I think Hawkeye message boards right now are a good example

I'd toss your opinion out, because you're never going to be happy. Good grief, you are splitting hairs about that stuff? I remember saying that if the day came that Iowa fans became like Nebska fans, I was gonna look for something else to do. We may be getting close ;)

Here is the thing I dont have to be happy. I dont root for Iowa football unless they are playing ISU...no secret there.Take for what you want, but tell me where that is wrong? Did Iowa play the 'other' team when they shared or not?

I respect what KF has done, but he has his faults. Their recruiting dropped off for a period and OL leaving early didn't help. I see a new direction in recruiting strategy by Iowa and it will show. Iowa's coaches can coach, but their recruiting was poor for about three years there and it really showed last year.
 
Many forget that Iowa is often less talented than many of its foes but somehow KF is able to find ways of winning. How do we find something "sexy" with Iowa football? Very tough to do. Although KF and his staff must be doing something right with technique and player development because we sure seem to be producing our share of NFL prospects. Granted I could care less about the NFL and I too want championship and bowl wins, but KF does more with less. Hence you you get some down years. I truly believe even with 10 win seasons we are not going to get a ton of blue chippers as recruits. Besides our our vanilla traditional style, we have to have that predictability to develop the talent we have. We cannot run these high speed spread offenses because we wiil never have the talent. Bret Biliema called Iowa "predictable". He is right, but execution will trump talent almost every time. IF we execute we will succeed. I think we are getting there. Part of that is executing from start to finish. We still have our flaws but KF idles more with less and graduates a great deal of student/athletes while running a pretty clean program. We have experienced more positive than negative during KF's era. Hayden left the cupboard bare. KF has done plenty to deserve keep his tenure going at Iowa. As far as I'm concerned if Meyer makes the field goal we win in regulation.
 
A little perspective on where Ferentz stands among other long carrier coaches in the Big Ten.

Conference records of some Big Ten long term coaches.
(since late 70’s)(Not from Michigan or Ohio State)

Bret Bielema 37-19 (7 years) 66% Wisconsin
Mark Dantonio 34-16 (6+ years) 65% Michigan State
Joe Paterno 95-54 (19 years) 64% Penn State
Hayden Fry 98-61-5 (20 years) 61% Iowa
Mike White 40-25-2 (8 years) 61% Illinois
Nick Sabin 35-24 (5 years) 59% Michigan State
George Perles 53-42-2 (12 years) 56% Michigan State
Joe Tiller 53-43 (12 years) 55% Purdue
Kirk Ferentz 60-54 (14+ years) 53% Iowa
Berry Alvarez 65-60 (16 years) 52% Wisconsin
John Gutekunst 29-36-2 (6 years) 45% Minnesota
Pat Fitzgerald 26-34 (7+ years) 43% Northwestern
Randy Walker 24-32 (7 years) 43% Northwestern
Glen Mason 32-48 (10 years) 40% Minnesota
Bill Mallory 28-52-2 (13 years) 35% Indiana


If Nebraska fired Bo Palini right now his conference record would be:
Bo Palini 14-5 (2+ years) 74% Nebraska
I’m all for it. Fire him immediately.

If any of the numbers are messed up blame me, I tabulated them from Wiki
 
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A little perspective on where Ferentz stands among other long carrier coaches in the Big Ten.

Conference records of some Big Ten long term coaches.
(since late 70’s)(Not from Michigan or Ohio State)

Bret Bielema 37-19 (7 years) 66% Wisconsin
Mark Dantonio 34-16 (7 years) 65% Michigan State
Joe Paterno 95-54 (19 years) 64% Penn State
Hayden Fry 98-61-5 (20 years) 61% Iowa
Mike White 40-25-2 (8 years) 61% Illinois
Nick Sabin 35-24 (5 years) 59% Michigan State
George Perles 53-42-2 (12 years) 56% Michigan State
Joe Tiller 53-43 (12 years) 55% Purdue
Kirk Ferentz 60-54 (15 years) 53% Iowa
Berry Alvarez 65-60 (16 years) 52% Wisconsin
John Gutekunst 29-36-2 (6 years) 45% Minnesota
Pat Fitzgerald 26-34 (8 years) 43% Northwestern
Randy Walker 24-32 (7 years) 43% Northwestern
Glen Mason 32-48 (10 years) 40% Minnesota
Bill Mallory 28-52-2 (13 years) 35% Indiana


If Nebraska fired Bo Palini right now his conference record would be:
Bo Palini 14-5 (2+ years) 74% Nebraska
I’m all for it. Fire him immediately.

