Hlas: Cold? At the beach? Not Hawkeye fans

CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. — Erin Cochran was struggling.

She couldn't play piccolo for the Hawkeye Marching Band Friday when the band performed at the Outback Bowl's Beach Day. But she did join her bandmates in going all the way to the edge of the water, where they posed for pictures.

Navigating the thick sand of Clearwater Beach on crutches, though, was a portrait in physical exertion.

'I had ankle surgery,' said Cochran, of Joliet, Ill. 'But this is a free trip to Tampa with my friends. I would have been devastated if I had to miss it.'

That appeared to be the attitude of many from Iowa at the event. Florida fans have seen the beach and Gulf of Mexico a time or two or a thousand. Few of them were here for this. It was 55 degrees and windy. While that may sound delightful to many back in Iowa, Floridians regarded it as ...

'Cold,' said Earl Presley of St. Petersburg.

'One, this is cold. Two, we love football. Three, do we love football enough to stand in the cold? I would say no.'

Yet, he, his son, and several of his son's football-playing friends came to see this college football-related event, briefly attended by Hawkeyes and Gators players.

Earl's son, Jordan Presley, plays for the 7-on-7 Team Florida program coached by B.J. Hall, who played for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League in 2010.

'Des Moines is my favorite place in the world,' said Hall, who also coaches football at Superior Collegiate High School in Clearwater. 'The coach there, John Gregory, told me I could be a CFL quarterback. And I was, for two years in Toronto.'

Earl Presley said football 'builds character and discipline. It allows young men to set goals and objectives. It teaches life lessons like teamwork. It has principles you can apply that I've heard over and over in corporate America like team spirit and stick-to-itiveness. That's a mouthful.'

Elsewhere on the beach, Glen Snyder of Fairbank offered a mouthful of his own thoughts.

'Wearing hoodies during the ceremony is not a good look for the bowl,' Snyder said, pointing to Florida players dressed for warmth rather than style while they were introduced while on a stage on the sand.

'That's not good for tourism.'

Snyder is a 40-year holder of Hawkeye football season tickets. He was wearing short sleeves (a No. 14 Iowa basketball jersey with the last name of former Hawkeye Chris Kingsbury on the back) and shorts. You don't come from Iowa, go to the beach, and be deterred by what locals consider an abnormally chilly day.

'This is my favorite bowl,' Snyder said. 'They greet you here. In California last year, they couldn't wait for us to leave because it was so crowded. Nobody was happy to see us ... except Stanford.

'There are two bowls I won't go to. Detroit and Yankee Stadium. I don't want to shovel snow and then go somewhere where there's more snow. You don't have to shovel sunshine.'

A Hawkeye fan dressed in more layers than Snyder but enjoying herself just as much was Jan Daly of De Soto, Iowa. She is the maternal grandmother of starting Iowa offensive lineman Ike Boettger of Cedar Falls, and is one of a party of 11 family members here for Monday's game.

'Wow, it's awesome,' Daly said. 'I love every minute.'

She is biased, of course, but said Boettger 'is one of the nicest kids you'll ever meet. He exemplifies the whole feeling. He's not only a tough football player, but he's a gentleman.'

Daly, as you might expect, watches the blocking and not the football when Iowa is on offense.

'I follow Ike,' she said, laughing. 'I can't do it any other way.

'I couldn't spell 'football' until Ike became a player. Now I'm pretty good.'

Eric Leonard left Cedar Rapids in 2007 to live in Clearwater. He was reveling in the chilly weather. 'We need a reprieve from the heat,' he claimed.

Leonard was glad to see the Hawkeyes head his way, saying 'SEC is all you hear here. You cannot escape it. Auburn, Florida, 'Bama, everywhere you look.'

Well, not at Clearwater Beach on this day. It was nippy and it was gusty. But the few people in the hoodies were among the few people who weren't from Iowa.