Satisfying Season

SpiderRico

SpiderRico

Well-Known Member
With 8 wins against a top 10 schedule, including a bowl win, a road win against a good ISU team, and putting up two 50 burgers in routs over OSU and Nebraska...plus 2 unanimous all-American honors....the season, for me, was satisfying.

Next year, with the schedule, the nucleus of returning players and good recruiting class, on top of BF having a year of play calling under his belt...I’m looking forward to even better things.
 
SpiderRico said:
With 8 wins against a top 10 schedule, including a bowl win, a road win against a good ISU team, and putting up two 50 burgers in routs over OSU and Nebraska...plus 2 unanimous all-American honors....the season, for me, was satisfying.

Next year, with the schedule, the nucleus of returning players and good recruiting class, on top of BF having a year of play calling under his belt...I’m looking forward to even better things.
Click to expand...
The Nebraska throat stomp was worth it by itself.
 
It was a typical season - some great moments peppered into a mostly bland dish that leaves a lingering aftertaste of underachievement and lowers the bar of expectations. Tis what tis.

A good team would sleep walk to 10 wins against the 2018 schedule and push for the B1G14 title game. Iowa might win 9 and most likely goes 8-5.
 
Erratic and middling fit better, IMO. Ups (OSU) were way high, downs (Wisc, Purdue) were way low, and some unusual characteristics (beating a decent ISU team at their place, top 10 SOS, stomping a crappy Nebby team, and going blow for blow with PSU). You can definitely look back and wonder "what-if" with a few games, but ultimately the final result was what this team was predicted to be. Lots of youth and inexperience on O (including the staff), and a good D. Memories made, and on to the next season.
 
BVHawk95 said:
Erratic and middling fit better, IMO. Ups (OSU) were way high, downs (Wisc, Purdue) were way low, and some unusual characteristics (beating a decent ISU team at their place, top 10 SOS, stomping a crappy Nebby team, and going blow for blow with PSU). You can definitely look back and wonder "what-if" with a few games, but ultimately the final result was what this team was predicted to be. Lots of youth and inexperience on O (including the staff), and a good D. Memories made, and on to the next season.
Click to expand...

Good description of 2017. In reality the PSU game is a curb stomp in which Iowa gave up 600 yards. Most times in that type of game you're down 4 TDs. Somehow they had the lead until the final play. On the flip side they destroyed Ohio St. Then they were physically dominated by Purdue. Pretty typical Iowa season.
 
Xerxes said:
Good description of 2017. In reality the PSU game is a curb stomp in which Iowa gave up 600 yards. Most times in that type of game you're down 4 TDs.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I agree with that. That was Iowa's plan, let Saquon get his yards, but keep everything in front of us and slam the door on them in the red zone, and it damn near worked. Have Amani Hooker jump 1 inch higher, make the 2-pt conversion, or don't have a kick blocked in the 2nd half, and Iowa wins the game. It really is a game of inches.

The yardage argument doesn't really work either, because yards don't equal points. Teams who go up big early can often give up more yards because the other team is in desperation mode trying to play catch up, but it doesn't reflect on the scoreboard. Hell, it's a staple of the KF era to get beat in every metric but the final score.
 
Hard to say satisfying season, but at times, yes? Maybe? I’ll remember that Ohio State win forever. The Iowa State game was a gem, really a great contest that I’ll remember as well since Iowa won one of those against Iow State. Hanging 50 on Nebraska was also really awesome. The Penn State game was really a great contest as well, just not the right outcome.

The what ifs are ginormous this season. Sparty, jNW, Purdump. No way Iowa normally dumps all of those games.

And the total laid egg against Wisconsin. What team was that? Not that Wisconsin wasn’t a better team, but that was awful.

And of course a bowl win. Yes... Pinstripe. Yes NYC. But still, a win for the first time since 2010.

Still just a season that when finished probably leads to more questions than answers. That’s hard to call satisfying.
 
Only a satisfying season if we build on it next year and come back with a 9-3, 10-2 or 11-1 next year. If we have another 7-5 season next year then it’s just more mediocrity.

Iowa City would be a perfect setting for those direct tv adds. Some people like getting their hands caught in vending machines, or getting paper cuts.

Each person is different just as some players are different. Some people can work on a mind numbing production line for thirty-five years and have it not bother them.

Others would be there on the production line for two months and be asking how you get to be a supervisor job and get off that line. Upward they would climb, promotion after promotion with much more responsibility and higher pay. If these types of people were football players the announcers would refer to them as having a special type of motor in them.

