After no activity on the second day for the Hawkeyes, Saturday’s final day proved to be the winner.

On Thursday, Adrian Clayborn went in the first round to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he was finally joined by five of his teammates in their new NFL fraternity on Saturday. Christian Ballard went in the fourth round to the Minnesota Vikings. Projected to go in the second or third round, news of his failed Combine drug test most likely hurt him and caused him to fall in the draft.

Next up was Ricky Stanzi. He was projected to possibly go in the third or fourth round, but he also had to wait longer than expected, going in the fifth round to the Kansas City Chiefs. Stanzi will join fellow Hawkeye tight end Tony Moeaki on the team, who had a great rookie year.

Karl Klug got the next call and he will head to the Tennessee Titans. I kept referring to him as the one lost in crowd after Ballard and Clayborn were more in the limelight but he’s a talented player and kept seeing his stock rise in February and March.

Renaissance Man Julian Vandervelde will head to the Philadelphia Eagles. You didn’t hear a lot from him about the draft and I have to think if it didn’t happen, this bright, well-rounded guy would be successful outside of football.

Last but not least was Tyler Sash. He’ll go to the bright lights of New York and play for the New York Giants. That team had some problems last season but they’re decent. Good for Sash getting drafted since he left school early. He will be missed this season.

On another note…The Big Ten was second among conferences for the number of players to be drafted this year. Once again the SEC led with 38 players while the Big Ten was close behind with 36. The Big Ten.org has a great presentation on the picks, but there’s not a breakdown per school (as I did not feel like finding the number the old-fashioned way). I imagine that will be listed on Monday; however, I did learn from Twitter that Iowa, for the second year in a row, led the conference with its six drafted players.

Pretty good for a school that has some dope-smoking players and a team that sometimes trains too hard.

There’s lots of press about these five players. Here’s links to a few of the stories.

Christian Ballard: Ballard said he made a mistake and opens up with a Q&A from the Vikings’ site.

Ricky Stanzi: Nice ESPN article along with one from the KC perspective.

Karl Klug: Here’s an idea of what Klug was doing on Saturday while waiting and the local news jumped in to get a quote.

Julian Vandervelde: Don’t forget this big guy’s musical talents and the hometown paper wants to brag about their brush with greatness.

Tyler Sash: This the AP story out of New York and a Giants fan gives his two cents.