Has the view of Iowa football been this negative in the last 50 years?

[NCHawker]

I sense that in the 70's Iowa fan just became used to bad football and expectations were just low. People just loved the hawks and didn't get too upset - the focus was on the family fun (for those who went) or just having the game on the radio in the garage. It was a pastime.

In the late 70's and into 80's and 90's the hawks found new life with hayden. At first it was absolute mania seeing them beat teams consistently and even beat good teams and seeing national rankings. Expectations were born.

In the 90's it was up and down but people hung in there

In the 2000's we saw KF's early surge and happy days were back again, and as we hit mid decade people began to see the 3 years up, 3 years down cycle. It was dissapointing but people sort of adjusted and waited for the next cycle.

Now, I think- you tell me what you think - people are just fed up. There is a level of frustration and resentment that was not present during the previous eras. People resent the AD, they resent the KF system and they are resenting KF's contract and they are now resenting KF.

Would you agree?

 

[Hawknick]

Disagree, I still have a positive view.

 

[SteveGarvey]

I sense that in the 70's Iowa fan just became used to bad football and expectations were just low. People just loved the hawks and didn't get too upset - the focus was on the family fun (for those who went) or just having the game on the radio in the garage. It was a pastime.

In the late 70's and into 80's and 90's the hawks found new life with hayden. At first it was absolute mania seeing them beat teams consistently and even beat good teams and seeing national rankings. Expectations were born.

In the 90's it was up and down but people hung in there

In the 2000's we saw KF's early surge and happy days were back again, and as we hit mid decade people began to see the 3 years up, 3 years down cycle. It was dissapointing but people sort of adjusted and waited for the next cycle.

Now, I think- you tell me what you think - people are just fed up. There is a level of frustration and resentment that was not present during the previous eras. People resent the AD, they resent the KF system and they are resenting KF's contract and they are now resenting KF.

Would you agree?

Most definitely the most negative in 50 years. But a lot of it is a combination of social media and just how all major fanbases are. You don't provide a winner now and continue it fanbases will hate and resent you and that vibe spreads like wildfire through social media now. Negativity feeds off other negativity and this we see, much too often, here within Hawkeye Nation.

 

[Hawknick]

Positivity could also feed off positivity if there was more positivity here.

 

[imported_ankle23]

it was pretty bad back in 2006/7 -

 

[NEIChawk]

As a kid growing up, my father would listen to Zabel/Gonder on the radio during those 70's you refer to NC while drinking a room temperature PBR and get so pi$$ed because Iowa was absolutely terrible...I could see his passion in a team that he still continues to follow, and that's where I became a Hawk fan....Lo and behold in comes Fry, turned the program around and performed CPR on a program that was run into the ground, so yes, this is a huge negative in the past 50 years....As fans, we deserve a better effort from our HC & Staff before we become the easy "W" on every teams schedule, and friends, I'm afraid we have reached that point in the game....

 

[hawkdrummer1]

Most negative since Hayden took over...so 35 years. Yeah.

In the 70s, the expectation of winning had largely evaporated, but the games were still fun as hell. Somehow Sally and GarBar managed to kill that too.

 

[Hawk90]

One thing that I find frustrating, and in no way do I mean this disrespectfully, is the notion that Hayden Fry was the start of Iowa's football success. I think a better case can be made that Iowa has a tradition of success and that the mid 60s'/70s' period was the anomaly due in no small part to Evy's role as AD. Evy; great coach/bad AD. My point is that Hawkeye football success did NOT start with Hayden. So the whole; "were just little ole' Iowa, what happens if we can't do better than Ferentz?". (The Tom Davis argument). We CAN do better and we will when the Ferentz era is over.

 

[thetrza]

I don't know, that press conference when the two players were accused of a rape and Ferentz just stared at a reporter after a generic non response was bad, then the rhabdo fiasco was bad, and 2012 was pretty nuclear during the offseason. But this last season with just seven wins really takes the cake as far as being as bad as its ever been.

 

[uihawk82]

The product is very stale which leads to a lot of apathy after last year. Defense and kicking were really good in 2013 so we gave the offense a year's pass with a new QB. Last year nope, the offense was pretty bad when it should have been a strength and to me this leads to my displeasure and negative feeling. I mean why can t we hit some long passes or even try more of them and give kids like parker and wadley and willies more touches.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

Seems to me there's a lot more indifference around the football program than negativity. There was more negativity in the 2006-08 time period. Now, I think most people just don't care.

 

[RocknRollface]

it was pretty bad back in 2006/7 -

I think that was worse.

The day it all came to a head with the gut feeling, when KF sacrificed a win to prove a point about not taking chances ,was as mad as I've seen people get.

People are used to loosing now, were just ready for it to be over.

 

[PCHawk]

Seems to me there's a lot more indifference around the football program than negativity. There was more negativity in the 2006-08 time period. Now, I think most people just don't care.

I think you're right. I think the reason is because how unbelievably boring the games are most of the time. It's hard to get too mad at the end results of something that's not very fun anyway.

 

[RocknRollface]

The product is very stale which leads to a lot of apathy after last year. Defense and kicking were really good in 2013 so we gave the offense a year's pass with a new QB. Last year nope, the offense was pretty bad when it should have been a strength and to me this leads to my displeasure and negative feeling. I mean why can t we hit some long passes or even try more of them and give kids like parker and wadley and willies more touches.

This is what people are really sick of. Cautiously loosing to bad opponents.

 

[homes]

Anyone could quibble with specific seasons, but NCHawker, you summed it up well. I do think Ferentz has finally realized that there's a lot water coming in the ship right now, but the size of his bucket isn't big enough to bail it out fast enough. It has that kind of feeling currently. While frustrated and mad, I'm also a little melancholy about it as well. I really want him to succeed, it just may be too late.

 

[PCHawk]

This is what people are really sick of. Cautiously loosing to bad opponents.

This is by far my biggest problem with Kirk. Losing to good teams happens. Occasionally getting blown out like we did against Minnesota happens. Unfathomably bad clock management drives me nuts but big picture wise i can deal with it. Trying to beat bad teams by tip toeing through the game and hoping luck is on your side is something i am more than ready to stop seeing. Especially since we win 9 out of 10 times against those terrible teams if we just oppose our will on them.

 

[longtimer]

Answer in 3 letters FXL it just doesnt grt any worse than that

 

[NCHawker]

This is what people are really sick of. Cautiously loosing to bad opponents.

this resonates.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

I think that was worse.

The day it all came to a head with the gut feeling, when KF sacrificed a win to prove a point about not taking chances ,was as mad as I've seen people get.

People are used to loosing now, were just ready for it to be over.

I think it's worse now. At least people cared then

 

[desihawk]

98-99 were worse. And I would venture that 2013-2014 at season end felt eerily like 1996-1997. Either we pull out of the funk real soon, or pillow fights about the next coming of Stoops are about to reignite.