I am excited about getting to play each of the Iowa teams - Drake, Iowa and Northern Iowa - this year.

The year before I got there, KU was in the final four. At that time there were only 32 teams in the tournament. So you had to be one of the best to get in. It wasn't like today where the no. 1 seed plays a 16 seed that barely had a .500 season.

[They come alone and in clusters. Second-year PGA Tour member Zach Johnson, a native of Iowa, packed up his clubs and moved to the Orlando area with some college buddies in 1999.] Six guys, three bedrooms, ... If you want to see how good you can become, you have to go somewhere you can play year-round. We hit balls in a dome in college. That's not the best way to develop your game.

It's awesome. Out of all the teams he's had, it's an honor to play in the game where he gets the record.

That's good for us, because teams won't be able to key on one receiver. They're going to have to play all of us.

Part of me could have stayed at Northern Iowa forever and sailed off into the sunset. But the competitive side of me wanted to coach in the Big 12 conference and wanted to attempt to win a championship in the Big 12 conference.