Stanzi story from his hometown paper (and thoughts)

The News-Herald's sports editor Mark Podolski set up an interview with Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi recently. The News-Herald serves northern Ohio, where Stanzi's hometown, Mentor, is located.

Stanzi has maintained (spell FAIL) the buzzcut and his calm, cool perspective.

Here's a link to a story and video interview. I highly recommend the video. Excellent interview.

Hawkeye thought of the day

At first during my interview with Nate Kaeding on Tuesday, I thought, wow, Nate's really grown up. But after thinking about it, no, Kaeding's always been this guy.

Early in his career, he was a voracious note-taker. He kept notebooks on his kicks, trying to refine the craft. Yes, Kaeding's lean days at Iowa were early in his freshman season. They didn't last long, but they could've. He pulled himself out of a potentially career-killing cold streak. At one point in 2000, Kaeding was 7 of 15. You don't see too many 50 percent field goal kickers around. He connected on his final seven kicks that season and went on to all-Big Ten, all-American, Lou Groza winner and record-holder.

"(I) Came in, took some bumps and bruises and made some mistakes," Kaeding said. "You deal with all those emotions, keeping you up at night, worrying and figuring it out and also kind of understanding that there's more to life than kicking a football.

"You have to keep it all in perspective. Kicking and sports in general, the ones who really do it right care a lot about it but on the other side keep it all in perspective as well and know it's not all the end-all, be-all."

He offered advice and wisdom to Iowa's kickers Daniel Murray and Trent Mossbrucker (link here). Murray and Mossbrucker had some peaks and valleys last year. Murray probably has the edge going into '09, but he's still fairly new on the job.

Kaeding is there for them, via text and e-mail. I kind of think of him as the Obi Wan Kenobi to a couple of young Luke Skywalkers.

"You have to go back to not thinking about being good but thinking about what's going to make you good and how you're going to go about enacting that, being able to push all the circumstances and results out of your mind and just focusing on the process and what's inside and how to go about dealing with that," Kaeding said. "Those are the things you learn a long the way. You learn how to apply them."

I will apply this to my golf game.

I think it goes down like this at kicker: Murray gets most of the duty, if he can prove his accuracy is what it needs to be. Mossbrucker will perhaps take some shorter kicks and push Murray for the job all season. Iowa might not settle on a guy, or maybe one guy takes it, which would probably be Kirk Ferentz's preference.

I don't think Mossbrucker will redshirt. He'd come back as a sophomore in 2010 and with Murray a senior. That'd be two years essentially out of competition. I don't think that'd be something he'd be interested in.

Big Ten thought of the day

I talked with Bob Bruce on WMT last night. We sort of discussed on e-mail round we had Thursday afternoon. We tried to compare and then assign baseball teams to Big Ten football teams.

I mention this now because the Detroit Free Press has a story in today's editions that talks about Michigan and its $9 million budget SURPLUS. Yes, SURPLUS!

Ohio State and Michigan are your Yankees and Mets and Red Sox wrapped into two.

I compared Iowa to the Minnesota Twins, a small-market team that wins on a consistent basis and wins big when the pieces come together. In the e-mail portion, Bob disagreed. A lifelong Twins fan, he thought the Hawkeyes were "richer." Iowa does well in funding, probably middle of the Big Ten, but the market comparison is solid. Bob agreed when we were on the air. I was glad I could lead him to the light (that will get me in trouble).

Indiana football, you are the Royals. You've got a nice stadium, but winning is difficult. Wisconsin, you are the LA Angels. You're nouveau riche and are in position to compete with the Yankees nearly every season. Illinios, that's a toughie. White Sox, maybe? Would Penn State be the Cardinals, or would the Nits fit in a higher tax bracket?

Feel free to chime in here. I like this game. It's goofy and pointless, but it's June and we're trying to generate some discussion.

National thought of the day

 Keep dreaming, Mountain West Conference.

Whether you agree or not, there is too much money behind the BCS as-is top topple the system. Orrin Hatch can gripe all he wants.