Anyone else concerned about the home slate?

R

Rawkhawk73

Banned
Not from an opponent standpoint because we can obviously play with any team in the country.

I'm referring to our recent performances at home. UNI, Ark St, Arizona, Michigan, Indiana, Northwestern & Minnesota. For the most part, we played like absolute dog-poo in those games.

Maybe some of it was playing down to the level of our competition which we have seemed to do quite often under Ferentz (probably my only complaint during his tenure).....I don't know.

But what I DO know is that if we perform at home this year in a manner even approaching how we performed at home last year, we could conceivably lose all 4 of the conference games.

Honestly, I feel we haven't performed very well at home at all since the loss to Michigan in '05 broke the long home winning streak. I still chalk all this up to losing our "mojo" after the renovations moved the band, student section and team entry corner.

Hopefully Kirk and Company have investigated this issue (like they do most issues that they feel are lacking, i.e. bowl preparation) and have some solutions.
 


Really? PSU in 08? The mojo is still there. Last years team just lied to live on the edge, both on the road and at home. Our best win was on the road in Ames. This years team will exorcise some of those demons.
 


Hawkfromnorwalk said:
Really? PSU in 08? The mojo is still there. Last years team just lied to live on the edge, both on the road and at home. Our best win was on the road in Ames. This years team will exorcise some of those demons.
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There have been one-off instances since Michigan in '05......PSU in '08 like you mention, Wisconsin in '08 as well. But overall, there hasn't been anything approaching the level of home dominance we saw between 2001 and the end of 2004.
 


Hawkfromnorwalk said:
Really? PSU in 08? The mojo is still there. Last years team just lied to live on the edge, both on the road and at home. Our best win was on the road in Ames. This years team will exorcise some of those demons.
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I look at it this way. In 2008, the team learned how to win close games (close game being defined as a 7-point or less margin of victory), after having many close losses early in the season. Last year, they put the lessons of 2008 to work, even if it did raise our collective blood pressure. Without the hard lessons of early 2008 (@ Pitt, @MSU, @Illinois), it easy to see how Iowa could have lost the many close games they played last year.

Ideally, the close wins from last year turn into blowouts this year.
 


Rawkhawk73 said:
There have been one-off instances since Michigan in '05......PSU in '08 like you mention, Wisconsin in '08 as well. But overall, there hasn't been anything approaching the level of home dominance we saw between 2001 and the end of 2004.
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Well yeah, some of those teams weren't very good.
 


I love these weekly "Is anyone else worried about........" threads. 2001-2004 was a special stretch but there were some poor home performances in there too, Brad Banks fumbles, Big Ben keeping it tight etc.... there was really only one comfortable game last year home or road, that beatdown of the clowns
 


Rawkhawk73 said:
Not from an opponent standpoint because we can obviously play with any team in the country.

I'm referring to our recent performances at home. UNI, Ark St, Arizona, Michigan, Indiana, Northwestern & Minnesota. For the most part, we played like absolute dog-poo in those games.

Maybe some of it was playing down to the level of our competition which we have seemed to do quite often under Ferentz (probably my only complaint during his tenure).....I don't know.

But what I DO know is that if we perform at home this year in a manner even approaching how we performed at home last year, we could conceivably lose all 4 of the conference games.

Honestly, I feel we haven't performed very well at home at all since the loss to Michigan in '05 broke the long home winning streak. I still chalk all this up to losing our "mojo" after the renovations moved the band, student section and team entry corner.

Hopefully Kirk and Company have investigated this issue (like they do most issues that they feel are lacking, i.e. bowl preparation) and have some solutions.
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I would say that we actually played quite well against Arizona. The score was much closer than the game due to a late garbage TD by Arizona. The other home games in 09 had more to do with who they were playing. For better or worse, the Hawks have tended to play to the level of their competition over the last few years. This has resulted in some big wins, but also some head-scratching losses and close calls.
 


