Hayden Fry's "top 25" - #25

[GVGiant44]

ALAMO BOWL, 1993 – Iowa loses (BIG) to California. You might wonder why this is on the list, since it comes from a 3–year low–point in the Fry era, where we didn’t even qualify for bowls twice - and this effort showed it should have been 3–for–3. And yet, this game set a new standard that has followed Iowa ever since – that of us receiving a bowl bid well beyond what our record and play of that season had deserved. Up until then, our bowl bids had fallen exactly the way they were supposed to – in fact, the 1991 Holiday Bowl was a real slap in the face for a team that was the Big 10 co-champ. But two things happened about that time. One was bowls taking greater and greater notice of how well Iowa “traveled” to almost any bowl they were selected for. The other was the beginning of the end of a strange "preferred" network of various powers-that-be that controlled and assigned all non-championship bowls in series of backroom deals. Ever since then, Iowa has gone to bowl after bowl after bowl (with the 1995 Sun Bowl being the other primary example in the Fry era, and the 2001 Alamo Bowl starting a trend that has been a signature of the KFz era) that was more than they probably should have received. Yes, this game was a joke – and Iowa, because they were, quite obviously, heavy underdogs in this game to begin with, lost more of these than they won. But this game represented something that we learned to become quite well-acquainted with in the Hayden Fry era – the setting of a new trend.

 

[uihawk82]

I am not sure if you are doing your own Fry Top 25 but I suggest this string of games in 1979 for #24:

I listened to the OU game and it was closer than the score shows and the same with the Nebby game. Before Fry those games would have probably been 35 point losses. And then whipping ISU big time. This told a lot of fans that this was a different head coach and coaching staff and also Fry had made something like the quote after the OU game 'he would punch anyone in the face who was happy with that close loss"

• 
  
  at
  #3 Oklahoma
  Sep 15 (Sat)
  
  L, 6-21
  Norman, OK
  
  • Box Score (PDF)
  
  
• 
  
  vs
  #7 Nebraska
  Sep 22 (Sat)
  
  L, 21-24
  Iowa City, IA
  
  • Box Score (PDF)
  
  
• 
  
  vs
  Iowa State
  Sep 29 (Sat)
  
  W, 30-14
  Iowa City, IA

 

[HawkGold]

So many.

I'd have to say IU 1979. We all understood then that things were going to be different.

 

[uihawk82]

So many.

I'd have to say IU 1979. We all understood then that things were going to be different.

Then just put your IU game in front of the 3 I posted because they were all in a row. And that IU game was a roaring celebration in the first half.