The Sporting News‘ Matt Hayes today came out with a list of bests for the upcoming football season, and five of them have Iowa ties.

Hayes listed Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, an Iowa alum, as the best program-building head coach. Hard to argue with that. Stoops has done quite a job in keeping the Sooners among the very best teams in college football.

Four players on Iowa’s 2008 schedule were listed by Hayes as the best in one category or another. He listed Purdue’s Curtis Painter as the best pro style quarterback in the nation. Painter lit up the Hawkeyes last year in West Lafayette, but he lost most of his receiving targets. If Painter can follow through on Hayes’ prediction this fall, we’ll know just how good he is. Pittsburgh running back LeSean McCoy is listed as the best running back between the tackles. McCoy, whom the Hawkeyes will try to contain Sept. 20, was a terror as a freshman last season, rushing for 1,328 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’ll be tough to stop, especially with Iowa breaking in two new starting linebackers and a pair of defensive ends. Michigan State running back Javon Ringer is Hayes’ best back on third-and-short. I don’t really get that one, as I don’t really see Ringer as a power back. Finally, Wisconsin tight end Travis Beckum is tabbed the best tight end/receiver over the middle. Hard to argue with what Beckum has done the past two seasons. I don’t know that he’s going to play much tight end in the NFL, but he sure has been productive in the Badgers’ offense.

Speaking of Wisconsin … do you think running back John Clay is wishing he would have come to Iowa instead of staying home to play for the Badgers. Right now, coming off his redshirt year, Clay is listed No. 4 on UW’s depth chart. He had a nice performance in the spring game but is going to have a tough time getting carries this fall. If he were at Iowa, he, without question, would be entering fall camp as the starter.

Andy Staples of CNNSI.com has a great recruiting package on the Web site right now. Pretty interesting read on how it all works. Staples is new at SI, having come from the Florida beat at the Tampa Tribune. He’s done some good work in his first few months there but seems to really be hitting his stride lately. This one is definitely worth a look.

I saw today Ohio State just received commitments Nos. 19 and 20 from prospects in the class of 2009. Must be nice. Iowa has two thus far.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Hawkeyes Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.