Mission: Accomplished

(courtesy of BlackHeartGoldPants)

Apologies are in order as this holiday season has brought, among other things, a bit a laxidaziness by some of us at The Manchise (cough, Jonah, cough cough). Some of us have used the time off well and have sharing their thoughts with you over the past week or soe (namely Jerry) and others have literally not shared anything in more than a week (that'd be me). But now I'm back and I'm back with good news (very outdated, but good). Any relatively frequent visitors of our fine site will have by now noticed that there is no longer a poll at the top of the screen. We are no longer calling for everyone's thoughts and prayers to help keep Adrian Clayborn in the black and gold for another season. But fear not, my friends, because, as the title of this post clearly puts it, our mission has been accomplished.


A little over a week ago, Hawkeye Nation got an early Christmas present when junior defensive end Adrian Clayborn announced that he will be returning in 2010 for his senior season, rather than leaving early for the NFL draft. After a fantastic junior season, including 18 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, 9 QB hurries, 4 fumbles forced and a blocked punt returned for a TD against PSU (anyone wanna see that video again?), Clayborn was named to the first-team All-Big Ten and was projected as a 2-3rd round pick. Following this decision, which we will maintain was all our doing and had nothing to do with Norm Parker, Clayborn's family or his own personal opinion, he is predicted by some as almost a sure first-rounder next year. West Bunting of the National Football Post said,

"He's a legit NFL base defensive end. He can play the run and the pass. He might never be a star, but you can pencil him in and he'll give you 10 good years. You can win with him on the strong side... He is going to be in demand in the 2011 Draft"

I'm not going to lie, this sounds strikingly similar to what we preached in our letter to Adrian. So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who got on and voted to keep him here, those who posted your thoughts on our letter and to those of you who joined the Facebook group to keep him at Iowa (yeah, all 550+ of you). I say congratulations on a job well done. But now, I ask that you continue to do your part to keep the Hawkeye program thriving. Not to get greedy, but wouldn't it be nice to Spiviey and Bulaga back next season as well? Wouldn't it be nice to see some of those great recruits on campus next fall? You're damn right it would! So get out their and do your part. We will be posting some new things and starting some new groups, but it's up to you to spread the word and get others involved as well. So let's do this Hawk Fans. Let's get some orange juice and then reload for next year, where we will have a new mission: a Big Ten (or whatever the hell we will be by then) title. Until next year, I say thank you and Mission: Accomplished.