Iowa City High’s A.J. Derby keeps his options open

Iowa City High quarterback A. J. Derby carries the ball as Cedar Rapids Xavier's Steven Travis tries, unsuccessfully, to stop his progress during their game on Nov. 3, 2008, at City High School in Iowa City.

Iowa City High quarterback A.J. Derby compiles football scholarship offers like others his age collect football cards.

Derby, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior, has scholarship offers from Florida, Louisiana State, Alabama, Florida State, Michigan, Miami, Nebraska and several others — “I can’t list them all off but it’s a lot,” he said. Iowa also feverishly has targeted him.

“It’s just kind of wide open right now,” Derby said. “I plan on taking all of my official visits. So I’m going to wait until the school year, then narrow it down to five and decide where I’m going to take my officials.

“It’s wide open. I’m still talking to everyone.”

Derby hopes to take a few of his visits on Saturdays following Thursday night high school games. Iowa City High plays Thursday night games on Sept. 17, Sept. 24 and Oct. 22.

Derby played wide receiver and defensive back for Iowa City High as a sophomore before moving to quarterback last year. He completed 77 of 136 passes for 1,197 yards and 11 touchdowns while throwing four interceptions. Derby also led Iowa City High in rushing with 1,064 yards on 168 attempts and scored 13 touchdowns.

With Derby’s frame and versatility, many wonder if colleges are recruiting Derby as a quarterback then switch him to tight end, linebacker or safety. Other speculation involves whether Derby could play the role of a running quarterback, like Florida’s Tim Tebow.

“Everyone is recruiting me for quarterback,” Derby said. “Some (schools want him as a running quarterback), and some don’t. Some want me to be a pocket passer. It’s kind of a little of both.”

Derby also faces outside pressure to remain with the hometown school, Iowa. His father, John, was an all-Big Ten linebacker at Iowa. His older brother, Zach, plays tight end at Iowa.

“They tell me to go Iowa all the time,” Derby said of his friends. “These coaches (baseball coaches from Cedar Rapids Kennedy) were trying to tell me to go to Iowa after the game. I’m kind of used to it.

“My dad just said do what you think is right for yourself and don’t just do what he wants, but do what I want.”

“I just try not to think about it too much and try to be a normal kid.”

ISU receives major payout from 2008 Iowa-ISU FB game

The Cy-Hawk Trophy donated by the Des Moines Athletic Club when Iowa State and Iowa resumed football competition in 1977.

Iowa’s athletics department paid Iowa State $616,383.48 for its 2008 appearance at Kinnick Stadium, per the schools’ current football contract.

The payout exceeds Iowa State’s share from 2006 by more than $23,000 or the school’s share in 2004 by more than $35,000. The contract between the universities stipulates that the home school pay the visitor 20 percent in gate receipts after taxes.

Iowa State and Iowa agreed to a new contract in 2008 that lasts through 2017, but the terms change following the 2012 game. Beginning in 2013, the host school will keep all of the gate receipts.

The current arrangement favors Iowa State because of stadium capacity. Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium holds more than 70,000 fans, while Iowa State’s Jack Trice Stadium holds around 55,000. Iowa received $330,389 from Iowa State following the 2007 game in Ames, nearly half of what Iowa State took in last season. 

Iowa State also will benefit from earning the final 20 percent cut in 2012 and then keeping all of the gate in 2013.

This year Iowa State hosts Iowa Sept. 12. Individual tickets are available through Iowa’s ticket office for $92. Iowa State is offering a three-game package that includes Iowa, North Dakota State and Colorado beginning July 20 for $99. Iowa State also selling hillside-only tickets for $60.

NFL Network vs. Big Ten Network in the dead zone

Slow doesn’t begin to describe this time of year for college athletics and the NFL. Having covered both for a significant period of time, I can tell you everyone associated with the NFL is on vacation during the July 4 holiday. Likewise, college officials usually are as far from campus as possible.

It’s only reasonable to expect two networks exclusively televising pro football or college athletics to struggle for relevant programming this time of year. To examine this, I went through the entire television schedule of both the NFL Network and the Big Ten Network beginning with Sunday, June 28 and ending on July 4. Here are my observations.

Both networks repeat programming the same way Clear Channel recycles songs and news stories on the radio. The Big Ten Network repeated programming 45 times during this week. That includes four telecasts of “Big Ten Legends: Lloyd Carr” and four airings of the 2009 Big Ten men’s tennis tournament. The NFL Network is much, much worse. It replayed its programming 90 times during the seven-day period.

The Big Ten Network is required to show campus programming, and this is the perfect time of year to do so. There were three airings of Purdue’s “Boiler Bytes,” and Northwestern’s “Student Concerto Competition.” Iowa varied its campus programming with shows on vitality, sustainability and “Getting Ready for the Boom.” I presume that’s a euphemism for the alarm clock to wake us from that programming, but I digress.

