Iowa receiver Kevin Kasper looks back for his teammates after catching a 37-yard scoring pass from Jon Beutjer in the third quarter last night at Indiana. (Gazette file)
One stop shopping for all the links.
Readers tracked and cornered me on a few of these.
Here are some names that spurred debate:
WR Kevin Kasper — Yeah, all he did was become one of the Hawkeyes’ top statistical receivers in his two seasons playing in Ken O’Keefe’s offense. I admit, it was a tough one. I think I wrote about Ed Hinkel, picking him No. 1 because he got the most out of his 6-foot self. Clinton Solomon, I went with him because of big plays during a Big Ten co-championship season. And I went with Mo Brown at No. 3 because he was such an explosive playmaker for the 2002 team. Folks can certainly argue that maybe I weighed team success too much over individual. One e-mailer pointed out that Kasper has a Super Bowl ring with the Pats. I’m not saying I’m wrong, I simply went with the three I liked. So, yeah, definitely make a case for Kevin Kasper, a pretty damn good and tough self-made kind of player.
LBs Fred Barr, Mike Humpal and Mike Klinkenborg — I skipped Fred Barr. I forgot. Then, a reader commented and my heart sank. Barr was a hugely important recruit, opening up Florida and then setting the stage for a player like Bob Sanders. Barr brought lots and lots of ‘tude and his play reflected it. He was the exact kind of guy Iowa’s D needed in 2000-01, someone to set a tough tone, walk the walk and talk the talk. Humpal was an amazing athlete who overcame a devastating knee injury to earn himself a spot in the NFL draft. One of the most humble people I’ve met on this beat, too. Klinkenborg was one of the toughest Hawkeyes ever, mentally and physically. You all know the story about his dad passing away suddenly. But one story I’ll share is Klink’s reaction after the Hawkeyes failed to show up at Purdue in ’07. I think they were 2-5 or something at that time. Klink had those tinted contact lenses in because of concussion complications. He vowed Iowa would make a bowl game. At the time, I thought it was false bravado. Well, they were the Western Michigan loss away from making that happen.
LB LeVar Woods — Copy editor Sam brought his name up. I can’t argue. The guy was maybe the best or second best (Sean Considine) special teamer in Ferentz era. Made it as a special teamer in the NFL and is now back with the staff, feeling out the world of college football coaching. I think he’d be a good one. He’s got an excellent resume as a player.
WR C.J. Jones — Copy editor Sam strikes again. He had 72 catches and 10 TDs in his two seasons. And of course you remember his 100-yard kick return for a TD in the 2003 Orange Bowl. By the way, that’s Iowa’s last kick return for a TD. I keep mentioning that stat and people don’t believe me. It’s true.
Here are some others copy editor Sam threw at me during work on Tuesday:
RB Jermelle Lewis — Two ACLs ended what was at times an electrifying career. Lewis had the whole set — size, strength, speed, moves, toughness. But he tore an ACL in spring of 2003 and missed a bunch of time and then he tore it again in ’04, effectively ending his career. He had 709 rushing yards and eight TDs in 2002.
DT Tyler Luebke — I first met Tyler Luebke when he was a pretty darn good swimmer for Iowa City West. I said goodbye to him as a burly 6-1, 280-pound defensive tackle for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Well, say hello to Tyler Luebke the realtor. At least, I think that’s him. He looks as though he weighs less than I do. He was a very sturdy, tough player. If he were 6-3 and had the frame for 300 pounds, he’d be playing in the NFL right now. He had a knack for plays, no matter how big the dude across the line of scrimmage was. He was sort of Mitch King before Mitch King.
CB Antwan Allen — Only Iowa player to ever start for four straight January bowl games. He made 235 career tackles and had eight career picks. He has a better resume than Bradley Fletcher, my honorable mention pick. I think this was a legitimate blown call. Thanks, Sam.
QB Nathan Chandler — I feel good about my trio of Brad Banks, Drew Tate and Kyle McCann. But Chandler never blinked during a sometimes shaky 2003, his only season as starter. He capped it with a brilliant performance in Iowa’s Outback Bowl rout of Florida, a TD pass, a TD run and no picks. He threw 18 TD passes to 10 picks.
Hall of Ferentz — Running back
Hall of Ferentz — Wide receiver
Hall of Ferentz — Defensive tackle
Hall of Ferentz — Defensive end
I’d love to hear your names of the ones I might’ve forgot.
Sam suggested “Hall of Ferentz — The Forgotten.” I thought that was a little heavy handed, but let’s go with it.
