Hlas: Hawkeyes have to look forward, but you don’t

Iowa starting football center James Daniels is not very good.

Wait, what? That's not my opinion. No way, no how. I'm no head of an offensive line think tank. But I believe he's pretty good, someone the Hawkeyes will be happy to have around for two more years.

However, Daniels himself said something different this week.

'I'm not very good,' he said. 'I'm just a regular player.'

Who starts for a Big Ten team.

'Yeah.'

We do a lot of interviews with Hawkeye players. Too many, probably. There are only so many ways to answer questions, and the players aren't supposed to reveal how the team's machinery works or say anything that might motivate an opponent.

Besides, it's a lot to ask college kids to constantly be interesting or insightful or glib. It's a lot to ask anyone.

But I was sort of thrown for a loop by some of Daniels' responses in the glow of his team's 14-13 win over Michigan last Saturday.

I asked him what he recalled about the game's final play, the 33-yard field goal by Keith Duncan. He watched it from the sideline. Tyler Kluver handled the long snap, as always.

'I really don't remember,' Daniels said. Nor did he say he recalled the game.

'I remember warm-ups, coming out for warm-ups,' he said. 'I remember the crowd rushing the field (after the game). Anything that happened between then, I really don't remember.

'I really don't remember any of the games that we played.'

Daniels said watching tape of the games doesn't make them seem new to him, but 'I don't know what happened on every single play. I think it's kind of like when you take an exam in school. You take the exam but you only remember a certain few questions. You can't tell somebody after the exam this, this, this, like questions 1 through 30.'

He said he has no idea if he played well or not after a game.

'No, you have to watch the film. It's impossible to tell how good you blocked somebody unless you really see film of what happened.'

So, did he watch the Michigan film to judge his performance?

'No. I'm just focused on this game this week, this Saturday.'

These are extra-large people who are givers and recipients of pain and punishment. But they don't come off a football assembly line. No matter how much they're molded by coaches to be part of a team, they're all different.

Keegan Render starts alongside Daniels on the offensive line, at left guard. Asked if he remembered Duncan's game-winning boot, the answer was a convincing affirmative.

'I can remember exactly how many guys were on top of me, what I did after it, me watching it go through the uprights,' Render said. 'I can remember a lot of it.

'I know we weren't up the whole game, but obviously we had confidence. We were competing every play. At that point we drove down there on that last drive and we set it up for Keith to kick that field goal, I thought to myself 'It's just one of those nights that it's gonna go our way.''

Render said he was sure the field goal would be good. Holder Ron Coluzzi also said he had no doubt. But defensive lineman Faith Ekakitie admitted he was a nervous wreck and couldn't even watch the kick from the Iowa sideline.

'No. I couldn't,' Ekakitie said. 'I've never been more sicker to my stomach than waiting for that kick to go. I have a pretty strong stomach, but I felt like throwing up right before.'

Why still dwell on that game a week later, you may ask? The Hawkeyes have another game Saturday, at Illinois.

Well, the shelf life of that Michigan-Iowa game is 30 years, minimum. Whatever happens Saturday in Champaign, the shelf life of this Iowa-Illinois affair is probably 30 minutes, tops.