Week Two observations

Before I dive into the Iowa-FIU game and my other thoughts surrounding college football, I want to briefly mention why college football is so enjoyable.

Coming into the weekend, I seriously thought that the majority of the games were going to be blowouts or just plain boring to watch (some still were). To my amusement, a lot of games were hung in the balance before some teams began to pull away, and that really made the day better for me as both a fan and as a sports writer.

Like always, I'll start with the Hawks and go from there.

1. Another convincing 'W'

To simply put it, the Hawkeyes could not have asked for a better start to the season given the caliber of competition they have faced. It isn't the 2-0 mark at the moment that is impressive because I, like many, expected Iowa to win both of these games. What is impressive is the business-like mentality that the Hawkeyes have demonstrated, coming out again with two touchdowns on the first two drives. It brings back shades of 2002 for me when opening statements by Iowa looked routine. That makes this exciting thus far.

2. The quarterbacks

Throughout the week, the plan for Saturday's game with FIU was similar to that of the previous game with Maine - Jake Christensen was going to start, but Ricky Stanzi would get as equal an amount of playing time as possible. Both got plenty of reps, but Stanzi was the surprise starter when the offense took the field for its opening possession. Based on Stanzi's performance, I don't know how he couldn't be the starting quarterback against Iowa State next week, but as of now, this is still up in the air, and unfortunately, it will remain up in the air when the team addresses the media on Tuesday. 8-of-10 for 162 yards and three touchdowns though is quite an argument for why Stanzi should start, but we'll have to wait and see.

3. Another point on the QB's

I'm only going to say this once (hopefully). The booing of Christensen was completely out of line, not just because there were students doing this, but also regular spectators of all ages booing as well. I'll say right now that I believe based on the two performances this season, Stanzi should be the starter. But I will also tell you as a member of the media and having interviewed Christensen as well as be around other media outlets who have interviewed him, that Christensen is a stand-up guy when talking to us. He has always taken responsibility for any poor play on his part and I know for a fact that the guy is a competitor. He always tells you how he feels about things, and all of us in the media after the game could tell that the scrutiny had gotten to him. To give you a quick idea, Christensen was the FIRST PLAYER to walk into the players' interview room after the game and the way he handled himself under the circumstances is admirable, to say the least. I can't blame Ferentz for wanting to see what he could do in a back-up role, especially when he said that both guys would play against FIU. If Christensen does start, or even play on Saturday against the Cyclones, I hope he receives much better treatment from the Hawkeye faithful.

4. Had a good feeling about a shutout

For those of you who did read my post from late Friday night (yeah, I'm aware of the time), I said that I had a good feeling that the Hawkeye defense would pitch a shutout against a bad FIU squad. All you need to know about why I had this feeling is that after the Maine game (keep in mind Iowa won 46-3, so it wasn't a nailbiter by any means), some of the defensive players were real mad because they had allowed a running back to run for 100 yards, and that they had a lot of areas they wanted to correct. Against Maine, the Hawkeyes only recorded one sack (A.J. Edds' safety). On Saturday, the Hawkeyes got six sacks. Huge difference in terms of getting to the quarterback. That type of progress was noticeable and good to see.

5. A performance that maybe went unnoticed

He scored the last two touchdowns of a 42-0 blowout, but I would still like to give props to sophomore wide receiver Colin Sandeman. The guy only caught two balls on Saturday, but both of his catches resulted in the first two touchdowns of his Hawkeye career. Even more intriguing was that one touchdown came from Stanzi and the other from Christensen. The best part about this is that there is depth on the offensive side of the ball, especially at both the receiver and tight end positions, which is great to see considering the amount of injuries at those positions a year ago.

6. The balance

Perhaps the most satisfying part of what the Hawkeyes have demonstrated thus far is the balance they've shown on offense. Against the Golden Panthers, Iowa had 241 yards on the ground and 271 through the air. The 512 yards of total offense was the most it had in almost two years. When the Hawkeyes can play like this with the ball, they're going to be a tough team to beat, whether they're playing cupcakes or not.

"The PAT": Now here comes Iowa State

I'll elaborate further on this later in the week, but what I do want to say real quickly about the upcoming game with the Cyclones is that I actually think it will be a good battle. Both teams are 2-0 coming in, and both have put up a minimum of 42 points in each of its first two contests. However, I think the Hawkeyes come in with a better defense, and perhaps more importantly, the attitude I'm seeing right now whenever Iowa State is brought up is truly a contrast from last year. Now I'm not going to suggest that any of the Iowa players didn't take the Cyclones seriously last year because they're competitors that want to win every game, and that's true of anybody. All I'm saying now is that last year's defeat I think woke the Hawkeyes up a bit and the demeanor this team will have in Kinnick Stadium this coming weekend will be significantly better.

Now for the rest of college football...