If any of the numbers are messed up blame me, I tabulated them from Wiki

Stats are great. I see KF and Alvarez are similar with tenure and W-L record. Ironic many want KF's job while Alvarez basically is treated as a legend and promoted at Wisky. I believe Barry had his share of Rose Bowls and conference championships.
 
Stats are great. I see KF and Alvarez are similar with tenure and W-L record. Ironic many want KF's job while Alvarez basically is treated as a legend and promoted at Wisky. I believe Barry had his share of Rose Bowls and conference championships.

Alvarez took a program that hadn't done anything since the mid-fifties and turned it around. Ferentz took a program that had a winning history but had fallen apart during Hayden Fry's last years and turned it back into a winning program. I would have to give the nod to Alvarez. Both teams had their dry years and both have similar recruiting challenges.
 
Bielema & Sabin got handed viable football teams. Not to take anything away from them but they never had to rebuild a program from the ground up.
 
Bielema & Sabin got handed viable football teams. Not to take anything away from them but they never had to rebuild a program from the ground up.

Bielema will see challenges rebuilding at Arkansas. I agree Alvarez handed him a loaded program. Sabin, also was handed a fairly well-stocked program. He cashed in and we will see over the long haul if he can produce continually at Bama. What helps Saban is a traditIon rich program and etc. While we disagree with our views on KF, I won't disagree with times I have been frustrated with times and even a season or two but my loyalty goes with KF (just as his loyalty has been with Iowa).
 
Bielema will see challenges rebuilding at Arkansas. I agree Alvarez handed him a loaded program. Sabin, also was handed a fairly well-stocked program. He cashed in and we will see over the long haul if he can produce continually at Bama. What helps Saban is a traditIon rich program and etc. While we disagree with our views on KF, I won't disagree with times I have been frustrated with times and even a season or two but my loyalty goes with KF (just as his loyalty has been with Iowa).

I actually think Ferentz still has more going for him than against him. That being said, watching the bad parts over a number of seasons is a bit like watching a serialized horror flick. You always get this “I’ve seen this movie before” feeling. You know all the plot elements before they happen.

On the other hand, seeing Iowa play up to a good team they have no business beating, is another characteristic of Ferentz teams. It just hasn’t happened in a while.
 
Bielema & Sabin got handed viable football teams. Not to take anything away from them but they never had to rebuild a program from the ground up.

Saban inherited a sleeping giant. But Alabama had won 10 games just twice since the turn of the century when he took over. They were 46-40 (without taking vacations into account) from 2000-2007. Let's not pretend he was taking over one of the nation's elite programs at the time he signed on.
 
Alvarez coached for 16 years at Wisconsin; excluding his first three seasons (11-22) when he took over quite possibly the worst BCS conference team in the country, he won fewer than 8 games just four times. Ferentz has done that five times in the last 11 seasons (throwing out his first three just like I did for Alvarez) and could do it a sixth time this season. Alvarez also only had back-to-back sub-par seasons once (94-95); Ferentz has had three in a row (2005-2007) and is coming off back-to-back this year.

But the bottom line is that Alvarez won three Rose Bowls. That will earn you legend status at almost any B1G or Pac-12 university.
 
The most annoying part about this message board (only one I visit) is that people ride way too much on emotion - the sky is falling and the program is going under when the Hawks lose, and it's the beginning of a return to glory when the Hawks win. Learn to roll with the ups and downs. They're going to happen, we just hope the downs are shorter and the ups are extended.

It's blatantly obvious Iowa is a much better team than it was a year ago, and I believe the coaching additions with some young blood (Brian Ferentz, Levar Woods, David Hernandez) have been positive.

