sportstalent
Well-Known Member
Honestly, I don't know how much more difficult it is to win at Cal than at Iowa. Yes you can talk about demographics, but Cal also has Stanford, UCLA and Stanford to compete with in their own state. Iowa is smack dab in the heart of the Midwest with a much less population base, but their situations aren't so different.As one poster said, good luck finding someone better, they won't. Success at Cal cannot be sustained and now that Stanford has resurrected itself, there is a much less chance for them to be good.Given the population base, Iowa has as many schools to compete with for players, but here is the thing, the best team they are competing with in their region is Nebraska...I am not counting ND beacuse Iowa and ND don't recruit many of the same kids anymore. The sad thing is that Iowa continues to lose in-state kids to places like Oregon and Michigan, now I cannot argue any kid going there, but Iowa used to lose top kids to Nebraska and seemingly nobody else and those were Western Iowa kids.Ferentz cannot recruit top athletes anymore, Tedford was able to snag some quality in-state players like DeSean Jackson, Marshwan Lynch and Justin Forsett, but he hasn't for well a while...the situations are eerily similar and I think Iowa should stand up and take notice.Ferentz has been a great coach at Iowa, but I don't know that any coach will ever have a true long lasting career, not named Hayden Fry and even his last few years were, well okay. Steve Spurrier said at the college level you shouldn't stay anywhere longer than 9 or 10 years, can't remember exactly, but look four years ago what people thought of Ferentz and how he is viewed a little differently today. I don't believe he will ever regain his luster at Iowa, he has been damaged too much by the debacle from a couple years ago. He can no longer do a lot right no matter what he does, in part, due to a spoiled fanbase with some unreal expectations year to year. Go to a BCS bowl and then complain they are not there the next year, cripes I would take one BCS appearance in the last decade from A&M and when they finally get there, if they go back great, if not as long as they are not an embarassment then fine.When fans aren't used to that level of success, expectations year in and year out become unreal...look at some of the basketball expectations, I am guilty, but I won't have a meltdown if it doesn't happen. When you take a look at history and you accept what your program is and look at how sustained successes haven't turned into true traditon of winning conference championships, expectations have to remain tempered. I think it is time for Ferentz to go and yeah, Iowa may find a bad coach, or a good one but one thing is for sure, don't ever buy into all the hype of a fanbase, unless you are a program that has the history to warrant it...guess what Iowa is only that kind of program in wrestling...I accept it for basktball...can the football fans accept it?
