The Walk Through

I'm seeing a lot of green here in Iowa City today.

By now, you know all about the North Texas-Iowa City ties. Coach Dan McCarney is a native, played and coached at Iowa. QB Andrew McNulty is a native. Hayden Fry isn't here today, but he coached at UNT before reviving football in Iowa City.

More green than I thought. I think probably about an 11 or so hour drive.

Iowa's three honorary captains, defensive linemen Mark Bortz, Pat Dean and Jim Pekar, were coached by McCarney.

- Iowa's QBs and WRs and TEs are out. Running backs, too. Everyone looks healthy, from the press box level.

I don't think Iowa exposes CJB a lot in the passing game today. UNT has some nice quickness off the edge. Iowa will own a big advantage as far as beef goes up front. I expect the Hawkeyes to run and run a lot.

- Have heard that RB LeShun Daniels is much healthier than last week. He's coming off an ankle injury in week 2 at Iowa State. He carried just nine times for 15 yards against Pitt. I'm guessing 15 times today.

- Starting strong safety Miles Taylor, cornerback Greg Mabin and reserve safety Kevin Ward are out early doing some extra stretching. Might mean something, might mean nothing. Usually, this means strength and conditioning wants a look at them to see if they're good to go. A trainer is overseeing their stretching (which is what they're doing right now).

- Specialists out.

Marshall Koehn from 100 yards . . . it's good.

Kidding, of course. He did just bash one easily from 48. It's all in range with this guy. I will set the over/under on Iowa 60-yard field goal attempts this season at 1.

- Early B1G scores:

Rutgers is handling Kansas, 27-14, in the Pit of Ultimate Darkness Bowl.

Michigan is up on BYU, 31-0. I've seen some Michigan Twitter complaints on Rudock.

Michigan State is hanging in there against Central Michigan, 17-10, in the fourth quarter.

Nebraska leads Southern Miss 29-7. It's not going to be enough for Husker Land.

Purdue is hanging in there with Bowling Green in the fourth quarter, 21-21. Yes, 'hanging in there.”

Indiana leads at Wake Forest, 17-10. The ACC might suck.

- Jonathan Parker is out there. For warmups.

- It's 80-plus out there on the field. I think Iowa has to expand the number of WRs it's using. So far, it's only been Matt VandeBerg (22 receptions leads the Big Ten), Tevaun Smith and Jacob Hillyer. Yes, Riley McCarron has one catch and it's a giant one, the game-winner at ISU, but still, it's just one catch. This hot weather, going into what should measure as a huge, huge game next week in Madison, time to kick the covers off some newbie WRs.

- The center judge today is Amanda Sauer. She's the first female official, that I can remember, at Kinnick Stadium. That's a great deal.

- Kirk Ferentz said Wednesday was a positive turn for RB Daniels and DE Drew Ott. They are expected to play today. How much? I don't know. We've mentioned how big of a deal Madison next week is going to be.

- I think the big concert in Kinnick is going to be Blake Shelton. Final answer. And, yes, I do think Tucker Beathard will be one of the openers. You know that name.

- Quick note on true frosh O-linemen Levi and Landan Paulsen: Looks like Levi works out with the tackles and Landan with the guards. They also look like they might be leaning out a little bit. Bodies will change/rebuild in their early stages at Iowa.

- Ott is out there. Bionic left arm.

- Might see Jake Duzey out there today. Remember, the senior TE is coming off a torn patellar tendon. Radio said maybe 6 to 10 plays.

- Starting lineups are the same. Keep in mind, Mabin and Taylor did some extra warming up. Might have some muscle pull stuff going on.

- The No. 2 O-line was from right Keegan Render, James Daniels, Eric Simmons, Steve Ferentz and Cole Croston.

- The second team defense was: DL - Matt Nelson, Faith Ekakitie, Kyle Terlouw, Parker Hesse. LBs - Travis Perry, Aaron Mends and Bo Bower. DBs - Maurice Fleming and Sean Draper (corners); Brandon Snyder and Anthony Gair (safeties).

- This crowd today . . . I think it might be really light.

- OK, very informal ticket update: Iowa had sold 55,000 through Friday. Judging by the crowd and the gates now, I think that's going to be tough to reach. So, everyone, I'll be looking up low crowds for the first quarter.

Is that low for what you'd have to consider a perfect start to the season? Yes. Is it low considering the opponent is North Texas? No.

I think this is more about opponent than Iowa.

OK, enjoy the game. Check me out on Twitter @marcmorehouse and follow along.