This may make me a rare bird (or a birdbrain) in these parts, but I prefer pro sports over the college variety. Don’t get me wrong. I watch more college football than NFL on television. It’s a wackier game, and more emotional. Plus, it’s played in weirder locations than the pro variety. You’d never have heard of Tuscaloosa, Clemson or Norman were it not for their football...

MARION — For Brad Hopfinger, the goal is singular. Play good golf this summer, then take a shot at another coveted professional tour. Hopfinger is one of five golf pros who played collegiately at the University of Iowa that will compete at the Greater Cedar Rapids Open golf tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday at Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Marion. “It’s kind of...

Big Ten Media Days are a wrap and if you missed any of our coverage, you can find it on our Hawkeyes home page. Kirk Ferentz was at the podium Monday to address the media, but he shared a few more insights in a side session that you can hear on this edition of the On Iowa Podcast. Click below to listen, or subscribe on

IOWA CITY — Late July baseball in the state of Iowa is generally reserved for high school teams playing in the state tournament at Principal Park in Des Moines and a handful of minor league teams. College baseball in the state is virtually nonexistent at this time. Iowa, the only Division I program in the state, played its last game of the season back on June 4. Yet on Tuesday...

IOWA CITY — The Iowa Board of Regents released 2018 budgets for the three state universities on Tuesday, including those for the athletic departments. The University of Iowa once again has the highest budget at a little more than $117 million for 2018, which is an increase of $3.6 million from 2017’s budget. The Regents’ annual report for state budgets outlined the revenue...

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz is a notorious social media holdout, but he got a taste of what’s tweeted about him in a BTN segment at Big Ten Media Days. These aren’t quite as “mean” as the mean tweets you see celebrities read on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but Ferentz “reading Twitters,” as he says, is still quite entertaining.

CHICAGO — Joel Klatt doesn’t know if he’ll call a football game in Iowa City this year. If he does, he probably should tweet out where he eats dinner. His money will be no good in Hawkeyeland. In May, Klatt, a college football analyst with Fox Sports, went on Colin Cowherd’s radio show, “The Herd,” and gave the longtime Iowa antagonizer the business. Cowherd praised the...

CHICAGO — The suggestion was made to see the response. The topic was Iowa’s offense and the quest for a quarterback. Kirk Ferentz was all ears. Hey, why not the single wing? This was Pop Warner’s offense. It was run in the early 1900s. It might’ve been what Warner ran for Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm from 1895 to 1899. You know that Iowa Agricultural is Iowa State...

CHICAGO — Iowa football will wear an alternative uniform this season. Head coach Kirk Ferentz didn’t get into the when, but he’s seen the uniform and ... “It’s alternative,” Ferentz said Monday from Big Ten media days. He was asked if there’s one on the table. “I think it’s in a box probably somewhere,” Ferentz quipped. “I’ve seen the decision. It could...

CHICAGO — Iowa's best and most experienced wide receiver tried to remember the last time he took an all-out stride down the football field with shoulder pads on. You know those “um and aw” sounds people make sometimes when they’re trying to remember something? Matt VandeBerg let out a little of that. Through no fault of his own, it’s been awhile. “It’s been a very�...

NORTH LIBERTY — The Prime Time League championship game on Sunday was far from beautiful basketball. Neither the eventual champs, Vinton Merchants — featuring Iowa’s Brady Ellingson and Jack Nunge — nor the runners up, Westport Touchless Autowash — led by Maishe Dailey, but missing Luka Garza — shot the ball particularly well. Both teams turned it over and missed layups...

IOWA CITY — Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has added a title to an assistant coach’s job description once in his 19 seasons. That came in 2015, when he named Brian Ferentz the run game coordinator in addition to offensive line coach. Now the count is up to two. Kirk Ferentz announced a pair of coaching moves Wednesday. Linebackers coach Seth Wallace has been promoted to assistant...

IOWA CITY — No football metaphor here. There’s that and then there’s life. Football is woven into Sean Welsh’s life. Depression showed up in 2014 and has stuck around. Depression is a mental disorder that affects people in different ways. Welsh described it this way: “I started to feel sad, anxious and angry,” the Iowa senior offensive lineman said Wednesday. “I had...