The Big Ten Network has done a good job of trying to shake up its replays by instituting campus-specific programming on different days. There have been (and will be again on July 12) Iowa days when the network airs past games in which Iowa was victorious.

During this sample week, the Big Ten Network devoted a day for Wisconsin. The programming included a 1999 Rose Bowl victory, a big basketball win against Maryland in 2000 and the annual hockey grudge match against Minnesota. There also was campus programming on the common cold (aahh-chew), international relations (is this the fishing zone between the U.S. and Canada?) and the mind of a psychopath (Wisconsin’s own Jeffrey Dahmer?).

On July 4, the BTN will air the league’s greatest football games of 2008, plus other football-related programming. Good move. Overall, it was a decent week for the network, which slowly is building its resume as one of the better sports networks on television.

The NFL Network is the reigning repeat champion. No other network outside of Headline News repeats its programming more than the NFL Network. It’s a shame because the NFL Network has so much potential.

During the June 28-July 4 sample week, the NFL Network was fairly predictable, based on past years. Sundays are filled with 90-minute replays from four games during a 2008 weekend From noon Sunday through 6 p.m. Monday, those replays ran 16 times.

The NFL Network’s daily trademark, “Total Access,” is a one-hour news/feature show that airs every weeknight at 6 p.m. Unfortunately, it re-airs and re-airs and re-airs some more. The Monday version aired 10 times. The Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday versions aired 12 times each. That’s way too much programming time to dedicate to one 60-minute show.

The network also re-airs other programming at an alarming rate. Tuesday night, the network showed two 30-minute and one 60-minute episodes of “NFL Game of the Week.” Those shows then re-aired nine more times.

On Monday nights (and usually on the following Saturday), the NFL Network airs a “Classic Game” with its original broadcasters. Unfortunately, many of the classics go back to 2008 or 2007. Since the 1970 merger, there have been 9,061 games NFL games played — 8,680 regular season, 381 postseason.

The NFL Network did schedule a weekend dedicated to its Emmy-winning documentary series “America’s Game.” Beginning at 5 a.m. on July 4, the network will air each episode of its Super Bowl champion series, followed by its “Missing Rings” series. That’s a tremendous idea, but the network should have started it earlier in the week to expose those fans who have yet to see it.

What the NFL Network does, it does well. It just doesn’t do it enough and it is much too repetitive. When Brett Favre returns again expect nothing the network to destroy all of its programming to show his first Packers’ game, the Monday night game following his dad’s death, the Packers’ Super Bowl XXXI win and last year’s Jets-Patriots Thursday night game on NFL Network.  The network did it when he retired, when he un-retired and then when he retired again.

San Diego State officials to Ex-Hawk Chuck Long: We can’t quit you (but we’d like to)

San Diego State is desperately trying to rid itself of former Iowa great Chuck Long, who was fired as head coach last November. Here’s the story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

New York Jets ink Shonn Greene

Former Iowa running back Shonn Greene signed a contract today with the New York Jets, the team announced today. The Jets drafted Greene with the first pick in the third round in April’s NFL draft.

Terms were not disclosed. Here’s the story from the Jets’ Web site: http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/articles/show/3023-jets-third-rounder-greene-reach-agreement

Interesting travel story of the year No. 1: Men’s hoops at Ohio State, football at Outback

The wildest trip I took this season included seven cities in less than four days, more stops than former Miss California Carrie Prejean on a marriage preservation tour. There was anxiety and enjoyment. It included both Iowa football and basketball.

I originally slotted my basketball trips in late September. That included Iowa’s game at Ohio State, which was scheduled for 4 p.m. on Dec. 31. Yep, that’s right, New Year’s Eve. Well, I didn’t want to ring in 2009 in Columbus, Ohio so I scheduled a late-evening flight back to Cedar Rapids. I didn’t expect Iowa’s football team would make a New Year’s Day bowl game so I figured I’d just stick to basketball that day.

In early December, Iowa was selected to play in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 1. I was interested in joining Gazette comrades Marc Morehouse and Mike Hlas in covering the event so I had to rearrange the flight pattern.

The best way I could get from Columbus to Tampa was via Charlotte. I had to leave Columbus at 7:50 p.m. for that flight, but with a 4 p.m. start, making that flight was difficult to say the least. But I tried it anyway.

I flew from Cedar Rapids to Chicago and then Columbus and arrived around midnight on Dec. 30. I staffed a basketball game that appeared to be a blowout in the first half with Ohio State leading 30-15. Then Iowa mounted a major comeback and took the lead in the second half. Needless to say, I was stressed. I wrote most of my story through the game. Iowa had one chance left but freshman Matt Gatens’ last-second three-pointer went astray and Ohio State won 68-65. Had Gatens, who had a great game, hit that shot, the game would have went into overtime and I would have missed my flight. Instead, I made my flight with a few minutes to spare.

