I'm not an anti-Fran person at all, but to me there's not really a debate to be had that Fran slides at the end of the year way more often than not. Splitting the conference schedule right down the middle his teams are .607 first half, and .413 second half since 2016. The tier doesn't really matter because everyone in our conference is playing the same pool of teams.
Where I find the rub is when people use the excuse that he slides because the season gets more difficult with wear and tear, injuries, etc, and that it's expected to lose ballgames for that reason. Well, for every team that goes .400 on the back half there's a team that goes .600. I get that stats is difficult for people to grasp and I am by no means anything resembling Albert Einstein, but unless everyone is at .500 there are an equal number of teams that underperform in the 2nd half & and equal number that overperform. Iowa is clearly in the former. It's math and I don't know how the hell people can't figure it out.
At the end of the day should Fran get fired? Jesus Christ no...
This is the most highly rated team we've had at this point in the season since the Korean War, but a bunch of folks here want to be Nebraska 2.0 and fire Fran if he doesn't make the S16. Do you idiots even know how to tie your shoes or use a fork?