Hlas: Hawkeyes ruling the weird, wild West

What if I'd told you two months ago that the Big Ten West would be full of programs in upheaval on Halloween, but Iowa would only be concerned with defeating Maryland to stay unbeaten?

It isn't true leading the West is similar to being the best ice hockey team in Maui or the most-believable actor on 'Scandal.' Wisconsin and Northwestern were ranked and recipients of respect until they hosted the Hawkeyes and were turned back.

No, it isn't the East with its high-end Ohio State and Michigan State and Michigan. But the West isn't the slums. It is, however, a neighborhood with quite a bit of turmoil.

You have two teams with first-year coaches, two with interim head coaches, and one with a coach who may be looking for a Realtor in a month or so.

The sudden and truly sad resignation of Minnesota coach Jerry Kill Wednesday because of health issues was but the latest out-of-the-ordinary occurrence in a division packed with them over the last year.

l

Nebraska fired Bo Pelini after he went 22-10 in the Big Ten and never had a losing league record in seven years at the school, be it Big 12 or Big Ten. He was replaced by Mike Riley, who had just led Oregon State to a 2-7 Pac-12 record.

Pelini's volatile personality and inability to take Nebraska to heights it still believed it should scale wore too thin, and he was shipped out. But this year's Huskers are 1-3 in league play and may fail to reach a bowl for the first time since the year before Pelini was hired to run Big Red.

l

Gary Andersen, fresh off an 11-3 season and West title, seemingly poised to have a long, happy run as Wisconsin's coach, surprisingly left for the job at Oregon State. That's where three of Riley's last five teams had losing records.

Two years earlier, Andersen came to Wisconsin to replace Bret Bielema, who shocked the football world by abruptly leaving Madison for Arkansas. He is still trying to find happiness there.

Wisconsin has played in six Rose Bowls since Iowa's last trip to Pasadena. It had double-digit wins in six of the previous 10 seasons. Yet, it's a job that sent coaches running for Arkansas and Oregon State. Weird.

l

Illinois fired its head coach, Tim Beckman, the week of this season's first game. Illini athletics director Mike Thomas cited preliminary results of an external review into allegations that Beckman deterred reporting of players' injuries, and influenced medical decisions that pressured players to continue playing despite injuries.

That's not your run-of-the-mill coaching firing.

l

Last week, Purdue announced $60 million worth of upgrades were coming to its football facilities. Which gave school president Mitch Daniels the opportunity to offer this opinion about Boilermakers football under Darrell Hazell:

'It's not in a good place. I can tell you all the reasons that we absolutely should have one, probably two more wins, if not more but 1-6 is 1-6.'

Hazell's Big Ten record is 1-18. If the school fires Hazell before the Boilers' Nov. 21 game at Iowa, all four Big Ten visitors to Kinnick Stadium (Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Purdue) will have been guided by interim head coaches. The preseason odds of that happening were Infinity-to-1.

Maryland isn't in the West, of course. But Iowa's opponent Saturday fired head coach Randy Edsall in midseason, so the Terrapins would fit snugly in that division.

That's the division led by Iowa. Where torches and pitchforks were brandished in the off-season. Now, old 'In Kirk We Trust' bumper stickers and T-shirts are back in vogue.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com