[bears9]

Ex-Iowa quarterback says program changed from time he was a freshman.

You know, from just watching what I saw and reading what I read on the computer and all this other stuff, it just doesn't look like it's the same Iowa team as when I first got there," the former Hawkeye quarterback said by phone from Saskatchewan, home of his current team - the Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. "It's not even close."

Tate, who exhausted his eligibility after the Alamo Bowl, has heard plenty about the Iowa's current struggles - the Hawkeyes are 2-4 and tied for the Big Ten basement going into Saturday's game with Illinois - via friends back on campus and Internet sites. But he became even more concerned after watching his alma mater play Penn State on ABC last Saturday.


Iowa football: Tate sounds off on Iowa struggles

[Lefty Noob]

Fascinating stuff.

The mindset of freshmen entering the program: "Just the mentality of the younger guys was so different ... as opposed to when we were freshmen. I wanted to be (like) Nathan Chandler and then (former center Mike) Elgin and those guys, they wanted to be like the Bruce Nelsons and Eric Steinbachs. It seemed like when we got older, the younger guys came in and they didn't give two (expletives) about us. Not all, I shouldn't say all, but there was a good number (of them) that really didn't listen. (Offensive coordinator) Ken O'Keefe blamed the seniors for being bad leaders - there's nothing we (could) do if the kids weren't going to listen to us."

Sounds like Iowa needs to focus a little more on recruiting character kids to me.