Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
IOWA CITY — The question seemed innocent. When the topic is Iowa and Iowa State, nothing is innocent.
There’s always an interpretation. Someone’s seemingly innocuous statement is someone else’s declaration of war.
Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn found this out in June.
The question was, “How often do you get asked by fans how the Hawkeyes are going to be in 2010?”
Innocent enough.
“Not too much, I actually just stay in the house,” Clayborn said.
OK, so far, so good.
“It comes with being a Hawkeye football player,” he said. “We’re the only team in the state as far as I know. It comes with being us, I guess.”
Alarms. Sirens. Red alert.
That statement was seen as inflammatory at Iowa State. The Cyclones (1-0) are a team in the state and they’ll be in Iowa City to visit No. 9 Iowa (1-0) on Saturday. No, this comment wasn’t received well in Ames.
Clayborn didn’t agree with the interpretation that made the rounds in the state’s media.
“Yeah, it definitely does. Is that reporter here today?” Clayborn said when asked if the fallout bothered him. “No, no. I mean, I think it was taken out of context. He misinterpreted what I was saying.”
Clayborn didn’t contact ISU or Cyclone players.
“None of those guys know me, but they should know that I would never disrespect another program,” Clayborn said.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz jumped on this syntactic grenade during Big Ten media days in Chicago.
Iowa coaches tell recruits that the Hawkeyes are the only game in the state. Wait, there’s more to it than that.
“With recruiting right now, it’s year round,” Ferentz said. “We use our players to recruit all the time. One of the big selling points they all hear from us — because he (Clayborn) heard it five years ago — we are the only game in town, college football in Iowa. There are no pro teams, no NFL, no NBA, no Major Leagues.”
All’s fair in love and recruiting.
“We talk to recruits all the time, that we’re the only game in town, meaning college football,” Ferentz said. ”I think that’s all he was relaying. I promise you, he talked to a lot of recruits prior to that press outing. We’re all kind of programmed to say that, so then that’s all it was. It grew from there.”
Make no mistake, though. When Iowa coaches are talking to recruits, they are talking about the Hawkeyes.
“We’re not selling Iowa State or Northern Iowa, we’re selling Iowa,” Ferentz said. “That’s it.”
Ferentz pointed at his record against the Cyclones (5-6) and the Hawkeyes’ 17-16 miracle escape in the 2009 opener against UNI as signs of respect.
“That’s kind of ludicrous for anybody to say we don’t have respect for those programs,” Ferentz said.
But both sides are guilty of sifting through nearly every statement out of each camp for possible disrespect.
In June, Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard argued the notion that the University of Iowa doesn’t receive subsidies during an Iowa Association of Business and Industry meeting in Ames.
“The Big Ten Network completely changed the television industry,” Pollard said. “Anybody who’s got cable or DirecTV, you’re paying the Big Ten. Whether you’re an Iowa State fan, a UNI fan or a Drake fan, you’re paying Iowa a big chunk of money.”
Alarms. Sirens. Red alert.
After the Hawkeyes’ 37-7 victory over Eastern Illinois, Clayborn was asked if he thought ISU would be laying in wait for him.
“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Clayborn said. “Come after me? It’s a team game, so we’ll see. I don’t know.”
One positive, when Clayborn was pressed for Iowa’s top rival:
“I’d have to say Iowa State.”
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
