JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
Yesterday, we asked Hawkeye fans to vote for the four players from the Kirk Ferentz era who would best make up a Hawkeye Football version 'Mt. Rushmore'.
We kept the poll up for 10 hours and more than 1,600 Iowa fans placed their votes, voting for just four players. That's a very good sample size, considering that most radio and television ratings samples are comprised with fewer than 1000 'samples'. So, the ad rates and show ratings are put together and the fates of executives and on air talents are calculated based on a sample size considerably smaller than the one Iowa fans just gave HawkeyeNation.com. Thank you for the great participation, by the way.
Here are the results, followed by my picks and some commentary:
THE FOUR
1. Bob Sanders (1,327 Votes): Sanders was the leading vote getting by a runaway margin. 81.7% of fans who voted included 'Bullet Bob' on their ballot. I am surprised in that I assumed the percentage would be much higher than that. Bob Sanders is a no doubter as it relates to this sort of 'category'. I would guess that if Kirk Ferentz had to pick one player more than any other who has been the face of his program and represented what Iowa football is all about, it would be Bob Sanders. Sanders was a 1st Team All Big Ten selection for three seasons and was just the ninth Iowa player in school history to pull that off back in 2001, 2002 & 2003.
2. Dallas Clark (920 votes): Clark showed up on 56.6% of the ballots and I was surprised by this. It's not that I don't think Clark is deserving of consideration and it's not that I don't think he's one of the best tight ends in Iowa history, because he is. After moving from linebacker to tight end in the spring of 2001, Clark caught 38 passes for 539 yards and four touchdowns that year. That was enough for him to earn a scholarship heading into the 2002 season, where he caught 43 passes for 742 yards and four touchdowns. He won the Mackey Award in 2002 as the nation's best tight end and was a consensus All American. That said, I did not cast a vote for Clark on my Mt Rushmore list. Scott Chandler caught 46 & 47 passes in his junior and senior seasons and had the same number of touchdown receptions (eight) as Clark did. But he could not stretch the field the way Clark was able to do and was not a great blocker. I wouldn't say Clark was a great blocker either, but boy was he fun to watch and few tight ends can score from 95 yards out, pulling away from defensive backs like he did against Purdue in 2002. Clark had a flair for the dramatic, and perhaps he shines more brightly in the memories of Iowa fans due to that fact.
3. Chad Greenway (686 votes): Greenway made the cut on 42.24% of the ballots and for good reason; he's the best WILL linebacker Iowa has had in the Ferentz era. While few linebackers can stay even in a footrace with a Derek Hagen of Arizona State, Greenway more than held his own in most coverage situations. He was also excellent in outside run pursuit and the passion he played with was such a joy to watch. More on Greenway in a bit.
4. Robert Gallery (680 votes): The Mountain made 41.87% of the ballots, receiving just six fewer votes than Greenway. I was surprised to see this total be so low, as I assumed Gallery and Sanders were the two easiest picks for this list. He won the Outland Trophy as the nation's top lineman following the 2003 season and was the #2 draft pick in the 2004 NFL draft. While he was devastating at the line of scrimmage, I always loved seeing him laying waste to defensive backs 10 to 15 yards down the field and right up to the whistle.
Clark was a walk on to the Iowa program while Iowa was Sanders and Greenway had just one offer from a BCS school (Iowa). Sanders was headed to the MAC before Ferentz mentor Joe Moore told Kirk 'He will make your football team better.' Moore was coaching at Erie Prep at the time and was perhaps the biggest influence on Ferentz early on in his Iowa career while Moore was still alive. Greenway was going to take up Nebraska's walk on offer before his Iowa offer came through. Gallery had offers from Iowa and Iowa State, as a tight end, where he played for Iowa for the first six games of his redshirt freshman year before starting six games as the team's right tackle. None of these players would have earned any more than two-stars in today's recruiting rankings world.
MY BALLOT
Sanders and Gallery were the first two names I wrote down and did so in two seconds. After that, I went with Ricky Stanzi fairly quickly. He was 26-9 as Iowa's starting quarterback, the second most wins for any Iowa starter QB in history (behind Chuck Long). His ability to shake off slow starts or bad throws was fun to watch and he was such a leader on and off the field. Some folks on twitter and the message boards felt that Brad Banks should have garnered more votes and certainly more than Stanzi, as he was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy and the AP Player of the Year for 2002. Banks led Iowa to an 11-2 record and an Orange Bowl appearance in 2002; Stanzi did the same in 2009 and Iowa won the bowl game. Stanzi is also the only Iowa quarterback to start and win three bowl games. These two were separated by just 11 votes; Stanzi with 484 and Banks with 473.