Michigan quarterback John Navarre (16) is sacked by Iowa's Howard Hodges, left, and Fred Barr (51) in the second quarter Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Navarre was sacked five times in Michigan's 34-9 loss to Iowa. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
On Iowa 
even though all those brought to your attention were worthy of praise I think you did indeed pick the appropriate hawks to be the hall of famer in their position.
one could argue about ed hinkel and kevin kasper but ed hinkel, IMO, is the top wr. you can throw stats around until you are blue in the face and thats not always the top guy. and in this instance, this is true for the wr position in the KF era. when steady eddie sat out the hawks sunk. when steady eddie played the hawks offense thrived. that guy was the bob sanders type for that certain team. when he was on the field, the entire team got better. kaspers teams when he played is mostly not memorable, not taking away from his great stats, but thats part of the hall of fame selection IMO
you made the point that bob sanders won no big awards yet he was EASILY the top guy in KFs hall of fame and its not even argumentable.
great job marc on your list and also recognizing the others who might have been shunned because thats really is what the hawkeyes are all about. we are not the 4 star USC or florida team. yet I doubt urban meyer or pete carroll would have won as many games as they did recruiting from where KF is opposed to where those two recruit from.
I laugh at cbssportsline and some of the most idiot comments ever of KF ONLY averaging 8 wins a season and they ONLY winning (sharing) 2 big ten titles in 9 years. fans from ok st of all places making fun of iowa and that if you had to name a star from iowa immediately you couldnt do it. I almost had to create a sign in just to comment, the comments were so idiotic. he couldnt name bob sanders, aaron kampman, dallas clark, robert gallery, all the other offensive lineman, nate kaeding, etc etc in the nfl.
HE COULDNT FREAKING NAME BOB SANDERS??
again I love how clueless some people are about iowa football. I did a top 100 list of all time and I struggled to include all the appropriate greats feeling I left out too many people like the kevin kaspers, fred barr and howard hodges for example. and then when they started commenting that hayden fry really didnt accomplish that much (with only 3 big ten titles in 20 years) I wanted to scream…ignorance.
The Texan who became an Iowan! He brought back Iowa football! No wonder fans love Hayden. He coached Iowa to three Big Ten championships, three Rose Bowl appearances and 14 bowl games in his 20 seasons as the Iowa head coach. The College Football Hall of Famer went 143-89-6 at the school and mentored numerous assistants who went on to lead other programs. Fry had never been to Iowa, but he knew and liked Bump Elliott Iowa’s athletic director so much he took the job immediately upon being offered despite the 17 straight non-winning seasons. Fry was so impressed with the fan support for a program that had struggled for so long he knew things were about to change. It is difficult to overstate Hayden Fry’s positive impact on Iowa football. Fry coached two decades at Iowa, more than twice as long as any coach before him. But more than that, Coach Hayden Fry established a winning tradition at Iowa, on and off the field. Iowa was no longer considered a coaching graveyard but rather, a place where a great coach could excel. Dont even count, ANF, the pink lockerroom, the steelers winning tradition of attitude, the big two, little eight mentality of the league and he alone and that he, himself, completely changed a conference.
and then continueing the idioticy of comments, saying kf has done nothing but ignores the first couple of season of taking over the program. I just feel something good is about to happen at iowa. even among the ignoring, and not ever being included among the name teams or the overexposed SEC conf.
iowa not only beats the almighty florida but really beat them twice(arguabley minus the worst officiated game in history), beat the defending national champion, LSU, almost beat texas with a .500 club and was the only big ten team to win a bowl last year.
all these comments about KF not deserving this and that, and the comments of iowa being a nothing…my god even a goophie comes on and makes a comment of comparing him to mason, we got rid of him because we knew he was not lead us to anyting. excuse me but you just compared mason to KF???…thats when I lost it and had to to click it off
and then they start on this season and how iowa has lost so much and they will do nothing. Im betting KF has other plans as does the players on the dissing of iowa. AGAIN
go hawks
I enjoyed your hall picks and think they were all right on!
