Do you sometimes feel like we have great teams in the wrong years?

E

elmago

Member
Imagine this same team with next year's schedule:

September

3 Tennessee Tech
10 at Iowa State (Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series)
17 Pittsburgh
24 Louisiana-Monroe

October

1 Bye
8 at Penn State
15 Northwestern
22 Indiana
29 at Minnesota

November

5 Michigan
12 Michigan State
19 at Purdue
26 at Nebraska

While I believe this will be a special year, I would be a lot more confident with this schedule than the one we have.
 
Agreed! I feel like next year we should have a really good team. If this year's team is as good as the hype, they'll perform that way. We'll see good Iowa teams the next few years, IMO
 
Yeah, I thought the same thing last year. "What if Shonn Greene had stayed one more season?" But I think we're reaching the point now where at most positions, we reload rather than rebuild. Our RB, WR, TE, and QB depth are EXCELLENT right now, and with the recruits we've gotten this year they'll only be getting better. We've also got some top-notch OL coming this year as well.

On D, I love our depth at DL and LB as usual, and we also have some impressive freshmen and incoming players next year at DB. Names to keep an eye on:

AJ Derby, obviously.
Kevonte Martin-Manley
Keenan Davis
CJ Fiedorowicz
Henry Krieger-Coble
Ray Hamilton
De'Andre Johnson
Marcus Coker
Melvin Gordon
Jordan Walsh

James Morris
Christian Kirksey
Torrey Campbell
John Raymon
Donavan Johnson
Tanner Miller
Riley McMinn

Recruits we're targetting who look fairly likely:
Armonze Daniel, LB
Darian Miller, RB
Rondey Coe, RB
DeAnthony Arnett, WR
Dondi Kirby, DB

There are several others, but I think we've reached a point now where the program can land major recruits from around the country instead of having to rely so heavily on Midwestern recruits. With that and the Doyle system, we should be churning out stud after stud after stud for years to come.
 
I agree. any time OSU is not on the schedule, judging by history, is the only chance Iowa is going to have a chance to truly have a "special" season as I define special. Which is go undefeated.
 
clicheusername3 said:
I agree. any time OSU is not on the schedule, judging by history, is the only chance Iowa is going to have a chance to truly have a "special" season as I define special. Which is go undefeated.
Click to expand...
Agreed...however...I'd rather see us going undefeated in league play by also playing OSU. No more 2002 what if's.
 
This is the perfect year to have a great team, no real clear cut favorite to win it. A tough schedule but getting most of those tough games at home.
 
SDK46 said:
Agreed...however...I'd rather see us going undefeated in league play by also playing OSU. No more 2002 what if's.
Click to expand...

That won't happen again, if Iowa is 8-0 along with OSU they will settle it next year in the Big Ten title game so Iowa will have their chance to go undefeated and play OSU.
 
I think we'll have a pretty good shot to run the table next year too, w/ the game @ Nebraska likely being for a trip to the title game. It'd be great to turn the first ever Big10 title game into a Hawkeye home game.
 
So have we gotten over our righteous indignation over Boise St. getting national accolades despite their weak schedule? Don't get me wrong, BSU shouldn't be looking at a BCS title, but it is pretty lame if the same people making the argument against BSU are the same guys hoping we ride an easy schedule to success.

OSU has dominated the Big 10 for so long, that if you really want to be the champs, you have to beat them. Missing them and playing Purdue instead does not make you champions, even if you win all of your games.
 
Iowafarmgirl said:
So have we gotten over our righteous indignation over Boise St. getting national accolades despite their weak schedule? Don't get me wrong, BSU shouldn't be looking at a BCS title, but it is pretty lame if the same people making the argument against BSU are the same guys hoping we ride an easy schedule to success.

OSU has dominated the Big 10 for so long, that if you really want to be the champs, you have to beat them. Missing them and playing Purdue instead does not make you champions, even if you win all of your games.
Click to expand...

I don't think it takes intellectual leaps and bounds to understand that while we're mad that BSU has the inside track to the NCG, we'd also like to have their good fortune. It's kinda like how guys my age reacted to the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync. Even though we hated those guys and their music, we would have given anything to have every girl in the school scream and chase us down when they saw us down the street.
 
Will we be "reloading" in 2011? I think that some of the biggest keys there usually rely upon the experience level AND talent of our guys in the trenches and at QB. Everywhere else is obviously also important ... however, if we're weak at the aforementioned spots, we're typically in big trouble.

Anyhow, here is what we have at the above spots:

OL: The group ONLY loses Vandervelde and Koeppel. Furthermore, with Ferentz and MacMillan already seeing starts ... that will give their respective development a substantial boost. I look for the 2011 OL to have a monster year provided that they can remain healthy.

QB: Sure, we lose Stanzi. However, Vandenberg has starting experience and he's already seen game experience against EIU. Thus, between Vandenberg and the rest of our depth at QB ... I'm confident that we really won't see much of a drop in production at QB. What's particularly important to note about the QBs is that the chemistry among that group is completely impressive. Ricky's leadership seems to be contagious among that group ... and I expect that we'll see that reflect in the leadership ability in the rest of the QBs.

DL: We obviously are losing a lot. However, it is also important to notice that we will still return 2 effective SR starters on the DL in Daniels and Binns. Furthermore, Daniel is a high-quality SR backup at DE who is an obvious front-runner for the starting DE spot opposite Binns. And, what's cool is that we even seem to have some depth at DE too. Forgy will be a SR and is a quality backup. Furthermore, Alvis is a guy who has already generated A LOT of legit buzz (he's already seen game action against EIU too). The big question will be who takes over the other DT spot. To that end, I think that we have a good number of quality candidates. Heck, Nardo and Bigach will both be experienced upperclassmen who seem to be more than solid ... and we likely have even more talented underclassmen who could make a push for the spot too. In other words, the Iowa DL seems to be a good bit more experienced and deep than folks seem to realize. Of course, don't get me wrong ... I do expect that we will see some drop in production on the DL ... however, we'll still see high-quality play.
 
Iowafarmgirl said:
So have we gotten over our righteous indignation over Boise St. getting national accolades despite their weak schedule? Don't get me wrong, BSU shouldn't be looking at a BCS title, but it is pretty lame if the same people making the argument against BSU are the same guys hoping we ride an easy schedule to success.

OSU has dominated the Big 10 for so long, that if you really want to be the champs, you have to beat them. Missing them and playing Purdue instead does not make you champions, even if you win all of your games.
Click to expand...

Where you're a little off is that if Iowa wins every game ... then our Hawks will most likely face tOSU in the Big 10 conference title game. In other words ... we still would get to face them.
 
Speaking of 2011....
Living in Omaha, I take no small joy in that we get to end the season with Nebraska.

Kirk's teams get better as the season progresses so I feel really good about WHEN we play them. Beating Nebraska is going to be like Christmas at Thanksgiving!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top