Let's Play 2, Part II

Another message from Richard Hayman:

Hello, Mr. Maly,

It is great to hear from you. I’ve missed our correspondence…mostly my fault, I guess. I thought I was taking a break from teaching while working on my doctorate in educational leadership, but I’ve taken on some “part-time” teaching responsibilities at the university that, naturally, are more demanding than just part-time. I still don’t know what I will be when I grow up but, I can say that as I approach my first school district superintendency, I am excited about the possibilities. Meanwhile, my baby boy has grown up into a young man. I’ve tried to talk him into letting me be his college roommate, but he’ll have nothing to do with it. The kids grow up so fast, and it has been the unexpected and overwhelmingly joyful opportunity to be a dad that has added the most meaning to my life.

I agree with Al (the Health Nut), I like your idea about Iowa-Iowa State twice per season…preferably in back-to-back weekends! That would certainly set our intrastate rivalry apart from any others. It’s actually a really good idea. I suppose some would say, “…with well over a hundred teams from which to choose, you’re crazy for playing the same team twice in a season”, and, at times, that argument would have merit. But, if both programs are competitive in their neighboring, and rival, power conferences, I think it would be just absolutely terrific. The intrigue of the second game would always be compelling.

By the way, I’ve given some more thought to my previous comments about the Beathard to Powell touchdown…and I stick to my original position. In fact, at the risk of going too far, I say that if the receiver has possession of the ball before it touches the ground, even if inadvertently stuck in his face mask, or miraculously spinning on his prostrate body, then it is a catch. When someone banks in a free throw or a 3-pointer, we don’t take those points off the board, arguing that the player didn’t really mean to do it. We say he or she got lucky. Call it slop, if you will. But, the points stay on the board. Teams have lost important basketball games on a lucky shot, but no one argues that the points should have been disallowed. That’s the way the ball bounces. When a running back impossibly eludes a horde of would be tacklers, bounced around like a pinball, unconscious on his feet, but somehow ends up in the end zone, we don’t take those points off the board and spot the ball where the runner should have been tackled. He got lucky. A kick that bounces inward through the goal posts after colliding with the upright…those points stay on the board. Even a made intentional-miss free throw…the point stays on the board. Ball never touched the ground, and the receiver had possession at the end of the play. Seems simple enough to me.

Should be an interesting ballgame this weekend. I hope C.J. stays frosty. At some point, he is going to get an opportunity to play for more than a single series. I believe he has the potential to carry this team to a new level…especially with the weapons we have this year. As ridiculous as it may sound, we possibly have two NFL-caliber quarterbacks on our two-deep. I might alternate them on a per game basis, giving my quarterback two weeks to prepare for an opponent, while giving both guys the opportunity to play that they deserve. It’s a wonderful problem to have, but it is a problem…and one that demands a creative solution. Sooner, rather than later.

Best regards,

-- richard

Forget What Some Nutcase Writes About Wanting the Iowa-Iowa State Football Series Called Off. Frankly, I Like What the Chicago Cubs' Ernie Banks Would Always Say: 'Let's Play 2'

By RON MALY


I shared a pot of Italian Dark Roast this morning with My Neighbor Al, the Health Nut.  

Al had just gotten back from Hy-Vee, where he reads the paper.  

"I saw that they're writing about whether the Iowa-Iowa State football series should be called off after the present contract expires," Al told me. 

"Who's writing crap like that?" I asked Al. 

"Oh, I think it was in My 2 Cents Worth or something,"  Al said. 

"Listen, Al, those people who write stuff in My 2 Cents Worth are idiots," I commented.  "They can be idiots because they never have to use their real names. 

"The paper lets them use phony names like Joe from the East Side, Daniel P. Finney In the Newsroom and Pissed Off In Schleswig.

"Besides, Al, anyone who thinks the Iowa-Iowa State football series should be called off -- whether he or she writes it in My 2 Cents Worth or not -- is an idiot. 


"I know all about that series because I covered a lot of Iowa-Iowa State games after the series was revived in the Bob Commings/Earle Bruce coaching days back in the previous century. 

"As far as I'm concerned, the Iowa-Iowa State game is the best one on the schedules of both teams more often than not. 

"It sure beats the heck out of Iowa-Ball State and Iowa State-Toledo.