By: jone on July 22, 2009
at 3:37 AM
and a buckeye commenting on paying KF too much money. PLEASSSSSSSSSE stop. after their continual embarrassing the big ten, any negative comment of another big ten team just isnt appropriate in my book
By: jone on July 22, 2009
at 3:46 AM
of all your selections in the KF hall of fame
punter- jason baker -panthers
qb- brad banks
rb- shonn greene – jets
fullback- jeremy allen
wr- eddie hinkel-
TE- dallas clark – colts
center- bruce nelson – panthers
guard- eric steinbach- browns
offensive tackle- robert gallery – raiders
defensive tackle – colin cole
defensive end- matt roth – dolphins
linebacker- tie chad greenway and abdul hodge – vikings and packers
safety- bob sanders – colts
cornerback- jovon johnson
kicker- nate kaeding – chargers
only 4 are not playing in the nfl today…yeah quick name a sooner or cowboy who is playing in the nfl?
couldnt even name the once defensive player of the year in the NFL, bob sanders. all of his posts needed to be deleted upon that embarrassment of pretending he can even comment about any football team, coach, or player
I laugh when other teams brag on their tradition. of course they have no clue about iowa!
most teams tradition is only a one time period. and yes that period could be a 20 year portion but iowa is so much more than a winning period. …and Im talking about true tradition. there are actually 4 different periods of excellence for iowa…the early 20s, the late 50s, the mid 80s and 2002-03. the fact that iowa has 4- 2nd place heisman winners is a tribute to that success…randy duncan, alex karras, chuck long, and brad banks. but yet very few people even know they exists
.. that iowa is the only stadium that is named after a heisman trophy winner and that his speech was so memorable and elequent that still today is remembered along with john capaletti as the two that ever had any meaning or that anybody remembers one word of it.
the fact that their heisman winner was most surely going to be the president of the united states and that his image by the stadium for who it is named for is of a scholar instead of an athlete.
that the fans kept showing up to the games even during a record losing double digit years. that iowa could have won the national championship at least 3 times(21, 59, 85 or 2002) but the biased media of only covering the name teams will never cease to exist, thus creating ignorant comments of how iowa doesnt deserve this or that.
IM SICK OF IT
for a little ole state in the midwest who most people think is idaho or god knows what other state outside the midwest…I think iowa has done pretty darn well!
By: jone on July 22, 2009
at 5:14 AM
jone…take breath. 🙂
marc, I’ll join the camp that places Nathan Chandler ahead of Kyle McCann in 3rd place in the QB wing of the Hall. I always felt (and still feel) that Nathan was greatly under-appreciated. Too many people focused on his height, and then wrongly concluded that he was tall AND slow. He wasn’t slow; he was a fast runner for a 6’7″ dude, and he flashed the wheels numerous times. He certainly wasn’t a DT or a BB, but he was no stiff, and he won games in his single rodeo in 2003. According to all reports, he was also a high-character guy.
Fred Barr–IIRC, he was the last of the trash-talkers in the Ferentz era. When you wrote that KF said, “My house, my rules,” I immediately wondered if the current player-speak (which almost always directly reflects KF’s mantras) would candidly be labeled by KF as “The Fred Barr Rules.” I can’t recall any player since Fred talking smack to the press about an opponent. The players almost always reflect the KF sanitization.
Of course, DJK has had the wardrobe malfunction…
By: kent on July 22, 2009
at 8:23 AM
marc, maybe a back room (or rooms) in your Hall could be developed and devoted to guys who flashed in places but didn’t sustain, or guys who share a trait, like “great hype but unfulfilled” or “derailed by injury.”
Guys like David Walker, Lee Gray, Aaron Greving, Blake Larson, Jon Buetjer, Ryan Bain, Matt Neubauer (sp), Cory Robertson, the #1 fullback recruit out of Florida a few years back, to name a few names that–to me–were/are noteworthy from the Ferentz era for smaller splashes or for inability to live up to sometimes unrealistic hype. Sam Aiello, for his pool cue; the disguntled OL who quit the team in KF’s first/second year and kept his playbook; those “other” memorable stories on the climb to building the foundation and the program. Not a smear campaign, but a “and what about…?” type room. Players of some significance.
Heck, you could do a room on the assistants who are no longer here: Long, Bielema, Philbin, Aiken, et al. Why did they leave? Who replaced them? What was the trade-off? That look back might be more enjoyable and less controversial than a “rank the assistants” approach.
Stuff for future off-seasons!
Thanks for your work on the HoF.
By: kent on July 22, 2009
at 8:39 AM
jone, step away from the keyboard!
marc, great list! my only comment…you can go ahead and leave Jermelle Lewis off the list entirely. there isn’t any real need to put him on even the explanation post here.
of course, i should probably mention that i was escorted out of Sun Devil stadium in 2004 for scaling the fence on the field just so I could yell at Jermelle for playing like crap, but that really has very little to do with my disliking of JL. 🙂
By: Hawk Fan on July 22, 2009
at 9:25 AM
Great list, Marc. It’s tough, because a lot of the most important players weren’t/aren’t necessarily the *best* players, and vice-versa. Tough to find that balance between the two definitions without leaving anyone out.
