I'm going to miss Ak

[Northside Hawk]

Every defensive back's nightmare, being one on one with Ronnie Harmon in the open field. At this moment, Illinois's Jerome Heaven is probably holding on tight to the rosary beads and praying Hail Mary while simultaneously saying to himself "Oh Shit!"

 

[Northside Hawk]

UCLA also said they knew what Iowa was running most of the time.

I didn't know that. Here's what I do know. UCLA noticed in film study that one of our defensive lineman would tip what direction the line would slant by which hand he would put down. UCLA would then audible counter action to the other side which is how Eric Ball ran wild on us. Also our leading tackler Larry Station, playing his final collegiate game, aggravated an old back injury early in the game and was not his normal effective self.

 

[Seth53]

Every defensive back's nightmare, being one on one with Ronnie Harmon in the open field. At this moment, Illinois's Jerome Heaven is probably holding on tight to the rosary beads and praying Hail Mary while simultaneously saying to himself "Oh Shit!"

RH was an Ortho Surgeon's dream.....a real ankle-breaker

 

[Xerxes]

Much as I never wanted to believe it...

Has he ever been back or "featured" at any events"? Been an honorary captain? Been at any reunions/events honoring the 1985 team?

And this is the exact reason why I don't believe anything sinister happened with Harmon at the Rose Bowl. He was the honorary captain against Ohio St in 2006. Yes THAT game on national television against the #1 Buckeyes.

I think he was also the honorary captain in Kirk's first season. Maybe Northern Illinois or was at least on the sideline.

As we all know, Kirk was on that Iowa staff in 1985. He had first hand knowledge of what was going on at that time. By 2006, he was in full control of the Iowa football program. Absolutely nobody was going to tell him what to do at that point and nobody had the power to do so anyway. In his first year, yeah, but not in year 8. And if Kirk even had a slight hint that Ronnie did something like that there is no way in hell he would have let him anywhere near the program.

Now did Harmon get money from some creeps during his Iowa career? Probably. And probably from some of the worst kind of creeps. Not rich alumni trying to hang on to athletes' nuts. College football was the Wild West bad then and there were a lot of guys from major programs getting paid. And Kirk is probably aware of some of those dealings as I'm sure most coaches from that era are. But if he did get paid for dumping a game, somehow Ferentz has been convinced otherwise.

 

[BigD]

Agreed. Love Akrum but....Harmon was a beast. Short of the Rose Bowl game, he would be on Olympus for Iowa. Look at his whole career, Iowa and the NFL, not many can approach that success at Iowa. Ladell Betts and Shonn Greene are the only other successful NFL backs in my lifetime from the Hawks.

Yep, all three were exceptional backs. There was a couple more I am thinking of one being Shedrick Shaw ( how could anyone who watched him play ever forget him, and then there was a running back that was so powerful they moved him to fullback by the name of Owen Gil.

All of six were among the elite during Hayden and Fry’s reign and seven if you want to throw Freddy in there also. Would love to add a few more REAL SOON.

 

[HawksMN]

I consider Sed the best as he put 4 years in. Greene might have changed my mind had he not bolted after 1.

 

[thedukeofearl]

If he was in with those agents, or worse owed them or their henchmen money, he probably didn't have a soul left to tear. Norby and Lloyd were some bad apples. Don't want to even think about their henchmen. Tyler Cook better have a good head on his shoulders if/when those grim reapers come knocking.

IIRC, Iowa was favored in the game. If Ronnie had bad intentions, they still could have won without covering. Unless the lynch mob played UCLA to win straight up. OK, done. The more I think about it the more it turns my stomach. It was to football equivalent of 1987 UNLV. We were still in the picture for the Natty in 1985-86 Rose Bowl.

The disgrace and publicity of Norby and Lloyd were directly responsible for Ray Thompson being declared ineligible by Hunter Rawlins even though he was eligible by NCAA and BigTen standards.....

He wanted to make a point that Iowa was above board, that the Sports Agent disgrace was a one-time situation and by God, Hunter Rawlins would prevent anything like that ever occurring again......

Rawlins moved on to Dartmouth soon after.....

Tom Davis was livid, being informed of the ineligibility the day before the team would travel the the game site. Ray had practiced with the team up to that point.....

Rodney Monroe would not have gone crazy with threes raining down like nuclear fallout with Ray guarding him. Ray was probably the best defensive player on the team. This has been mentioned before many times but it is still difficult to let go.....

Who knows how far we could have gone that year, perhaps al least as far as Mr. Davis's first year which ended in Seattle.....

 

[thedukeofearl]

Akrum is my favorite Hawkeye running back. Those moves in the open field reminded my of Gale Sayers. It was thrilling to watch him receive a pass in traffic and juke his way to the end zone with the game on the line.....

