Nov. 25, 2003
The 2003 All-Big Ten football teams
Ten members of Coach Kirk Ferentz’s bowl-bound Iowa football team have been named all-Big Ten by either the coaches of the league or the media who report on the Big Ten Conference.
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Robert Gallery joins former Hawkeyes Mike Haight (1985), Dave Croston (1986), Mike Devlin (1992) and Eric Steinbach (2002) as winners of the Big Ten’s Offensive Lineman of the Year Award.
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Offensive lineman Robert Gallery and defensive back Bob Sanders were unanimous first team selections by the league’s coaches. They were joined on the first team by placekicker Nate Kaeding and defensive end Matt Roth.
Running back Fred Russell, defensive end Howard Hodges, and linebackers Chad Greenway and Abdul Hodge were named second team all-Big Ten. Defensive lineman Jared Clauss and linebacker Grant Steen were named honorable mention by the coaches.
The coaches also selected Gallery as the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year. He is the fifth University of Iowa offensive lineman to be singled out as the league’s best, following in the footsteps of last year’s recipient, Eric Steinbach.
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Bob Sanders is only the ninth Hawkeye to ever be named first team all-Big Ten three times. Nate Kaeding is a repeat first-team selection; the 2002 Lou Groza Award winner and 2003 Groza finalist was a first-team pick a year ago.
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Gallery, Kaeding, Roth, Sanders and Hodes were named first team all-Big ten by the media. Russel, Hodges and Greenway were second team selections.
Iowa, 9-3 overall, the No. 12 team in this week’s Bowl Championship Series standings and ranked 12th by ESPN/USA Today and 13th by Associated Press, will make its third straight post-season bowl game appearance when the 2003-04 bowl season gets underway. Iowa is expecting an invitation to either the Capital One Bowl, Outback Bowl or MasterCard Alamo Bowl.