A Hellish Hour for Hawkeye Football

(By Chris Hassel)

It was a rough day for the Iowa football program. It's not often that you lose a player, and a coach, within about 60 minutes. We'll start with the player. Marcus Coker has been suspended for "disciplinary reasons", according to a U of I release. The school says he violated the 'Student-Athlete Code of Conduct'. Coker's name didn't turn up in any searches for online court records, but that doesn't necessarily rule it out. Normally, this time of year, one would assume it has to do with grades. Most highly doubt that's the case with Coker. He's an Astro Physics major, and hopes to one day work for NASA. That doesn't sound, to me, like a person that's going to be skipping much class.

Coker rushed for 1,384 yards, and 15 TD's, in 2011.

Just minutes after the Coker suspension was announced, the University released a statement from Kirk Ferentz saying that Hawkeye Defensive Line Coach Rick Kaczenski, is leaving. He had been on the staff for 5 years, and rumor has it that he's going to take a position at Nebraska. Ouch. I don't know Rick, at all, but I do know him as a foul-mouthed lunatic on the sidelines. He was always the most outspoken coach on the Iowa sideline, and threw more temper tantrums than Fran McCaffery. I don't know how he was off the field, but I certainly wouldn't want to play for that hooligan.

Rick Kaczenski may just be headed to Nebraska.

Back to Coker, for a minute. How ironic is it that Coker, who had his coming-out party at last year's Insight Bowl after Adam Robinson had been suspended, gets suspended himself the very next year for the same game? What is it with Hawkeye running backs? They used to have the injury-bug. Now they have a trouble-bug. Within the span of 15 months, Coker, Mika'il McCall, Adam Robinson, Brandon Wegher, and Jewel Hampton, have all been suspended and/or kicked off the team. All five running backs were either Freshman, or Sophomores. And who knows if any of them will be on Iowa's roster in 2012? We'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, Coker didn't get himself in any real trouble, and he will come back hungry for his Junior season. 


As for the game against Oklahoma --- who knows what to think!? The Sooners have problems of their own. Leading rusher Dominique Whaley is out, along with fellow running back Brandon Williams, who announced this week he was going to transfer. Maybe they should just cancel the bowl game. It's clear Oklahoma fans/media don't care much about the game. At Monday's press conference, head coach Bob Stoops wasn't asked one question about the Hawkeyes.


Bill Fennelly is a magic man. Despite fighting cancer, and having no voice, he sweeps away Drake, Iowa, and UNI, for the 9th time in his tenure. Prior to his arrival in Ames, in 1995, the Iowa State had done that a grand-total of ZERO times.

Dowling wide receiver, and Michigan commit, Amara Darboh played his final high school basketball game, Tuesday. The senior will undergo surgery on his shoulder, next week. He's expected to be ready by the time he heads to Ann Arbor, in the summer.


And Bobbi D. seems to finally be slowing down a bit. Since Zach Borg warned her that our legal team is closing in on its identity, we haven't heard a peep from her. I hope legal ramifications don't scare her away. The Internet needs Bobbi D. We need Bobbi D.