I trust you’ll post a comment or new blog entry when he announces his decision this afternoon? It’d sure be nice to get a bit of good news for Hawkeye football after the long gray stretch we’ve been on.

Since I’m a fan and not a sportswriter, I think I can look at this a little more optimistically than you. So with that caveat, I’d disagree and say Iowa is probably the second safest bet on Scheelhaase’s list, behind Oklahoma. I don’t know if one great year is enough to qualify a program as being “on the rise,” and that’s basically all Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois have had. Maybe Mizzou has been building up to this, but Kansas certainly benefited from a very weak schedule, and Illinois probably was helped by a weak Big Ten last year. Nebraska has the tradition, but is in the midst of a coaching change and has stunk lately.

The Hawks have been down lately, but the program and the coach still have a level of prestige that I don’t think the Kansases of the world can duplicate with one Orange Bowl win. And competition for the starting job at Iowa won’t be nearly as fierce as at Oklahoma or even Illinois. So here’s hoping…