I flew to Charlotte first then landed in Tampa around 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 1. Southern cities celebrate the New Year with fireworks, something that surprised me until I realized it’s about 50 degrees warmer there than in Iowa. So it was kind of cool to fly above the fireworks. On the flight to Tampa a depressed couple lamented that they had to kiss each other on the airplane serenaded with a New Year’s countdown by the pilot. Too bad for them.

By the time I got to the hotel after a stressful trip, it was 1:30 a.m. I arrived at Raymond James Stadium by 8:30 a.m. I watched Iowa beat the living daylights out of South Carolina. I relaxed for a few hours that night before waking at 3 a.m. for a 6 a.m. Eastern flight. I was entertained by the dozens of hungover Iowa fans at the airport, including an old high school friend who hadn’t been to bed since arriving on Dec. 31. Then it was on to Atlanta, St. Louis and then Cedar Rapids.

Sportswriters often get hit with comments like “aww, that must be rough” when we travel to cover teams. But none of those people had to staff a basketball game and make a flight within four hours away with a basketball arena 10 miles from the airport. But getting around one day in 70-degree weather in Tampa made it all worth it.

Iowa could kill media guides to save trees and cash

IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa has not decided whether or not to eliminate team media guides for the upcoming 2009-2010 sports season.

Big Ten schools Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin all chose to eliminate media guides for next year. According to a joint press release, Michigan and Ohio State said the move will save their departments a combined $250,000 next year. Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez said the move will save his athletic department up to $200,000, according to reports.

Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said Tuesday the school will make a decision quickly and “before the deadline to print.” Big Ten schools have brought media guides to the league’s annual football media days in late July. Barta said the school has considered the move for several months.

“Whether or not we eliminate them, I’m not certain yet,” he said. “We haven’t made any final decisions. but we did talk about ways we might be able to reduce them and use the Internet, use an electronic replacement for those.

“We met about it the last couple of weeks, so we’re going to have to make a decision pretty soon.”

Barta said it’s possible the school may choose to keep some of the media guides but eliminate others. Conserving paper and sustainability also are factors in Iowa’s choice to keep the guides or eliminate them.

Media guides formerly displayed vital information for reporters. In 2004, Missouri’s football media guide was 614 pages and had four pages dedicated to red-shirt freshmen. In 2005, the NCAA limited football media guides to 208 pages, and schools chose to use the guides as a recruiting tool and less of a history book.

Barta said the department will examine how eliminating the guide might affect recruiting before making a final decision.

“One of the ways many of the young people we recruit now when we talk to them, they’re really going to Web sites, Internet sites,” Barta said. “So that appears to be where the trend is going anyway. So that’s what we’re trying to determine. Certainly we don’t want to do anything to damage our recruiting.

“If you look at there’s a lot more interest in going green in conserving paper, etc. The world has certainly changed a lot electronically and the Internet from five years ago and economically things have changed as well.

Darian Cotton a future Hawkeye?

Just emptying my notebook after state track about 10 days ago …

Darian Cotton rushed for 851 yards and six touchdowns last year as a sophomore for Mount Pleasant. He also caught 15 passes and scored on an interception return. Not too bad for a player competing in a secondary role.

Darian’s older brother, Jordan, will play football at Iowa this fall. Their father, Marshall, played at Iowa from 1984-87. It’s no secret that Darian Cotton would like to follow the family legacy up Highway 218 and join the Hawkeyes in two years.

“Iowa has been like giving me different recruiting things, like asking me to go to their camps,” said Darian, who was competing at the Class 3A state track meet in Des Moines last month. “I was offered to go to their spring game to watch, and I like that a lot.

“HopefullyI get to play there.”

Some observers say Darian has more potential than his brother, but that’s debatable. Jordan Cotton rushed for 1,548 yards and 25 touchdowns last year for Mount Pleasant and will play wide receiver at Iowa.

Darian Cotton finished sixth in the Class 3A long jump last month in Des Moines. The brothers are very close, as demonstrated at the state track meet. Jordan Cotton was injured at the state track meet in May and did not participate after the first day.

Keenan Davis to challenge for starting spot at Iowa?

Keenan Davis (left) and Ronnie Henderson, both of Cedar Rapids Washington, compete in the 100-meter dash finals during the 23rd annual Warrior Wilkinson Relays at Thomas Park in Marion on May 1, 2009. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Keenan Davis sang the Cedar Rapids Washington fight song, wrapped himself in the Class 4A state championship flag and lifted track teammate Lewi Manirumva into the air moments before Washington was announced as the state’s best track team last Saturday in Des Moines.

