Keeler: Iowa is an 8-4 Program

[Xerxes]

It is interesting when you look at Iowa's records that they've never finished with 8 wins. Yet I myself called them an 8-4 program. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?

I'll just say that they are a mid-tier B10 program that we can expect to finish 4-4 in B10 every year or very close. Only 3 seasons in which KF has finished with more than 5 B10 wins ('02, '04, '09) and 2 seasons in which they've finished with fewer than 3 wins in the B10 ('99 & '06).

Luckily for KF the fans in which he believes should know as little about the program as possible, donate money to the athletic department which pay his massive salary & fill Kinnick which gets them to better bowls than they maybe deserve according to the team's play on the field.

 

[trj]

The truth hurts sometimes. This is one of those times.

Paying a coach nearly 4 million a year for 8-4 and .500 conference records is a bitter pill to swallow.

Especially when a program like Wisconsin is basically the mirror image of Iowa except for they have 3 Rose Bowl wins. They pay their coach roughly 1/3 of Kirk's salary.

But I do agree with the closing part of the article the most. Letting KF go is playing with serious fire. Iowa could turn into a 3-9 program in a heartbeat.

Thats my biggest fear we become ISU with a larger fan base and a slightly larger budget.

 

[Ihawk209]

Thats my biggest fear we become ISU with a larger fan base and a slightly larger budget.

 

[whammer33024]

Our fans are ridiculous...bar none we have the CRAZIEST fans in the Big 10...wow.
Here is a comment from Keeler's article:
"So what you are saying is that Iowa football is a 8-4 program that if lucky might end up at 10-2 but 6-6 is ok. Are you serious???!!!! No matter how much us the fans, who btw put our money and time into this program, criticize and try to hold the leadership accountable, nothing’s ever going to change because the Hawkeyes are what they are and Ferentz is not going the make any changes so we should all forget about it. Iowa should be privileged to be even in the same conference as Ohio St? Is this what you are saying?!? Are you even an Iowa fan? This is something an Ohio St. fan would write!

This is exactly what is wrong with Iowa football and some of its fans – entrenched MEDIOCRACY. STOP IT NOW!!! The goal is to WIN the Big Ten title and go to the Rose Bowl EVERY YEAR! The goal is to WIN not play to loose. You have got to have a winning mentality in order to win. Just like the players are held accountable when they underperform, the coaches need to be held accountable for not doing what is expected from them especially when they are paid $3.675 mil. The Hawkeyes have been outcoached one too many times in the past and something needs to be done about it.

If you mr. Keeler have a problem with Tom Davis, you need to address him personaly by writing to him directly. Or you can start your own personal blog and write whatever crap you feel like writing. Your lack of objectivity is incredible."

Buddy, hate to break it to you...but you want to win big 10 titles every year? it's about the bros and the joes....and OSU..will ALWAYS have more talent at every position then we do...sure we might have a better starter....but OSU has guys at 3rd string that would be playing for us. The depth is what sets these programs apart...I agree whole heartedly with Keeler...In some sad, sick part of me...I almost want Barta to get rid of Ferentz or for Kirk to leave...and watch out football program tank through the floor like our bball program...it would show alot of people alot of things.

I feel like I agree spot on with what Keeler is saying....and the dolt that wrote that comment...keeler wasn't putting down Tom Davis....you moron. it's probably somebody from one of these boards.

you're saying we aren't iowa fans, yet you WANT the program to tank.

yup, you win. you're a better iowa fan than me who wants iowa to go undefeated every year. you sir, are the moron

 

[NeilDiamond]

I don't care for the excuses or the reasoning. I just know that when you are getting paid top dollar, you should perform at top dollar level. That absolutely did not happen this year, with this season ranking as the biggest waste of talent I have seen in all my years on mother earth. Further, the losses were more problematic due to the way they occurred, which included the Minny game where the team and coaches just did not care one bit and embarassed every person ever associated with the University of Iowa.

As far as I am concerned, if next year is a repeat performance with a similar lack of effort, KF can go sit on a beach somewhere and we can get someone hungary to win in IC at a quarter the price.

Al Davis got it right all those years ago: Just win baby.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

you're saying we aren't iowa fans, yet you WANT the program to tank.

yup, you win. you're a better iowa fan than me who wants iowa to go undefeated every year. you sir, are the moron

Agree totally. I read that comment about wanting KF to be fired and the program to fail just so some fans would be made to eat crow, and could only shake my head. I guess some people are just more hung up on proving that they are right, even if it means the program has to go down the drain.