To me, one of most thrilling aspects of Hawkeye football was Tim Dwight receiving a punt at full speed running, many times, to the end zone.....

Saturday looms large, after the long wait.....

 

[Northside Hawk]

The disgrace and publicity of Norby and Lloyd were directly responsible for Ray Thompson being declared ineligible by Hunter Rawlins even though he was eligible by NCAA and BigTen standards.....

He wanted to make a point that Iowa was above board, that the Sports Agent disgrace was a one-time situation and by God, Hunter Rawlins would prevent anything like that ever occurring again......

Rawlins moved on to Dartmouth soon after.....

Tom David was livid, being informed of the ineligibility the day before the team would travel the the game site. Ray had practiced with the team up to that point.....

Rodney Monroe would not have gone crazy with threes raining down like nuclear fallout with Ray guarding him. Ray was probably the best defensive player on the team. This has been mentioned before many times but it is still difficult to let go.....

Who knows how far we could have gone that year, perhaps al least as far as Mr. Davis's first year which ended in Seattle.....

Absolutely correct! Equally destructive was Hamron's transcript being made public, which included some less that challenging classes. I don't remember the classes chapter and verse, but it was well known that numerous football players took a once a week night class called "The Composer-Improviser In You." Hayden's retort was that the University created the curriculum, not the athletic department, and that the University needed to get rid of the classes or cut the amount of electives students had to take.

Rawlings was known to show up at Hayden's press conferences, doubling down on his high and mighty stances. (He wanted to make freshman ineligible for competition and threatened to do it unilaterally if the NCAA wouldn't) Finally a reporter asked Hayden the perfect question. With Rawlings in attendance, Hayden told the room that he would prefer to redshirt his president.

Recruiting competition probably had a field day with all this.
I have a small connection with Rawlings-his signature is on my degree/diploma.

 

[Seth53]

Tough in my mind to "pick a favorite" between RH and AK.

Both were stellar Hawks.

Both carried the running game for Iowa albeit Ronnie did it for three years, AK for two.

RH had the better QB counterpart/overall passing game which helped him as people couldn't just scheme against him alone.

AK had a fumbling issue his sophomore year. Once he corrected that, he was lights out. Without AK I doubt Iowa beats ISU (17), Michigan (16), BC (17), Minney (16,17) or kept it close vs PSU (17).

RH was complete in every way....running, catching, blocking. He was the Iowa epitome of the 80s.

We're going to miss AK this year as much as PSU is going to miss Barkley.

 

[1hawkeye1]

Ronnie Harmon was a total sell-out and I will never let his name pass my lips without spitting afterward.

 

[thedukeofearl]

I didn't know that. Here's what I do know. UCLA noticed in film study that one of our defensive lineman would tip what direction the line would slant by which hand he would put down. UCLA would then audible counter action to the other side which is how Eric Ball ran wild on us. Also our leading tackler Larry Station, playing his final collegiate game, aggravated an old back injury early in the game and was not his normal effective self.

Not only that but they didn't run or throw anywhere close to LS almost the entire game, if not ever.....

Remember being rather frustrated by that along with the RH giveaways.....

I remember the Jim Murray article in the LA Times on the game. He mentioned that if there were a 5th quarter, the Hawks would have won.....

Found this on Google about the Hawks way back then, in the time machine to 1985/6

https://imasportsphile.com/ncaa-foo...cla-bruins-vs-iowa-hawkeyes-pregame-1st-half/

 

[hawkeyebob62]

I saw him a few years later during a game. He came up to the section where I was sitting. He was chatting with Bill Happel. He was down on the field, walking through the stands, but I don't recall a special recognition day or anything. Could have been.

I recall thinking at the time that IF he did throw that game (and I am in the NO camp), it took a lot of balls to walk through Kinnick like that. ??

That era with Long, Harmon, Station et al were so very special and the stadium so electric. Re Ronnie: he could stop, start and change directions on a dime and accelerate so quickly from one of those moves. Unbelievable vision.
Akrum has great vision but a different kind of runner IMO. More swivel to his hips and more of a slasher than Ronnie. Runs more straight ahead and upright. Akrum reminds more of Tavian Banks. But both Akrum and Ronnie played faster than their timed speed because of their ability to make initial guys miss. Defenders were on their heels alot not wanting to overcommit. Didn't usually work.

So Ronnie caught like 52 balls his senior year. Akrum had half of that. Our split end last year averaged 10 yds per catch. What might Akrum have averaged last year if he had been in that role more?
Or used differently and more of a weapon?

And I don't want to hear about our inexperienced first year OC. He had seen what Akrum's strengths and weaknesses were. For years. And it wasn't running into 9 man fronts to the short side of the field.

