On any given fall Saturday in Chicago I'm taken aback by the number of Hawkeye-clad football fans. To be honest with you, I sometimes wish it wasn't that way. That just means that it's impossible to watch a game comfortably at a bar with other Hawk fans. And I'm all for Iowa pride, but when you see some douchebag 22-year-old running around Lincoln Park drunk, screaming, hollering and acting like a hick fool with a backwards Kinnick hat on, you kinda wish you weren't wearing the Black and Gold, just for the simple fact that you don't want to be associated with such tomfoolery. (It's cool in Iowa City and at any away game, but when you're acting like you're at the game but you're not even in the town the game's being played, you look kind pretty stupid).

ANYWAY, the Hawks were in town playing Northern Illinois at Soldier Field, and the number of Hawk fans running around the streets of Chicago increased nearly ten fold. They were everywhere; walking on Michigan Ave. when I got off work, walking around Wrigleyville during the Cubs game Friday. If you were in the South Loop on Saturday, you would have had to pinch yourself to be reminded that you weren't in Iowa City.

It was surreal. And it was awesome. I tell you, if football games were decided by their fans' desire for them to win, or at least their showing up in droves, I don't know if the Hawks should ever lose a football game. This particular showdown was in a town hundreds of miles away from the University, Iowa was playing an Mid-American Conference foe, they were coming off a losing season and were no where near the Top 25, yet, by judging by the enthusiasm of the fans (and their drunkeness) you'd have thought they were playing in the Rose Bowl. It was a very unique experience; something they should do every couple of years or so, be it Northern Illinois, Illinois State or even Northwestern. (Shit, if Northwestern were to play in Soldier, it might actually feel like you're at a real college football game and not a really well attended high school one — thought 95 percent of the fans would be rooting for whichever Big Ten opponent they were playing).

The game was a blast. My dad and I somehow managed to score box suites, which are the way to go if you want to spend a hundred extra bucks. Why? Great views, air conditioning, and bottles of Stoli. You didn't lose anything in sound, despite being enclosed by windows (you could wind them open quite a bit.)

Some called the new Soldier the Mistake by the Lake, but as ugly as it looks from the outside, the views from inside are pretty stellar. There's not a bad seat in the house. And the concourse and passageways retained a vintage NFL stadium-like quality to them, despite being completely renovated. Not to mention when you leave the stadium, you're either viewing a harbor on Lake Michigan, the massive McCormick Center, The Field Museum or a spectacular angle view of the skyline. The entire stadium in surrounded by rolling knolls of lush green grass and well paved sidewalks. My dad, who's only been to Chicago a handful of times, was visibly taken aback by the experience.

There might not be a more beautiful place to go to and from a football game in the country.

Well, except Kinnick Stadium.

Go figure. All the effort I put into trying to make these posts as insightful/cerebral/touching as I possibly can, the one that gets the most response is the one in which I'm admitting that I'm not trying to be insightful/cerebral/touching at all. Maybe I should go back to being a sportswriter.

(There were only three posts following the last entry, which is a pretty sad number to get excited over, not to mention two of them were from the same person. Refer to the going back to being a sportswriter line.)

Ah, but fuck it. This just proves that I'm not alone! College football brings most grown men to their knees, now matter how "intellectual" they try to convince themselves they are

Ahhhh, I love it!

To answer Duke...No, I don't have any credit cards you can borrow. And even if I did let you "borrow" them, the most the balance on them would allow you buy would be two tacos and mega mug at the Caddyshack. However, I would like to get my hands on one of those Dale Earnhardt jackets. You see those Facebook pictures with Arvell Nelson wearing one? What, is NASCAR apparel en vogue with thug fashion these days? Good god. Shit's come full circle. Next they'll be wearing Carhartt. Oh, wait...

RE: 7-5. Eric, where's your faith?

There's no such thing as a "guaranteed" win in college football, but there is such a thing as winning games you're supposed to, and I think there's 8-10 of those games on this schedule. The Big Ten is down this year (Michigan made that glaringly obvious), and while everybody is tabbing OSU and Wisc. as the No. 2-3 teams, I'm not sold. OSU loses lots on both sides of the ball, and Wisconsin didn't play anybody except an overrated Arkansas late in the season last year. Bielema is good, but he's not that good yet. That team will hit some road bumps this year, I guarantee it. Winning in the Big Ten isn't suppose to look that easy. And if you guys claim to know anything about Iowa football, you know we play historically well against Wisconsin both at home and away (except when Ron Dane is about to break an NCAA record).

This team will win no fewer than eight games, and could win as many, if not more, than 10. If they play tough and smart (like they haven't the last two years), they'll beat Indiana (tough for them to regroup after their coach's death) and Northwestern (these piss ants' two-year run is up). If Zook couldn't win with talent at Florida, how the hell is he going to do it at Illinois? With new head coaches, Minnesota and Michigan State are a couple years away from being formidable. I'm not even sure Minn's new coach knows who Floyd of Rosedale is. Purdue doesn't have shit coming back, and it's beginning to look like Joe Tiller is slowing getting as goofy as Lee Corso.

Penn State in Happy Valley could be the biggest struggle of the year.

And does anybody remember what happened the last time we played Western Michigan? Look it up. I'd back off the "guaranteed" talk around that one.

As for ISU, they could lose by 50 points to TJ and still find a way to give the Hawks a fit. I hate to admit it, but it's true.

I've been playing the old PS2 version of NCAA. Yeah, it never really changes. But then again, it never really needs to change as long as dipshits like us still dole out $50 for the new version ever year regardless.