 

[brett108]

I am a firm believer in you don't know what you got until its gone. Iowa has been rather unlucky when playing for a title, missing OSU in 02, losing Stanzi in 09. Everytime the media starts saying Kirk and staff has lost it, they end up contending. I have a comparison for this year. 1992. The 1992 squad might have been 8-4 had they played an easier schedule, instead, 3 non conference losses and they went. Arizona was tough, OSU and Wisconsin are top 7 teams and they lost to them by 4 points. Northwestern seems to be the Iowa albatross. Could have been worse, could have been better. That's the story of most Iowa teams.

You forgot the loss to Minnesota, which should not be excused.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Thats my biggest fear we become ISU with a larger fan base and a slightly larger budget.

Guess I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I thought Iowa actually had more like double the budget that ISU does. Whatever the numbers, I thought it was a significant difference.

There are no guarantees of course, but with those resources, I should think we could always at least be decent.

That said, if we pulled a Bob Bowlsby and fired KF to get to the "next level", I could easily see KF's successor being the next Steve Alford. I'm not sure we would really improve from where we are now if we fired Ferentz. Best to leave well enough alone sometimes.

 

[hawkfan2679]

In 12 years, we have had four 10+ win seasons and another 9-win season where the breaks went against us in the close games, and you could pretty much ignore the first three years because Kirk was still building the program.

Since 2002, here are our records:
11-2
10-3
10-2
7-5
6-7
6-6
9-4
11-2
7-5

You might say I'm cherry-picking the record, but that is 9 out of KF's 12 years as our coach. That's the majority of his time here at little Ole Iowa.

This year was a horrible disappointment. I know you won't always win the close games, but there is no excuse for not beating Minnesota and being at LEAST 8-4. And other than the "fat cat" years of the mid 2000's, we have been more of a 9-10 win program.

To those who say last year shouldn't have been 11-2... REALLY? Who did we luck out against other than MSU maybe? Ok, UNI.. But typically we win that game comfortably. I can't explain our subpar play at home last year, but that is not typical of us. We beat Wisconsin and PSU by double digits on the road, and had a great shot at OSU in the shoe. "Lucky" teams don't just do that. And let's not forget that one of our losses came out home against NW when our starting QB got hurt, and we had to rely on a QB who basically had never played. I just don't think that last year was quite as "lucky" as some people think.

Again, look at our record since Kirk got the program going. Lots of 9-10-11 win seasons in there.

To say we are no more than an 8-4 program and to just "deal with it", I think is selling the program short a little bit after the past decade. That doesn't mean we should just take it for granted though. This still is the best run of football we've had in a long time, if ever. But I think our ceiling is a little higher than just hoping for 8-4 every year.

You are cherry picking it quite a bit, IMO. Even in the years you referenced (from 2002 on) and considered our best decade ever, our average record is 8.6 - 4. But you are saying to ignore the building years, ignore the years when we were fat cats, and discount those close wins or losses because we usually play better. If you want to ignore or discount losses, you have to look similarly at the wins. With regard to last year, I don't know if I'd call MSU lucky, but that was a game that 8 or 9 times out of 10 we'd lose. UNI was a lucky win. The Indiana game last year...two questionable TD calls reversed in Iowa's favor, a once every couple of years pick 6 by Tyler Sash, and Indiana's secondary inexplicably forgetting how to play defense in the 4th quarter. We made some plays that game, but we had help.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

You are cherry picking it quite a bit, IMO. Even in the years you referenced (from 2002 on) and considered our best decade ever, our average record is 8.6 - 4. But you are saying to ignore the building years, ignore the years when we were fat cats, and discount those close wins or losses because we usually play better. If you want to ignore or discount losses, you have to look similarly at the wins. With regard to last year, I don't know if I'd call MSU lucky, but that was a game that 8 or 9 times out of 10 we'd lose. UNI was a lucky win. The Indiana game last year...two questionable TD calls reversed in Iowa's favor, a once every couple of years pick 6 by Tyler Sash, and Indiana's secondary inexplicably forgetting how to play defense in the 4th quarter. We made some plays that game, but we had help.

Ok, kinda forgot about the Indiana game last year. That was an odd one. Without the Sash pinball play, we may very well have lost that game.

I didn't quite say to ignore the "fat cat" years - they DO count. What I meant about those years is that, at present, I'm not quite sure if that stretch was an abberation where program just lost focus and took things for granted after the success of the previous few years, or if it was a valley that is just going to occur between some of the peaks. Guess the jury is still out on that. If we keeping winning 9-10+ games, then I will tend to believe 2006 & 07 were flukes. For now, I guess we can't really assume that, so you're right.