My last pick was the toughest, but I went with Abdul Hodge. He was an outstanding leader and great force on and off the field. Having given this pick more thought throughout the day on Wednesday, I started to lean more towards Greenway. The reason is because I feel Pat Angerer may have had the best season (2009) at middle linebacker by an Iowa player since Larry Station in 1985. But Hodge played at an elite level for three seasons at Iowa and was an absolute beast in run support. Angerer was better in pass coverage (six career picks to none for Hodge) but there was just something about Abdul that won the day. The gap between Greenway and any other WILL is significant where it's not the case at MLB. I'll stick with Hodge but won't argue the Greenway selection at all.
In the actual poll, Shonn Greene was 5th with 575 votes. He had a season for the ages in 2008, one that may not be duplicated at Iowa. But that was his one shining moment, yet he made the most of it.
Nate Kaeding received 284 votes, more than Mitch King, Angerer, Matt Roth, Hodge, Marvin McNutt and others. Yes, a kicker. But when you look at how important Kaeding was to the Iowa program when he was there and just how good he was on the whole, you can't criticize folks for voting his way.
When he left Iowa, he was the most accurate kicker in NCAA history on attempts of 40 yards or more. His first year at Iowa, he missed eight kicks. Then he missed four the following year, three the year after that (in 2002, when he won the Lou Groza award as the best kicker in the nation) and had just one miss as a senior in 2003. He also tricked Ron Zook into thinking he was a running back thanks to the fake field goal attempt at Ohio State in 2003, which counts for bonus points.
What, you forgot about that? Zook, then the head coach of Florida, was asked about Kaeding in a press conference in advance of the 2003 Outback Bowl. Here was his reply: “Well, I mean he’s a little like our situation in that all three of our running backs are a little different in the way that they run, the way they attack, their power and that kind of thing. When you look at what they’ve done running the football, you have to feel that they’ve done something right.â€
Damn you, Illinois, for firing the Zooker.
Thanks again for your voting. We are going to try to create a poll each week this offseason, and not just for the sake of creating a poll. We hope to come up with questions that will be fun, informative and perhaps eye opening when the results are tallied and your participation is greatly appreciated.
NOTE: There was one glaring omission from this list and it's totally my bad. I should have included Drew Tate on the ballot. While I don't believe Tate would have altered the Top Four, his contributions to the football program certainly deserve mention. The 2004 season is my all time favorite Iowa football season and I am sorry for that oversight.
We kept the poll up for 10 hours and more than 1,600 Iowa fans placed their votes, voting for just four players. That's a very good sample size, considering that most radio and television ratings samples are comprised with fewer than 1000 'samples'. So, the ad rates and show ratings are put together and the fates of executives and on air talents are calculated based on a sample size considerably smaller than the one Iowa fans just gave HawkeyeNation.com. Thank you for the great participation, by the way.
Here are the results, followed by my picks and some commentary:
THE FOUR
1. Bob Sanders (1,327 Votes): Sanders was the leading vote getting by a runaway margin. 81.7% of fans who voted included 'Bullet Bob' on their ballot. I am surprised in that I assumed the percentage would be much higher than that. Bob Sanders is a no doubter as it relates to this sort of 'category'. I would guess that if Kirk Ferentz had to pick one player more than any other who has been the face of his program and represented what Iowa football is all about, it would be Bob Sanders. Sanders was a 1st Team All Big Ten selection for three seasons and was just the ninth Iowa player in school history to pull that off back in 2001, 2002 & 2003.
2. Dallas Clark (920 votes): Clark showed up on 56.6% of the ballots and I was surprised by this. It's not that I don't think Clark is deserving of consideration and it's not that I don't think he's one of the best tight ends in Iowa history, because he is. After moving from linebacker to tight end in the spring of 2001, Clark caught 38 passes for 539 yards and four touchdowns that year. That was enough for him to earn a scholarship heading into the 2002 season, where he caught 43 passes for 742 yards and four touchdowns. He won the Mackey Award in 2002 as the nation's best tight end and was a consensus All American. That said, I did not cast a vote for Clark on my Mt Rushmore list. Scott Chandler caught 46 & 47 passes in his junior and senior seasons and had the same number of touchdown receptions (eight) as Clark did. But he could not stretch the field the way Clark was able to do and was not a great blocker. I wouldn't say Clark was a great blocker either, but boy was he fun to watch and few tight ends can score from 95 yards out, pulling away from defensive backs like he did against Purdue in 2002. Clark had a flair for the dramatic, and perhaps he shines more brightly in the memories of Iowa fans due to that fact.
