3 and Out

1. Beardos

- Facial hair is a rite of passage for the young college fella. The 2015 Iowa Hawkeyes are no different. This team is a veritable collage of beards, goatees and beardlike things.

Even senior center Austin Blythe is getting in on it, putting together a pretty solid beard over the last month or so of the season. There are some subtle, like cornerback Desmond King's classy shadow of a mustache. There are some three-day stubble thingies that could turn out to be something, maybe in a couple of years (wide receiver Matt VandeBerg falls in this category).

Here are a few beard stories for your Thanksgiving leisure.

Free safety Jordan Lomax goes with an Amish look. He has a full, scraggily beard with zero mustache. He's had it for a long time. He's even trimmed it, even though you might not be able to tell. He said there's no contest. Iowa is a relatively young team, so there are some fresh faces out there.

'There are probably more guys who can't grow beards than who can,” Lomax said. 'It's OK to poke a little joke at them every once in a while.”

Quarterback C.J. Beathard has been growing his red goatee since the beginning of the season. He's a little superstitious (he wears the same yellow socks from the hotel to the stadium on game days), so he hasn't trimmed it since the end of August.

'I trim the sides a little bit, but I've been keeping this for a while,” he said. 'I just kind of started it at the beginning and I've had no reason to cut it.”

Beathard is landlocked by the fact that he doesn't have a lot going on the sides of his face, so why not a massive goatee?

'We talk about who might have the best beard,” Beathard said. 'Obviously, I don't. I think it's kind of ratty. It is what it is.”

Junior defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson shaves his mustache, but keeps a beard that rings his face.

The discussion at some point has to turn to sophomore defensive tackle Nathan Bazata and the beardlike thing he has going on. There's no mustache. He can't seem to grow one. But there is a massive, wiry varmint creature thing with curls growing across his face.

'He could do some work on that,” Johnson said.

Bazata just laughs.

'Yeah, it's pretty disgusting,” Bazata said. 'I've been growing it since the beginning of spring ball.”

Don't worry, though, this beard is a short-timer. Bazata's brother is getting married in May. He thinks his mom will make him get rid of it.

'I've kind of got to look good for that,” he said.

Senior defensive end Drew Ott is sort of the father of Hawkeye beards. He's had one since he stepped on campus in 2012. He showed up and talked to the media this week for the first time since he suffered a torn ACL in October. He was in good spirits and good beard.

Since he is the father of Hawkeye beards, we'll let him judge this 'beauty” contest.

'Henry Krieger Coble has the nicest beard right now,” Ott said. 'He trims it up on the sides and stuff. Mine's a little more unruly. He takes care of his, keeps it tight. He definitely has the best beard.

'Worst beard might be Bazata. I have to look at it at home (they're roommates) and the complex. I've had my fair share of it.”

So, senior tight end Henry Krieger Coble is the Hawkeyes beard champion.

2. Betting big on yourself

- When Jordan Canzeri said yes to play football at Iowa, he knew it would be a long road. That's not a commentary on the odds of a 170-pound running back making his way in the Big Ten, either.

It's a 15-hour drive from his hometown Troy, N.Y., to Iowa City. It's a span of more than 1,000 miles. It's a long road, and two flights if you do it by air.

There's committing to a school, signing a letter of intent and then hitting the road to make it happen. That's been part of the picture with Canzeri, who goes into Iowa's final three games needing 176 yards to become Iowa's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2011.

His dad, Brian, didn't want to miss any games. He wanted to be as much of a support system for his son as he could be, living more than 1,000 miles from Iowa City and working his job as a police officer for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Knowing all of the trials and tribulations of distance (read: maxed out budgets), would Canzeri tell the next Jordan Canzeri, a Troy, N.Y., football superstar, to go to Iowa?

We'll let Canzeri take the mic on this.

'Definitely,” he said. 'I've told kids when I've gone back that I know it's tough and I know it can be scary moving away from home, this far away or farther, but it's worth it.

'You can easily go to a school nearby and you can easily do something that's very comfortable because you know you can do it. You can go and play right away. But for you to take the chance and go to a tough school or travel far away for a big experience, big game, big competition, you've got to bet big to win big.

'For me, it was a great opportunity and I just thank God that I was even blessed to play here. You're going to make great memories, especially at a school like this. You work hard, you be the best player you can be for four years, you give it everything, you'll end up thanking yourself once you're older.”

That's the voice of someone who won big.

3. Big Ten nerd game of the week

- Your initial thought is Indiana at Purdue, isn't it? Forget that. It, at the very least, has a cool trophy in the Old Oaken Bucket. (I like cool trophies and have zero love for the contrived, so avert your eyes when you watch the Penn State at Michigan State game - which you will watch because the Hawkeyes are on Friday and if MSU wins, it'll be Iowa's opponent in next weekend's Big Ten title game - and see that abomination called the Land Grant Trophy. It's more an unholy creation of stoned shop class teens, all of whom logged F-minus-minus-minus.)

No, your Nerd Game is Maryland (2-9, 0-7 Big Ten) at Rutgers (4-7, 1-6). I watched Rutgers' game with Nebraska this week. The Big Ten Network announcers mentioned that the Scarlet Knights still had a shot at 5-7 and could be in contention for a 'bowl” game. I may have swallowed my tongue and gone into the light. I for sure passed out at the notion.

Maybe there's a trophy. I don't really care. I'm not looking it up, either. Let's face it, the trophy is cable TV subscription money. Or maybe the trophy is a new coach (Michigan's first-year defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, an Urban Meyer disciple, is on Maryland's list).

It's an 11 a.m. kick on BTN, which is opposite Ohio State and Michigan on ABC. I hope you enjoyed this season of Nerd Game. We're ending it with a doozy.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com