A few definitions to clear up the mire...
Hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
Predict: say or estimate that (a specified thing) will happen in the future or will be a consequence of something.
We hope to play for an NC every year. I think we can safely say KF does, too. If you think any differently then you do not at all understand the mentality that ALL coaches at D1 and D2 schools have. Here is where you can argue things rationally in terms of hope - Is KF the right coach to give you a chance to realize (read: expect) this hope once in a generation? Semi-regularly? Regularly? Is BF the right OC to realize these hopes? Do we have the players/talent/experience on this roster currently to realize this hope? The answers to these questions would then feed into our expectations, but would not change our hopes. Jon did not speak to hopes in his podcast, therefore I think we can safely say that, at minimum, we do not know that he hopes for 6-6. Also, a hope is a feeling, not a statement of fact.
Now, we get to predictions. These are estimations of a specific nature for what will happen in the future given current conditions. Jon was predicting 6-6, not hoping for 6-6. He even went through an entire spiel about what it would take for Iowa to still win a B1G championship. Sounds like he wants, hopes for, desires better than 6-6. We all do.
There are ~130 teams currently playing for a D1 national championship. Using the most liberal definition of a national championship (including ties and different poll results as individual champions) only 44 different schools have EVER won a D1 (or D1 equivalent) national championship since 1869. And seven of those schools are not even FBS teams any longer (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Penn, Chicago, Lafayette) This means that of the 130 teams, only 38 have ever won a championship. Iowa is one of those 38. Iowa is one of only 6 Big Ten teams to ever win a national championship (while in the Big Ten, so PSU would not count, but Chicago does) Since 1999 when Kirk Ferentz took over, only 11 different teams have one a national championship. 11 out of 130. Those schools? Alabama (4), Auburn (1), Ohio State (2), Texas (1), USC (2), LSU (2), Clemson (1), Florida (2), Florida State (2), Oklahoma (1), Miami (1). Only 2 schools and three champions since 1999 have come from north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Four schools and 9 champions from the SEC alone. Random odds that a B1G school wins a championship since 1999, given B1G success = 11.1%. Odds that any one team in the nation wins a championship since 1999, given purely random selection = 14.8%. And yet you want us to EXPECT to win an NC or compete for one every year when even given the best odds possible (random selection) are only 14.8% that we could have won even ONE under KF. Oh wait... we were inches away from playing for an NC in 2015.
So this is very long-winded, so here's the TLDR, the take home point:
We're better off the last 19 years than most schools in the nation. Let's take a minute to readjust our expectations and differentiate them from our hopes. We all hope for the best, but at least we don't have to expect the worst (Kansas).