Texas shoot out - Iowa vs. Iowa State

I'm a big Hawkeye fan and I saw this article in the Des Moines Register today.

http://desmoinesregister.com/sports/stories/c6902851/22201759.html



Texas shoot out
By RANDY PETERSON
Register Staff Writer
09/09/2003
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The annual football game between the state's largest universities, Iowa and Iowa State - the game that pits family against family, the one in which a crowd in excess of 50,000 Iowans will watch 16 starters who played Iowa high school football - will be quarterbacked by a pair of Texans.

Three times since 1977 this game has featured a showdown of slingers who attended high school in Iowa. Last season, Iowa quarterback Brad Banks hailed from Florida, while Iowa State"s Seneca Wallace was from California.

But this season? Hook "em, horns!

Nathan Chandler, who is from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, will quarterback the Hawkeyes, while Austin Flynn, who is from a Houston suburb, will direct the Cyclone offense Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

"Both of us from there . . . not many people probably thought that'd happen," Chandler said.

In Iowa"s biggest bash of the season, the fans will be rootin' (and hootin') for Longhorns.

"This game is to Iowans what Texas-Texas A&M is to people from Texas," said Flynn, a redshirt freshman who will make his third collegiate start. "The rivalry and all that goes with it - it's unbelievable."

So is the Texas schooling of Chandler and Flynn when compared to breedin' of an Iowa quarterback. Both actually had a daily high school class period devoted to football practice.

"What an advantage," said Paul Burmeister, a graduate of Iowa City West High School who was the Hawkeyes" starting quarterback in the 1993 intrastate game. "The toughest part is for Texas kids not to get burned out before they're sophomores."

Texans don't get burned out; that weedin' out process starts when they're young-uns.

"By the time you're in seventh or eighth grade, you've been playing so long that you either know you're going to be a football player or you're not," Flynn said. "Football back home - it's a way of life."

Flynn and Chandler never met in Texas. They ended up among us straight-talking Iowans in much the same way. Chandler decided to play football for coach Kirk Ferentz because he wanted to be like former Iowa quarterback Chuck Long. Flynn chose coach Dan McCarney"s program because his style was similar to former Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace.

Different styles, same upbringin'. They take their football seriously in Texas.

"We had what they called an athletic period for 90 minutes during the school day," said Chandler, who played at Carroll High School in Southlake. "The football players all had it at the same time; it was like another practice, but it was during school. We'd have our usual practice after school, so it was like having two practices in a day."

And then there was spring practice. While Iowans shoveled snow, Texas quarterbacks were knockin' the dust off the long passes they threw so well the previous fall.

"I don't know how far advanced Texas quarterbacks are, but I did almost the same practice routine when I got to college that I did in high school," said Flynn, a redshirt freshman from Deer Park (Texas) High School. "What we did in high school was very structured and intense, just like it is in college."

That's one of the biggest differences between high school football in the two states, said former Clinton coach Dick Olin, now the coach at Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, Texas. He is the stepfather and former high school coach of Drew Tate, Iowa"s backup quarterback.

"My office is in a football-only fieldhouse that's 16,000 square feet," Olin said. "We have two full-time trainers and 13 coaches just for football. I don't teach, and we have all the modern equipment, probably better than most colleges."

Some athletic departments in Iowa high schools barely have an office, let alone an entire building devoted to one sport. Some football teams barely have a grass field, let alone practice fields with real and artificial turf.

"We Texas coaches would not come to the state of Iowa and be successful, not because we're not good coaches, but because we're accustomed to a certain thing and we won't accept anything less than the best," Olin said. "The Iowa coaches - they could come here and be successful."

Like the Texas quarterbacks who have come to our state.

Flynn has led the Cyclones to two victories in his first two starts, completing 23 of 45 passes for 410 yards and three touchdowns. He has rushed for 145 yards, too.

Chandler has directed the 23rd-ranked Hawkeyes to a pair of victories, too. His numbers: 20 of 30 passes completed, for 242 yards and four touchdowns. Saturday, they"ll go head-to-head.

It"s a day in which braggin" rights will be settled - for Iowans and Texans.

After growing up in the state where football is a year-round sport, two players migrated to Iowa to seek glory. There can only be one winner on Saturday. Either way, he'll be a Texan.


Saturday's game

WHO: Iowa (2-0) at Iowa State (2-0)

KICKOFF: 11:40 a.m. at Jack Trice Stadium, Ames (FSCH)

THE LINE: Iowa by 4½

THE FORECAST: Mostly sunny, 76 degrees