How the West looks going into full conference play

[rschneider]

A lot of good points in here. If you take away the goal of achieving conference championships, Iowa football has been rather enjoyable over Kirk's tenure.

 

[Grady]

Prior to the start of the season I picked the West with two teams finishing at 6-3, and two teams at 5-4 -- four teams within 1 game of each other at the top of the Division, just like last season. The four teams are Purdue, Wisconsin, MN, and the Hawks. I'll stick with that outlook.

 

[NCHawker]

complementary football suggests that the offense will help the defense and visa versa . This year I'm concerned the O won't stay on the field long enough ... and the D will suffer and ...well we won't have complementary football

 

[trj]

It would be just like Iowa to be a streak buster. Rutgers has lost 19 B1G games at home in a row

^^^ Is this real? 19 in a row? You can picture it now, 40,000 people in the stands, a cloudy/dreary day, Stevens misses a field goal late...Iowa loses 17-16.

 

[trj]

I want to zig when everyone is zagging, but I can't do it. The o-line can't compensate for Petras and Petras can't compensate for the o-line. Translation: 7-5/6-6. It feels like a Iowa v. South Carolina, Music City bowl to me.

 

[HawksMN]

You know its a dog crap season in the ol West when MN is the class of the division?!?!

 

[BigD]

I want to zig when everyone is zagging, but I can't do it. The o-line can't compensate for Petras and Petras can't compensate for the o-line. Translation: 7-5/6-6. It feels like a Iowa v. South Carolina, Music City bowl to me.

I agree

 

[BigD]

A lot of good points in here. If you take away the goal of achieving conference championships, Iowa football has been rather enjoyable over Kirk's tenure.

Wow…………. that is about all I can say on this comment.

 

[guffus]

Not really.

If you look at his entire career (23 seasons of B1G play, including his initial 0-8), his average is 4.8 - 3.5 (win% of 57.9%, slightly better than the 55.6% that 5-4 reflects).

If you look at the last decade, his average is 5.3 - 3.3 (61.6%).

If you look at the last 7 years (the most favorable because it includes the 8-0 from 2015), his average is 6 - 2.9 (67.7%).

If you look at the most recent 5 years, his average is 5.6 - 3.4 (62.2%).

If you look at the last 3 years, his average is 6.3 - 2.7 (70.4%).

There is no reasonable way to slice his career to reflect his recent or overall performance that results in a conference win% equivalent to 5-4.

You might quibble that his last decade win% (62%) is not distinguishable from your claim (56%). Basically, that is one extra conference win every 2 years. I would argue that it does matter over time, but concede that it is not enough to jump us from above-average to great. And I would also add that the most recent history (last 3 seasons) are substantially better.

It's a subtle difference.

Maybe it's better to say Kirk's overall average is closer to 5.5-3.5, but with the last 5 years the average moves closer to 6-3.

Overall the end result is a bunch of 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishes with an occasional division championship about every 6 years, usually winning the division in years where Iowa does not play OSU, Mich and MSU in the regular season.

It's not horrible. It's actually pretty decent It's enough for Kirk to keep his job for 24 years.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

The reason KF has kept his job so long is that he consistently wins, but he also is getting better. The best stretch in Iowa history was 2002-2004. But, it was three years. Since, 2015, KF has enjoyed a sustained level of success that is unparallelled in modern Iowa football history. KF was less than a yard away from a conference title and playoff birth i 2015. He rose as high as 2 in the nation last season and won ten games and the West again. Iowa has been in contention for the West pretty much every year during that span. Recruiting rankings have risen. NFL success and drafts have gotten even better. Its not exciting, but there is no question that Iowa is a successful football program right now.

The ink is not dry on this season. Iowa's offense was very bad last year and we still won 10 games. That could absolutely happen again. More likely to me that Iowa wins 7 or 8, but that's why they play the games.

Could this season be the beginning of the end for KF? Sure. Every game left on the schedule is losable. But, it is way to early to throw dirt on KF now. His winning percentage of late speaks for itself.