Jeff Johnson

Penn State fired head football coach James Franklin on Sunday after the Nittany Lions lost their third game in a row, at home to Northwestern. With that and starting quarterback Drew Allar declared done for the season with an injury, it’s anyone’s guess how PSU will react for its game Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels announced Thursday that Sean Brandhorst has been hired as the Midwest League club’s new general manager. Brandhorst replaces Scott Wilson, who recently left the club to take a job outside of baseball.

Colin Whitters is a big (pun intended) reason Iowa City West’s football team is 6-1 going into its game Friday night at Cedar Rapids Prairie. The senior all-state offensive lineman is a Iowa Hawkeyes commit who recently scored a touchdown on a run of all things.

The Iowa Heartlanders begin the 2025-26 ECHL hockey season Friday night at home against the Tulsa Oilers. The three-in-three weekend sees the club play Saturday night at Bloomington and Sunday afternoon back at home against Tulsa. The Heartlanders made the ECHL playoffs for the first time last season and has a new head coach in Chuck Weber.

Small classes are approaching the postseason and big games highlight Week 8. Which team has a championship defense? Is there a high school coach that can transition to be a college head coach. Will program mergers impact CRCSD?

North Linn’s football team moved to 7-0 this season with a 39-7 win Friday night over Midland. The Class A No. 7 Lynx play this coming Friday night at No. 8 Wapsie Valley for the District 4 championship.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association’s RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) is a huge deal the last three weeks of the prep football regular season. Waterloo West was ranked one spot ahead of Cedar Rapids Kennedy (just on the outside looking in at the top 16) and picked up a huge 28-21 win Thursday night at Kingston Stadium.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders Coach/President Mark Carlson broke the United States Hockey League record for most regular-season victories last Friday night when his team beat Lincoln. Another win the following night gave Carlson 780 career victories. Plaudits for the only head coach Cedar Rapids has had have continued to pour in.

Iowa’s quarterback situation for its game Saturday night at Wisconsin is a bit cloudy. Starter Mark Gronowski was injured late in a game two weeks ago, though he very well could be back against the Badgers. Wisconsin also has had injury issues at QB, with starter Billy Edwards Jr. hurt in the season opener. If he can’t go Saturday, the Badgers’ starter might just be Hunter Simmons.

The Gazette sports writers Jeff Johnson, Jeff Linder and K.J. Pilcher discuss Iowa High School Football Week 6 results, upcoming matchups in Week 7, games to watch in Week 7 and the recently rankings.

The high school football season enters the final weeks of the regular season. Gazette staff breaks down what teams are in most need of a win, most reliable kickers, which district is still up for grabs and what will high school football be like in 25 years.

Alex Hanna has taken over as head coach of the Ed-Co football program this season, after 16 years as defensive coordinator for the now retired James Rochford. Hanna has led the Vikings to a No 6 ranking in Eight-Player and a 6-0 record, including a big 58-28 win Friday night at no; 7 Easton Valley.

West Des Moines Dowling’s football team showed why it is ranked third in Class 5A Friday night with an impressive 34-0 win over Cedar Rapids Kennedy at Kingston Stadium. The Maroons outgained the Cougars, 470-113, and Kennedy head coach Brian White took a tumble on the sideline after he was run into by a player who were going out of bounds.

Mark Carlson set went into Friday night’s home game at ImOn Ice against the Lincoln Stars with 778 regular-season victories in his amazing 26-year head coaching career. One more victory gave him the United States Hockey League’s all-time record, which he got Friday night when the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders beat Lincoln, 3-2. The 56-year-old sat down with The Gazette to talk about his career earlier this week. He’s not close to retiring, by the way.

Defenseman Guerin Slezak tore the ACL in his knee in a USHL playoff game last April for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Last season’s captain (and this season’s presumed captain) is skating again after surgery and is eyeing a November return to the lineup.