Drew Tate: A starting QB once again

Drew Tate went to Canada in 2007 to play professional football. Friday, he makes his first start.

After 15 games this season, the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League have made a change at quarterback. Tate, Iowa's starting QB from 2004 through 2006, is replacing longtime Stampeders starter Henry Burris, who was the CFL's Most Outstanding Player in 2010.

Tate subbed in for Burris in the second quarter of Calgary's 31-29 loss to Toronto when the Stamps trailed, 28-9. He completed 19 of 28 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns.

“My mentality is when I get on that field, I'm not coming off,” Tate told a Canadian reporter. “The only way it happens is the coach grabs me and pulls me off or they take my helmet away.” Sounds like him.

Calgary is 8-7 with three regular-season games left, and has clinched a playoff berth. Six of the CFL's eight teams proceed to the postseason.

How Iowa's football team does against Indiana is usually a good barometer for how it will finish the rest of its season.

Last year, the Hawkeyes were 17-point favorites at Bloomington but needed a touchdown in the last three minutes to take the lead and needed Indiana receiver Damarlo Belcher to drop a pass in the end zone for an 18-13 Iowa win.

That was a sign that the Hawkeyes' ship might be listing. They didn't win any of their final three regular-season games.

Iowa's zany 42-24 come-from-behind win over Indiana in 2009 wasn't really an indicator of good or bad things ahead. Had Ricky Stanzi not had his ankle hurt the following week against Northwestern, Iowa might have beaten the Wildcats and finished no worse than 11-1 in the regular-season instead of 10-2.

But in ‘08, Iowa blasted Indiana 45-9 to end a 3-game losing streak and start a stretch of five wins in its last six regular-season games. The Hawkeyes lost to the Hoosiers in 2006 and 2007, the roughest two-year patch of the Kirk Ferentz era in many ways.

This year's Hoosiers don't have the kind of players who beat Iowa back then, like quarterback Kellen Lewis and receiver James Hardy.

“We're pretty anemic right now,” Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson said Tuesday.

CBSsports.com ranked the top 100 players entering this college basketball season.

Two are from Iowa. Ames, to be precise. Harrison Barnes of North Carolina is No. 2 behind Ohio State center Jared Sullinger. Creighton's Doug McDermott is No. 39.

Three of the top 13 players are from North Carolina, four of the top 16 are from Kentucky, and three of the top 25 are from Ohio State. Eleven of the top 100 are from the Big Ten. Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor is No. 3.

None of the top 100 are from Iowa squads. The ball's in your court, Royce White of Iowa State, and Bryce Cartwright and Melsahn Basabe of Iowa.

The St.  Louis Cardinals are appearing in their third World Series since 2004. No other team has been there that often in that period.

The Cardinals have had just one losing season since the turn of the century and have missed the playoffs just four times since 2000.

The Redbirds may be the most-underappreciated franchise in American pro sports. Well, not in St. Louis.