IOWA VS. WISCONSIN

HUGE game to take place in Legendary Kinnick Stadium Saturday at 2:30pm on ABC. Shonn Greene will be the honorary Captain for the Iowa Hawkeyes this week. Shonn Greene has a highlight video on Youtube of what he did to the Badgers last time they were in Kinnick.
Wisconsin is a lot like Iowa, they want to run first, then pass. Its going to be a good old fashion Big Ten smash mouth football, and may even include some raindrops. The battle is going to be in the trenches between the Wisconsin big-o-offensive line and Iowa's defensive line. Iowa did very well last year in Camp Randall, and Iowa has done well versus Wisconsin in the last decade, especially in big games. 2004 Iowa beat Wisconsin at home to win a share of the Big Ten title. Iowa beat Wisconsin at Camp Randall in Barry Alvarez's last game as head coach of the Badgers. Tomorrow will be a big spot too, and its in Kinnick Stadium. This will be the game were Rick Stanzi is going to have to play very well as Wisconsin will load the box to stop the run, and Stanzi's WR's could be too much for an average Wisconsin secondary. Iowa's offensive line will need to protect Stanzi and open some holes for Adam Robinson. Wisconsin has a good defensive line as well, so that will be key for the Hawks to establish a run game.
I think the biggest factory is coaching. Ferentz teams make great adjustments, and as long as Iowa doesn't give up a Special Teams touchdown or spot Wisconsin 14 points right away, they should be fine. Iowa was down to Wisconsin last year and fought back at Camp Randall.
I fully expect the 12th man of Kinnick Stadium to be very loud tomorrow and looking foward to it.

Lets keep the BULL (Heartland Trophy) in its rightful place in Iowa City, and lets take down the Roadkill Sewer Rats of Madison.

GO HAWKS!!!!!!

Patriots-Vikings in Trade Talks to Send Moss Back Home

The Minnesota Vikings are in serious trade talks with the New England Patriots in having Randy Moss traded to the Vikings were he started his career. The Vikings couldn't get a trade worked out with the San Diego Chargers for Vincent Jackson as the Chargers GM wanted a little too much for Jackson which will end up hurting the Chargers later when he walks at the end of the year and they have nothing for him.
If I am the Wilf family I do everything and anything to get Randy Moss back in a Vikings uniform. Brett Favre wanted Moss in Green Bay when he signed with New England, well he might get his chance this time. It appears that the Vikings just have to work out the money for Moss for an extension on his contract, but if they do have to give some draft picks up, do it. If you have to send Berrian, do it. Do whatever it takes to get him in Minneapolis by tomorrow evening. How awesome will be that I can break out my Randy Moss Vikings jersey again if this deal gets done. Who would have ever thought 5 years ago that Bret Favre would be a Viking, and then Randy Moss would come back as well, no way would I believe it, but it just might happen. SKOL VIKINGS!!!!

My Favorite NBA Team

I know that we are in Football season and loving every minute of it. But of course Lebron had to have some air time about how the race card is being used on him and his "DECISION". Give me a break dude, you are the biggest crybaby millionaire that I have never met. I'm sure all those who walked before you didn't deal with way worse race issues than what you deal with. Can Lebron find an excuse for everything? I think he is realizing that he will never win as many titles as Jordan or Kobe, and that every tag line for him is a fail. The "Chosen one", "The King", "We are all Witnesses" to what I am not sure of yet. Maybe if the Heat don't win the title this year it will be because on Oct. 1st Slacker Sports wrote bad things about Baby Lebron. Somebody call Harold Minor and let him know that the Baby Jordan tag has been removed and Lebron wants it, except he is not worthy to have the Jordan part, so it will be just Baby Lebron. So I don't really follow an NBA team, the Bulls were my team when MJ & Pippen played, and the Bulls destroyed there franchise for like 11 years, so it kind of killed it for me. I do like watching playoffs, but regular season doesn't do a whole lot for me. But I am declaring on this day that my favorite team will be whoever the Heat are playing. I don't want to see the Heat win a title, and in fact nothing would be better than a 1st round exit in the playoffs. That whole 3 man show they had in Miami was great if it was the WWE, where was the other Miami Heat members? Apparently they are so good, they are going to play 3 on 5 this season. Nothing says look at me like that production. I remember the Bulls as a team doing parades and stuff, but they were winning titles, and doing it at the end of the season. I don't recall MJ, Pippen and fill in the blank having a 3 man concert at the United Center saying look at how cool we are, we are NBA players that are good, and we are going to win it all, not just once, like 15 times. Good Luck 29 other NBA teams, I will be rooting you on.

