SWIowaHawkeye
Active Member
The following quote was taken from Tom Shatel’s opinion column in the Omaha World Herald last Saturday:
There's a guy I know. Call him a Nebraska football booster of substance. He'll travel with the team to a road game each year. He'll get the sideline pass. He knows people.
Well, I saw him on Friday in Lincoln, and he had a look of concern.
"This would be a big win," he said.
"Really?" I asked. "Beat 7-5 Iowa to go to the Outback Bowl. That's big?''
"There are people saying this is the biggest game of Bo's (Pelini) career here,'' said my booster friend.
He goes on to compare Pelini’s coaching job over his first 4 years (during which he won at least 9 games a year, btw) with Tom Osborne’s first years. The long and short of the article is that this booster was implying that should Iowa have beaten Nebraska in last Friday’s game, there could have been some serious question as to Pelini’s future with the program.
I want to go on record that I do not like Nebraska and Pelini in particular. But that ominous comment from a booster of substance kind of makes one wonder about fan base and booster expectations, and perhaps even their administration, and how those vary from their program to ours. I think it is safe to say that no one at Iowa would be questioning four seasons of 9 wins and competing for the conference championship 3 out of 4 of those years (or technically three years of 9+ wins and one year of 8-4 in the regular season). I think most of our fan base and boosters would be most approving.
Given that I live in SW Iowa and work in Omaha, I listen to sports radio that primarily discusses the Huskers and throws us Iowa fans an occasional bone. Coming out of the Michigan win over Nebraska and Michigan State clinching the Division, there was a great deal of discussion on expectations for their program. For their fanbase, What are expectations for the season? What is an acceptable record? What makes the year successful? I can tell you that those discussions are a great deal different than what I have been reading about expectations and evaluations on our own board. They expect to win at least 9 games a season…anything less is failure. They expect their team to beat lesser ranked opponents. They expect to compete for division and conference championships. And those expectations do not stop with the fanbase but extend to their administration…I really believe Osborne would have had to do something should Iowa have won and they finished their season losing 3 of their last 4.
So, knowing that other programs set the expectations bar higher than we do, how does the Iowa fan base move forward in the Ferentz era? Do we continue to temper our expectations? Do we accept falling short of even modest goals? Do we take the one or two good seasons every few years and then dwell in the middle of the conference while our peer programs—Wisconsin, Michigan State push ahead and begin/continue to separate themselves from us? I don’t really have any answers…I will continue to follow and to cheer for the Hawks because it is a big part of who I am. But, I do feel frustrated.
When I was raising my kids and teaching them about what is important in life, one of the life mottos that I repeated over and over was, “Never settle. If it is not good enough, it is not good enough. Work harder. Search longer. Keep after it.â€
I have been asking myself recently if that is what we as a program have done…have we settled for something less. Are we too easily satisfied or do we believe that we do not deserve the best—that what we have is good enough?
There's a guy I know. Call him a Nebraska football booster of substance. He'll travel with the team to a road game each year. He'll get the sideline pass. He knows people.
Well, I saw him on Friday in Lincoln, and he had a look of concern.
"This would be a big win," he said.
"Really?" I asked. "Beat 7-5 Iowa to go to the Outback Bowl. That's big?''
"There are people saying this is the biggest game of Bo's (Pelini) career here,'' said my booster friend.
He goes on to compare Pelini’s coaching job over his first 4 years (during which he won at least 9 games a year, btw) with Tom Osborne’s first years. The long and short of the article is that this booster was implying that should Iowa have beaten Nebraska in last Friday’s game, there could have been some serious question as to Pelini’s future with the program.
I want to go on record that I do not like Nebraska and Pelini in particular. But that ominous comment from a booster of substance kind of makes one wonder about fan base and booster expectations, and perhaps even their administration, and how those vary from their program to ours. I think it is safe to say that no one at Iowa would be questioning four seasons of 9 wins and competing for the conference championship 3 out of 4 of those years (or technically three years of 9+ wins and one year of 8-4 in the regular season). I think most of our fan base and boosters would be most approving.
Given that I live in SW Iowa and work in Omaha, I listen to sports radio that primarily discusses the Huskers and throws us Iowa fans an occasional bone. Coming out of the Michigan win over Nebraska and Michigan State clinching the Division, there was a great deal of discussion on expectations for their program. For their fanbase, What are expectations for the season? What is an acceptable record? What makes the year successful? I can tell you that those discussions are a great deal different than what I have been reading about expectations and evaluations on our own board. They expect to win at least 9 games a season…anything less is failure. They expect their team to beat lesser ranked opponents. They expect to compete for division and conference championships. And those expectations do not stop with the fanbase but extend to their administration…I really believe Osborne would have had to do something should Iowa have won and they finished their season losing 3 of their last 4.
So, knowing that other programs set the expectations bar higher than we do, how does the Iowa fan base move forward in the Ferentz era? Do we continue to temper our expectations? Do we accept falling short of even modest goals? Do we take the one or two good seasons every few years and then dwell in the middle of the conference while our peer programs—Wisconsin, Michigan State push ahead and begin/continue to separate themselves from us? I don’t really have any answers…I will continue to follow and to cheer for the Hawks because it is a big part of who I am. But, I do feel frustrated.
When I was raising my kids and teaching them about what is important in life, one of the life mottos that I repeated over and over was, “Never settle. If it is not good enough, it is not good enough. Work harder. Search longer. Keep after it.â€
I have been asking myself recently if that is what we as a program have done…have we settled for something less. Are we too easily satisfied or do we believe that we do not deserve the best—that what we have is good enough?
