Hansen Makes All Hawkeyes Look Better

Maybe all the Iowa Hawkeyes needed was a little sex appeal.

How else can you explain the team’s turnaround from a disastrous 1-8 record through October to what has happened in its last two games?

Proof Lines 5 Filter by moregfilm Search For ryan hansen Lines pre search word(s) 0 Case Suppress line # Delim / Ever since senior defensive back Ryan Hansen was named People magazine’s “sexiest athlete alive,” the Hawkeyes haven’t lost. OK, so it has only been two games, but it’s got to count for something. Before their winning streak--including Saturday’s 27-17 victory over Northwestern, which was preceded by a 26-23 overtime victory against Penn State--the Hawkeyes had been outscored, 263-126.

Hansen even closed the door on Penn State with an interception on the Nittany Lions’ second possession of overtime.

“I don’t know about sexy, but Ryan made the play,” Iowa defensive back Benny Sapp told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “I guess you could say that makes him sexy.”

But now others are trying to join the act.

“Everyone feels sexy when you win,” receiver Kevin Kasper said.

So what is it about Hansen that attracted this new-found, off-field attention?

“Think of every guy you know and Ryan is the opposite,” Iowa senior Danielle White, Hansen’s girlfriend, told People.

But Hansen’s sex appeal doesn’t compare with Herky the Hawkeye, the team’s mascot.

In a recent poll that asked who is sexier, Herky won hands (wings?) down by a 74% to 26% margin.