Adam Robinson dismissed
This is old news already, but I haven't had a chance to write about it yet. Robinson was kicked off the team on Monday following his citation for possession of marijuana (and he incidentally filed his paperwork with the Polk County District today). The pot charges were the final straw as Robinson already sat the bench for the opening quarter against Ohio State and was suspended from the bowl game for "academic indigestion"/"not taking care of business".Following the chaotic couple of weeks the Hawkeyes had in December, dismissing Robinson was the right move. To get cited with marijuana possession while you're at home serving a suspension with the rest of the team in Arizona is just not very smart. So Robinson is now another running back to add to the list of casualties. It's amazing at this time a year ago Iowa still had Robinson, Brandon Wegher, Jewel Hampton, Jeff Brinson, and Jeff Brown in what looked like a log jam in the backfield. All 5 are now off the team for one reason or another. Thankfully Marcus Coker looks like the real deal.
Ken O'Keefe a candidate for UConn job
There have been a couple of sources (The Hartford Courant is the first source I saw) that are reporting that KOK is being considered as a replacement for Randy Edsall as the head coach at Connecticut. KOK was also linked to the opening at Indiana before Kevin Wilson got the job. The idea of O'Keefe as a head coach is somewhat founded. He was the man in charge at Fordham for a year before coming to Iowa and at Allegheny College before that. He has an 83-17-1 record as a head coach and led Allegheny to a Nation Championship in 1990.He also has some strong ties to Connecticut. The most obvious, he was born in the state. He also has coached in the area and still recruits in the state. He also has an indirect tie through Kirk Ferentz who played at UConn 30+ years ago.
I have taken shots at KOK from time to time, but honestly think he is a good coach and selfishly hope he stays at Iowa. I think a large part of the success Iowa has had over the past decade has been due to the continuity of the coaching staff. O'Keefe (and Norm Parker) has been by Ferentz's side from year 1 and the 3 seem to have a good chemistry to leads to a lot of good and winnable games. Fans like to get on KOK for being too predictable and conservative. It's been said a thousand times, but it's really Ferentz that's the conservative one, and that when the offense is executing well, KOK looks a lot better. I think we've seen KOK's ability to put together great game plans (the last time Iowa beat Northwestern comes to mind) and adapt an offense to the personnel (look at the offense in 2002 with Banks versus 2004 with Tate versus 2008 with Greene...all very different).