The other thing is the parity in sports these days. There are a handful of dominant teams then there are a bunch of teams that take turns being good. In a 12 game schedule, most years you will have 4 gimmes and 8 coin flips give or take (maybe they are 60-40 or 40-60). That pretty much means around an 8-4 average should be expected.
B1G West
- Thread starter NCHawker
- Start date
No doubt. The margin is slim between teams now. The coaching at most places is pretty darn good. Kids are all training hard. The idea that Iowa is head and shoulders above everyone else in how they work isn't as true as it may have used to be. Think about it. We don't have to look back any futher than last yr. How can the same Iowa team that lost to NDSU at home early in the year when pretty healthy also beat a top 5 Michigan team that had everything to play for? There's no logic there at all...
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
1. At the beginning of a season Tony Babers when at the FCS level said he could put together a team (I think they got to the championship that year) that could compete quite well with D-1 programs until the injuries piled up. He said after the starters, the talent level dropped off quite quickly. So losing to a D-1A school early isn't as bad as it appears. ISU likely has the same scenario.
2. Michigan had key injuries including the QB. They finished the season losing 3 or 4 and struggled against Indiana.
3. It's very hard to run the table for anyone. Everyone comes at you.
So therefore there is logic. There is logic behind ISU losses.
If Iowa has a bad season, there is logic behind it. If they have a good season, there is logic. This is a team that has the basics to do either or be in the middle which is likely what will happen baring the new OC being really bad.
I couldn't agree more. I was just writing that to poke that poster who has the unrealistic expectations of what Iowa should be all the time now. If you were just a casual fan and didn't know those circumstances like we do just their records and maybe the betting odds you'd be clueless. Beating Michigan was a tad more surprising to me than losing to NDSU was. If only because the week before the Michigan game Iowa got pounded by PSU and to get up after that to do what they did was pretty impressive. NDSU is a solid program no doubt about it. They were physical and didn't really try to out scheme us so much as execute. Hats off to them.
Unless your talent, depth & coaching are head and shoulders above everyone else running the table or having great years all the time is just going to be tough. Sometimes the ball has to bounce your way a few times. He just seems to think because we have a coach that's paid 4 plus million a year and state of the art new facilities Iowa should be the Alabama of the BIG...
MoseSchrute
Well-Known Member
And they almost never have that, due to the system that they run. Those guys don't want come here and play a secondary role.
