Biggest Impact: Tate to Holloway or Stanzi to McNutt?

Which Play Has Biggest Program Impact?

  • Tate to Holloway

    Votes: 33 46.5%
  • Stanzi to McNutt

    Votes: 38 53.5%

  • Total voters
    71
IMO, there is no chance of an undefeated Iowa team jumping an undefeated Texas team, especially when Texas started the season ranked ahead of Iowa.

NO CHANCE - we would never have jumped an undefeated Texas team who was ranked ahead of us the entire season. Ive thought about this a ton and i think everything worked out for the best. I love my fellow Iowa fans but if we had gone 12-0 and missed out on a shot at the NC the complaining and whining (which would be well deserved) would last for generations. We are all better for not going through it
 
Actually I vote for the two back to back blocked field goals against UNI which has never been done before in Division 1 football. Had Northern Iowa made one of those two field goals then we probably would not be talking about the MSU play. Also, we probably would not be talking about the Orange Bowl let alone the win.

Yes, the Capital One Bowl Tate to Holloway play was important to elevate Iowa to 10 wins but so were the UNI plays (elevated Iowa to 11 wins). Imagine the fallout and direction of the season had UNI won the game?

Okay, that said I vote for the Stanzi to McNut play because it kept the win streak going and propelled Iowa to an 11 win season and a BCS bowl win vs. a non BCS bowl win and a 10 win season in the Capital One Bowl. I think the Orange Bowl win will pay higher dividends for the program going forward than the Capital One bowl win.
 
Actually I vote for the two back to back blocked field goals against UNI which has never been done before in Division 1 football. Had Northern Iowa made one of those two field goals then we probably would not be talking about the MSU play. Also, we probably would not be talking about the Orange Bowl let alone the win.

Yes, the Capital One Bowl Tate to Holloway play was important to elevate Iowa to 10 wins but so were the UNI plays (elevated Iowa to 11 wins). Imagine the fallout and direction of the season had UNI won the game?

Okay, that said I vote for the Stanzi to McNut play because it kept the win streak going and propelled Iowa to an 11 win season and a BCS bowl win vs. a non BCS bowl win and a 10 win season in the Capital One Bowl. I think the Orange Bowl win will pay higher dividends for the program going forward than the Capital One bowl win.

I agree with the point about the blocked field goals against UNI. I think those were bigger plays than Stanzi-McNutt. Had Iowa lost that game, the remaining 11 games would not have had nearly as much meaning, IMO.
 
Now wait a minute. On the home page it says Biggest Play of the Decade. On the reader poll it asks which play had a bigger impact on the program. Two different questions in my mind. Two different answers.

I would argue that Tate to Halloway is a bigger "play". More exciting. Bigger prize. Better opponent. Unlikely hero. Last play of a magical season. Nobody would believe the ****** if you wrote it. In hindsight, not a lot of impact on the program other than the pure, raw emotion it brings back everytime it is watched. Also, isn't that the year Jon Miller wrote "Special Season"? A masterpiece of football journalism.

But Tate/Halloway did end the season. There was nothing to immediately build off of it. Certainly the followimg year was a letdown comparably speaking.

The Stanzi/McNutt play only ended a midseason game and left plenty of opportunity to build off of. It probably contributed to the confidence shown the following week in a huge second half comeback.

I would hope that Stanzi to McNutt would have a bigger impact. It's timing gave it a better short term opportunity. As Poncho pointed out, it may be too early to say for it's long term impact.

One bone to pick on the spin for Stanzi/McNutt. SI is a benefit? Pardon me? A magazine nobody reads anymore....(ok i bought it, but it was the first time I read a hardcopy edition in years).....that only brought on a curse. I'd have taken a win vs. Northwestern in place of a regional cover on a has-been publication anyday.
 
The censored word in my post is the same word as in the line:

The OSU marching band's famous tradition is s c r i p t Ohio.
 
More people were watching the Tate/Holloway catch than the Stanzi/McNutt catch. Think about it. The Cap One bowl was the lead off bowl into the Rose Bowl that afternoon. There were probably a lot of people that tuned in for the Rose Bowl only to catch the tail end of the Cap One bowl. I'm sure it made quite an impression on many from outside the fanbase.

Stanzi/McNutt was also a great play. It was huge for the season because it kept us in the title hunt. But outside of the Iowa/MSU fanbases nobody was probably watching. Since it was on the Big 10 network at night, and I'm sure there was probably a more interesting national game on ABC/ESPN, most of the people outside the fanbases probably only caught a highlight of it on College Gameday Final or the next mornings Sportscenter.
 
It's Ricky to McNutty...if Iowa loses that game, they don't go to the "BCS" Orange Bowl...if Holloway drops that pass, Iowa loses a great, but run of the mill January 1 game...

If we want to be totally fair, we'll have to re-ask this question in 3 years, to see if the Orange Bowl season has a springboard effect...unfortunately, Tate to Holloway didn't seem to as it was followed by some mediocrity.
 
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