This is not to suggest the production line worker is a bad person. After all they are only being what they are inside of themselves. Maybe you could say that God made them that way. They serve a definite purpose in life and that is fine. I would never criticize someone for being what they want to be. I do however occasionally see people who are settled into this mindset change with strong encouragement from good leaders who help them take the next step in life. By fate almost it happens, yet it is a wonderful thing to be a part of. Some will never step outside of their comfort zone and at least try.

Again these are not bad people. It’s interesting to watch the interactions of both sides of the fense. In reality I doubt whether those on each side will ever truly understand the wiring that makes each person the way they are.

It’s not for me to judge. As they good word says who am I to judge another. It is however frustrating as it can sometimes affect your enjoyment of recreational activities and entertainment hobbies. If a large amount of people are on one side of the fense it can tilt the expectations and operations of an organization.

Sometimes those expectations can be unrealistic either way. We see this in Nebraska fans. The older fellas grew up following a power house football program and it’s hard for them to accept anything but excellence. They keep pursuing the old level of excellence even if it means hiring new coaches until they find magic in a bottle. They may one day find it and get to experience that exuberance they once enjoy. They problem is that they may never experience it again, HOWEVER they know if they settle for something less then they will never achieve it again.

They same is true for those who settle for less without any ambitions to ever achieve greatness. You can’t put a great motor into average players any more than you can put ambition and a drive for success into people’s whose DNA makes them thirty year production line employees. Again, and I can’t say this enough, this doesn’t make them bad people. It is what it is.

I guess next year could be another 7-5 season and if it is then it’s time to choose something else to put my time into as it’s getting hard to tolerate an atmosphere of line production when I have a hell of a motor inside of me. Please don’t judge me just as I don’t judge you. Go HAWKS!!!
 
[QUOTE="BigD, post:

Sometimes those expectations can be unrealistic either way. We see this in Nebraska fans. The older fellas grew up following a power house football program and it’s hard for them to accept anything but excellence. They keep pursuing the old level of excellence even if it means hiring new coaches until they find magic in a bottle. They may one day find it and get to experience that exuberance they once enjoy. They problem is that they may never experience it again, HOWEVER they know if they settle for something less then they will never achieve it again.
I have trouble with this part. They are ridiculous period! Posters here are complaining constantly about KF salary but you applaud the fuskers for spending countless millions for dead horses?
 
STILLBUSTER said:
It was a typical season - some great moments peppered into a mostly bland dish that leaves a lingering aftertaste of underachievement and lowers the bar of expectations. Tis what tis.

A good team would sleep walk to 10 wins against the 2018 schedule and push for the B1G14 title game. Iowa might win 9 and most likely goes 8-5.
Click to expand...

We lost a couple we could have won. We won a couple we could have and were expected to lose. Hard to say this team, with a new quarterback, under achieved with 8 wins. 8 wins was a best case scenario for most fans. Going in to the season, many expected Iowa to lose at ISU. Losses to OSU, Penn State, at MSU and at Wisconsin were almost a given. Losing at Nebraska also seemed more than likely going into the season also. Northwestern was a 50/50 game for me. I thought Iowa could go anywhere from 4-8 to 8-4. Not a bad year at all. Winning the bowl game was huge and a great way to end what was predicted to be an average season at best.
 
HawksMN said:
Folks..same crappy coaching next year equals 7-5 again....
Click to expand...

Except it's 8 wins... the year before that was 8 wins too ...the year before that 12. I wonder how many times the Iowa program has won 28 games in 3 year time span? I bet not many. That's pretty good for any program actually.

And the downers can't even use the weak schedule scoff this season. Nor can they use the bowl loss scoff this season. Nor can they use losing to crappy team scoff this season. Purdue had a pretty good year.

I would say it was satisfying... you always want better though.
 
Some people have an problem with saying something is good enough. When in reality, sometimes good enough is good enough. But if you always expect perfection then you'll always be disappointed.

Even if we went 12-0 this season, people would have said "yeah but look at the games where we only won by 7 or less" or "we were outgained in some of those games". What it comes down to is that some people just simply are unhappy human beings. They can not ever be happy so they try to prove to the rest of us that we're stupid for not being unhappy like them. Me? I enjoyed that game. It felt like the college football I remember watching as a kid. Cold weather, rough conditions, equally matched teams, men being men. This season could have been better. But we trounced OSU and Nebraska and won our first bowl game in 7 years. GO HAWKS!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top