July 21, 2008
IOWA CITY, IA – A trio of University of Iowa senior football players will represent the Hawkeyes at the Big Ten’s 37th Annual Kickoff Luncheon activities Thursday and Friday in Chicago. Defensive tackles Mitch King and Matt Kroul along with offensive guard Seth Olsen will make the trip along with Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz.
All four will spend Thursday and Friday morning answering questions from over 300 members of the media from around the nation. The Kickoff Luncheon is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency.
King is a 6-3, 264-pounder from Burlington. He was a first team all-Big Ten choice last season after registering 58 tackles and a team leading 14.5 sacks for a loss of 77 yards. Kroul is a 6-3, 277-pound native of Mt. Vernon, IA. He had 74 tackles in 2008. Olsen, a 6-5, 305-pound lineman, has played virtually every position on Iowa`s offensive line. Both Olsen and Kroul were honorable mention all-Big Ten picks last season.
For the third consecutive year, the opening session of the Big Ten Football Media Days will appear live on an ESPN Network. Coverage by ESPNEWS will begin Thursday at 11 a.m. (CDT), and will feature all 11 head coaches either live or tape-delayed as they address the assembled media. In addition, Big Ten coaches may be interviewed on “College Football Live”, hosted by Reece Davis and Dari Nowkhah, from 2:30-3 p.m. on ESPN, and on “The Hot List”, hosted by David Amber and Bram Weinstein, from 2-5 p.m. on ESPNEWS.
The Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon is annually the largest and most exciting celebration of college football in the country. The 2008 Kickoff Luncheon will be preceded by the annual players and coaches autograph and photo session set to begin at 10 a.m. The luncheon will be emceed by Brent Musburger of ABC and ESPN.
The Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon annually draws some of the most interesting and talented names in college sports. The list of former Kickoff Luncheon attendees includes coaching legends like Hayden Fry, Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes, along with each of the Big Ten’s Heisman Trophy winners in the last 37 years. In all, almost 700 of the conference’s finest players, more than 50 head coaches and nearly 40,000 supporters have made the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon a yearly stop in their preseason college football schedules.
This year’s Kickoff Luncheon is officially sold out with more than 1,700 college football fans scheduled to be in attendance.
Click HERE for the Big Ten Network home page.