1. The letter of the law needs to be changed

When I returned from Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, I watched the last five minutes of the game between BYU and Washington, and while I had no rooting interest in the final outcome, I found myself cursing at the TV after Jake Locker scored a Huskies touchdown that following a successful PAT would have tied the game and sent it to overtime. I will say one (and only one) thing in the officials' defense - that based on the new letter of the law (which I remember being emphasized to the media when I was covering the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago), Locker shouldn't have thrown the ball in the air. That said, let's be realistic. When you just made a huge play for your team, you're in a whole different frame of mind as an athlete and what Locker did should never be an unsportsmanlike conduct. This doesn't mean BYU wouldn't have still blocked the PAT or that Washington would've won the game in overtime, but the fact that this penalty essentially determined the outcome of the game is absurd, and the only thing anyone can do about it is change the letter of the law recently established this year.

2. Ohio State eeking out a 'W'

I'll elude back to being in Chicago last July and having the chance to talk to James Laurinaitis about the Buckeyes. He talked about how his team needed to stay "in the here and now" and take everything on a day-by-day basis, including focusing on one opponent at a time. I'm not going to suggest that he didn't take Ohio seriously, but it's pretty obvious that some of the guys on the Buckeyes were looking ahead to USC because special teams had to save the day in Columbus last Saturday. 26-14 over Ohio shouldn't be accepted truthfully, and hearing one of the Buckeye players call their performance "pathetic" is actually good to hear as opposed to the "a win is a win" mantra. I just hope Ohio State is truly ready to play - with or without Beanie Wells - against USC because I want that game to live up to the hype it will get all week.

3. South Florida is extremely lucky

This might get a bit overlooked since USF ended up winning its game over Central Florida in overtime, 31-24, but towards the end, the Bulls had an opportunity to win the game on a last-second field goal. What I thought they were going to do with one timeout remaining and under a minute left was run the ball into the middle of the hashmarks since the Golden Knights didn't have any timeouts left, call the last timeout with say four seconds left, and just ask the kicker to make a direct field goal as time expired. Instead, they tried to get off a kick on 2nd-and-10 from the near hashmark, got called for a delay of game, tried to kick it again, and the kicker ended up kicking the ball direct and it went to the left of the left upright. Bad clock management, but the Bulls get a pass because they did win the game.

4. Arkansas might be the worst 2-0 team in all of college football

To Bobby Petrino's credit, his Razorbacks have found ways to win games after two weeks. But a final minute 28-24 win over Western Illinois last week coupled with a 28-27 win over UL-Monroe thanks to a final minute touchdown and a missed FG try by the WarHawks, and you got an ugly 2-0 mark for Arkansas. Based on what I've seen from the Razorbacks these first couple of weeks, I just do not see them hanging with No. 8 Texas in Austin on Saturday, and it could be a long season in Fayetteville once Arkansas gets into SEC play.

5. Don't let the score fool you

Yes, Florida beat Miami 26-3, and if you didn't see the game, you would probably consider this a blowout. However, I give the 'Canes a lot of credit for applying pressure to Tim Tebow early and often on defense, and if Miami had any sort of offense to speak of, it might have pulled the upset and continued its awkward-like dominance in this rivalry. But eventually Florida figured it out, and what I feel helped the Gators from the parts of the game I did watch on Saturday was that the battle of field position worked in Florida's favor tremendously. I'm normally not a huge fan of Brent Musberger, but I have to commend him for recognizing this during the game and giving the Gators' punt coverage a tremendous amount of credit for being a difference in the contest.

6. East Carolina is for real

A week after feeling like a genius for picking the Pirates to upset Virginia Tech, I have to now eat crow because I did not give them any chance of beating West Virginia on Saturday. Not only did East Carolina beat the Mountaineers, but the game wasn't even close. 24-3, against that West Virginia offense? Skip Holtz and his program deserve all the praise they're getting right now because they have easily been the most impressive college football team thus far in 2008.

"Going for Two": This week, I want to touch on two storied programs - one that had a great outing on Saturday, and one that lucked out, no pun intended.

First with Penn State, if it weren't for East Carolina's storybook two weeks, the Nittany Lions may be the most impressive team in the land after two weeks. I'm not saying they're better than Ohio State or that Penn State will win the Big Ten, but beating down, in my opinion, a decent Oregon State team by 31 points has to be an eyebrow raiser. Granted, a 66-10 win over Coastal Carolina might not intrigue you, but considering all the suspensions and injuries on the defensive side of the ball Joe Paterno has to deal with at the moment, this is really remarkable. Also, Evan Royster has come on strong as the Nittany Lions' running back and I feel he complements quarterback Darryl Clark well in the backfield. If this continues, look out for Penn State down the line.

And finally, there's Notre Dame. Yes, the Fighting Irish beat San Diego State 21-13 on Saturday in South Bend, but two points that need to be made: 1. San Diego State came less than a yard away from laying a beatdown of its own on Notre Dame (a fumble at the goalline saved the Irish), and 2. Considering that the Aztecs lost to Cal-Poly a week ago, Notre Dame had no business struggling with them and should have laid the wood to San Diego State from the get-go. The Irish have one thing going for them, that they might be picked to beat Michigan on Saturday by default (never thought I'd write those words in my lifetime) because both teams have so many question marks, but there's no way that team I saw on Saturday against San Diego State can win 11 games like "Dr. Lou" suggests every day on ESPN it will.

I hope you enjoyed this week's post. I'll be back later this week to preview the upcoming weekend's slate of games, and there are some good ones to discuss.

- Brendan Stiles