Greetings from beautiful Iowa City

High atop Kinnick Stadium, you can see for miles in every direction...even as eyes from every direction are trained on Iowa's game with Northwestern today. The Hawks can get to 10-0 for the first time in school history and remain among the top 3 in the hunt for the two BCS title-game spots.

NU quarterback Mike Kafka will start today with his ailing left hamstring. He appeared to be favoring it slightly in warmups -- lingering on his straightened left leg on his follow-through as if to control how much pain he must handle -- but he'll go for awhile. Look for redshirt sophomore Dan Persa to get some time as well.

KR/WR/End-around guy Jeravin Matthews isn't here today. One of his boyhood friends, apparently, was killed in an auto accident earlier this week and he went home for the funeral. He was supposed to have a chance to get from Canonsburg, Penn., to here for the game, but the logistics didn't work out.

OK, time to play. The PA system has run out of good old-fashioned American rock tunes to crank -- Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and AC-DC's "Back in Black" among them -- so it's time to go.

If you're watching on the telly today, the wind is blowing from left to right and front to back on your screen.

LW