Red Meat Monday hates Iowa more than Pryor

ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg has a rundown of the Big Ten's top "villains" for each team. It's a very interesting post, but one that is basically meant to stir up some talk in the comments section.

Richard Nixon is listed as Penn State's "all-time" villain, due to his declaration that Texas was the best team in 1969, which some say cost Penn State the national title that year. But who is Penn State's current villain, according to Rittenberg?

Current villain: Terrelle Pryor. The nation's No. 1 recruit spurned his home-state school for Ohio State and didn't make many friends in State College by calling it "too country" for him. Penn State won Round 1 against Pryor last year and will face him at least two more times.

Now, Adam is a fantastic writer and blogger; one of the best out there. But I seriously take issue with his pick of Pryor as Penn State's top villain right now.

I would bet that if you asked any Penn State fan, right now, which player or team they absolutely hate the most, it would be the Iowa Hawkeyes by a landslide.

Not only did they directly cost the Nittany Lions a shot at the national title in 2008, the Hawkeyes have been the second-worst (Michigan, of course) thorn in Penn State's side for most of this decade.

In 2000 and 2002, Penn State was stung by painful overtime losses to Iowa. In 2001, a mere six points was the difference. A trip to Iowa in 2003 resulted in another Penn State loss. But the ugliest loss of all was a homecoming disaster in 2004.

It was the 6-4 "victory" for Iowa. That's right, the score was SIX to FOUR.

Penn State was fortunate enough to catch a very mediocre Hawkeyes team in 2007, which turned out to be Penn State's only victory in the last seven meetings.

But everything goes right back to 2008. Penn State suffered one of the two most painful losses by any team in 2008 (Texas' loss to Tech was the other), thanks to Iowa.

Terrelle Pryor could end up winning all three (if he stays that long) remaining matchups with Penn State. But right now, he's done nothing to hurt Penn State. In fact, if you really want to twist this up, it could be said that Pryor is one of Penn State's favorite players in the Big Ten right now. If it wasn't for his two turnovers against the Lions, Penn State might not have won in the Horseshoe for the first time since 1979.