News About SU Opponents

This Saturday the Syracuse Orange visit the pink locker room of the Iowa Hawkeyes. But there has been some interesting news about Iowa, and it's not related to the football field.

About 20 players on the Hawkeye football team have pictures showing them either drinking or posing with open containers of alcohol. Other pictures reveal players holding bottles and flashing large amounts of cash. All these pictures were posted on the player's Facebook profiles and viewable to the Iowa University community.

Not only were the pictures disturbing, so were the messages that the players posted. One player wrote, "She can't say no if her mouth is taped shut." Another said, "If you send me back to jail, I'll rape your family." One of the more despicable pictures have two players standing in front of a person vomiting.

Two Iowa receivers, Dominique Douglas and Anthony Bowman were arrested on charges of unauthorized use of credit cards where they charged more than $2,000 worth of merchandise. Both have been suspended indefinitely by head coach Kirk Ferentz.

Syracuse plays against the Hawkeyes this Saturday 8:00 p.m. The game will be televised on the new Big Ten Network. Good luck trying to find it, as I believe it is only provided by DirecTV.

Other Orange football news includes a report that Syracuse is in the midst of serious talks with Hawaii. The topic of conversation is about a possible match up on the gridiron in 2008. Hawaii has had trouble scheduling a team to come play them in Hawaii. SU had an opportunity this year but passed as there is a conflict of interest.

Hawaii's quarterback, all-America and Heisman Trophy candidate Colt Brennan, was very close to becoming a member of the Orange football squad. But when his records were checked, a past sexual assault case prevented his enrollment at the university. Playing against him would be quite awkward and he would be looking for revenge as he tries to break the record for most touchdown passes.

I'm sure the Orange are glad to avoid that situation with Brennan. The game that is being negotiated is scheduled for December 6, 2008. What a great opportunity for fans in central New York to escape the cold of winter and enjoy the beautiful Hawaiian sunshine. But as Coach Jim Boeheim says, "Hawaii is just like Syracuse in the summer."