Friday Hawkeyes Reading Room -- 'Hate Week?' And Chad Greenway says Iowa 35, Gophers 10

We'll get to "Hate Week" at the end of this entry.

"I've got to be careful here," Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway told the St. Paul Post-Dispatch's Charley Walters in this column, then proceeded to be about as cautious as a linebacker leveling an unsuspecting ballcarrier.

"Let's go 35-10, Iowa."

Greenway may live in the Twin Cities, but he's still a Hawkeye.

"The two best qualities that Ferentz has is that he's able to identify the proper position for a player to come in and help win a Big Ten championship, and the level of consistency he has as a coach as far as the attitude he brings to work every day," Greenway said. "I think that's what keeps everybody really even-keeled. On his teams, it's never going to be up and down; the ebb and flow of the game, or the season, will never affect the team.

"That's why he takes teams that sometimes aren't as talented as others and can win games."

John Alt was a standout offensive tackle for Iowa in the early 1980s, and went on to have a 13-year NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Alt's son, Mark, is coming to Iowa City this weekend to look things over at Iowa. He's a

quarterback. A pretty good one, it would seem. And a pretty good hockey player. He already has committed to play hockey for Minnesota, so that's interesting.

From this story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

"He's exceeded expectations and now he's getting looks from various schools," said John Alt, Mark's father. "And I think it's fair to him to look at those."

John, who played college football at Iowa, said the Hawkeyes, Missouri, Stanford and Wisconsin have shown interest during "the last two weeks." Alt broke his collarbone in his non-throwing shoulder in early October. He returned for the section playoffs and leads the Raiders into Friday's Class 5A state tournament semifinals against Brainerd.

"He's not trying to slight the Gophers," C-DH football coach Mike Scanlon said. "But I think he wants to see how the interest plays out in both seasons."

Another prep quarterback is already in the fold for Iowa, A.J. Derby of Iowa City, the son of former Hawkeye player John Derby.

Walters also details Mark Alt's story a bit, after passing on some tidbits about another Minnesotan headed to Kinnick Stadium for a look-see this weekend, very highly regarded offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson. Henderson is coming down to Iowa Saturday with Alt and other C-DH teammates An excerpt from Walters' column:

Cretin-Derham Hall's 6-foot-7 1/2, 335-pound lineman Seantrel Henderson this weekend will make an unofficial visit to Iowa. Henderson's next official recruiting visit is Dec. 4 to Southern California. His final visit is Dec. 12 to Florida. He'll announce his college decision on Feb. 3; there still is no front-runner.

Henderson will play in the U.S. Army All-American Game in January in San Antonio.

By the way, Henderson's father, Sean, is 6-4, 225 pounds; his mother, Bree, is 5-7 1/2.

Two Rochester Post-Bulletin writers argue about whether the Gophers have a chance at Iowa Saturday or not. Click here for that.

The Postgame Tailgate has a few things to say about Kirk Ferentz's late-game strategy against Ohio State last weekend. Thanks to the Wiz of Odds for this.

Finally, the Daily Gopher blog calls Minnesota-Iowa week "Hate Week," which seems a tad strong to the Hlog, where anarchy is adored as long as it doesn't hurt anyone and we don't have to get our fingernails dirty.

The Daily Gopher tries to come up with five reasons to like Iowa and just about gets there, but as you can see here, it ends badly.