There's also some visible upside on this team with young guys playing all over the field (Spearman even got a chance and showed some flashes today). I definitely have some frustrations, such as the offense's complete schizophrenia from the first quarter to the final three today, the lack of actual pressure we put on teams BOTH offensively and defensively, and today's end-of-game mismanagement where the Hawks basically killed the clock and ended up not even giving themselves a chance to win in regulation because they began killing it without being in field goal range. But, there is definitely signs of progress from this team.

Originally posted by imported_ankle23
... and many of these teams have more talent than does iowa (year in-year out).
This sort of cuts to the heart of my main issue with the Iowa program. I preface my comment by admitting that I understand Iowa will never reel in 4- and 5-star recruits on a consistent basis. But, in the year 2013, with a completely unbiased view, can we look at the Iowa Hawkeyes and say we have ANYONE on this team aside from Damon Powell (who plays 5 snaps a game) who is a threat to take it the distance any time they touch the ball?

Iowa has no explosion. None. Barely a threat of explosion.

And, I simply don't buy the 4- and 5-star argument nor the typical recruiting disadvantages argument in this case. There are plenty of explosive players who aren't in the Top 150 coming out of high school. We simply don't have explosive offensive threats who strike fear into opposing defenses. Wisconsin has at least three in their backfield. Northwestern has a couple. Northern Illinois has them. Would any of our WR start, or even play, for Indiana? Heck, even Iowa State has the Bundrage kid, who would be better than anything the Hawks have.

Teams in the same area of the country have these types of players, why don't we have any in black and gold?

And lastly ...
Originally posted by hwks1
$3.9 million breeds much contempt too
Get over it.

What are you gonna do when Fran McCaffery leaves for greener pastures because Iowa won't pony up multi-millions over a lengthy deal? You'll cry and complain.

You can't have it both ways.
 
Many forget that Iowa is often less talented than many of its foes but somehow KF is able to find ways of winning. How do we find something "sexy" with Iowa football? Very tough to do. Although KF and his staff must be doing something right with technique and player development because we sure seem to be producing our share of NFL prospects. Granted I could care less about the NFL and I too want championship and bowl wins, but KF does more with less. Hence you you get some down years. I truly believe even with 10 win seasons we are not going to get a ton of blue chippers as recruits. Besides our our vanilla traditional style, we have to have that predictability to develop the talent we have. We cannot run these high speed spread offenses because we wiil never have the talent. Bret Biliema called Iowa "predictable". He is right, but execution will trump talent almost every time. IF we execute we will succeed. I think we are getting there. Part of that is executing from start to finish. We still have our flaws but KF idles more with less and graduates a great deal of student/athletes while running a pretty clean program. We have experienced more positive than negative during KF's era. Hayden left the cupboard bare. KF has done plenty to deserve keep his tenure going at Iowa. As far as I'm concerned if Meyer makes the field goal we win in regulation.
Was that all one paragraph? TL:DR
 
The most annoying part about this message board (only one I visit) is that people ride way too much on emotion - the sky is falling and the program is going under when the Hawks lose, and it's the beginning of a return to glory when the Hawks win. Learn to roll with the ups and downs. They're going to happen, we just hope the downs are shorter and the ups are extended.

It's blatantly obvious Iowa is a much better team than it was a year ago, and I believe the coaching additions with some young blood (Brian Ferentz, Levar Woods, David Hernandez) have been positive.

There's also some visible upside on this team with young guys playing all over the field (Spearman even got a chance and showed some flashes today). I definitely have some frustrations, such as the offense's complete schizophrenia from the first quarter to the final three today, the lack of actual pressure we put on teams BOTH offensively and defensively, and today's end-of-game mismanagement where the Hawks basically killed the clock and ended up not even giving themselves a chance to win in regulation because they began killing it without being in field goal range. But, there is definitely signs of progress from this team.


This sort of cuts to the heart of my main issue with the Iowa program. I preface my comment by admitting that I understand Iowa will never reel in 4- and 5-star recruits on a consistent basis. But, in the year 2013, with a completely unbiased view, can we look at the Iowa Hawkeyes and say we have ANYONE on this team aside from Damon Powell (who plays 5 snaps a game) who is a threat to take it the distance any time they touch the ball?

