'Quintessential Hawkeye' winning trio: Clark, Greenway, Sanders
Iowa fans on Twitter have spoken: The Quintessential Hawkeye under Kirk Ferentz is lightly recruited and not only stars on the field in Iowa City, but on football's ultimate stage.
A field of 20-plus finished with three names as epitomizing what a Hawkeye means: Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders and Chad Greenway.
The trio wound up being an overwhelming choice in the eight-day “tournament” that generated a lot of discussion and more than 13,000 votes. And who could argue with these three?
Clark (lettered 2000-02) was the walk-on linebacker who became a Mackey Award-winning tight end on Iowa’s 2002 team that went to the Orange Bowl. His rise at Iowa paralleled the team’s, which went from 0-8 in the Big Ten Conference in Ferentz’s first year of 1999 to 8-0 in 2002. Clark would go on to win a Super Bowl and catch more than 500 NFL passes with the Indianapolis Colts.
Sanders (2000-03) went from a 5-foot-8 safety nobody wanted to the 2007 AFC Defensive Player of the Year with Indianapolis. In between, he was the pace-setter in Iowa’s transition from league punching bag to “Bullies of the Big Ten.” Sanders’ crushing special-teams tackle as a freshman against Michigan State highlighted Ferentz’s first Big Ten win as Iowa coach.
Greenway (2002-05) was the ultimate Reese Morgan recruiting find (maybe only to be matched, eventually, by Josey Jewell), a nine-man high school player from a tiny South Dakota farm town. Iowa believed in Greenway, and he wound up as one of the school’s greatest linebackers. For good measure, Greenway packs high character and has enjoyed a long NFL career with the nearby Minnesota Vikings.
Perhaps the only possible regret of how the final three shook out was that there wasn’t an offensive lineman in the group. Robert Gallery, the 2003 Outland Trophy winner, lost in a quarterfinal matchup to linebacker Pat Angerer.
Thanks to all who participated. This was fun. Here were the results:
‘QUINTESSENTIAL HAWKEYE’ UNDER KIRK FERENTZ
July 28 play-in matchups (2,070 votes)
Adrian Clayborn 68%, Marshal Yanda 32% (473 votes)
Tyler Sash 71%, Fred Russell 29% (481 votes)
Mitch King 62%, Brett Greenwood 38% (532 votes)
Marvin McNutt 43%, Micah Hyde 31%, Abdul Hodge 26% (584 votes)
July 29 round-of-16 matchups (3,108 votes)
#1 seed Bob Sanders 91%, #16 seed Marvin McNutt 9% (762 votes)
#8 seed Brad Banks 54%, #9 seed Shonn Greene 46% (851 votes)
#5 seed Ricky Stanzi 64%, #12 seed Nate Kaeding 36% (779 votes)
#4 seed Dallas Clark 79%, #13 seed Adrian Clayborn 21% (716 votes)
Monday’s round-of-16 matchups (2,961 votes)
#6 seed Matt Roth 56%, #11 seed Drew Tate 44% (761 votes)
#3 seed Chad Greenway 80%, #14 seed Tyler Sash 20% (728 votes)
#7 seed Pat Angerer 69%, #10 seed Brandon Scherff 31% (777 votes)
#2 seed Robert Gallery 69%, #15 seed Mitch King 31% (695 votes)
Wednesday’s quarterfinals (4,002 votes)
#1 Sanders 80%, #8 Banks 20% (860 votes)
#4 Clark 70%, #5 Stanzi 30% (1,080 votes)
#3 Greenway 83%, #6 Roth 17% (1,004 votes)
#7 Angerer 57%, #2 Gallery 43% (1,058 votes)
Thursday’s Final Four (pick three; 936 votes)
Greenway, Sanders, Clark – 61%
Greenway, Angerer, Clark – 16%
Sanders, Angerer, Clark – 12%
Greenway, Sanders, Angerer – 11%