I agree completely Rawkhawk and have brought up this point a couple of times. For whatever reason, we have not performed well at home the last few years. For the most part, it has been the offensive side of the ball that has really struggled. I'm not sure of the stats, but it sure seems like we've had a lot of turnovers at Kinnick the last few seasons. Perhaps that has something to do with our lost mojo.

At this point, I don't expect to run the table at Kinnick this season. Hopefully we turn things around and start dominating like we did in the past.
 


GO4ROZS said:
I would say that we actually played quite well against Arizona. The score was much closer than the game due to a late garbage TD by Arizona. The other home games in 09 had more to do with who they were playing. For better or worse, the Hawks have tended to play to the level of their competition over the last few years. This has resulted in some big wins, but also some head-scratching losses and close calls.
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After that 3rd and long run from A-Rob in the AZ game, we absolutely dominated. Also, I didn't really feel the michigan game was as close as the score indicated. They had that late TD that kept the game from being a 9 point loss. Take away Stanzi's pick-6 miscues, and many of these games aren't as close as they appear.

This year you can count on Ricky being a game manager rather than a play maker and IMO that will make a major difference on the scoreboard.
 


I keep hearing this "the game wasn't as close as it appeared", and "they scored late to make it appear closer than it was" arguments. What is that suppose to mean? The last time I checked the game is four quarters long. So if it appears close at the end of the game, it was a close game. If you're going to take away pick 6's, you may as well take away blocked punts returned for touchdowns. So nobody better say we dominated PSU last year.
 
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We are 44-9 at home from 2002-2009, a winning percentage of 83%. (49-10 from 2001-2009)Our road winning percentage during this period is probably around 45-50%. We are a lot better home team than road team. People are freaking out about 1 year. Yes. We were road warriors last year but that is like the only time I can remember where we were great on the road, maybe 2002 also. Typically, we suck on the road.


49-10 in a 9 year period!! Maybe 10 other teams in the entire country might have a better home winning percentage during this 9 year run.
 
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I'm not worried about our home performances last year. Odd as it was, I still would rather take my chances at home vs. on the road. I'm chalking up last year's home struggles as an abberation. The Hawks have typically been pretty salty at home over the years, and I expect that to continue going forward.
 




Are team discipline and controls the same at home as they are on the road? When the team is on the road I assume it is easier to keep the individual players in a group and make sure they are in their rooms at a decent time. Do team members stay together off campus the night before home games or are they in their dorm rooms/apartments, etc., where they're free to roam the ped mall or stay up "chilling" with each other or friends until all hours prior to a game?

I honestly don't know the answer to those questions for the Hawks and would welcome any insight.

I ask because I am aware of some mid 70s Mizzou players who usually partied Friday nights and were a little hung over when they stepped on the field the next day at Faurot.
 


tweeterhawk said:
Are team discipline and controls the same at home as they are on the road? When the team is on the road I assume it is easier to keep the individual players in a group and make sure they are in their rooms at a decent time. Do team members stay together off campus the night before home games or are they in their dorm rooms/apartments, etc., where they're free to roam the ped mall or stay up "chilling" with each other or friends until all hours prior to a game?

I honestly don't know the answer to those questions for the Hawks and would welcome any insight.

I ask because I am aware of some mid 70s Mizzou players who usually partied Friday nights and were a little hung over when they stepped on the field the next day at Faurot.
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The team stays in a hotel in Cedar Rapids the night before home games
 




tweeterhawk said:
Are team discipline and controls the same at home as they are on the road? When the team is on the road I assume it is easier to keep the individual players in a group and make sure they are in their rooms at a decent time. Do team members stay together off campus the night before home games or are they in their dorm rooms/apartments, etc., where they're free to roam the ped mall or stay up "chilling" with each other or friends until all hours prior to a game?

I honestly don't know the answer to those questions for the Hawks and would welcome any insight.

I ask because I am aware of some mid 70s Mizzou players who usually partied Friday nights and were a little hung over when they stepped on the field the next day at Faurot.
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Chimaera521 said:
The team stays in a hotel in Cedar Rapids the night before home games
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Thanks!
 


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