The State of Hawkeye Nation

Last Saturday night the Iowa Football team had about everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Anytime you spot a team 14 points to start and have your special teams play not so special you shouldn't win. On top of that the Hawks were playing in front of a hostile crowd, and everything I have read and seen thanks to Youtube you would have thought Iowa was playing in the Arizona Prison League. I am pretty sure that I will never attend a game down there, but i'm pretty sure after this past Saturday Iowa will never return there for a non-conference game. Apparently in Arizona sportsmanship doesn't exist. I know not everything is perfect in Iowa City either, but I have never witnessed in my 15 years as a season ticket holder to Iowa the things I saw and heard on Youtube of the treatment Iowa fans received at Arizona. Between there fans constantly using profanity towards Iowa fans and this includes kids and 80 year old Iowa fans as well. There fans were verbally threatening Iowa Fans, and continued after the game when the media was trying to talk to Iowa coaches and players at the endzone. But this is the same school that was throwing objects at Oregon Fans and players just a year ago, knocking an Oregon Cheerleader out with a water bottle that was thrown. So stay classy Arizona, maybe we will get to see you again in Pasadena, thankfully that will be a neutral site game and not inside the prison walls of Arizona Stadium.
But Back to the Hawkeyes. So Iowa has lost a game where everything went wrong that could go wrong. One thing about the Ferentz era is when Iowa loses a game, they improve quite a bit for the next game. This lose to Arizona does nothing to the goal of winning the Big Ten Conference title. In 2002 Iowa lost to Iowa State, and in 2004 Iowa lost to Arizona State which was a brutual beat down of 44-7. So the goal or prize is still obtainable. Iowa does lose Jewell Hampton for the year, but Marcus Coker the freshman from Maryland will get to showcase what he can do as Adam Robinson's backup. We never knew what Shonn Greene was going to be able to do, and we didn't know what Robinson, and Brandon Wegher were going to be able to do last year either, yet Iowa was just fine. Under Ferentz the motto has always been next man in, so that is what they will do, and move on.

Slacker Sports is now on Twitter

Thats right, Slacker Sports is on Twitter as of today (8/28/10). I have so many thoughts and points throughout the day, so I thought I would bring Slacker sports to twitter. Maybe this will help expand Slacker Sports. Over the past year Slacker Sports has had visitors from Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, and many more countries. Slacker Sports gets visitors from many states as well. For some reason Slacker Sports is a hit in Tennessee. The tag is SlackerSports for Twitter.

Quick Hits

There are a couple of the things that I would like to touch on. The Florida Gators, Chad Ocho Cinco, and Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael Jordan.

Earlier this week the Florida Gators had 2 freshman by the names of Ronald Powell, and Dominque Easley boycott practice. Apparently these 2 highly taunted freshman players were upset at the way they were treated by the coaches on special teams on Monday night. It gets better, these 2 along with Sharif Floyd were center of attention on media day because these 3 highly taunted players made comments that make head coaches cringe. Dominque told the media that Ronald was like Chris Bosh, Sharif is like Dwayne Wade, and I am like Lebron James. Yes, 3 players that are freshman who haven't even played a snap of Division 1 football is comparing themselves to 3 players that are professional athletes and are all-stars. All I have to say is I am thankful that I will never hear something like that out of Iowa City. So Dominque and Ronald got their feelings hurt at practice on monday night, then boycotted practice, and even threatened to transfer. I don't care if you are a highly touted 5 star recruit coming in, last time I checked you are at one of the best programs in the SEC, and country. The head coach has won some titles, they are called National Titles, and he has won everywhere he has been. So for you, who hasn't proven anything yet, to think you are all high and mighty. If my name was Urban Meyer, I would say bye bye, good luck at Central Florida, because nobody is going to want you now, have fun competing for Conference USA titles while us Gators will be playing for National Titles. Urban Meyer did say that "you have 25 new guys and they think they will dominate like they did in high school. They have no idea what is about to hit them".What has happened to these kids? I got yelled at by the coaches, and teammates at times in high school, and I still showed up the next day.

