HAWK TALK

February 2013

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with people and worked at places that believe that. I will not compromise that. Is it a little harder sometimes to not take a shortcut? Yeah, probably, but in the long run you get much greater enjoyment, much greater satisfaction, when you do all those things and you don't compromise. It's hard when you're going through it. You have to resist the temptation of short cuts. That's why a leader like Kirk is so extraordinary. He has always believed in all three of those things and he's demonstrated over a very long period of time he can keep all three of those pieces of the puzzle in place. Our graduation rates in football, I believe I'm right in saying this, Penn State and Northwestern are the only other two programs who academically have more success than our football program in the Big Ten, and among the nation we're one of the leaders. So that's a long answer to tell you we're not going to compromise, we're not going to panic. We're going to keep all these principles in place, and yes, we understand we have to win more, and that's what we're committed to. hs.com: Gary, this has been informative. Let's wrap it up with one final question: What do you say to your coaches, the student-athletes, and the fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes as we start a new semester on campus? 49 GB: We have some areas that we're doing a terrific job in, but even in those areas we can get better. We have some areas where we need to continue to improve. It's not a secret. It's not sneaking up on us. We know what those areas are. We're committed to making them better. It's going to take great coaching, great studentathlete success, great fan support. I know that we know where our areas are that we want to improve, but having said that, if you take it collectively, I'm incredibly proud of what our coaches are doing, what our student-athletes are doing, what our staff is doing. We've just had a long conversation, a little bit about the past, mostly about the present, and then quite a bit about the future. We're on very solid ground. I wake up every day saying the best is yet to come, and I believe that, and everybody who works here needs to believe that. Every student-athlete that's here has to believe that. It's not going to be easy. But we need to keep those three principles in mind: Win, graduate, do it right. We can do all three. I really do believe the best is yet to come. The day I stop believing that, I probably should do something else. We have a great team in place to get all those things done, and we're making good progress.

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