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 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
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Northwestern freshman tailback: Coach Pat Fitzgerald hates Iowa (Uh oh)
Maybe this is why Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz doesn’t let freshmen talk to reporters.
Adonis Smith: Freshman
UPDATE: The post I refer to below was taken off the Northwestern News Network late Wednesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, the Northwestern News Network posted a 9-second video of an interview with Wildcat freshman tailback Adonis Smith.
The NNN asked Smith what Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald has had to say this week about Iowa.
Smith’s reply: “Coach? I really haven’t heard anything from him, he’s just…he hates them. I know that for a fact. He hates Iowa.”
Maybe I should take my post down, too. Maybe I never should have put it up. It was for cheap heat, for page-views. It doesn’t serve the greater good. It doesn’t add anything to the historical document of how we lived and who we were. I need to rethink things.
Then again, the Northwestern News Network is funded by the Medill School of Journalism, a more-acclaimed journalism school than any that gave me a diploma and kicked me out the door.
Well we hate Northwestern….so right back at you COACH!
Keep in mind this is the same Adonis Smith that Teddy Greenstein quoted in Chicago Tribune (October 7th): Early on, he said, he focused too much on “what’s not important … girls and playing video games.”
By the way, NU Athletics has already requested the video be taken down from the Northwestern News Network’s website (or whatever NNN stands for).
It is your job, Mike Hlas, that the Iowa football program hears about this!
Muhahaha!
With love,
DJ
Ditto. Time to open up a can in Evanston this Saturday…go Hawks!
This is precisely why Ferentz has banned all true freshmen from speaking to the media.
Most Hawk fans that I know have always suspected that “Fitz” felt that way despite his hypocritical remarks about his “respect” for Iowa. At least now it’s out in the open. I don’t think this is something that would fire up our team but I really hope we just pound the crap out of them for a change.
Exactly; this news is surprising how? And, quite frankly, I couldn’t care less. If Fitz hates, so be it, it would just be more honorable if he’d own up to the fact. But it’s been clear that he holds a grudge against Iowa in general (probably goes back to that broken leg in 1995).
Hopefully after we kick their A$$es, hold up a huge banner that reads, “HOW DO YOU LIKE US NOW FITZ?”
Did he sound like he was joking on the clip, Mike? Or was he serious? (Because if he was serious, that explains so much…)
He wasn’t joking, but I’m not sure he was giving a totally accurate portrayal of his head coach’s feelings.
Ok Marc. Now I’m curious. Just where did you get your diploma? Did they really kick you out the door?
Does Hlas have a diploma?:)
I’m Mike. This is Mike’s blog.
Oooohh, Mike, you’re gonna be really mad when you find out that ESPN.com’s Rittenberg just linked to this and said it was from Marc…
Not at all, because he got the link right.
We’ve suspected this for a while but it is nice to get confirmation.
I think we can blame Iowa’s lack of recent success against Northwestern to turnovers……and a little extra motivation from their eraser head coach.
Guess Doyle can take down the clippings they had about a “statement win” and replace them with this.
I knew it! Fitzgerald is still mad about the broken legs! LOL I waiting for him to reach out and grab McNutt as he sprints for the end zone (ala Woody Hayes). He is a former LB afterall. It’s in his blood.
Don’t worry about the fanning the flames on this one Mike. I think a little spice is what this rivalry needed anyway. Most Iowa fans (myself included) have never thought much about Northwestern being a rival. With that said, when Fitzgerald and the Wildcats keep jumping (metaphorically speaking here) in our face trying to get our attention Iowa at some point needs to start paying attention. And whoa to the team that awakens the Bullies of the Big Ten from their even-keeled-one-game-at-a-time slumber in order to strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!
They aren’t a rival of ours. This is just Northwestern that we’re talking about. They’ve beaten us 4 out of the last 5 games. But prior to that? 46-22-3 Iowa over jNW.
They aren’t our rival. They are Iowa State; a bad football program that, for some reason *cough*coach sour grapes*cough* plays Iowa tough. We’re their “big game” while we tend to not give them any special attention. And it bites us at times.
Hopefully this year, especially after the Illinois game, we’ll be fired up and just pound jNW into the ground as things were meant to be.
*Illinois should have been Indiana. Woops.
No, no rival at all, Stark. Just winners of four of the last five and eight of the last 13 in the series, the team that wrecked Iowa’s perfect season last year.
Iowa’s team will regard Northwestern as a rival this week, for absolute sure.
Iowa State isn’t a bad football program, either, by the way. More wins than losses over the last two seasons. Unless you think Nebraska is a bad program, too.
I think “rival” has a larger meaning than, “they beat us recently.” We have a rivalry with Minnesota because there is a lot of history there. Same with Wisconsin.
But just Northwestern? No, I don’t see it. Do I want to mash them into a pulp? Certainly. But I also expect that, given the state of both programs, that we should be doing that year in and year out. It just hasn’t happened and that is, admittedly, frustrating. But it doesn’t make it a rivalry in my opinion.
Rivals, in my opinion, is something more like equals that have a hatred or, at least, a loathing of each other. Iowa and Wisconsin are perfect examples of that. Historically we are now dead even in the series. It’s a tough, physical game. I do not expect Iowa to pound them every year. I hope that we do, but I know that it will be a tough game each year because Wisconsin is as good as we are (and I really dislike stating that, by the way!).
Minnesota is having a rough patch. If it continues then who knows, the rivalry may fade. Especially if the Iowa-Nebraska game becomes a rivalry (it isn’t there yet due to a lack of history, but has all the ingredients to become one) then that may replace the Minnesota rivalry. I imagine that we’ll continue to dislike Minnesota regardless of whether that rivalry continues.
If you disagree I can accept that. But I just don’t see jNW as being a program equal to Iowa’s. Can they be? Absolutely. But they need to have some prolonged success.
I think Iowa got its “bad” game out of the way last week. Totally expect a different team to show up tomorrow. Unfortunately for Fitz, he’s no longer playing. He played with amazing heart and for all intent and purpose is an admirable guy but Iowa’s football program is better than his right now, our players are better than his right now and yes, there’s a reason Ferentz doesn’t allow Freshman to talk to the media. I say Iowa 30-17 and bring on the Buckeyes
I think Dwight nailed it, all the way around.