"The stadiums at Iowa and Iowa State are full when the Hawkeye-Cyclone games are played--something that's not always the case for other games these days. 

"I absolutely love the emotion of the series. I loved the emotion in Kinnick Stadium many years ago when Commings' Iowa team, with his son, Bob, Jr., at quarterback, upset Bruce's Iowa State team. 

"The Cyclones wore the words "BEAT IOWA" on the front of their jerseys that day [it was Bruce's idea], and it riled up the Hawkeye players. Consequently, they played over their heads. 

"I loved the emotion when Bret Bielema, then an Iowa linebacker, told then-Iowa State coach Jim Walden, "You're a big prick, and I loved kicking your ass for five seasons" after the Hawkeyes won at Kinnick. 

"I loved the emotion when Donnie Duncan, who then was Iowa State's coach, won three straight games from Iowa. 

"I loved the emotion involved when Dan McCarney, a former Iowa player and assistant coach, won five straight games in the series when he was Iowa State's coach. 

"You know what, Al? The only thing better than one Iowa-Iowa State football game every season would be two games--one in Iowa City, another in Ames.  Who says it couldn't be done?  

"That's how much value I put on this series. I hope they play each other forever. And, like Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs would always say, let's play two."

"I like your idea," Al said. "Pour me another cup."

                               Hawkeyes celebrate after beating Iowa State. Photo courtesy of Bill Adams/University of Iowa.

Richard Hayman's Thoughts On the Hawkeyes

Hello, Mr. Maly. 

I hope this note finds you doing well.

I’m compelled to write.

I like Jake Rudock. Jake is a proven winner. His numbers almost look like typographical 
errors. We’re 2-0. Despite our win, I’m extremely uneasy.

Jake seems to make all the throws, but one. Jake can’t hit the streaking wide receiver. I 
don’t know if his better judgment gets the best of him, or if he is just incapable of 
making that long throw, with both velocity and touch…that 
just-drop-it-over-the-defensive-back-and-hit-your-receiver-in-stride throw. This problem 
then cascades through the offense…and defense…and crowd. I was stunned at the number of 
times Ball State put all 11 guys within 7 yards of the line of scrimmage, and stopped us 
(for Pete’s sake). With Jake, even when we have a long field, we always have a short 
field. Neither UNI nor Ball State respected our ability to throw beyond 20 yards.

For a brief glimpse Saturday, we saw what could be. When the defense has to respect the 
speed and play-making ability of our wide receivers, then our running backs run wild in 
space. Our tight ends have meaningful routes. I disagree that the run has to establish 
the pass. If a defense is completely disregarding your ability to pass over the top, 
instead committing 11 guys to stopping the run, then you have to be able to make them 
pay. With Jake, the defense never pays. Even when we throw downfield, our receivers 
either get slaughtered, or have to fade back into coverage in order to wait for the ball. 
As a consequence, our running game is stifled (and another potent weapon is rendered 
impotent). Our defense could be rested and energized. The crowd would be electrified. 
There would no longer be empty seats in Kinnick.

By the way, I think the reversal of the Beathard-to-Powell touchdown was absolutely 
wrong. I saw the receiver control the ball, first foot down in bounds, cross the plane of 
the goal line (thereby scoring a touchdown), THEN getting pushed by a defender, forcing 
him to shift the ball to his opposite hand, never losing control, ball never touches the 
ground. But, what happened AFTER he crossed the goal line seems irrelevant unless, of his 
own accord, he loses control. A defender hitting him after he scores a touchdown is just 
a frustrated defender. On the other hand, we can’t possibly expect a receiver to hold the 
ball in a frozen position when exposed to direct contact with a real college football 
player. The play was beautiful, the place was rocking, and no one seemed to care that the 
the ball movement was in response to a defender’s contact. I don’t know the specifics of 
the rules but, if that wasn’t a catch, then the rules need to be modified.

I like Jake. I hope he will be as good a teammate to C.J. as C.J. has been to him. This 
game was a 56-10 rout that didn’t happen, that couldn’t happen with Jake. We can win with 
Jake, and it’s great to know your reserve quarterback can rally your team to an 
improbable win. But, with C.J., this would have been an entirely different game. I don’t 
understand what valid experiment was completed by not allowing Beathard to take another 
snap. I felt Coach Ferentz placed his loyalty to Jake over the importance of winning this 
game. With Jake, we can have a respectable season. With C.J., we can have a special 
season.

