The Cy-Hawk rivalry can be silly sometimes. As football season quickly approaches, fans will look at anything to stoke the rivalry before the two teams play in Ames on Sept. 9.
This week, the latest quabble was due to a hashtag.
The Iowa football team wears an ANF or “America Needs Farmers” sticker on its helmet to help draw awareness to the importance of farming.
It’s a nice gesture, and considering several players on the team grew up on farms, it makes sense. Some of the school’s best linemen under coach Kirk Ferentz are now farming their own land after putting their playing careers to bed.
The controversy came Monday when Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell posted what appeared to be a picture of several Cyclone players after a hard days work on some sort of farm.
He capped his post with #FarmStrong and #AHF.
It turns out that AHF stood for “Actually Helping Farmers.”
That was no doubt shade being thrown to Iowa State’s rivals in Eastern Iowa.
As a Hawkeye fan since a young child, I was ticked at first. But then after stepping back and thinking about it, it’s really just some good honest fun.
Iowa Offensive Coordinator Brian Ferentz threw some shade toward the Cyclones earlier this summer when he made it public of his disagreement of Campbell and his coaching staff’s recruiting practices.
The Cy-Hawk rivalry, compared to others nationally, is pretty tame. The worst things that happen ocurr on social media. This latest Twitter firestorm was another example.
I am glad to see two young coaches trying to take the rivalry to another level. Each of them doing so in their own but both knowing full well that their actions would create some controversy.
Deep down, I imagine both schools know the importance of farming and both schools likely are happy that the other program cares about farming as much as the other one does.
Iowa State is the agricutural school in the state. Not even Iowa can dispute that. Cyclone graduates are likely doing more for farming and farmers than those that went to school in Iowa City, but that doesn’t mean both schools can’t or shouldn’t care.
On the football field, practices begin this week for both schools. Media days are next week for Northern Iowa, Iowa and Iowa State. All three programs think they have great rosters and are expecting to compete for conference championships.
Over in Ames, Cyclone fans truly believe this season will produce more than the three wins Campbell got in year one. They are trusting the process.
In Iowa City, the Hawkeyes were picked at Big Ten Media Days to finish fourth in the conference’s West Division. The last time they were picked fourth, they went on to finish 12-0 in the regular season for the first time in school history.
The game in Ames on September 9 is a big one for both schools. With 5-7 and 6-6 being thrown around as popular predictions for each school, a win on that day could mean going to a bowl game or not going to a bowl game.
Football is right around the corner.
Colfax-Mingo kicks off its 2017 season on Monday. The Tigerhawks play a Week 0 football game at Saydel.
The rest of the area teams will start their seasons officially on Aug. 7.
Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com