Maybe Ferentz coached us to close losses when otherwise the losses would have been by more points. Hey you gotta look at every angle of this thing.
Here's the full data set:
8 Wins (Record; 2+ games better than Iowa in black, worse than Iowa in red)
2007 Illinois
(9-4)
2008 Penn. St.
(11-2)
*2009 UNI
(7-4)
*2009 Ark. St.
(4-8)
2009 Mich.
(5-7)
2009 Mich. St.
(6-7)
2010 Missouri
(10-3)
2011 Pitt.
(4-4)
17 Losses (Record; 2+ games better than Iowa in black, worse than Iowa in red)
2005 Mich.
(7-5)
2005 jNW
(7-5)
2006 Indiana
(5-7)
2006 Wisconsin
(12-1)
2006 Texas
(10-3)
2007 Wisconsin
(9-4)
2007 ISU
(3-9)
2008 Pitt
(9-4)
2008 Mich. St.
(9-4)
2008 Illinois
(5-7)
2009 Ohio St.
(11-2)
2010 Wisconsin
(11-2)
2010 jNW
(7-6)
**2010 Ohio St.
(12-1)
2010 Minnesota
(3-9)
2011 ISU
(4-4)
2011 Minnesota
(2-6)
* No home-and-home series
** Will be voided due to violations
Iowa Records
2005 - (7-5)
2006 - (6-7)
2007 - (6-6)
2008 - (9-4)
2009 - (11-2)
2010 - (8-5) (8-4 if we throw out OSU, which I didn't for my analysis)
2011 - (5-3)
So there's 5 games that Iowa kept it close against a arguably a significantly superior team. Conversely, 4 of the close wins were against competition to which Iowa was significantly superior, by the same definition.
Going further, there were also 3 terrific wins against teams that were 2+ games better than us (2007 Ill., 2008 PSU, 2010 Missouri), and there were 4 terrible losses against teams that were 2+ games worse than us (2007 ISU, 2008 Ill., 2010 & 2011 Minnesota).
So since 2005, Iowa has played close games against teams with significantly different records 16 times. In those games Iowa is 7-9 in those games. In games where Iowa was a heavy favorite, they were 4-4. In games where Iowa was a heavy underdog, they were 3-5.
In games with teams of relatively close record, however, Iowa is just 1-8. That's the real problem. Just 1 win (Pitt this year) against 8 losses when playing closely with teams that have records fairly comparative with ours.
**Here's an
extremely weird way to see thing too:
Since 2005, Iowa has played 25 close games. In games were the teams are fairly unevenly matched, the results have been a fairly even 7-9 record for Iowa. In games were the teams are fairly evenly matched, the results have been decidedly uneven against Iowa in the form of a 1-8 record.
The only thing I can say, is that this is extreme bizarre and I have no idea why close games with Iowa work out this way. Pretty amazing stats though.