Hayden Fry's "Top 25" - #24

[GVGiant44]

(tie) HAYDEN’S FIRST THREE GAMES / LOSSES – Indiana, at Oklahoma, Nebraska. OK, more losses, and it was beyond torture to either watch or listen to each of these become an ‘L’, especially after leading in all three games - and comfortably in two of them. But here is where we saw that there was something different afoot. All of a sudden, it was not an accident that we could compete against these teams. And the fact that we lost all three showed Hayden just how much he had to commit every aspect of his program to understanding both victory and success. The results were slow in coming, as the 1980 season was FAR worse than the 1979 season. Still, 1981 and beyond is not possible without the seeds of these three losses that opened the J. Hayden Fry era.

 

[peerok]

(tie) HAYDEN’S FIRST THREE GAMES / LOSSES – Indiana, at Oklahoma, Nebraska. OK, more losses, and it was beyond torture to either watch or listen to each of these become an ‘L’, especially after leading in all three games - and comfortably in two of them. But here is where we saw that there was something different afoot. All of a sudden, it was not an accident that we could compete against these teams. And the fact that we lost all three showed Hayden just how much he had to commit every aspect of his program to understanding both victory and success. The results were slow in coming, as the 1980 season was FAR worse than the 1979 season. Still, 1981 and beyond is not possible without the seeds of these three losses that opened the J. Hayden Fry era.

These games kind of remind me of the final game of 1999 against Minnesota.(Kirk's first year) The goofs were pretty good that year going 8-4 and finishing 18th in the final AP poll. Iowa was 1-10 but outplayed Minnesota in that game losing a close one when they were stopped near the goal line on the final play of the game. Just like when Hayden came to Iowa, Kirk's teams always played hard even though it would take a few years to have the breakthrough season.