By: bucketochicken on July 22, 2009
at 9:35 AM
Actually, I switched it to “Hall of Ferentz — Next Man In,” but who’s quibbling? Basically, the guys you forgot the first time around, but could easily step in if your top-threes ever went down. And the name embodies the Ferentz mantra.
Solid picks throughout the project, my friend. Can’t really complain at all. And it warrants mentioning that the fact that people are pointing out players you missed says quite a lot about how good the fans have had it over the last 10 years of Iowa football.
By: Sam on July 22, 2009
at 11:43 AM
Kent, I kinda loved Nate Chandler but that dude was not fast at all. I have never seen more painfully slow and awkward looking bootlegs and scrambles. I mean, they were actually pretty effective just because he was so damn huge and hard to bring down, but “fast” is not a adjective that should be used anywhere near Chandler’s name. He was hilarious to watch though, and I do agree that he was probably better than Kyle McCann (and I’ll be surprised if Stanzi hasn’t passed both by the end of the this year).
I still definitely believe that Kasper needed to be somewhere on the receiver list. He’s all over the Iowa record book despite playing on horrible, run-first teams and having some pretty bad QBs throwing to him (Jon Beutjer was not, in fact, the Feutjer).
By: Adam on July 22, 2009
at 12:21 PM
Loved watching the kickoff return by C.J. again in the Orange Bowl! Even though it was about the only real bright moment for us, it brings back a hilarious moment. My son’s girlfriend brought her little 10 yr. old brother out to watch the game & they warned him about how loud I get sometimes. I think the poor kid couldn’t hear for a week due to my wife’s screaming during this highlight!
By: Richard A. Steffens on July 22, 2009
at 3:02 PM
Tyler Luebke…I was shocked to see him playing football as the last time i saw him was in ’87 at swim club. We would fill up a swimming cap with water and shove him in it, so to find out that the kid grew up to a DL was a surprise! I followed his last year and thought that he played excellent.
Go Hawks and keep the home grown talent coming!
By: Paul on July 22, 2009
at 4:16 PM
none of you obviously are intuned to listening to the gators 24/7…thats pretty obvious
also none of you really read anything to me
take your own breath. IM A HAWK and Im used to the backtalk of gators…seriously dont stick up for them because I WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I notice alot of you dont really comment on anything before the KF era either. thats kind of odd being a hawk fan or maybe you just cant remember it. someone slams a hawk I WILL BACK THEM!
By: jone on July 22, 2009
at 5:28 PM
oh and ps MARC I thought your list was perfect!!!!!!!
By: jone on July 22, 2009
at 5:30 PM
Tim Brewster is an Iowa fan?
By: Adam on July 22, 2009
at 5:58 PM
I glad these were well received.
I got an e-mail from Eric, a longtime Iowa fan. He brought up one glaring miss that as soon as I read it made me smack my forehead — kick and punt returner!!!!!!
I’m just going to post his e-mail and let him have that one. He’s right. I should’ve come up with at least a special teamer, though Considine and Woods would probably be one-two. I think No. 3 might be a tie between Greenway and Dallas Clark.
There are a lot of great memories for me in these stories and photos. I’m glad the folks here enjoyed it.
By: marcmwm on July 22, 2009
at 8:29 PM
jone,
This is the Hall of FERENTZ, therefore, we are discussing Ferentz-era players, right? The Hall of Fry would be devoted to Fry’s players, the Hall of Commings, Lauterbuer (sp), Evy, etc.
marc, thanks again.
By: kent on July 22, 2009
at 10:26 PM
@Paul –
Hahaha, we used to do that with swim caps too. Amazing how big you can get those… We’d have two of three people sweeping it back & forth under water to fill it, and then when it got big enough someone else would jump in – you could sit in it cross-legged and be shoulder-deep, easy. Good times.
By: bucketochicken on July 23, 2009
at 1:18 AM
What about Jared Clauss for defensive line? Two-year starter, paired with Cole on the 2002 unit, made honorable mention All Big-10 in 2003. Played 4 years for the Titans in the NFL.
By: Lance on July 23, 2009
at 9:43 AM
I believe I had Clauss as an honorable mention.
By: marcmwm on July 23, 2009
at 2:40 PM