New University of Iowa offensive coordinator Greg Davis says the offense will be a little different this year, but he says most of the change will be picking up a new way of identifying plays. Davis says one of the biggest challenge is they were only able to lay the foundation of the offense in the spring, and now this fall they are adding some bells and whistles, “so it’s a constant learning process.” Davis who previously coached at Texas gave the media a verbal example of what the players are dealing with. “The terminology is entirely different, you know the way things are called and being able to enunciate the plays, you know: R-King-n-scat-four-seven-fake-zero-fair-flat, and not bat an eye,” Davis said after reeling off a play call. “It just takes awhile and you’ve got to do it over and over and you’ve got to do it in a way they understand, just like y’all did I’m sure, what I was talking about.” Davis will have senior quarterback James Vandenberg making the calls at the line, something he said will be a big help.

“He brings what you want out of the quarterback position, he’s very confident guy, he’s a good leader,” Davis explains. “Our quarterbacks make a lot of decisions at the line of scrimmage and when you’re letting them do that within certain parameters, you want to know that they are spending the time that they are going to get you in the play you want. I have total confidence in James.” Davis was asked to compare Iowa’s program to Texas.  He said the biggest similarity is the stability, with Kirk Ferentz being the coach for 14 years and having a great idea of what he wants to do. Davis wants to run the ball, but he said he wants to do what it takes to move the ball. “Just try to adjust, but at the same time, always trying to find some kind of balance between the run and the throw. The thing I told the offense is that balance doesn’t mean that each game you run 40 and you throw 40, it means that you can win the game either way. You get a bad weather game are you going to be good enough to run the ball. If fall behind are you going to be good enough to throw the ball more, play out of the gun more, that’s what balance means,” according to Davis. Davis says he won’t have a problem with Iowa’s young running backs as he says that’s one position where you can be younger and still do well.

The coach of gold medal winning gymnast Gabby Douglas was greeted by dozens of his friends, family and students upon his arrival back in Iowa Wednesday. It’s the second time Liang Chow has returned to Iowa after one of his athletes claimed Olympic gold.

Liang Chow (Photo by Radio Iowa)

He was surprised with the reception at the Des Moines Airport. “This is just a wonderful, warm feeling to be back home,” Chow said. Over the past two years, Chow worked with Douglas – who won team gold and the individual all-around gold medal. Chow said the experience this year in London was much different than four years ago in Beijing. Shawn Johnson was expected to do well in 2008 after dominating world gymnastics competitions the previous three years.

“Gabby was in a different situation because nobody expected much out of her, other than the ones who really know her and knew she had the potential to be on the very top,” Chow said. After claiming her two gold medals, Douglas made major mistakes on the uneven bars and the beam – and failed to medal in those events. Chow said although his time in London was rewarding, it wasn’t always enjoyable. “The experience (involved) lots of challenges and lots of struggles. Now, when I think back, it was fun…sort of,” Chow said with a laugh. “I’m just glad everything turned out good.”

The best young gymnasts from around the world will now be knocking on Chow’s door and he could relocate his gym anywhere, but Chow doesn’t plan to leave Iowa. “I feel like I can’t find a better place to live,” Chow said. “This is my dream home.” Chow moved to the U.S. from China in 1991. He and his wife opened the gym in West Des Moines in 1998.

w/ Jim Field

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• Omaha 6, Colorado Springs 1
• Iowa 7, Reno 4

• Colorado Springs at Omaha, 1:05 p.m.
• Reno at Iowa, 1:05 p.m.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Buster Posey continued his second-half tear with a three-run homer, Barry Zito pitched 6 2-3 innings of two-run ball and the San Francisco Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 Tuesday night.  Posey leads the major leagues with a .448 batting average and 30 RBIs since the All-Star break, including 12 in his last six games. The home run extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Joaquin Arias drove in the Giants’ other run with an RBI double. Melky Cabrera also doubled for San Francisco, giving him a big league leading 152 hits.  Zito (9-8) allowed  two solo home runs by Allen Craig. He gave up eight hits overall with four strikeouts and no walks. Jeremy Affeldt got the last four outs for his third save in four chances.

Cardinals starter Lance Lynn (13-5) allowed four runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts in six innings.

LONDON (AP) – No more golds for Gabby, one more for China. And Aly Raisman finally caught a (tie) break . Raisman was initially fourth after missing a medal in the all-around because she was on the short end of the tiebreak rules. But she questioned her score and judges revised it, giving her an additional .10 in difficulty.  That put her at 15.066, identical to that of Romania’s Catalina Ponor. But Raisman got the bronze because of a higher execution mark.

Deng Linlin won the gold medal while teammate Sui Lu captured the silver. It was China’s second gold of the day, following Feng Zhe’s title on parallel bars. Gabby Douglas was seventh after a fall. But she finishes the London Olympics with two gold medals, including the all-around title, gymnastics’ biggest prize.

w/ Chris Parks

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Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz spoke to the media Monday with four days of fall practice already completed. Ferentz says every day of practice is key heading into the season opener in Chicago. “The good news I think we have a lot of healthy competition at a lot of different spots, that’s certainly a positive. We have a depth chart that’s been distributed, it’s pretty much something you’ll probably be able to throw out the window in a week or two because I think this is the kind of football team that is going to look different in the weeks ahead and heading and certainly as we go into September and October,” Ferentz says. “Obviously what we’re doing on the field right now is going to be very important.” This will be Ferentz’s 14th season and what he calls his youngest team.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that have been in the program, I think when they get the opportunity they’ll do a fine job,” Ferentz says. He says this will be a little like the 2009 season where many of the starters on the offensive line were new going in, but they did a good job. Greg Davis takes over as the offensive coordinator, and there will be a new face carrying the ball after turnover at the position. Ferentz says they’ll go with the players who are in camp, and so far they are coming along. “You know everybody looks good right now, but you’d expect that. Over the course of time usually the picture becomes a little bit more clear, and then the other obvious part, more important part of it, is how players perform in games,” Ferentz explained. “And that’s something you just can’t simulate in practice, its a different arena certainly. So the first hurdle is what do we get done in camp, who looks the best and we’ll try to get them line up correctly, and see how they respond once they go to Chicago, and that will be the next phase.”

One constant for the offense is senior quarterback James Vandenberg. “You know this is James’ senior year. I don’t want to overstate it for him or speak for him, but he obviously wants to play his best football this year as you would hope,” Ferentz says. He says Vandenberg got with the new offensive coordinator early on and was probably ahead of everyone in learning it. “Flipping it over on Greg’s side, how do you not love James Vandenberg? James is just an outstanding guy, so I think that has been a pretty good marriage certainly already.”

The defense will also have a new coordinator, but in this case, Phil Parker was already on the staff and moved up. Ferentz says it’s not as big a transition for the defense to the new coordinator because all the terminology is the same. The Hawkeyes open the season against Northern Illinois at Soldier Field in Chicago.