Iowa’s offense hopes to show progress in Saturday’s season opener against Illinois State. Cade McNamara gets the start at quarterback. He suffered a season ending ACL injury midway through the 2023 season.

McNamara says it has been a long wait for a game.

McNamara says Kamari Moulton has shined in practice. The redshirt freshman will get the start at running back.

Senior tight end Luke Lachey likes the way the run game is performing under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester.

Lachey says Illinois State’s defense will be aggressive.

Illinois State coach Brock Spack says Saturday’s game at Iowa will prepare them for Missouri Valley action. The Redbirds are ranked 20th in the FCS coaches poll and coming off a 6-5 season in 2023.

Spack says the players enjoy the challenge of playing Big Ten teams.

Spack says Iowa’s success on defense begins with consistency.

Spack says while Iowa has made changes on offense the Hawkeyes primary goal will still be to run the ball.

This week the Atlantic Trojans Cross Country regular season begins. The 2024 season brings a mixed bag of returning runners and a multitude of new faces for a total of 32 athletes. Atlantic Head Cross Country Coach Dan Vargason commented that this year’s combination has a greener group who are quickly picking up the completive culture of Trojan Cross Country.

Junior Katrina Williams is one of the Atlantic runners that has seen this steady stream of improvement for the Trojans.

Williams is not alone in her observations of this team continuing to build positive momentum. Senior runner Megan Birge is another runner who has seen her team unify and learn to better uplift one another.

On the boys side senior Luke Irlmeier is looking forward to Saturday’s season opener at Glenwood. Irlmeier is hoping that his teammates continue to clean up their times and strengthen the discipline of being focused throughout the entire meet.

Coach Vargason explained that the 2024 team has different goals than previous years, but are still determined to enhance their times at each meet.

The meet at Glenwood on Saturday will begin at 9:00 AM

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it will be business as usual for him in practice this week. Ferentz is suspended for Saturday’s opener against Illinois State for a recruiting violation and assistant head coach Seth Wallace will lead the team. Ferentz says the coaching staff always goes over game situations in a Thursday meeting.

Ferentz says while Wallace has the final call in the game a coaches role is most important in practice.

Ferentz is hoping to see progress from the offense under new coordinator Tim Lester.

Former Purdue defensive coordinator Brock Spack is the longtime coach at Illinois State. The Redbirds are ranked 20th in the FCS Coaches Poll.

Iowa State coach Matt Campbell says season openers make football unique. The Cyclones take lofty expectations into Saturday’s season opener against North Dakota.

Campbell says the opener always features a lot of question marks.

While excited by the season opener Campbell says the Cyclones should approach this game no different than the others.

Campbell says North Dakota will be a physical challenge.

Campbell says the Fighting Hawks won’t be intimidated.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Big Ten Conference announced the opponent rotation for the 2024-25 wrestling season on Tuesday.

The University of Iowa will host Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois and Ohio State inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes will travel for road duals against Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State and Maryland.
The complete schedule will be released once finalized.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa head baseball coach Rick Heller has announced the addition of two former Major League Baseball players and Iowa alumni to his coaching staff on Tuesday. Tyler Cropley will join the Hawkeyes as a student assistant and Wes Obermueller joins as Director of Player Development.

Cropley played for Heller and the Hawkeyes from 2017-18. He hit a team-best .342 with 20 doubles, nine home runs, 50 RBIs and 43 runs scored as a senior. He was a named a second-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball and was a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award.

Cropley was selected in the eighth round of the 2018 Major League Draft by the Washington Nationals with the 251st pick. He was the first Hawkeye catcher drafted in top eight rounds since 1972.

The Sioux City, Iowa, native made his MLB debut on August 19, 2023, for the Kansas City Royals. He appeared in two games for the Royals.

Obermueller played for Iowa from 1997-1999 before being selected by Kansas City in the second round of the MLB Draft. In 1999 he had a 6.83 ERA while recording 91 strikeouts in 88 1/3 innings. He also had a .352 batting average with 24 RBIs. Obermueller started his career at Iowa as a shortstop and then a right fielder before making his debut on the mound as a junior. He locked down a spot in the starting rotation in 1999.

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native made his major league debut on September 20, 2002, and played parts of five seasons in the big leagues (Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins) starting 48 games and appearing in 80. He had a 5.82 ERA over 315 1/3 innings tallying 166 strikeouts.

He also pitched for the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball League and the Samsung Lions of the KBO League.

Obermueller is the father of junior LHP Cade Obermueller.

North Dakota coach Bubba Schweigert says the Fighting Hawks face a severe test in Saturday’s opener at Iowa State. North Dakota finished 7-5 last season and opens 22nd in the FCS Coaches Poll.

Schweigert says the Cyclones made a lot of progress during the 2023 season.

Schweigert says Iowa State was a different team by the end of last season.

Schweigert says Cyclone quarterback Rocco Becht is a concern for the Fighting Hawks defense.

(Chicago, IL) — As the college football season kicks off this week, there are a few new rules and guidelines fans will notice, mostly centered on technology. Big Ten Conference coordinator of football officials Bill Carollo says the three major changes fans will see will be: The in-helmet communication between a single coach and a single player on each side of the ball during the game…

…The accepted use of tablets or small video screens on the sidelines to help watch game action and devise strategy…

and, the addition of a two-minute warning at the end of each half.

Carollo says the two-minute warning is not an additional break in the game, it will simply replace one of the television timeouts that was already on the commercial log.

It will also sync all late-game timing rules to change at the two-minute warning. In addition, Division III football officials will adopt what D-I and D-II referees did last year in that the clock will not stop on first downs gained if the play was stopped in bounds. The clock will stop on first downs gained in play in the final two minutes of each half until the chains are ready for play. One other note for Big Ten play, the conference has opened a multi-million-dollar video replay review center in Chicago, which will serve as the central command for all officiating reviews in all Big Ten home games.

The review center will have 24 video stations, 18 devoted to replay and six dedicated to medical observation. Big Ten Conference football play begins on Thursday night when Minnesota hosts North Carolina, Illinois entertains Eastern Illinois, and Rutgers welcomes Howard.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell has announced the team captains for the 2024 football season.

Seniors Beau Freyler and Jaylin Noel will be captains for a second-straight season, while fellow senior J.R. Singleton will be Iowa State’s third permanent captain in 2024. ISU will have also have a fourth captain for each game, chosen on a weekly basis throughout the season.

Beau Freyler – Sr. – Colorado Springs, Colo.

Freyler has been a mainstay in the Cyclone lineup since arriving on campus for the 2021 season. He’s made 25 career starts and was a CSC First-Team Academic All-American in 2023.

Jaylin Noel – Sr. – Kansas City, Mo.

Like Freyler, Noel will be serving as team captain for the second-straight season. He was an All-Big 12 performer last season and is a threat on both offense and special teams.

J.R. Singleton – RSr. – Gurnee, Ill.

Singleton will be serving as a team captain for the first time in his career. He made eight starts as a redshirt junior and had his most productive season with 22 tackles and a career-high 3.5 sacks, all of which came in Big 12 play.

The Cyclones open the season Saturday at 2:30 p.m. when they host FCS No. 22-ranked North Dakota and Jack Trice Stadium. It marks the 50^th season of play at Jack Trice Stadium. Learn more about the stadium’s history by clicking here.