Thursday's Hawkeyes Reading Room - remembering when Illini fans made fun of the Hawkeyes, and more

Thanks to the ever-vigilant caretakers of Black Heart Gold Pants, the Hlog has come across an item from an Illinois fan site called Hail to the Orange that is having some trouble coping with Big Ten football events of this fall.

Two years ago, HTTO admits we dared to believe that we were importing an SEC style powerhouse to the cold prairies of Illinois. Best of all  Iowa was in the middle of a down year at 6-6, and seemed to be

the falling stock of the Big Ten after several years of resurgence.  Evidence pointed toward Illinois reasserting itself for the long term while Iowa would continue to slip.

Zook was beating out Ferentz for excellent players like Cordale Scott, Hubie Graham and Jason Ford. Illinois fans were gleefully touting the end of the Ferentz era all over the message boards.

"Two years later all of those same facts now seem to be only twist the knife for Illini fans faced with their season falling apart and Iowa returning to the top tier of the Big Ten.

And:

Iowa has won several games that have gone down to the closing minutes, and have relied on the strength of their defense and the discipline of their special teams to keep them in every game they play. They do not have an explosive offense, but the team overall plays with consistency and while they have played down to a few of their opponents have always found a way to win.

Given the poor pass coverage, and constant penalties on defense, along with consistent poor decision making on special team really draws a stark contrast between the two teams. The players that Iowa wanted two years ago are now part of a team that is not heading to a bowl game, for the second straight year. The "leftovers" are enjoying an undefeated season and an almost sure ticket to a BCS game.

It certainly hammers home the point that recruiting is not everything, and discipline can make up for a lot.

For the entire post, click here.

From Hawkeyenation.com comes an item of interest on two levels to the Hlog. One, Las Vegas Sports Consultants only ranks Iowa the No. 12 college football team. LVSC produces power rankings without biases.

Las Vegas Sports Consultants – Week 8 Rankings

Rank

Team

Rating

Last Week

1

Florida

122.1

1

2

Texas

119.6

2

3

Alabama

118.0

4

4

Southern Cal

117.9

3

5

Oklahoma

111.7

5

6

Texas Christian

111.0

10

7

Penn State

110.8

8

8

Ohio State

110.6

6

9

Boise State

110.4

9

10

Oregon

110.2

10

11

LSU

109.9

12

12

Iowa

109.5

14

12

Mississippi

109.5

14

14

Nebraska

109.3

7

15

Texas Tech

108.7

22

Two, LVSC has, for reasons hard to fathom at this point in time, set lines for what Iowa's games against Florida, Alabama and USC would be should the Hawkeyes meet any of those teams in a BCS extravaganza.

From this Hawkeye Nation piece via KXNO-AM's Ken Miller and LVSC's Kenny White:

Florida -9.5 over Iowa

Alabama -7 over Iowa

USC -7 over Iowa on a neutral field

USC -13 over Iowa in a game played at the Rose Bowl.

The Hawkeyes almost surely need to win four of their final five regular-season games to play in a BCS game. But let's say they do. Is their a betting line among the four listed that seem like a bargain right now if you took Iowa?

Uh, no.

Conor Nelson of pennlive.com predicted a 44-14 Penn State win over Iowa last month. To use a phrase of the day, that forecast was an epic fail.

But young Conor acknowledges he misread that tilt a bit (Nobody's perfect. Yours truly picked an Iowa win at Happy Valley, only to follow it three weeks later by predicting a Wisconsin victory over the Hawkeyes.)

He also lets the world know that Iowa fans chose to be gracious to him in the aftermath of that prediction rather than let him have it. Wrote Nelson at this "50-Yard Lion" blog post on Wednesday:

Amazingly (irritatingly?), the Iowa fans were really nice. They said things like “Guess you didn't know that Iowa has a pretty good defense, but it's ok, Penn State is really good. I hope their offensive line pulls it together. Good luck the rest of the way!” Seriously. That is the tone of several emails I received.

So not only did Iowa solidly defeat the Nittany Lions, their fans have to be classy about it, too? This is the same reason that Nebraska is so hard to dislike (and in fact, I have reached the point where I actively root for them – they remind me a lot of Penn State) – their fans are incredible. Even in the dregs of recent bad seasons (reminiscent of 2000-2004 in Happy Valley), they still packed the stadium – not just at home, but on the road as well. Their loyalty and overall reputation for friendliness is admirable.

Good for those fans who let Nelson off the hook, and good for him for not taking himself seriously.

NOTE TO READERS: I think I'm pretty good at tracking down stuff like this, but the truth is I get most of it from friends, colleagues and people like yourself. If you come across something related to Iowa, the Big Ten, or anything out of the ordinary that you think is interesting and worth passing along, pass it along. My e-mail is mike.hlas@gazcomm.com. Thanks.