Davis paced Washington to victory in the 4×200-meter relay and top five finishes in the 4×100 and the distance medley relay. It was a crowning moment to a brilliant high school career for Davis.

Now, it’s on to bigger and more high-profile events for Davis at the University of Iowa. It’s possible he’ll challenge to get on the football field this fall. In two weeks, he’ll head to Iowa’s summer training program and take his physical. Davis plans to stay in Iowa City through the summer to train and lift. The summer program begins June 8.

Cedar Rapids Washington wide receiver Keenan Davis pulls in a pass over Ross Siemering of Cedar Rapids Prairie during the first half at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids on Sept. 12, 2008. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Davis, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs more than 200 pounds, caught 133 passes for 2,017 yards and 18 touchdowns the last two years at Washington. He was a two-time all-state wide receiver.

Davis also helped Washington’s basketball team reach the Class 4A substate finals and led the Warriors in scoring with 14.2 points a game.

“I’m going to try my hardest to be a leader and be out there and do what I have to do and be the player I can be,” Davis said.

It’s possible Davis could wind up starting for Iowa at wide receiver, based on Iowa’s recent track record at the position. In 2006, Iowa started true freshman Dominique Douglas at wide receiver. In 2007, red-shirt freshman James Cleveland started every game at the position. Both players have left Iowa followinare with Iowa right now.

Iowa returns three players with extensive experience at wide receiver, including past starters Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Trey Stross, key contributors Colin Sandeman and Paul Chaney Jr., and former quarterback Marvin McNutt. Stross and McNutt are listed as the starters following spring practice.

“I feel like if I compete and do everything right and do everything the way I’m supposed to do, yeah, I can get on the field,” Davis said. “But there are other people competing for that spot and if they compete better than me and do what they have to do, then they’ll be on the field. It’s just a toss-up.”

Future Hawkeye Drew Clark destroys 3A shot put record

Marion senior Drew Clark concentrates as he makes his record-breaking throw of 64 feet, 7 3/4 inches during the 2009 Class 3A state track meet Friday, May 22, 2009 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

DES MOINES — Marion senior Drew Clark’s only competition tonight was against himself.

And he still won.

Clark destroyed the shot put field with every throw at the Class 3A state meet. But it was his second toss that vaulted him from state champion to state legend.

Clark heaved the shot 64 feet, 7 3/4 inches, nearly two feet farther than the 32-year-old Class 3A record. It was the fourth-best throw in state history and the 11th-best throw nationally this year.

Defending champion Brandon Scherff of Denison-Schleswig finished second with a throw of 57-3 1/2, more than 7-4 shorter than Clark’s best toss.

“Actually the state title has been elusive to me the last two years,” Clark said. “When I was a sophomore, I had my best throw I had that year, and I ended up getting second. And last year, Brandon Scherff got me on his last throw. I kind of struggled that day — the tensing up got me on that — so I just wanted to stay loose.”

Clark warmed up at West Des Moines Valley High School on Thursday. He stayed loose by singing to himself. He felt good entering Friday’s competition.

“Shoulder separation is like the main thing that gets guys hurt at state, tensing up,” he said. “My first warm-up throw I could tell it was going to be a good day. My forearm was kind of tight and that helps me out a lot. That way you can get the snap off your fingers.”

Clark took a low-key approach to his first throw, and hit 61-6 1/2.

“I knew it was going to be big next because he takes a safe throw his first throw just to make sure he’s in,” said Drew’s father, Chuck, who’s in his 25th season at Marion’s throwing coach. “So I knew big things were coming.”

With a solid throw in early, Clark unleashed his second effort. His approach was intense. He shouted as his released the shot. Event officials conferred and marked the spot twice just to ensure it was a record.

“I think my dad was the first one that knew,” Clark said. “He threw his hands up.

“The first throw I always like to take it easy and get one in. And so I crank it up with the second throw.”

Clark didn’t taper off as the event progressed. He hit 60 feet in each of his three throws in the finals. His last toss of 63-7 would have set the state record by nearly 10 inches.

He impressed his competitors as well. Among the finalists include future Iowa football teammate and roommate Brett Van Sloten of Decorah and future Iowa basketball player Brennan Cougill, who finished fifth.

“Geez, that’s an accomplishment,” said Van Sloten who finished third. “I feel so good for him. If another man can win, I’d love to see him win it. He’s such a nice guy. Sixty-four, that’s incredible.”

–

Vinton-Shellsburg’s 4×200 relay team finished third in 1 minute, 30.56 seconds, just .04 seconds out of second place. Anchor runner Trevor  Walker started the final 200 in third place.

“After the corner, we were first,” said Walker, a senior. “Then it was just tight as possible at the end.”

In other 3A events, Washington senior Casey Negrete finished third in the 400 hurdles in 55.06 seconds. Waukon’s distance medley relay team finished fourth in 3:36.03.