Good-Timey Radio Hour

Oh my goodness.

Gary Dolphin starts the show with an observation on the size of the crowd at Carlos O'Kelly's. 'It the old times, only this many people would show up for a lynching.”

I'm going to change that to 'lunching” for him. Of course, Iowa lost 51-14 at Minnesota last week. I think that was Dolph's set up for his next statement, which was about defending Kirk Ferentz for the next hour and a half.

Can't say we didn't start with a bang.

Dolph references Texas A&M losing big to Alabama and then beating someone. I can't remember who. Someone top 5. He also referenced Kentucky coach Mark Stoops . . . and his team losing by 63 and then bouncing back.

Stream of consciousness. It's my third-best thing.

Here we go.

Hey, it's Bob Foley's birthday! Great guy. He took care of deadline when I worked at the Daily Iowa in 1990. He taught us the valuable lesson of deadline, as in don't miss it. Much respect for Bob. Great gentleman! Happy birthday!

Joe from Estherville, home of Esther. Cat has his tongue.

He gone!

Ron from Coralville, are you Gameday Ron?

Going over blowouts all over the league. 'Let's get with the Hawks.”

A mention on the Sound Off program. Anti-coach, anti-everything. Thanks Dolph for being Dolph.

Dolph talks sense. People say stuff when Iowa loses. He said the bottom line is they don't lose their passion for Iowa football. Gary needs to meet my Twitter account.

Dolph talking sense. Radio postgame shows are pure vitriol. If you're going there for substance, there's no water in that well. If you're going to blow off steam, let ‘er rip.

Dolph said Lunt is 240. He's listed at 225.

'Damon Bullock had a good game. I know you don't want to hear that . . .” So, maybe Dolph has been reading Twitter.

Dolph said RB Jordan Canzeri should be back this week. He's missed the last two games with an ankle injury. He was cleared last week, but didn't play because you saw that thing go boom pretty early.

Bubba from Primghar, talk into the cellular oddity.

Bubba asks for a defining moment. Dolph said the offense vs. Indiana. On to Maryland and . . . that happened. Dominate Northwestern. Dolph said, 'This is the Iowa team I'd thought I'd see against Ball State and Iowa State.”

And then, last week. Your still washing the vomit off your loafers.

KF said, 'We don't know how to live with our good headlines.” I'm guilty. I wrote good stuff after Iowa beat Northwestern 48-7. Fooled me.

Dolph said defining moment has passed. Or, maybe they're still waiting.

Chris from Sioux City . . . this is going to be good.

Nine games in, Chris said, it was disappointing to hear that no one had any answers.

Dolph said, 'It sounded like you listened to the Marc Trestman press conference.” The Packers did beat the Bears 55-14, or something like that.

Dolph said it's not like they don't know why they lost.

Stu from somewhere. He's never heard of the jet sweep.

Stu wants Iowa to try it. Iowa has tried it. Jonathan Parker is good at it. Why didn't Iowa cover Minny TE Maxx Williams? Or double cover him?

Good questions.

Williams tried to get one-on-one with linebackers, Dolph said. On the 25-yarder, Iowa just lost him.

Luke from Cedar Falls . . . When do you think Kirk Furrentz will quit or resign?

Dolph is PO'd. First, he corrects the pronounciation and then he lights up Luke like nothing else. Luke sounded like stoned Jack Black, BTW.He's

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Live radio, y'all.

Kirk Ferentz is in the house. Or the restaurant or what-not.

- Iowa practiced outdoors because this could be the weather on Saturday in Champaign.

- Mood of the team: KF said the fans were fantastic. A lot showed up in Minny. Not much joy in Mudville. Gotta turn the page. Did that Monday. Tuesday was back to work. Two very spirited practices. Team is committed.

- Inconsistencies, a roller coaster: It's been a smattering of things. That's sports. Every team, season and week are different. No predicting this stuff. Minnesota is a good team and it played well. Good team that's improved every year under Jerry Kill.

- A text from Keith from Aurora: Season-ticket holder. He's confused, upset. Is it fixable?

KF: As good as we looked the week before, sometimes that happens. An NFL GM was in the building. They came off a big win. He said the same thing happened to that team. That's sports. Tough to predict. KF said the Hawkeyes haven't been in a lot of those, and he's right. You have to go back a long way. I know, I know, that's not making it any easier.

- Tom from Camanche, home of the Fu-Manchus. He's a no-go.

