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Opening Statement
Couple thoughts about last weekend and the week coming up. Before that I'll kind of veer off for a second. Coach O'Keefe starts his meetings with a moment in history. I'm going to give you a points to ponder item here today.
A couple years ago the NCAA passed a rule that basically said you can't start any activities until 6 a.m., which I think is a good rule for student-athletes. No question about that.
Still trying to figure out, we have NCAA drug testing, everybody goes through that. That's not a surprise to anybody.
But we had more than a handful of athletes that had to be here at 5:30 a.m. today to have an NCAA drug test. I'm trying to find the logic in there. I'm sure there is somewhere if you can explain it to me after last year's waiver process, good luck on that one.
The other thing it's a random test. And I think 22 athletes tested. 16 were in a room two-deep. That's an interesting random definition for me, too.
Anyway, just start with that. Things to ponder. Things to get you distracted from what you're trying to do. Seems like we have something every week.
Anyway, back to last week. First and foremost, it was good to get the win. Our football team needed to experience some success. And have a good locker room, certainly. Really happy about that.
It's never easy against Northwestern, home or away. They're a tough team. Have been forever. And Saturday is no different. It's challenging. Certainly in the fourth quarter. And our guys fought to the end as did their team.
Happy for our guys. I think the tape reflected some improvement. Glad to see that. Certainly we got plenty of room to continue to improve. And that's the task in front of us right now.
And it's important for us moving forward. Certainly going to be important for us this week as we look at Minnesota coming to town here.
Just in general, we always talk to our guys about November football. Just how important it is and that really is where teams get defined. That's what they get remembered by typically.
You look across our conference and really college football. There's a lot of teams right now competing for meaningful positions in conference races, all that kind of stuff.
And I've said it repeatedly, not that anybody cares, but preseason polls don't mean a lot. This is where things get sifted out and defined themselves.
There's plenty of opportunity out there for us. Plenty of opportunity for a lot of teams in our conference. It will be interesting to watch see what happens over the next couple of weeks for sure. For us it's pretty easy. Our focus has to be in what's in front of us three tough competitive games in front of us. It leads into this week certainly with Minnesota coming to town.
Captain-wise for the game. We have the same guys as last week. Tyler Linderbaum, Matt Hankins, Jack Koerner, Jack Campbell. They'll be out there. Wrote down a depth chart Sunday night based on where our team was at.
If we were playing tomorrow, Petras, Richmond, and Roberts would not be playing. Riley has a good chance to play and we'll see how the week plays out. But those are probably the four most notable injuries at this point. We'll see where that all goes.
Regarding Minnesota, they're a tough football team. A good football team. They're playing hard for Coach Fleck and his staff. No big surprise. A lot of veteran players there. As I look at their team, a couple of thoughts. They got off to a challenging start. They were 2-2 at one point. Lost if not the best running back in the conference one of the best running backs in the conference.
Certainly, a real leader on their football team. Yet they played through that and came back and have won four out of five since that time. And played good football. They're a big physical team, both sides of the football. Quarterback is one of the most experienced and dangerous quarterbacks in our conference. Really good player.
They run the ball extremely well. Got some talented receivers. Defensively, and this is true of their whole team. They have a real identity. They know who they are what they are and how they do things. Defensively, that's very clear they're very veteran, well-coached and know their scheme inside and out and do a great job on special teams.
It's going to be a real challenge for us. We'll have to do everything we can to be ready for it on Saturday. Obviously, we are excited to be back at home after being gone for a while.
It feels like a month. That's going to be great. And on a side, it's fantastic that the '81 team will be able to be recognized and have a reunion. Really neat that timed up where Andre could be back. Andre going into the College Football Hall of Fame. The thing about that one of his teammate, Bob Stoops, few years back, two guys going into the College Football Hall of Fame. That's a pretty cool thing.
Obviously Coach Fry, with the timing of his passing, the pandemic, great to have his family back here, too. That will be special, too. For Hawkeye fans to be able to recognize all those tremendous people. I think that's a neat thing.
Lucas Moore is our honorary captain of this week from Fort Dodge. And Lucas had open heart surgery three months of age. And is just doing great now. I understand he plays the drums. Big sports fan. It will be great to have him with us on Saturday as well.
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