Every college fan base is basically the same.
If we're honest we'll all admit that we are all annoyingly optimistic and excited each pre-season, annoyingly pessimistic when we get our hearts ripped out after a bad loss (or during a 3-game streak of bad losses) and then during late summer, once again optimistic for a special FB season to remember!
College fans are literally like the four seasons, just rinse and repeat, year after year after year. Then we die.
So what?
Honestly there are far worse things we could do than spend some time on these forums...but it's our choice to do so.
I gave up being on here for quite a while, then I was drawn back into it. It's great to hang out with Hawkeye fans after all!
What it comes down to is regardless of whether we love KF or want him to retire - WE ALL LOVE THE IOWA HAWKEYES! And we want more than anything else for them to just win...that's all.
Yes, these forums allow many of us to vent like crazy, some of us might take it a little too far, but you're exactly right that if we were ever face to face with some coach from the program or sitting with the parent of a player at a game we'd definitely dial it back a bit. That's just human nature.
But in the end, ranting and cussing and getting things off our chest online doesn't hurt anyone. What each of us chooses to type in here is nothing more than thinking out loud via the internet (sometimes with not much thinking involved) and is truly meaningless compared to things that really matter in life.