Brinson won't play at Kinnick, but Eastern Illinois will, and is looking forward to it

You thought the Iowa Hawkeyes' football news of the day was running back Jeff Brinson leaving the program? No way.

Young Brinson will take his zero career college carries to another program. We wish him the best. Were it not for his nagging injuries, perhaps he would be a darling in Hawkdom today instead of fellow redshirt freshman Adam Robinson. Football is fickle.

Brinson was hounded and nagged by Florida State coaches to switch his college choice from Iowa to FSU, but Brinson held firm. By all accounts, he's a fine guy. Iowa, which couldn't say this during the 2009 season, simply has a lot of running backs including three (Robinson, Brandon Wegher and Jewel Hampton) with awfully good one-year college resumes.

But the news of the day comes to us from Charleston, Ill., apparently part of a metropolitan area so large it requires two newspapers, the Journal Gazette and the Times-Courier. They combine for JG-TC.com, and they bring us this story in mid-Feburary about Eastern Illinois' upcoming season.

Eastern Illinois' Panthers open their 2010 season by playing Iowa at Kinnick Stadium. It's a tall task for an FCS program, even one that was 8-4 in 2009 and reached the FCS playoffs.

Of course, an FCS program called the Panthers opened its 2009 season in Iowa City and was one point (and two 40-yard field goal tries in the final seven seconds) from upsetting the Hawkeyes. That was Northern Iowa, for the two of you in Hawkeyeland who have blotted that 17-16 thrill ride from your memory banks.

Eastern Illinois, the '09 Ohio Valley champion, will follow its Iowa game with a home contest against Central Arkansas. EIU, as the JG-TC.com story tells us, has made 13 playoff appearances.

Wouldn't it be wild if Brinson transferred to Eastern Illinois? He could play right away at an FCS school, like former Iowa quarterback Jake Christensen did for his senior season at EIU last year.

Wherever Brinson goes, wish him well. He wanted to be a player at Iowa. It just didn't work out.

Meanwhile ... EIU-UI, September 4, 11 a.m., Kinnick Stadium. Are all your plans in place, Hawkeye fans?