Nov. 20, 2015
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By DARREN MILLER
hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Sean Considine has been on championship football teams in high school, college, and the National Football League.
He says the 2015 University of Iowa football team has all the makings of a winner.
“It is almost like looking in a mirror with these guys compared to the Big Ten championship teams I was on,” Considine said Friday in the Stew and LeNore Hansen Football Performance Center. “This looks like a group of guys that are hard-nosed, tough, they play smart, and fly around to the football. The most important thing with this group is you can tell they are unified. This is a football team in every essence of the word. These guys are close-knit, work well together and that takes you a long way.”
Considine is honorary captain for No. 5 Iowa’s game against Purdue (2-8 overall, 1-5 Big Ten) on Saturday inside Kinnick Stadium (11:01 a.m./ESPN2). He played safety on the Hawkeyes’ Big Ten championship teams in 2002 and 2004 and helped them to bowl wins in 2001 (Alamo), 2004 (Outback), and 2005 (Capital One).
During his senior year at Byron (Illinois) High School (the Tigers won the Class 3A state championship), Considine sent recruiting tapes to Illinois, Purdue, and Iowa. The Hawkeyes, he said, showed the most interest, and his parents, Colleen and Rick, immediately took to head coach Kirk Ferentz. At the time, the Iowa program was coming off a 1-10 season with 15 losses in 16 games.
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“It was a shot in the dark. Iowa showed the most interest and asked me to come out on an official visit, even though it was for a walk-on spot. I sat down with coach Ferentz — he didn’t quite have the resume he has now — but you could tell he was genuine, honest, and believed in the right things.”
Sean Considine
UI honorary captain |
“It was a shot in the dark,” Considine said of his decision to become a Hawkeye. “Iowa showed the most interest and asked me to come out on an official visit, even though it was for a walk-on spot. I sat down with coach Ferentz — he didn’t quite have the resume he has now — but you could tell he was genuine, honest, and believed in the right things.
“I sat down with coach Phil Parker (then the UI defensive backs coach) and I like guys like Phil. He is hard-nosed, tough, and emotional. I’m not necessarily that way, so I like being around guys like Phil. The circumstances all worked for me ending up at Iowa and it couldn’t have been a better situation.”
Iowa compiled a record of 38-12 with Considine on the roster. He finished with 109 tackles, six pass breakups, four blocked kicks, and three interceptions. Considine was a fourth-round pick by Philadelphia in the 2005 NFL Draft; he played eight seasons with the Eagles, Jacksonville, Carolina, Arizona, and Baltimore. Considine (along with Iowa’s Marshal Yanda) won a Super Bowl championship when the Ravens defeated San Francisco, 34-31, on Feb. 3, 2013.
Considine resides in Byron with his wife, Nicole, and five children. He operates a traveling meat market and coaches football at his former high school. The Tigers finished 9-3 this fall, losing in the state quarterfinals to Kankakee (McNamara) on Nov. 14.
“We had a successful season,” Considine said. “We just got beat last week in the quarterfinals, but the consolation prize is being able to come (to Iowa City) this week and be honorary captain. That worked out well for this, but it has been a great opportunity and experience coaching those high school kids.”
Considine told the Hawkeyes to finish strong by giving more and making sure they don’t peak during the season.
“I felt a lot of pressure talking to this team, they have had a heck of a football season,” Considine said. “I was thinking about all the things I could talk to them about, but the one thing I have always known about championship teams I have been on is we have been great at finishing. This is Week 12 for them, with the bye week, and this group needs to focus on finishing and finding a way to do more. It is a long football season, but everybody in this room has an opportunity to do a little more.”