- Peggy from Spirit Lake . . . She's reading off the internet. How come you always play Jake mostly?

KF: Feel good about both QBs. I don't know how many people have done it, but if anyone wrote about it, there wasn't much good out there. It wasn't like any one player, it was a group effort. It starts with KF, KF said. Bad day for all. Single out any one player would be missing the target on this one.

Dolph talks up Andrew Stone, who caught his first pass and his first TD catch. He's been injured a lot at Iowa.

- Tom in Camanche is back.

He suffered with KF last week. Tom says this team seems to struggle. 'Darned inconsistency.” What is it? What are we missing? What's the cause of the 'underperformance”?

KF cautions use of that word. Said let's see after the season. He doesn't disagree with Tom. Nothing has ever been easy for Iowa football.

Nothing has ever been easy for Iowa football. Let that one sink in. I think it's true, for the most part. I think it's aged us all.

Dolph brings up the ups and downs around the nation.

KF: That's what makes it interesting. It's an interesting study. Lumps NFL in with college. Minnesota has quietly done a good job building the program.

The score last week? No one saw that coming.

Dolph brings up Minnesota's two losses - TCU and Illinois. KF didn't like hearing the part of the Illinois.

- JJ from North Liberty, he has three quickies.

He likes the zone blocking. Seems like this year, it's going one game and not the next. Question on Jay Scheel. Question on no logo in the midfield.

Zone is Iowa's predominant scheme. It takes coordination. You have to have a package if the defense cheats. That's what Iowa does and that's what Iowa has committed to. That's the challenge, getting that off.

Scheel has been out for the year with a knee injury. He was going to redshirt, either way. Scheel and TE Jon Wisnieski practiced this week with some limited individual work. KF hopes in December they can go full speed.

- Darren from the Quad Cities, you get to talk now.

Darren is a baseball guy. He loves Saturday's because of Dolph and Ed and this awesome coach. Such a different feel about Iowa football. When they talk about the farm and the crops, he loves it.

Loves Saturdays because he gets to listen to Iowa football. I think Darren is a plant. I think Darren is an intern in the Iowa sports offices. But hey, that's me. I'm a cynic. Mom tells me she loves me and I want it notarized.

Wow, Dolph is a giant old-timey radio fan. Pretty cool to hear him run down the names.

- Brent from Omaha, talk hot Nebraskan to us.

Brent is glad to have Illinois back on the schedule. Brent hears about Neb football and CU hoops. Asks if Iowa football uses a sports psychologist.

KF: There is one on staff that works with athletics. They've not had one specifically work with football. It's something Iowa has chosen not to do. KF ain't into it. Are you surprised? Actually, I'm not sure it's a big deal and I wouldn't want one, either.

- Bob from I wasn't listening has a question on scheduling. Wants a week with no Big Ten football, so every school has the same weekend off.

Talking byes and being ready. Bob isn't a reader of the On Iowa blog.

What Bob says makes sense. It would make more sense next year when there's only one bye week.

KF: It's TV. He thinks conference games will be flying in September. And I think that has been scheduled. It's having your conference teams on TV more often.

Next two bye-week season will be 2019 and then 2024-25. KF likes the two byes. Advocates for it. Nice for the team to cut back and get life in order.

Merrill from somewhere near the Evil Empire. Sounds like a northerner.

Oh no, QB question. Merrill probably thinks KF should play CJB.

KF: Didn't do much well. Wasn't any one player. Could've made a change, didn't see any merit. Against NW, he played as sharp as KF has seen a QB. KF believes Rudock has made a great resume. He thought about it (the QB thing), but then believed there's no merit to a change.

So, there you go. And really, there you go.

On Canzeri: Good to go. Looks like Jordan Canzeri again. Hopefully, bring the O some juice.

On Illini: Physical group and playing hard. Lunt will give them a different look.

Waukee Jerry, do the talk talk!!

Jerry is cold. How does cold affect the kicking game?

No bigger factor than wind, KF said. Wind is a variable. Cold is a factor, but not like wind. Big difference in football.

Punting? Didn't protect. Get a punt blocked and the ratio of winning after that happens, it's hard to survive it. Kicking game wasn't good. Terrible field position.

Dudek on the jet sweep. KF: I think we'll see him and maybe a couple of other guys.

And that's it tonight.

See you . . . well, tomorrow, I guess.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com