Iowa’s offensive line returns four of five starters from last season’s 8-5 bowl team, but line coach Brian Ferentz says that doesn’t mean all but one spot is locked up as they open fall practice. “There’s spots that are open, things can move, nothing is set in stone. Every position is open,” Ferentz says. He says he doesn’t expect senior left tackle Brandon Scherf or junior center Austin Blythe to be displaced and he says there are others he also doesn’t expect to lose their starting spots. “What’s important for us over the next 25 days or so is to really nail down who is going to be playing for us. And it may be more than five guys, it may only be five guys, but I know we’d better find at least five.” Ferentz says filling out the offensive line is much easier with Blythe back at the center spot.

“Anytime you have to break in a new center, it’s like breaking in a new quarterback, that’s no fun. When you have to break in a new quarterback and a new center, that’s a little bit difficult and certainly we had to do that last year — which wasn’t always fun,” Ferentz says. “The benefit is — because we did that last year — we should be looking at two more seasons of continuity there.” He says the center is key because of the philosophy they have for the offense.

“I think you’ve got to start with the idea that all of our centers have to be intelligent guys. We put a little bit more on their plate than we do on any of the other positions,” according to Ferentz. “We kid around and say you only have to count to two to play on the offensive line here. And to some extent that is true.” Ferentz says the other lineman only have to count to two because the center points out all the offensive calls and passes them on. There’s another reason the center position is so key.

“If it was just a matter of intelligence, we’ve had a lot of guys who could probably play center. The second thing is, we are always going to ask that guy to be the bell cow for our offensive line,” Ferentz explains. He says the center has to lead the others no only by pointing out assignments, but by effort and poise as well. Ferentz says Blythe has grown into that role in the last two years.

Iowa opens the season on August 30th at home against Northern Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jon Jay hit an RBI single with two out in the eighth inning to break a tie and lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night. The Cardinals won their third in a row and fourth in the last five. Boston has lost three in a row.

Jay, who missed the previous five games with a wrist injury, blooped a hit to left off reliever Junichi Tazawa to bring in former Red Sox A.J. Pierzynski with the winning run. Reliever Pat Neshek picked up the win by striking out the side in the eighth.

St. Louis closer Trevor Rosenthal recorded his NL-leading 35th save in 39 chances. Boston beat St. Louis in six games in last year’s World Series.

The Iowa State Cyclones opened fall practice Monday and afterward, coach Paul Rhoads said it was what you expect from the first day. “There’s some good, there’s some bad, and there’s a lot of inbetween and there’s nothing to be overly excited about at the same time,” according to Rhoads. He says getting back into shape for the daily workouts is one of the first issues they face. “You’ve got rust, you’ve got a little conditioning fall off and that shows. Playing football is always different than working out and training and so there was some conditioning football from play-to-pay wise that we will continue to address on a daily basis, that’s one of the primary things you’ve got to get accomplished during training camp,” Rhoads said. He liked the attitude of the team.

He says the players were intent and had good enthusiasm for the first day. Rhoads says he will stick to his timeline of picking a starting quarterback by the end of next week. Richardson, sophomore Grant Rohach, and redshirt freshman Joel Lanning are vying for the starting Q-B spot. Iowa State will hold their fall media day on August 10th.

(Radio Iowa)

Offensive linemen often get overlooked in football with the focus the quarterback, runningbacks and receivers. But University of Iowa senior Brandon Scherf, of Denison, is getting a lot of notice after deciding not to leave early for the N-F-L. A lot of the attention came from a weightroom video that went viral showing him doing what’s called the “hang clean” of 443 pounds three times. The left tackle says it was just something that happened while working with strength coach Chris Doyle.

Scherf says Doyle asked him what he wanted to do that day and he says he wanted to do something different after lifting 437 pounds two times. “I was just trying to get one, and three popped out. I was happy with it, all those teammates pushing me was a great environment and it’s a memory I will never forget,” Scherf says. Scherf didn’t know that Doyle posted the video until he started hearing about it. “Everbody just texted me, I didn’t know what they were talking about. We were fishing and everybody texted me and I was ‘aw jeeze, so,” Scherf explains. Scherf is 6-5 and 320 pounds, and while he is soft spoken off the field, he tries to send a message during the game.

“We want to be know as the most physical unit on the field, that’s what we are trying to play for,” Scherf says. “Attack, compete, finish that’s our motto and we are just trying to impose our will on other people. We just want to get the last hit in.” The offense has a lot of experience returning along with Scherf and he says that can lead to being good unit. “We can be as good as we want to be,” Scherf says. He says they have four returning linemen, as well as a returning starter at quarterback and receivers, which he says will make a difference. “Like I said, we can be as good as we want to be, we’ve just got to put everything together.” Scherf says the enter fall camp looking to end up on top of the conference.

“Our goal is to win the Big 10 Championship game and to get into that four-team playoff. That’s everybody’s goal and the team that comes the most ready and they do the little details right, they are going to win the game,” Scherf says. Scherf is on several pre-season watch lists and has been named to several pre-season All-Big 10 teams, to go along with the attention he’s received for his weight lifting prowess.

(Radio Iowa)