Biggest "What-If's" of the Ferentz era

HNMitchSmith

HNMitchSmith

Active Member
What if Ricky Stanzi hadn't gotten hurt against Northwestern? What if the Angry Iowa Running Back Hating God never happened?

Dave Scwhartz and I went back through the Ferentz era and came up with our 10 biggest "What-If's." What if a decision or an injury that went one way against the Hawkeyes had gone the other?

Does your Top 10 match ours? Which "What-If's" did we miss?

https://www.hawkeyenation.com/football/schwartz-smith-biggest-ifs-ferentz-era
 
Great article but I do believe you missed the biggest "What If"

What if Mo Brown & Ed Hinkel are healthy in 2003? You could even throw Jermelle Lewis in there.

That team was good without them. With them? Painful to think about. There was only 1 game in which all were relatively healthy that season. That was the Outback Bowl in which they smashed Florida.
 
I'll add What if:

KF had gone for the win @ OSU instead of playing it safe
Iowa had stopped Pryor on the 4th and 17 in the OSU loss @ Iowa
Iowa had stopped any of MSU's last drive 3rd and long/4th down attempts in Indy in 2015
Harmon doesn't fumble four times in the Rose Bowl
Iowa gets picked for the Rose bowl in 02 rather than the Orange Bowl
Shonn Greene sticks around for his senior year
 
I think we can all agree that the biggest what-if would be Mitch Leidner wanting to come and play here instead of Minnesota before KF pulled his offer. This one decision probably cost the Hawkeyes multiple conference titles and a playoff appearance.
 
Xerxes said:
Great article but I do believe you missed the biggest "What If"

What if Mo Brown & Ed Hinkel are healthy in 2003? You could even throw Jermelle Lewis in there.

That team was good without them. With them? Painful to think about. There was only 1 game in which all were relatively healthy that season. That was the Outback Bowl in which they smashed Florida.
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To add to your point, What if Dallas Clark came back for the 2003 season? Also I believe two starting o-lineman had season ending injuries early in the year. (Brian Ferentz and David Walker).
As you stated that team was good without those guys, had they stayed completely healthy, I believe the offense could have been even better than the 2002 team.
 
I would also add the rhabdo mess. I have to believe that hurt our recruiting significantly for several years, maybe it still does to this day. Its not hard to imagine rival coaches reminding recruits that 13 players ended up in the hospital and that Ferentz and Chris Doyle were responsible. If I'm a parent I would have had reservations about sending my son to play for Iowa right after that happened.
 
I am waaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too classy to post "What if we got Stoops instead of KF?"

You know now that I read my own reply, I realize I'm not as classy as I thought!;):eek::rolleyes::oops:

But in the spirit of the thread I'll agree with peerok. That mess was the cherry on top of a cow manure season.
 
Seth53 said:
I'll add What if:

KF had gone for the win @ OSU instead of playing it safe
Iowa had stopped Pryor on the 4th and 17 in the OSU loss @ Iowa
Iowa had stopped any of MSU's last drive 3rd and long/4th down attempts in Indy in 2015
Harmon doesn't fumble four times in the Rose Bowl
Iowa gets picked for the Rose bowl in 02 rather than the Orange Bowl
Shonn Greene sticks around for his senior year
Click to expand...

It was a good list but I agree with the first 3 in the above list. In 2009, KF goes for the win in the horseshoww in regulation and two catches and a PI let the hawks kick a winning FG to win the big 10 and go to the Rose Bowl.

I can't remember if stopping Pryor on several opportunities in 2010 would have maybe let the hawks win part of the Big 10 title but it would have really helped save that season.

And of course, last year stop MSU, win the Big, and go to the playoffs and who knows maybe play a more competitive game even against Bama.

Two of the three above and Greene coming back in 2009 could have led to 3 more Big 10 titles for the hawks.
 
I enjoyed this article more than I thought I would.

The two that intrigue me the most is what if

Jewell Hampton and Jermelle Lewis would have stayed healthy and finished their careers.

Also, If Freddy Russell and Dallas Clark came back for Sr Year.
 
Interesting article... but the biggest missing angle is..."What if...he had played...xxxxx ...instead of staying with xxxxx".
 
What if Barry Alvarez would have been promoted to DC in 87 instead of leaving for ND? Kirk Ferentz's name may never have even come up in 96.

What if Ferentz would have opted to recruit Kirk Cousins harder instead of Vandenberg?
 
What if Melvin Gordon would have come to Iowa and run behind Reiff, Scherff, Blythe, Donnal, Walsh, Welsh, Boffeli, Tobin, J. Ferentz, Van Sloten, Zusevics, Gettis, etc.? If Weisman could run for over 2600 yards in 3 years, Gordon would have run for...?
 
Not sure this belongs in this story but another story would be the Biggest What If's in recruiting. There's a story out now that Matt Ryan would have chosen to come to IA but BC was closer. Would be interesting to hear the high profile names that had Iowa as a finalist.
 
snarf34 said:
Not sure this belongs in this story but another story would be the Biggest What If's in recruiting. There's a story out now that Matt Ryan would have chosen to come to IA but BC was closer. Would be interesting to hear the high profile names that had Iowa as a finalist.
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I know Jake Plummer was high on Iowa as well. I thought about that and was thinking the same thing about others that we missed on. Although, we flipped some of our best players on the era, such as Desmond and Demond, so it definitely goes both ways.
 
You should put Wegher down on the "God I'm glad that guy left" list, not the What If.

I had the misfortune to meet the guy a few times through mutual friends (I live close to Sioux City), and I don't know if I've ever to this day met a bigger scuz bag, entitled, slimy little douche bag as that kid. You want a definition of "affluenza" go knock on that guy's door and talk to him for 3 seconds; He's a total "my daddy's a millionaire and he can get me out of anything" type of kid. I remember we all chuckled when he had to actually get a job and work (which he'd never had to do), because his baby mama had a good lawyer and was starting to grab daddy's money for child support. She must not be a whole lot more upstanding than him because as soon as the NFL looked like an option she all the sudden fell in love again.

Maybe the guy's a changed person now, who knows. But the times I ran across him I remember how glad I was that the Hawkeyes shit canned him. Had they kept him eventually he would have done something to give the U a black eye. The worm couldn't even handle Heelan let alone Iowa City.
 
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thetrza said:
I think we can all agree that the biggest what-if would be Mitch Leidner wanting to come and play here instead of Minnesota before KF pulled his offer. This one decision probably cost the Hawkeyes multiple conference titles and a playoff appearance.
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Whaaaat? Beathard is a better QB than Leidner this year according to the efficiency ratings, and was far superior last year.

To say that it somehow cost Iowa a playoff appearance or a big ten title is truly ridiculous.
 
I think the biggest what if is where would be without Fry and Ferentz? Winning about 30% of our games, that's where.....as we did for the 20 years previous to those two coaches.

This whole thread is dumb
 
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