Iowa has no explosion. None. Barely a threat of explosion.

And, I simply don't buy the 4- and 5-star argument nor the typical recruiting disadvantages argument in this case. There are plenty of explosive players who aren't in the Top 150 coming out of high school. We simply don't have explosive offensive threats who strike fear into opposing defenses. Wisconsin has at least three in their backfield. Northwestern has a couple. Northern Illinois has them. Would any of our WR start, or even play, for Indiana? Heck, even Iowa State has the Bundrage kid, who would be better than anything the Hawks have.

Teams in the same area of the country have these types of players, why don't we have any in black and gold?

And lastly ...

Get over it.

What are you gonna do when Fran McCaffery leaves for greener pastures because Iowa won't pony up multi-millions over a lengthy deal? You'll cry and complain.

You can't have it both ways.

All i can say is, AGREED. Good post.
 
It's not just this year. I've presided over 110+ post game call in shows in the KF era, and message boards since his hiring, and over 1,000 days of sports talk radio. I can say without flinching that the relationship changed forever in 2007...but that everyone got back together later that year and the next year and a half for a football version of a booty call and then 2010 happened....exactly when his contract extension happened.

I'm not saying that last year is acceptable, because its not. I am not saying I don't get frustrated with the offense, because I do. I've written that the program smells like Aqua Velva at times, or that the offense reminds me of MASH; it was fun to watch for a while but now it just feels old and tired.

However, there is a breed of fan right now who is just embarrassing and borderline psychotic with their critiques...and the familiarity with KF is a big part of it.

That said, there isa breed of moron fan right now that is downright scary, and they are going after nebraska WR Kenny Bell on twitter...just horrible.

This is the age we live in with instant social media. I live in South America and it is the same here. People have their cells glued to their ears, contant texting nonsense, FB crap. It is not just this message board. Read some Yahoo boards. The format of anonymous posters breeds contempt. People can say anything they want without retribution.
 
This 'style' is the same or similar style that led to two 11 win seasons, three straight top 8 seasons and four end of year top 10 rankings during the KF era, more than any coach in Iowa history.

I think Kirk is in a bit of trouble and there are some things that have made me weary, but I'm staying away from the crazy juice.



The only thing not popular with the fan base is not winning 10 games.

Evy coached at Iowa 9 years and finished in the top 10 of the AP poll 5 times
 
The only thing not popular with the fan base is not winning 10 games.

I don't see how that's true. The team way underachieved in 2010. Only won 7 games with a weak schedule in 2011 and we're awful last year. When you add to that some losses to bad teams that's why people have turned sour. Not because we aren't winning 10 games a year.
 
This 'style' is the same or similar style that led to two 11 win seasons, three straight top 8 seasons and four end of year top 10 rankings during the KF era, more than any coach in Iowa history.

I think Kirk is in a bit of trouble and there are some things that have made me weary, but I'm staying away from the crazy juice.

The only thing not popular with the fan base is not winning 10 games.

The basketball comparison should be made to Bo Ryan if at all
 
It's not just this year. I've presided over 110+ post game call in shows in the KF era, and message boards since his hiring, and over 1,000 days of sports talk radio. I can say without flinching that the relationship changed forever in 2007...but that everyone got back together later that year and the next year and a half for a football version of a booty call and then 2010 happened....exactly when his contract extension happened.

I'm not saying that last year is acceptable, because its not. I am not saying I don't get frustrated with the offense, because I do. I've written that the program smells like Aqua Velva at times, or that the offense reminds me of MASH; it was fun to watch for a while but now it just feels old and tired.

However, there is a breed of fan right now who is just embarrassing and borderline psychotic with their critiques...and the familiarity with KF is a big part of it.

That said, there isa breed of moron fan right now that is downright scary, and they are going after nebraska WR Kenny Bell on twitter...just horrible.

That breed of moron fan has been around longer than you or I.....twitter just wasnt around in 1902..
 

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