After a day off from practice Saturday, the Iowa Hawkeyes held their thirdFlorida practice in Miami Sunday. The two head coaches also held their firstformal Orange Bowl news conference Sunday at media headquarters in MiamiBeach. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says things are starting to intensify as thegame gets closer. Ferentz says his team isn’t ready yet, and isn’t sharpenough. Ferentz “somewhat” agrees with the idea that this will be a match upof Iowa’s Big 10 brawn against the Trojans Pac-10 speed. He says trying toplan for that speed is one of the biggest problems in practice. One thingthe team hasn’t had to worry about is poor weather. Ferentz says that’swelcome after Iowa’s last trip for a Florida bowl game when he was anassistant coach and the Hawkeyes lost in the Gator Bowl to Florida.USC coach Pete Carroll says the team has responded well in its first fewpractices. He says this is an “action-packed week” but it seems like thegame is still a long ways away. Carroll says Iowa’s kicking game is onearea that statistically beats his team in every catergory. He says they’veput some extra time in with their two young kickers to try and help thatsituation. Traditionally, the Big Ten is perceived as a league that playspower football while the Pac-Ten is considered a speed league. Carroll saysit’ll be a classic confrontation, because Iowa is so strong upfront. It wasn’t all work though on Sunday. The players from both teams had a beach partyat nearby Fort Lauderdale beach after their practices.
Blood Center: Donate 4 Pints 4 Life
Big growth is happening fast at the Blood Center of Iowa, including dropping the word “Central” from its name. Spokeswoman Christine Hayes says they currently serve 34 hospitals in counties from the Minnesota border to the Missouri border, but will add nine more next May, mainly around Waterloo and Cedar Falls. Hayes says this will increase the demand on the Blood Center’s services as the new clients will need about 10,000 units of blood. Hayessays a donor center will open in Waterloo so local donors can support their local hospitals, and send Bloodmobiles out for on-location blood drives at schools, businesses and other locations. Blood doesn’t last very long, she explains, so they need donations all the time. Right now, Hayes says each donor with the Blood Center gives blood onthe average once a year. She says they’ve been lucky not to have a critical shortage in this region but normally during a holiday supplies become short and usage increases. The Blood Center has an incentive program to get thoseonce-a-year donors to come give more often. You can give six times a year, every 56 days, and the new program called “Four Pints For Life” will give donors a free T-shirt after their fourth donation within a year.
McCarney says tempo key to beating Boise State
Tempo is normally a term reserved for basketball but Iowa State coach DanMcCarney says it will be a factor in tomorrow’s Humanitarian Bowl againstBoise State. The Broncos want to create as many snaps as possible on offenseand McCarney says the Cyclone defense will need to be ready when they breakthe huddle. McCarney says Boise State ran 30 different motions in theiroffense in recent games. McCarney says the number of sets and motions BoiseState runs is designed to get a defense lined up wrong at the snap. Cyclonedefensive tackle Jordan Carstens says Boise State has been known to sprintout of the huddle and snap the ball immediately.
Iowa’s Banks low-key on big game
While the so-called football experts tout Thursday’s Iowa/USC match-up asthe premier game in the Bowl Championship Series, Iowa quarterback BradBanks maintains his low-key approach when asked if it’s the biggest gamehe’s every played in. Banks, the runner-up in this year’s Heisman voting,says he’s played in a lot of big games, and the Orange Bowl is just one ofthem. Defensive lineman Colin Cole says the Orange Bowl is a great way forthe Hawks to prove themselves to the nation of doubters. Both Cole andBanks are Florida natives, so the Orange Bowl is a homecoming of sorts forthem. Cole says being part of the Iowa program’s resurgence into nationalprominence has been rewarding.
Drive to make Iowa a "brand name"
The state’s largest chambers of commerce are pressing the state to develop amore aggressive strategy to develop Iowa as brand name. Ron Corbett,president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, says no one outsideof Iowa really knows much about the state. There are 2.9 MILLION people inIowa, but the state’s marketing budget is about $1.2 MILLION. Corbett callsthat “a pittance.” He points out that Governor Vilsack and his republicanchallenger spent over 13 MILLION dollars marketing themselves during thejust-concluded gubernatorial campaign. Corbett says there are all sorts ofassets the state should be advertising. Corbett’s list includes Iowa’swell-educated workforce, Iowa’s single-factor corporate income tax, jobtraining programs, no property taxes on machinery and equipment. He says ifIowa doesn’t get out and tell it’s story, “we’re missing the boat.”
Iowa cold and dry this winter?
Can you have a drought in winter? We may be headed that way, as stateclimatologist Harry Hillaker says the state is lacking in precipitation ofthe warm- or cold-weather kind. November went down in the books asfourth-driest on record, only an inch of snow on the average across thestate and if the end of the year were today, this would be the driestDecember on record. Hillaker says we’ve had only three-tenths of an inch ofsnow during this month. If that holds up, it’ll be a record beating thefour-tenths of an inch in 1979. All this after Iowa also had thefifth-snowiest October on record. Hillaker says he agrees with theforecasters who predict an El Nino winter. What that typically means is themidwinter months of December, January and February will average warmer thannormal and so far we’re on track with a December that’s been six degreesabove normal. Hillaker says El Nino also means our most wintry weather willhappen in the season formerly known as spring. March is often colder, wetterand snowier than usual in an El Nino year, and April is, too.
Fire destroys farming operation in northwest Iowa
A farming operation in northwestern Iowa was destroyed over the weekend. Ahog confinement building in Calhoun County was gutted by fire Saturday. Theoperation was owned by Dean Kaufman. When firefighters arrived, thestructure was fully engulfed in flames. Crews spent about 90 minutes tryingto save the building. An unknown number of hogs died. An investigation isunderway to determine what caused the fire.
