Is Iowa's best football this season yet to come?

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
I do not think the defense can play much better, but starting to see some signs on offense:

1. Offensive line is getting more experience.
2. Our wide receivers as a group seem more dangerous to me, including Bruce and Johnson
3. Petras continues to make clutch throws when he has time.
4. Lachey is becoming a dangerous second option at TE.

Of course, we need to stay away from the injury bug.

What say you??
 
It will be a good year. 6-6 is now the absolute floor and I'd say 7-5 is probably where we can reasonably expect to wind up, as I just don't see us beating both Illinois and Northwestern. But let's assume we do pull that off and that we can beat Minnesota, that would put us at 9-3. A great year for sure.

If I had to predict games at this point, I'd say:

Purdue beats us 24-23
Wisconsin beats us 23-19
Nebraska beats us 24-19

The rest of the games are probably pushes and will come down to luck and momentum.

I think Shudak will have a great second half of the season, but that the red zone offense will cost us at least 3 games.
 
okeefe4prez said:
It will be a good year. 6-6 is now the absolute floor and I'd say 7-5 is probably where we can reasonably expect to wind up, as I just don't see us beating both Illinois and Northwestern. But let's assume we do pull that off and that we can beat Minnesota, that would put us at 9-3. A great year for sure.

If I had to predict games at this point, I'd say:

Purdue beats us 24-23
Wisconsin beats us 23-19
Nebraska beats us 24-19

The rest of the games are probably pushes and will come down to luck and momentum.

I think Shudak will have a great second half of the season, but that the red zone offense will cost us at least 3 games.
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well - if the past is any indication - we usually get better as the year goes on- ya - defense- can't expect more than what they are at - but if the O-line gets to their potential...
 
Defense will probably regress to the mean a bit. I mean shit, that squad is playing over its head right now given a DL that lacks any bona fide stud.

Offense will continue to get incrementally better, but has a ceiling given the QB and OC.

Special teams will continue to be special.

We have been fortunate with respect to breaks and injuries. Hopefully the football gods choose to even those things out after this season.

We will know after the Wisconsin game. If we just maintain what we are doing now, we win that game, but its close. If we take a step forward and play like we did against Maryland, we can beat a one-sided Wisky team by a double digits in Camp Randal. But, if the gods turn against us, that is a highly loseable game.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Defense will probably regress to the mean a bit. I mean shit, that squad is playing over its head right now given a DL that lacks any bona fide stud.

Offense will continue to get incrementally better, but has a ceiling given the QB and OC.

Special teams will continue to be special.

We have been fortunate with respect to breaks and injuries. Hopefully the football gods choose to even those things out after this season.

We will know after the Wisconsin game. If we just maintain what we are doing now, we win that game, but its close. If we take a step forward and play like we did against Maryland, we can beat a one-sided Wisky team by a double digits in Camp Randal. But, if the gods turn against us, that is a highly loseable game.
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The DL lacks a stud, but it also goes two deep of legitimately solid Big Ten caliber players. Two decades of Phil watching Wisconsin lean all over the line and deplete them by the fourth quarter and watching Northwestern run some modified tempo out of their spread and then seeing Persa get 9 seconds in the pocket because his linemen were dead has changed Phil and it might be the most unsung aspect of Iowa's defense. This unit goes 2 deep at every critical position that has guys get worn down and there's no freaking dropoff. It's insane.

That's why when you look at my predictions above I say that the defense stays stout and I think some of those scores will be set up by the offense, but our red zone offense is so horrendous I just don't see how we can wind up better than 3-3 in divisional play. Our division has some tough competition and as the weather gets bad salty teams like Nebraska and Wisconsin are going to get tougher to beat.
 
okeefe4prez said:
It will be a good year. 6-6 is now the absolute floor and I'd say 7-5 is probably where we can reasonably expect to wind up, as I just don't see us beating both Illinois and Northwestern. But let's assume we do pull that off and that we can beat Minnesota, that would put us at 9-3. A great year for sure.

If I had to predict games at this point, I'd say:

Purdue beats us 24-23
Wisconsin beats us 23-19
Nebraska beats us 24-19

The rest of the games are probably pushes and will come down to luck and momentum.

I think Shudak will have a great second half of the season, but that the red zone offense will cost us at least 3 games.
Click to expand...

Don't rule out the possibility that one of our 6 wins gets taken away due to Clifford's injury. I know that is not typically how things are done, but we can all agree PSU would have beat us by 50 without the injury, so it seems like the only fair thing to do would be to give that W to them.

We might also have to vacate earlier wins due to shenanigans of one type or the other.

All I'm saying is that an 0-12 season is still in play.
 
okeefe4prez said:
The DL lacks a stud, but it also goes two deep of legitimately solid Big Ten caliber players. Two decades of Phil watching Wisconsin lean all over the line and deplete them by the fourth quarter and watching Northwestern run some modified tempo out of their spread and then seeing Persa get 9 seconds in the pocket because his linemen were dead has changed Phil and it might be the most unsung aspect of Iowa's defense. This unit goes 2 deep at every critical position that has guys get worn down and there's no freaking dropoff. It's insane.

That's why when you look at my predictions above I say that the defense stays stout and I think some of those scores will be set up by the offense, but our red zone offense is so horrendous I just don't see how we can wind up better than 3-3 in divisional play. Our division has some tough competition and as the weather gets bad salty teams like Nebraska and Wisconsin are going to get tougher to beat.
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Looks like more KFC for me.
 
