The Iowa City Press-Citizen ran a story today detailing a letter to the University of Iowa from the mother of the alleged victim in the Abe Satterfield-Cedric Everson sexual assault case. They had quotes from the mother, too. And I’ve got to tell you, it doesn’t look good for coach Kirk Ferentz, director of athletics Gary Barta or anyone involved with the internal investigation that went on last fall.

The gist of the story is that the U of I encouraged the victim to keep the matter in house, that it would be handled swiftly within the athletic department and university. All the while, for a month after the alleged incident, the victim’s mother claims the victim was harassed by Satterfield and Everson and other Iowa athletes, including other members of the football team.

Didn’t the U of I learn anything from the Pierre Pierce case? Why, after the way all that went down, would they encourage a victim of a sexual assault not to report it to police? Why wouldn’t they wash their hands of any responsibility in how the investigation was carried out? The alleged victim didn’t file a complaint until a month after the Oct. 14 incident, and, according to the ICPC article, the university hadn’t done a whole lot in the interim to take action. Satterfield and Everson were suspended from the team, but they weren’t kicked off the team, and Everson, allegedly, was living right down the hall from the alleged victim. There is a lot of “allegedly” still in this case that is going to come out when it goes to trial. It’s going to get ugly. Both Satterfield and Everson are going to plead not guilty — Everson already has — and Ferentz and Barta probably will be among those who will testify.

Now, according to another article the ICPC had today, Gov. Chet Culver is getting involved, and he wants answers. I can’t say I blame him. This whole thing is embarrasing for the football program, the university and the state. And it’s only going to get worse when this goes to trial.

My question is this: How much more of this can Ferentz survive. He’s the highest paid coach in the Big Ten. Fans probably could forgive a 19-18 record over the past three seasons if his players were model citizens off the field and the program appeared to be on the upswing. But that is not the case. Eighteen Iowa players have been arrested or cited 23 times in the past 15 months. A lot of people around the program and university will say that a lot of those incidents were typical alcohol-related citations, and, yes, that’s true, 11 of them were. But, the undeniable fact is that 12 of them weren’t. And of those 12, five were felonies.

Last August, after the arrests of Dominique Douglas and Anthony Bowman in the now-infamous credit card case puncuated what Ferentz thought was a particularly troubling summer of off-field issues, the coach, sitting alongside Barta at a news conference, announced a zero tolerance policy for his players. Within weeks, Clint Huntrods (public intoxication/public urination) and Dana Brown (domestic assault) were dismissed from the team after run-ins with the law.

Since Ferentz’s declaration, though, 12 of his players have been arrested or cited on charges ranging from possession of alcohol to domestic assault to shoplifting to drunken driving to possession of marijuana to sexual assault. And last night, incoming freshman Riley Reiff, 19, took Iowa City police on a 20-minute drunken foot chase through downtown. He was cited for public intoxication and interference with official acts. 

So much for zero tolerance.

My question is: How much tolerance will Iowa fans have for Ferentz, especially if the Hawkeyes struggle on the field, as is predicted, in 2008? Could this be Captain Kirk’s last season in black and gold?

And what about Barta? This all went on on his watch. Should he be held accountable?

Word out of Iowa City is that sophomore backup quarterback Ricky Stanzi, who in the spring appeared to be pushing incumbent starter Jake Christensen for the job, is out with a shoulder injury. Apparently, Stanzi was hurt during drills Friday morning. Rumors on the Rivals message boards say he is out six to eight weeks. I couldn’t confirm that, but I did confirm that he left the football complex with his arm in a sling.

This is bad news for the Hawkeyes.

Stanzi probably wasn’t going to be the starter when Maine comes to town six weeks from Saturday, but he did figure to challenge Christensen during camp. If Stanzi is in fact out six to eight weeks, Christensen will be pushed only by redshirt freshman Marvin McNutt and incoming freshmen John Wienke and James Vandenberg. That’s not enough. After a sub-par sophomore season during which Christensen took every meaningful Iowa snap, he needs all the competition he can get as he prepares for 2008.

I have no doubt Christensen will be the starter against Maine — I had little doubt before learning of Stanzi’s injury. But competition in camp would have helped him be a better quarterback to start the season. And it would have been good for the Hawkeyes to build some depth at the position — some much-needed depth. If Stanzi were to play, say, the fourth quarter of each of Iowa’s first two games, against Maine and Florida International, both of which figure to be lopsided wins, that would have, at the least, given Stanzi some valuable game experience, and, if he played well, given the coaching staff confidence to go to him if Christensen struggles as he did in 2007. They had no confidence in either Stanzi or Arvell Nelson last year and had no choice but to stick with Jake through thick and thin.

Now, let’s say Stanzi is out six to eight weeks — again, I can’t confirm that. Best-case scenario, he misses all of training camp and returns as a distant backup before the opener, and probably doesn’t see much time. Worst-case scenario, he returns before the Sept. 13 matchup with Iowa State, probably as the third-string quarterback behind McNutt, Wienke or Vandenberg, whichever one plays mop-up dutie against Maine and Florida International. This, right here, could be the defining juncture of Stanzi’s career at Iowa. Right when he’s in position to compete for playing time, even the starting job, he could be pushed to the back of the line.

Again, all we know right now is that Stanzi hurt his shoulder and he left Friday with his arm in a sling. That’s it, but that certainly isn’t a good sign for Stanzi or the Hawkeyes as they sit just a few short weeks from opening camp.