Delany split the divisions with OSU and PSU in the Leaders and Mich and Neb in the Legends for a reason...they are 4 of the top 6 winningest football programs in history. Neb is 5th,I believe. Iowa is maybe 35th. So yea,tradition matters a lot in college football and Nebraska has at least 5 times the Iowa tradition.
And citing how Iowa should never lose to NW or ISU is sickening. Sure Hayden beat NW and ISU and Wisky every year....well, times change and NW is going to their 5th straight bowl this year,and Wisky is in the Rose bowl 4 times since Hayden left,and ISU is going bowling for the 2nd time in 3 years....so those who are living in the past can forget calling those games ''gimmmees'' anymore. Not realistic.
Hayden had a much easier Big Ten to operate in...it was the Big Two,and Iowa.
Now,it is the Big 4 and Wisky,MSU,and NW. That is 7 teams Iowa has to hurdle to win the Big Ten....and with this divisonal setup it gets even harder..no tiebreakers that Hayden took advantage of to get to the Rose Bowl.
And this business of dismissing bowl wins as meaningless when assessing a team meeting expectations....nuts. I suspect it is because KF is 6-3 in bowl games and his detractors want to ignore that. Well, as someone who goes to Iowa bowl games,I can tell you those wins are damn sure great wins,and they pay huge dividends to fans morale(who spend big money to go on those trips) and program esteem. When the rest of the Big Ten was losing in bowls,who was almost always the exception? Iowa....and it got talked about a lot at BTN.
KF and Iowa has established a winning reputation at bowls,and that is a valuable asset to the program.
As far as that 12th game being a gimmee...no,not really. Hayden in his later years used to have two cupcakes and ISU. Now,we have ISU ,a Pitt or Az or ASU,and two cupcakes...same gimmee wins,but one additonal tough non-conference game.
Now, next year, that is not true,so I concede that next year we should go 4-0.
My expectations depend on a lot of factors that change depending on returning players,schedule,and injuries. I was not happy with last years results,but I knew that we lost our top 5 linebackers and that cost the team bigtime,along with losing McMillan and Gettis at o-guard. Iowa is just not OSU in depth,and so my expectations are adjusted.
Going into this season,I hoped for 10-2 with losses at PSU and Neb. Well, MSU turned out to be better than I thought...legit team this year. And the losses to ISU and Minny were not good,but 3OT and two missed fgs chip shots in a 2 pt loss at Minny?
Stuff happens. We easily could have won those games and fans would be happy?
I look at the whole program,and I see our 83% grad rate, 9th of all the 70 bowl teams, 3rd best public university, and I look at our recruiting which is solid again,and our continued NFL draftees,and lack of recruiting or NCAA scandals and I think my expectations have been met. Iowa was 5-1 at home with a lone loss to the Legends division winner. Home games were fun. WE beat 4 bowl bound teams. We are playing the preseason #1 rated Sooners in a bowl. I aint losing one minute of sleep over the Iowa football program....unlike our bb program.
And the whole KF salary nonsense....he is making that much because he is not at Texas or Georgia or Florida or LSU,where top 150 recruits flock in,right from the local high schools. Iowa has not produced a single top 150 football recruit in decades.
Anybody can coach at those schools,it takes a true genius to win where there are no local recruits of that ilk.
Maybe I am like our parents who lived thru the depression,and always had that fear of those hard times coming back. I lived thru the 19 years,and I know they can come back. Neb fired Frank Solich who won 9 games a year,and Callahan came in and they truly sucked. Now,they are happy to win 9 games again with Pelini. Maybe Iowa has to go thru hard times to appreciate 8 wins again.