We have a gunslinger on the sidelines who deserves a chance, and his name is C.J. 
Beathard. Coach Ferentz needs to pull the trigger.

-- Richard Hayman

Wilson N. Franklin of West Des Moines sent me this email: "Did you hear that former West Des Moines Valley and Drake basketball guard Matt Woodley resigned as head coach at Division II Truman State to become an assistant coach with the Iowa Energy? I don't think this made the D.M. Register." RON MALY'S COMMENT--No, I hadn't heard that information. Thanks for telling me. And you can be certain the paper will be the last to hear about it. News reaches that place very slowly these days.

Matt Woodley. Photo courtesy of Twitter.

I don't read much of anything in the paper these days. Sometimes I'll go a week or more without seeing it. But it seems that every time I pick it up, there's a story about a football game I covered in my 40 years at the place. Lately, the paper has been running a series of stories about the biggest football games played by Iowa and Iowa State. It's good stuff. It seems that every time I read one of those stories, it's about a game I covered. More often than not, quotes from the players and coaches that I got in the locker rooms and/or interview rooms are included in the stories. It's nice to re-;live those games and the postgame happiness of the Hawkeye and Cyclone coaches and players. An added feature that might contribute even more historical significance to those stories, though, would be for the paper to write something like this: "After the game, Iowa coach Forest Evashevski told Des Moines Register sportswriter Bert McGrane, Gus Schrader of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, John O'Donnell of the Davenport Democrat and other journalism heavyweights, 'I couldn't be more proud of a group of Hawkeye players than I am today after this victory over Notre Dame." Or: "Following the Cyclones' mammoth upset of Oklahoma, coach Jim Walden told Des Moines Register sportswriter Ron Maly and a roomful of other reporters , "I was sick in bed with the flu throughout most of Friday and into Saturday morning. My players found a way to cure my sickness and do some wonderful things for Iowa State's football program by shocking Oklahoma." Or this: "Following the Cyclones' supreme effort, coach Earle Bruce told Des Moines Register sportswriter Buck Turnbull and others in the interview room from papers in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas that it was a "brilliant example of how a football team on a mission can stun the football world."

Forest Evashevski. Photo courtesy of Google.

I've written about Daniel P. Finney, a man who obviously has a lot of problems, in these columns a number of times. Hopefully this will be the final time. The troubled Finney, who works for the paper, wrote the other day that he has twice been in an emergency room with suicidal thoughts. I'm sorry to hear that. Like I said, I've learned over the years that Finney has lots of problems--suicidal thoughts among them, I guess. Finney first came to my attention a few years ago when one of his friends forwarded a Christmas card [more accurately a Christmas letter] that said he thought he had no future in the newspaper business and intended to become a high school teacher. I'm fairly certain Finney also had some information in the letter about his hobby of collecting comic books. All of this on the heels of Finney losing his job at a newspaper in St. Louis. He had created a phony name and was criticizing his bosses at the paper under that name in what he regarded as a personal website. His bosses in St. Louis didn't particularly like Finney's manner of critricizing them, and proceeded to tell him he was no longer welcome in the newsroom. Despite thinking his journalism career was finished, the paper here gave him another chance. The next thing I knew, Finney was covering high school football games in Des Moines for the paper. Then he for some reason was named the editor of the Indianola paper [which is owned by the Des Moines Register], but he didn't last long there either. He found a way to get dumped. Now he's writing again for the paper here. I don't read anything he writes. I don't know if anyone else does either. The Internet says people at Gannett Co. papers, like the one here, will soon have to re-apply for their jobs. I can't believe Finney would be re-hired again, but who knows? All I know is that, hopefully, this is the last time I write anything about Finney. I won't mention his name again unless someone points out to me that Finney has done some other dumb thing that pisses me off.

I guess it's official that the 2014 collegiate football season is almost ready to start. My 208-page Oklahoma press guide [a gift from the university's athletic department] arrived in today's mail. Trophies and awards, players and coaches are pictured on the front cover. It also says on the cover that the Sooners are 7-time national champions and 8-time Big 12 Conference champions. Former Iowa player Bob Stoops is their very successful coach. It's hard to believe he's been in charge of the Oklahoma program for 15 seasons. How time flies when Stoops is having fun and I'm having fun.