3. Chad Greenway (686 votes): Greenway made the cut on 42.24% of the ballots and for good reason; he's the best WILL linebacker Iowa has had in the Ferentz era. While few linebackers can stay even in a footrace with a Derek Hagen of Arizona State, Greenway more than held his own in most coverage situations. He was also excellent in outside run pursuit and the passion he played with was such a joy to watch. More on Greenway in a bit.
4. Robert Gallery (680 votes): The Mountain made 41.87% of the ballots, receiving just six fewer votes than Greenway. I was surprised to see this total be so low, as I assumed Gallery and Sanders were the two easiest picks for this list. He won the Outland Trophy as the nation's top lineman following the 2003 season and was the #2 draft pick in the 2004 NFL draft. While he was devastating at the line of scrimmage, I always loved seeing him laying waste to defensive backs 10 to 15 yards down the field and right up to the whistle.
Clark was a walk on to the Iowa program while Iowa was Sanders and Greenway had just one offer from a BCS school (Iowa). Sanders was headed to the MAC before Ferentz mentor Joe Moore told Kirk 'He will make your football team better.' Moore was coaching at Erie Prep at the time and was perhaps the biggest influence on Ferentz early on in his Iowa career while Moore was still alive. Greenway was going to take up Nebraska's walk on offer before his Iowa offer came through. Gallery had offers from Iowa and Iowa State, as a tight end, where he played for Iowa for the first six games of his redshirt freshman year before starting six games as the team's right tackle. None of these players would have earned any more than two-stars in today's recruiting rankings world.
MY BALLOT
Sanders and Gallery were the first two names I wrote down and did so in two seconds. After that, I went with Ricky Stanzi fairly quickly. He was 26-9 as Iowa's starting quarterback, the second most wins for any Iowa starter QB in history (behind Chuck Long). His ability to shake off slow starts or bad throws was fun to watch and he was such a leader on and off the field. Some folks on twitter and the message boards felt that Brad Banks should have garnered more votes and certainly more than Stanzi, as he was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy and the AP Player of the Year for 2002. Banks led Iowa to an 11-2 record and an Orange Bowl appearance in 2002; Stanzi did the same in 2009 and Iowa won the bowl game. Stanzi is also the only Iowa quarterback to start and win three bowl games. These two were separated by just 11 votes; Stanzi with 484 and Banks with 473.
My last pick was the toughest, but I went with Abdul Hodge. He was an outstanding leader and great force on and off the field. Having given this pick more thought throughout the day on Wednesday, I started to lean more towards Greenway. The reason is because I feel Pat Angerer may have had the best season (2009) at middle linebacker by an Iowa player since Larry Station in 1985. But Hodge played at an elite level for three seasons at Iowa and was an absolute beast in run support. Angerer was better in pass coverage (six career picks to none for Hodge) but there was just something about Abdul that won the day. The gap between Greenway and any other WILL is significant where it's not the case at MLB. I'll stick with Hodge but won't argue the Greenway selection at all.
In the actual poll, Shonn Greene was 5th with 575 votes. He had a season for the ages in 2008, one that may not be duplicated at Iowa. But that was his one shining moment, yet he made the most of it.
Nate Kaeding received 284 votes, more than Mitch King, Angerer, Matt Roth, Hodge, Marvin McNutt and others. Yes, a kicker. But when you look at how important Kaeding was to the Iowa program when he was there and just how good he was on the whole, you can't criticize folks for voting his way.
When he left Iowa, he was the most accurate kicker in NCAA history on attempts of 40 yards or more. His first year at Iowa, he missed eight kicks. Then he missed four the following year, three the year after that (in 2002, when he won the Lou Groza award as the best kicker in the nation) and had just one miss as a senior in 2003. He also tricked Ron Zook into thinking he was a running back thanks to the fake field goal attempt at Ohio State in 2003, which counts for bonus points.
What, you forgot about that? Zook, then the head coach of Florida, was asked about Kaeding in a press conference in advance of the 2003 Outback Bowl. Here was his reply: “Well, I mean he’s a little like our situation in that all three of our running backs are a little different in the way that they run, the way they attack, their power and that kind of thing. When you look at what they’ve done running the football, you have to feel that they’ve done something right.â€
Damn you, Illinois, for firing the Zooker.
Thanks again for your voting. We are going to try to create a poll each week this offseason, and not just for the sake of creating a poll. We hope to come up with questions that will be fun, informative and perhaps eye opening when the results are tallied and your participation is greatly appreciated.
NOTE: There was one glaring omission from this list and it's totally my bad. I should have included Drew Tate on the ballot. While I don't believe Tate would have altered the Top Four, his contributions to the football program certainly deserve mention. The 2004 season is my all time favorite Iowa football season and I am sorry for that oversight.