Editor’s note: Iowa senior offensive lineman Sean Welsh spoke to the media Wednesday about his battle with depression. What follows his his op-ed, originally published on Hawkeyesports.com. You can watch part of his speech in the video above. My name is Sean Welsh and I’m an offensive lineman for the Iowa Hawkeyes. On Saturdays in the fall I live life in the trenches at Kinnick...

1. “OHHHHHH….. He’s got it!” Iowa Football fans everywhere were nervous as the Hawkeyes entered the fourth quarter of the 2015 Big Ten Championship against Michigan State trailing 9-6. Coming into the game, Iowa posted an undefeated record with a birth into the College Football Playoff on the line. They had struggled all game to move the ball against the Spartans, and Hawkeye...

Taking a look at the 2017 Hawkeyes. Today it’s the linebackers, where it’s senior, senior and senior. Returning scholarship inside linebackers — Josey Jewell (6-2, 236, sr.), Bo Bower (6-2, 235, sr.), Jack Hockaday (6-1, 232, jr.), Amani Jones (6-0, 235, so.), Aaron Mends (6-0, 227, jr.), Kyle Taylor (6-0, 225, #fr.), Barrington Wade (6-1, 223, #fr.), Kristian Welch (6-3,...

With the 2017 college football season just a month and a half away, many questions remain about the Iowa Football team. These are three projections I envision occurring this upcoming season for the Hawkeyes. 1. Tyler Wiegers will win the starting quarterback job Both Wiegers and Nathan Stanley are vying for the starting quarterback position. As it stands, they are in a dead heat...

I realize we live in a time in which words don’t matter and truth isn’t demanded. But having lived in a time when that wasn’t the case, I still wince when I hear or see things stated as facts that may not necessarily be so. The Iowa athletics department has launched something called the Fight For Iowa Pass. It’s a “mobile season ticket” to Hawkeyes football games at...

IOWA CITY — Cordell Pemsl despises the pool workout. Recovering from sports hernia surgery in May, the 6-foot-8 incoming sophomore doesn’t mind the stretching or the work on the bike, but get him in the pool to do lunges, karaoke, vertical jumps and swim some laps? “I hate the pool,” Pemsl said, trying to hold back a laugh. Team trainer Brad Floy directs Pemsl’s recovery...

IOWA CITY — Dan McCarney spoke with the fire he ordinarily saved for a pregame speech to one of his football teams. McCarney talked for over 20 minutes Saturday morning at the service celebrating Bob Elliott’s life, and it was passionate. “He was my hero,” McCarney said. “I loved my time with him. “He was pure, uncompromising, uncommon.” Elliott died of cancer July...

CEDAR RAPIDS — Desmond King stood on the sidelines of the Metro Youth Football Fields in Cedar Rapids on Friday afternoon with a half circle of people around him. No, he wasn’t surrounded by reporters at a news conference. He was surrounded by kids. The former Hawkeye was coaching at the Iowa Football Club “Legends of Iowa” camp, and was fielding questions. “Can you try...

NORTH LIBERTY — One of the best compliments a basketball player can get is to be difficult or no fun to guard. Every member of the Iowa men’s basketball team can make it difficult on a defender, but through last season and into this summer in the Prime Time League, a few Hawkeyes pointed out Ryan Kriener as a guy who’s no fun at all to guard. His aggressiveness this summer...

IOWA CITY — Akrum Wadley told a story about mistakes on Tuesday at the Hansen Performance Center. Iowa’s top running back prefers to keep them in the front of his mind, always. “Everybody’s going to make mistakes — I’m still human — but there’s only so many mistakes you can make,” Wadley said. “If I’m making mistakes and I’m at the top, then how would I look...

Iowa football’s 2018 recruiting class gained another big body Wednesday when Mishawaka, Ind., tight end Anthony Torres tweeted his commitment to the Hawkeyes. Torres is listed 6-foot-6, 235 pounds and a 3-star recruit by Rivals. He visited Iowa on Wednesday, according to HawkeyeReport.com, and pledged to Kirk Ferentz and company over offers from Indiana, Cincinnati, UCF and a host...

IOWA CITY — Quarterback competitions certainly are not rare to college football teams, and not really all that rare to the Iowa football team, either. Quarterback competitions dividing locker rooms isn’t all that rare, either. No matter the level of football, it’s happened. A locker room without solid leadership or maturity can split in a hurry. The Hawkeyes currently are...