Saturday Hawkeyes Reading Room - One site's slant on 'The Slant,' plus Indiana-Iowa predictions from all over

Chris Brown's "Smart Football" is a Web site for football geeks. I don't mean that as a bad thing.

Brown analyzes key plays and strategies in football. Friday, he took a look at the Ricky Stanzi-to-Marvin McNutt 7-yard slant play that gave Iowa a 15-13 win at Michigan State a week ago. Writes Brown:

Iowa won the game using one of the most basic plays in football, but they didn't do it without a bit of knowledge about what they were getting into.

For the entire piece, including a video of the play and a diagram of what Iowa's entire offense did to make the play succeed, click here.

Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune ranked Iowa 12th on his Associated Press ballot last weekend, and he's hearing about it from Hawkeye fans. Wrote Hansen in his Notre Dame mailbag column:

Great program, really good coach and knowledgeable fans, which makes the few stragglers bewildered about Iowa's position in my latest AP Top 25 ballot strangely annoying and amusing all at the same time.

Particularly so was the request from a guy claiming to be a student at Iowa and asking to interview me about my vote for a "school project." Interestingly, when I asked for the professor's name and contact information, the request evaporated.

The talk of Iowa evaporates after this paragraph. The Hawkeyes have a great pass defense, seem to play better on the road than at home and are a plucky team in light of injuries, but I will be surprised if that No. 91 national ranking in rushing offense and No. 87 ranking in total offense doesn't come back to bite the Hawkeyes sooner than later.

Speaking of sportswriters who have heard from Iowa fans lately, Bob Wojnowski of the Detroit News is still having fun with them. From Wojo's "Pigskin Picks" this week:

I won't bore you with more details, but I'm here to admit I was wrong about Iowa. Yep. I was. After careful consideration, I'm willing to say it's not the Worst 8-0 Team in Big Ten history. According to my computers, the Hawkeyes have been upgraded to the Luckiest 8-0 Team in Big Ten history. Keep it up kids, and you could become the Darn Scrappiest 9-0 Team in Big Ten history!

And now, some predictable predictions about the Indiana-Iowa game:

ESPN.com's Big Ten maestro, Adam Rittenberg, says Iowa, 23-10.

Rittenberg's ESPN.com colleague, Bruce Feldman, likes the Hawkeyes by 27-7.

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News sees more of a struggle, going with Iowa, 21-12.

All of college football guru Phil Steele's picks regarding Top 25 teams are here, including a 30-13 cruise for the Hawkeyes.

Last and possibly least, the Gazette/KCRG crew stunningly all went with the Hoosiers. Just kidding.

Here are our picks, and our failed auditions for a standup gig at the Giggles Factory.