been single-handedly been carrying the team on the offensive side.

The defensive side is a whole other story with pitchers Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergard, Matt Harvey, and The Veteran Barloto Colon. With Barloto Colon being 42 years old, he’s still showing his dominance as a starting pitcher. Being at 14 wins Colon leads the team in wins, and that’s about all he leads in. The four starting pitchers have a total of 669 innings pitched. Which leads the league in innings pitched by any team. What’s surprising to me is that the average Earn Run Average (ERA) for these four starting pitchers is only 3.26. For these four guys it should be at most 2.50. But 3.26 isn’t bad, I’ll take it over a 3.27 ERA any day.

Let’s just say that I think that these two teams will do well. No. I think they’ll do great, hopefully they will.

For Sophie.

Pro Bowl 2016

I feel like the Pro Bowl is just one big publicity stunt. I hate the Pro Bowl. It’s just a glorified recess for every pro football athlete in the country. It’s just a big pay raise for every athlete in the country. These games are just not fun to watch anymore. I could tell from the beginning to be going to win. I could tell it was Team Irvin that was going to win. It’s just one team beating up on the other team. With Team Rice having 27 first downs, there’s no reason they aren’t winning. Looking at the rushing yards for each team is about Team Rice with 61 and Team Irvin with 76 yards. I mean I remember having those stats in middle school. I find this game tonight so pathetic. It was a waste of time to watch it. Again Team Rice with an offense efficiency of 9-12 and Team Irvin with 5-7, those are middle school stats again. I find this the worst game of the year. Both of the teams running backs each had about 7 first downs rushing. And that’s just flat out terrible.  Probably the worst Pro Bowl game I’ve ever seen.

The Better Sports Movies Made

People will argue on what are the best sports movies ever made. But I plan to put hat all to rest on my list of the greatest sports movies ever made!!

5. Creed. I think that is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s about how a young boxer want to be just like his father, perhaps even better. After being in an out of juvenile detention centers, he finds out that his father is Apollo Creed.  With the help of longtime family friend, Rocky Balboa he helps him fight one of the top ranked fighters in the world.

4. Rudy. It’s the perfect underdog story by far ever made. Rudy Ruettiger wanted to play for Notre Dame, but he never had the money, to grades, or the athletic ability. After everything he went to, he got the grades up and got the chance to be a walk-on. But after all his hard work and dedication all the players lay down their jerseys all for him to just be on travel squad. All and all it’s a great movie with a powerful message.

3. The Sandlot 2. It’s the perfect family movie as well as the perfect baseball movie. It shows how a person’s past can change the way you think about them. After David gets attacked by the dog his love of baseball never died. After David and his best friends all played baseball on the “Sandlot.” But after meeting the love of his life he never knew how to talk to her, until they split apart after high school. This loving baseball story and a loving romantic movie.

2. Field of Dreams. This is the ultimate baseball movie and a personal favorite of mine. The incredible movie of an Iowa farmer having a crazy dream of building a baseball field in the middle of a corn field. The timeless tale of a just searching for a sign that he should sell his land to his brother-in-law. Instead of just one sign, the “baseball gods” send him multiple signs. But this is the heartless fan favorite, everyone loves Field of Dreams. It’s a great movie.

1. The Final Season. It’s the best movie I’ve ever seen. It’s another underdog team just wanting to earn respect from other school. But back in the 90s a lot of schools had to merge together, because they didn’t have enough students at the schools hence the name “The Final Season.” After the school’s baseball coach takes a job with a farm team, the assistant coach must take over. The best part of the whole movie is the fact that he ran things just as the former coach did. This is my favorite, I also watch it the day before our first spring game and before our first high school of the year.