Gotta thank hawkeyeinstl who posted this on BHGP...
"We all realize that, right? This is our first double-digit loss in almost FOUR SEASONS. And people are calling for KF’s head? Holy cow, we sound like SEC fans.
My primary complaint about KF is also the ungodly conservative play calling. And we remember them every time it bites us in the ***, but nobody seems to recall any of the times we buried somebody with a punt from the 40 yard line and got a 3AO and got the ball back on our own 40 or blocked a punt or something.
There was a failure of execution on the field. Catchers didn’t catch well. Tacklers didn’t tackle well. Blockers didn’t block well. The thrower didn’t throw well. Given the poor execution, what on earth makes anybody think the outcome would have been different we tried to (poorly) execute something harder?
It should have been 7-0 on PSU’s first series. McNutt had two inexplicable drops. Well, I can explicit one — he anticipated the defender and turned to make a move before he caught the ball.
KF has done everything Hayden Fry did, and more. These things go in cycles. We all knew this season was not going to be some miracle season.
Perspective. A good season of Iowa football is 8-5. That’s 4-4 in conference play in my book. That’s a good year. A great year is 6-2. And once in a while you have a dream year.
Do we think we should be Ohio State? Let’s look at their record over the last ten years. 7-5, 14-0, 11-2, 8-4, 10-2, 12-2, 11-2, 10-3, 11-2.
There’s some great years in there. There’s some good years in there. And there’s a pretty mediocre year in there. If Ohio State is allowed to have down years, so are we. I’ll take 8-4 seasons every year, if we pop up to double digits now and again.
How about OSU in the 90’s? 8-4, 8-3, 9-4, 6-6, 8-4.
The 80’s? Seven straight 3-loss seasons. Those are undoubtedly good years, but sometimes 9-3 is a big 10 championship (1986) and sometimes it’s fourth place (1983).
Perspective. We lost a lot of people. This is a rebuilding year. If we go 4-4 in conference play, it’s a wildly successful year in my book. We’ll be 7-5 again, and we’ll have a shot at giving the fans something Fry never did – 4 straight bowl wins. Ferentz is bowl-eligible in 10 seasons, and 6-3 in 9 bowl games. That’s insane. KF has 4 top 10 finishes. Four bowl wins against Top 15 teams. He’s over .600 in winning percentage at Iowa, and that’s including a 1-10 campaign in his first year where he had to resuscitate a dead program. Ignoring the first two years, which were “building” years by any reasonable standard, he’s at more than a .67 winning percentage. Again, insane, considering Iowa’s recruiting disadvantage.
We have starters from Ohio State, Texas, and Florida. Why aren’t they playing for OSU, Texas, or Florida? Because they weren’t good enough. Our starters couldn’t even get onto Ohio State’s bench. Yet KF coaches them up, and fields competitive teams, year in, and year out, and wins games, and wins conference titles, and sends them to the NFL, more so than any other team in this country other than Florida and USC.
Perspective. You’re allowed to be frustrated. I am frustrated, too. And it’s easy to pick on the things that drive us nuts, but those are also things that keep us in close games.
If KF finds a way to adjust to tweak what is undoubtedly a winning formula to enable him to win those close games, then this program is Ohio State. Maybe that’ll never happen. I don’t know.
But I do know that I like KF and I like how he’s built and maintained this Iowa program. I love my Hawkeyes, I want them to be better than they are now, but Jeebus H. If an ugly ten point loss on the road to Penn State is the straw that breaks any camel’s back, I’ll submit that we’ve been spoiled with unrealistic expectations.
Separate “dreams and hopes” from “reasonable expectations” and calm down."
"We all realize that, right? This is our first double-digit loss in almost FOUR SEASONS. And people are calling for KF’s head? Holy cow, we sound like SEC fans.
My primary complaint about KF is also the ungodly conservative play calling. And we remember them every time it bites us in the ***, but nobody seems to recall any of the times we buried somebody with a punt from the 40 yard line and got a 3AO and got the ball back on our own 40 or blocked a punt or something.
There was a failure of execution on the field. Catchers didn’t catch well. Tacklers didn’t tackle well. Blockers didn’t block well. The thrower didn’t throw well. Given the poor execution, what on earth makes anybody think the outcome would have been different we tried to (poorly) execute something harder?
It should have been 7-0 on PSU’s first series. McNutt had two inexplicable drops. Well, I can explicit one — he anticipated the defender and turned to make a move before he caught the ball.
KF has done everything Hayden Fry did, and more. These things go in cycles. We all knew this season was not going to be some miracle season.
Perspective. A good season of Iowa football is 8-5. That’s 4-4 in conference play in my book. That’s a good year. A great year is 6-2. And once in a while you have a dream year.
Do we think we should be Ohio State? Let’s look at their record over the last ten years. 7-5, 14-0, 11-2, 8-4, 10-2, 12-2, 11-2, 10-3, 11-2.
There’s some great years in there. There’s some good years in there. And there’s a pretty mediocre year in there. If Ohio State is allowed to have down years, so are we. I’ll take 8-4 seasons every year, if we pop up to double digits now and again.
How about OSU in the 90’s? 8-4, 8-3, 9-4, 6-6, 8-4.
The 80’s? Seven straight 3-loss seasons. Those are undoubtedly good years, but sometimes 9-3 is a big 10 championship (1986) and sometimes it’s fourth place (1983).
Perspective. We lost a lot of people. This is a rebuilding year. If we go 4-4 in conference play, it’s a wildly successful year in my book. We’ll be 7-5 again, and we’ll have a shot at giving the fans something Fry never did – 4 straight bowl wins. Ferentz is bowl-eligible in 10 seasons, and 6-3 in 9 bowl games. That’s insane. KF has 4 top 10 finishes. Four bowl wins against Top 15 teams. He’s over .600 in winning percentage at Iowa, and that’s including a 1-10 campaign in his first year where he had to resuscitate a dead program. Ignoring the first two years, which were “building” years by any reasonable standard, he’s at more than a .67 winning percentage. Again, insane, considering Iowa’s recruiting disadvantage.
We have starters from Ohio State, Texas, and Florida. Why aren’t they playing for OSU, Texas, or Florida? Because they weren’t good enough. Our starters couldn’t even get onto Ohio State’s bench. Yet KF coaches them up, and fields competitive teams, year in, and year out, and wins games, and wins conference titles, and sends them to the NFL, more so than any other team in this country other than Florida and USC.
Perspective. You’re allowed to be frustrated. I am frustrated, too. And it’s easy to pick on the things that drive us nuts, but those are also things that keep us in close games.
If KF finds a way to adjust to tweak what is undoubtedly a winning formula to enable him to win those close games, then this program is Ohio State. Maybe that’ll never happen. I don’t know.
But I do know that I like KF and I like how he’s built and maintained this Iowa program. I love my Hawkeyes, I want them to be better than they are now, but Jeebus H. If an ugly ten point loss on the road to Penn State is the straw that breaks any camel’s back, I’ll submit that we’ve been spoiled with unrealistic expectations.
Separate “dreams and hopes” from “reasonable expectations” and calm down."
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