If you ever wanted to know why Michael Jordan's son's will never be NBA stars, I have the answer. Most star athletes have to work hard to get where they are. Some have to work extremely hard because they may not have the same freakish talent. Couple examples, about 8 years ago, you could say Tracy McGrady has the same talent as Kobe Bryant. Differences is Kobe worked harder, found that mental edge, and became a star. McGrady I don't think did anything, but sign contracts for a lot of money. Kobe wanted to win, McGrady seemed find playing for less talented teams for more money. So Marcus Jordan had put on his twitter account that he spent $35,000 in one night at Haze nightclub in Las Vegas. The 19 year old sophomore guard at Central Florida is being investigated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Marcus doesn't have to work hard to make the NBA, he is already living like a NBA millionaire. Michael may want to cut back his allowance.

Here is a positive story that nobody will tell you because they only report the bad. Chad Ocho Cinco has his own Cereal that is coming out Sept. 7th at Kroger Grocery Stores and on-line. All proceeds go to Feed The Children program. He may be an ego-maniac, but he is doing something good too.

1st Annual Big 12 Conference Preview

I will be doing a Big Ten Conference Preview that is more in depth than the Big 12. I was not far off at all with my predictions with the Big Ten a year ago. We will see how I do with the Big 12 as I don't know it as well as the Big Ten, but here it is.

Big 12 North
1. Nebraska. They are lucky they are in the North, they might as well have a bulls-eye on their helmet, every team and away fans will want to beat Nebraska for leaving the conference.
2.  Missouri - They return quite a few players, will be much better this year, and Pinkel will show that he can coach somewhat.
3. Colorado - Its now or never for coach Hawkins. He has a lot of players coming back from a disappointing season in 09, but his job is on the line this year thanks to the paycheck written by PAC-10.
4. K-State - Wildcats have a big powerful Running back that will be their key player, but its still K-State.
5. Iowa State - They are coming off of a 7-6 season and a bowl win in Paul Rhoads first year, call it a miracle, but not happening this year. They play at Iowa, and get Oklahoma and Texas back to back weekends, you won't find another program that gets that every time like ISU does. They will be better than Kansas though.
6. Kansas -They are back to being a basketball school, at least for now. They did land Turner Gill as their new head coach, he did an outstanding job at Buffalo, apparently he likes coaching at the worst locations in the country.

Big 12 South
1. Oklahoma - The Sooners return from a season they would like to forget by punishing everybody. They are lead by a QB that got an early start to his career due to Sam Bradford getting hurt last year, and that will pay off big time for the Sooners.
2. Texas - Not this year for the Longhorns, they will be coming in with a QB that got National Title experience, but not a season like the Sooners QB. Texas won off the field this year in keeping the Big 12 together and filling up their bank account, so they will be easy on others this year.
3. Texas A&M - They are A&M, they are content for being middle of the pack when they could be as big or bigger than the 2 above them. If they would have went to the SEC, they would have become the powerhouse of the state, but they like being little brother to Texas, so enjoy being average.
4. Texas Tech - They are going from Air attack to Ground attack. Tommy Tuberville was very successful at Auburn, we will see how he does in West Texas, and changing a team's philosophy big time.
5. Baylor - This is really their chance to shine and go to a bowl game. They could be number #4 in the south this year, but when you are use to losing, and losing a lot, its hard to change the culture. 
6. Oklahoma State - This team lost a lot of talent, and its going to be a long year in Stillwater. You may not see a team drop as much as this team from one year to the next.

Oklahoma will win the last Big 12 Conference Title game in Dallas, TX over Nebraska who will be going to the Big Ten next year.