But I DO think the first couple of years you do have to take into consideration that Ferentz didn't quite inherit a stacked program. At least the first two years anyway. Agree?

 

[hawkfan2679]

Ok, kinda forgot about the Indiana game last year. That was an odd one. Without the Sash pinball play, we may very well have lost that game.

I didn't quite say to ignore the "fat cat" years - they DO count. What I meant about those years is that, at present, I'm not quite sure if that stretch was an abberation where program just lost focus and took things for granted after the success of the previous few years, or if it was a valley that is just going to occur between some of the peaks. Guess the jury is still out on that. If we keeping winning 9-10+ games, then I will tend to believe 2006 & 07 were flukes. For now, I guess we can't really assume that, so you're right.

But I DO think the first couple of years you do have to take into consideration that Ferentz didn't quite inherit a stacked program. At least the first two years anyway. Agree?

Absolutely...you could probably throw 2001 in there, as we had a decent record and won a bowl game that year. Got a little crazy with the ignore word...my bad. The intent was not to put words in your mouth.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Absolutely...you could probably throw 2001 in there, as we had a decent record and won a bowl game that year. Got a little crazy with the ignore word...my bad. The intent was not to put words in your mouth.

Not a problem, I wasn't real clear in my original post anyway, so definitely could have been misunderstood.

 

[hawkfan340]

'77, you are spot on about the idea of luck changing between last year and this year. It wasn't luck that got us to 11-2 and it wasn't luck that got us to 7-5. There was a very large difference in the player ability, player attitude, and coaching performance between the two years.

 

[Howler]

Dantonio came into a pretty prickly MSU situation and in his four years there he already boasts a 7-win, 9-win and a possible 12-win season. Two of those years he put his team in position to win a Big Ten title going in to the last week of the season.

With Iowa's stability and reputation over the last 30 years, we should be competing more frequently for Big Ten titles late in the season. Having four years of 6 and 7-win seasons long AFTER KF built his program is a little disappointing.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

this year should NOT have been 7-5 though.

I tend to agree with article..

I fully 100% agree with Olympia.. No way this should have bee a 7-5 season. Not even close!!

 

[okeefe4prez]

They really need to lower season ticket prices so they can actually sell them all....oh wait.

They sold all the season tickets in 2010. They will not sell them all next year. I guarantee you. Barta is laughing at all of us who are paying Cadillac prices for a Cavalier. Sure, Cadillac got away with it for awhile, but eventually the market realized the Cimarron was just a Cavalier with a Cadillac name plate. Now there's nothing wrong with a Cavalier, it was a damn fine car, but it wasn't worth the extra cash that it cost when they put a Cadillac hood ornament on it. That is Iowa football in a nutshell, Cadillac prices for a low end Chevy. Gets the job done and might surprise you every now and then, but it still ain't really a Caddy.

 

[goods10]

'77, you are spot on about the idea of luck changing between last year and this year. It wasn't luck that got us to 11-2 and it wasn't luck that got us to 7-5. There was a very large difference in the player ability, player attitude, and coaching performance between the two years.

The difference between last year and this year solely rests on execution. Obviously we ran the same offense with pretty much the same caliber of players. Last year we made the play. This year we didn't. It is pretty much that simple.

 

[GoHawks24]

The main issue that I have is for the amount that Kirk is paid the results just aren't there. The results are not to the level they should be considering the amount that he is paid. If he's a top-10 paid coach the results should reflect that consistenly. Not just once every 5 years.

 

[goods10]

They sold all the season tickets in 2010. They will not sell them all next year. I guarantee you. Barta is laughing at all of us who are paying Cadillac prices for a Cavalier. Sure, Cadillac got away with it for awhile, but eventually the market realized the Cimarron was just a Cavalier with a Cadillac name plate. Now there's nothing wrong with a Cavalier, it was a damn fine car, but it wasn't worth the extra cash that it cost when they put a Cadillac hood ornament on it. That is Iowa football in a nutshell, Cadillac prices for a low end Chevy. Gets the job done and might surprise you every now and then, but it still ain't really a Caddy.

LOL...I don't care who you are...This is funny.

 

[clicheusername3]

The difference between last year and this year solely rests on execution. Obviously we ran the same offense with pretty much the same caliber of players. Last year we made the play. This year we didn't. It is pretty much that simple.

Or we executed the same but the opponents got better and we didn't.