It was a rare mid-summer open house last week at the Iowa football facility, where players trickled into their team meeting room and met with local reporters posing questions about a 2010 season that many predict could be bright for the Hawkeyes.
This is a veteran team, which ended last year with a convincing Orange Bowl win over Georgia Tech, a group that harbors conference title hopes.
Nobody had any business looking ahead to 2011.
But then again, how could they resist?
It took no time to find a Hawkeye intrigued by the conference's mid-June announcement that Nebraska will be the league's 12th member starting a year from now.
“I think it's a great addition to our conference,” said senior Brett Greenwood, Iowa's expected starter at free safety. “You think about, in football, all the matchups it's going to create. I'm sort of disappointed that I'm not going to get to go to Lincoln, or have them come here to play. That would be a fun game.”
Especially for Greenwood, an Iowan who grew up wanting to be Eric Crouch. “He was like my biggest idol,” Greenwood said of the legendary Husker quarterback.
Crouch was on the field the last time Nebraska and Iowa played, leading NU to a 42-13 win in 2000. And remember in 1999 — when Crouch steamrolled through a Hawkeye defender near the sideline, spiking the football as he crossed the goal line for another touchdown late in a 42-7 NU win in Iowa City?
Julian Vandervelde does. The three-year letter winner on the Iowa offensive line has been pondering a rematch for the past decade.
“I've wanted for years to see Iowa play Nebraska in a yearly rivalry game for a golden ear of corn,” said Vandervelde, who's from Davenport, Iowa. “They think they're the big corn state. We're the big corn state. I always thought it would be cool to see something like that happen.
“Unfortunately, I don't get to enjoy it.”
Vandervelde's career ends after this season. Same goes for senior defensive end Adrian Clayborn, a St. Louis-area product who said he likes to tease a few of his Husker buddies, including fellow St. Louis natives Mike McNeill and Keith Williams..
“I tease them about how the Big Ten's better,” Clayborn said.
Even quarterback Ricky Stanzi sees potential in an annual Hawkeye-Husker hoedown. A hawk and stalk barnburner. A far-from-friendly farm feud. A contentious corn war. A ... well, you get the picture.
“I'm sure it'll turn into a great rivalry — a lot of night games, probably, a lot of TV games,” said Stanzi, the seasoned starting quarterback. “That's great for the fans.”
And Stanzi's from Ohio.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com
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