CP87 said:
Don't rule out the possibility that one of our 6 wins gets taken away due to Clifford's injury. I know that is not typically how things are done, but we can all agree PSU would have beat us by 50 without the injury, so it seems like the only fair thing to do would be to give that W to them.

We might also have to vacate earlier wins due to shenanigans of one type or the other.

All I'm saying is that an 0-12 season is still in play.
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I found myself glancing back at your username as I worked my way through that first paragraph, felt my brain turning to molasses. Good work.
 
ChosenChildren said:
I do not think the defense can play much better, but starting to see some signs on offense:

1. Offensive line is getting more experience.
2. Our wide receivers as a group seem more dangerous to me, including Bruce and Johnson
3. Petras continues to make clutch throws when he has time.
4. Lachey is becoming a dangerous second option at TE.

Of course, we need to stay away from the injury bug.

What say you??
Click to expand...
I agree. I would add that we may well have more explosive players given the number of chunk plays we have achieved. I rather enjoy our tendency to look pretty pedestrian and then suddenly explode into a big play.
 
CP87 said:
Don't rule out the possibility that one of our 6 wins gets taken away due to Clifford's injury. I know that is not typically how things are done, but we can all agree PSU would have beat us by 50 without the injury, so it seems like the only fair thing to do would be to give that W to them.

We might also have to vacate earlier wins due to shenanigans of one type or the other.

All I'm saying is that an 0-12 season is still in play.
Click to expand...

As a theoretical matter, 0-15 is technically still in play. I had forgotten about the potential of vacated wins. Thank you for bringing some insight.

I want to change my score prediction against Purdue. I think we will score 19 against them. I think the offense will put up 19 in three different games down the stretch here.
 
okeefe4prez said:
It will be a good year. 6-6 is now the absolute floor and I'd say 7-5 is probably where we can reasonably expect to wind up, as I just don't see us beating both Illinois and Northwestern. But let's assume we do pull that off and that we can beat Minnesota, that would put us at 9-3. A great year for sure.

If I had to predict games at this point, I'd say:

Purdue beats us 24-23
Wisconsin beats us 23-19
Nebraska beats us 24-19

The rest of the games are probably pushes and will come down to luck and momentum.

I think Shudak will have a great second half of the season, but that the red zone offense will cost us at least 3 games.
Click to expand...
This post is below pessimism... 7-5?? The reason we lose games in the middle of the year to Purdue and NW is because we usually play them with a schedule of 4-2 or something like that. Momentum is real and 9/10 wins is the floor. Every home game will be rocking and a sellout and a half hearted team wont stand a chance.

NW will have already thrown in the towel when Rutgers beats them followed by a blowout loss to Michigan.

Wisconsin wont be easy, but we are a better team and will eat their QB alive like we did to Roberson.

Nebraska is our only real worry and if we go into Lincoln undefeated we aren't taking an L.

I bet you've already cancelled Christmas in 2022 due to Covid.. Have some optimism, man.
 
FloridaHawks said:
This post is below pessimism... 7-5?? The reason we lose games in the middle of the year to Purdue and NW is because we usually play them with a schedule of 4-2 or something like that. Momentum is real and 9/10 wins is the floor. Every home game will be rocking and a sellout and a half hearted team wont stand a chance.

NW will have already thrown in the towel when Rutgers beats them followed by a blowout loss to Michigan.

Wisconsin wont be easy, but we are a better team and will eat their QB alive like we did to Roberson.

Nebraska is our only real worry and if we go into Lincoln undefeated we aren't taking an L.

I bet you've already cancelled Christmas in 2022 due to Covid.. Have some optimism, man.
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Momentum has been debunked as a myth. Brohm, Fitzgerald, and Chryst all have KF's number. I would consider 9-3 the ceiling from here on out.
 
CP87 said:
Momentum has been debunked as a myth. Brohm, Fitzgerald, and Chryst all have KF's number. I would consider 9-3 the ceiling from here on out.
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Anything over 9 and I'm celebrating. This team has yet to play a divisional game and everyone is talking like it is unbeatable. I'm terrified.
 
I have a twin brother and spent 18 years playing one on one basketball in the backyard and can confidently say momentum is not a myth. I've debunked the debunker.
 
ChosenChildren said:
I do not think the defense can play much better, but starting to see some signs on offense:

1. Offensive line is getting more experience.
2. Our wide receivers as a group seem more dangerous to me, including Bruce and Johnson
3. Petras continues to make clutch throws when he has time.
4. Lachey is becoming a dangerous second option at TE.

Of course, we need to stay away from the injury bug.

What say you??
Click to expand...
Agree to all, biggest concern is running game. That has to get back on track. Like to see Williams get more reps. Pass protection is so much better now.
 
okeefe4prez said:
It will be a good year. 6-6 is now the absolute floor and I'd say 7-5 is probably where we can reasonably expect to wind up, as I just don't see us beating both Illinois and Northwestern. But let's assume we do pull that off and that we can beat Minnesota, that would put us at 9-3. A great year for sure.

If I had to predict games at this point, I'd say:

Purdue beats us 24-23
Wisconsin beats us 23-19
Nebraska beats us 24-19

The rest of the games are probably pushes and will come down to luck and momentum.

I think Shudak will have a great second half of the season, but that the red zone offense will cost us at least 3 games.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry for thinking our offense could muster this many points against Purdue.
 
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