What is more surprising is preseason last year KF went on (for him at least) about the similarities between Ronnie and Akrum. And BF remarked how they needed to use Akrum as more of a threat. ?? It really never materialized. Butler went down but there was talent behind him. We see YOUNG running backs all over the country succeed. It is the position where you literally need the least development. But not in KF's world.

I am half in the "NO!" camp with Harmon, as well. If you "must" believe he intentionally fumbled, you must also believe every other miscue is intentional. Oddly, when others fumble nowadays, people scream at KF and staff for pulling them. Yet, many continue to believe Harmon threw that game. But he did set a record for receptions that game, so how does one reconcile those things?

I remember thinking during the game, "Damn, the way he carries the ball has bitten him". For those who remember watching him his entire time at Iowa, he WAS "loose" with the ball, often carrying with just his hand (no cradling), and also holding out to the side.

That said, if I have to pick a backfield with three RBs and 2 FBs, I'm not sure I include him. I'd be happy with him, of course, but I think I'd go with Betts, Greene, and Sedrick Shaw. David Hudson and Lew Montgomery as FBs. Banks, Russell and Harmon on the practice squad, with Jermelle Lewis on IR/PUP.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

And this is the exact reason why I don't believe anything sinister happened with Harmon at the Rose Bowl. He was the honorary captain against Ohio St in 2006. Yes THAT game on national television against the #1 Buckeyes.

I think he was also the honorary captain in Kirk's first season. Maybe Northern Illinois or was at least on the sideline.

As we all know, Kirk was on that Iowa staff in 1985. He had first hand knowledge of what was going on at that time. By 2006, he was in full control of the Iowa football program. Absolutely nobody was going to tell him what to do at that point and nobody had the power to do so anyway. In his first year, yeah, but not in year 8. And if Kirk even had a slight hint that Ronnie did something like that there is no way in hell he would have let him anywhere near the program.

Now did Harmon get money from some creeps during his Iowa career? Probably. And probably from some of the worst kind of creeps. Not rich alumni trying to hang on to athletes' nuts. College football was the Wild West bad then and there were a lot of guys from major programs getting paid. And Kirk is probably aware of some of those dealings as I'm sure most coaches from that era are. But if he did get paid for dumping a game, somehow Ferentz has been convinced otherwise.

Excellent points. But about the only thing I remember from the 2006 O$U game is the sign on Game Day that said, "I Want to Bohn Linda Cohn". Don't agree with the sentiment, but totally approve the intentional misspell!

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Absolutely correct! Equally destructive was Hamron's transcript being made public, which included some less that challenging classes. I don't remember the classes chapter and verse, but it was well known that numerous football players took a once a week night class called "The Composer-Improviser In You." Hayden's retort was that the University created the curriculum, not the athletic department, and that the University needed to get rid of the classes or cut the amount of electives students had to take.

Rawlings was known to show up at Hayden's press conferences, doubling down on his high and mighty stances. (He wanted to make freshman ineligible for competition and threatened to do it unilaterally if the NCAA wouldn't) Finally a reporter asked Hayden the perfect question. With Rawlings in attendance, Hayden told the room that he would prefer to redshirt his president.

Recruiting competition probably had a field day with all this.
I have a small connection with Rawlings-his signature is on my degree/diploma.

Your diploma is worthless with that signature!

 

[N8theGr8]

The thing I'm going to miss most is the Akrum interviews. I think we're set on running backs, Wadley was a good one, but it looks like IKM, Sargent, and Young will be a solid committee. If our O-Line is full strength, I wouldn't be surprised to see 2500 yards this year between those 3.

 

[proudhawkfan21]

Yep, all three were exceptional backs. There was a couple more I am thinking of one being Shedrick Shaw ( how could anyone who watched him play ever forget him, and then there was a running back that was so powerful they moved him to fullback by the name of Owen Gil.

All of six were among the elite during Hayden and Fry’s reign and seven if you want to throw Freddy in there also. Would love to add a few more REAL SOON.

I think Fred Russell would be one of my favorites.

 

[proudhawkfan21]

I cant see anything in the 86 Rose Bowl that would lead me to believe anything other than that RH had a terrible day and UCLA was hungry, well-coached, talented and came to play. Id buy the tape study by UCLA as factoring into their plan to strip Harmon. He choked is the best way to describe it. He hustled, played hard his entire career including that game.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Your diploma is worthless with that signature!

My original diploma is worthless. It was destroyed, along with hundreds of others, in a small fire that occurred in Jessup Hall just before graduation.

I wouldn't have gotten it right away anyhow. I had to settle up a bit with my U-Bills before I got my diploma. I got it like three months later.

 

[Ree4]

Man... nobody mentions Nick Bell? Dude was a monster!