DASHED HOPES

Normally I’ve got a lot of respect for ESPN.com’s football columnist Pat Forde, but what self-respecting Hawkeye fan could look at Forde’s bowl projections (his are the ones on the right) without getting a little worked up? He has the Hawks at home for the holidays. All the holidays. As in, not even going to Detroit for the Motor City Bowl.

Near as I can figure, Forde must be assuming the Hawks will go 0-for-the rest of the season, because that is the only way they would wind up finishing worse than 6-5 (they’re 5-2 now with four games to play). Pat, I’m sure you have your reasons, but picking the Hawkeyes to lose twice at Kinnick when they haven’t lost there in three seasons? That’s just . . . well, that’s just beyond words. At least Ivan Maisel believes in Kinnick Magic. And the improvement of a team everybody left for dead after the Ohio State game.