Wednesday Hawkeyes Reading Room - Indiana Coach Bill Lynch: Iowa has something special going right now

I'm going to start with something a little different today. Ed Podolak has a Web site (Click here) Each week he has his thoughts on the most recent Iowa game. Here is Ed's opinion on Hawkeyes quarterback Ricky Stanzi following the win over Indiana:

Rick Stanzi became a much better quarterback from his experience Saturday. He will be a better "wind playing" quarterback. The next three games may have similar conditions, although Saturdays were extreme. Stanzi will be better prepared and the Hawks will be

a better team.

During Tuesday's Big Ten teleconference, Indiana Coach Bill Lynch and Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald had plenty of praise for Iowa. Dave Curtis of The Sporting News listened in. Click here for his Tuesday notes.

"Iowa has something special going right now," Lynch said. "It's hard to put your finger on it."

"When you have some success and won the way they have, you kind of feel like you have a little magic going," Fitzgerald said. "You get a little mojo and a little confidence from that."

Mike Hall of the Big Ten Network says this in his BTN blog (the link is here):

I know that as of now the Hawkeyes have the better resume than anyone else in the country. Will that stay the same in a few weeks? Maybe not.  But for now what team has done better?!

Las Vegas Sports Consultants haven't (hasn't?) been very popular with Iowa fans lately. LVSC, which is the self-proclaimed world's largest oddsmaking company, doesn't give the Hawkeyes a lot of love.

The LVSC Top 11 this week:

1. Florida, 2. Texas, 3. Alabama, 4. Oklahoma (?), 5. USC (??), 6. Oregon, 7. TCU, 8. Penn State, 9. Ohio State, 10. Boise State, 11. Iowa.

LVSC has made Iowa a 20-to-1 shot to win the BCS championship.

Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall grew up in Iowa City. A half-century ago, his family was friends with then-Iowa football coach Forest Evashevski and his family. Here, Tom reflects on those days and on Evashevski the person. An excerpt:

Many folks have speculated that Evy retired from coaching too early, and even Evy suggested late in his life that perhaps he should have coached longer. But I'm not sure that's the case.

Evy loathed the recruiting aspect of college coaching, particularly the traveling that required him to be away from his family. Moreover, Evy believed in the educational mission of college athletics, so I doubt that he would have been comfortable in the obsessive environment of professional football coaching. Finally, Evy truly believed that football coaching was a young man's profession, so it's doubtful that he would have coached into old age as several of his contemporaries did.

Our friends at Northwestern blog Lake the Posts compare the '09 Hawkeyes with the 1996 Northwestern team that went 7-1 in the Big Ten and shared the league title. A passage:

Many remember NU won back-to-back Big Ten titles (although not enough remember!), but the '96 squad did it in similar fashion to the way Iowa is doing it. The tell-all stat of Iowa's season is the fact they've come from behind in all but one of their nine wins. Week after week the '96 'Cats found ways to win after finding themselves behind to teams they shouldn't have. Seemingly every Big Ten game was a comeback. The most notable was the 16-point 4th quarter comeback over Michigan, when inversely similar to Iowa's opener, NU had to kick two 40+ yd FGs on the same play to win the game.

We close with something related to recent controversies about college football officiating. According to The Onion, an SEC replay official has overturned Roe v. Wade! Click here for details.

If you know The Onion, this news doesn't shock you.