Kirk Ferentz v Hayden Fry: Their Teams Who Made the Top 10

[ColumbusHawk]

Hayden inherited 19 straight non-winning seasons.

But Hayden inherited a pretty solid nucleus of talent. Just look at what Hayden did without Bernie. The talent fell off the table.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

You're correct that the landscape has changed. Much more parity in college football for KF than there was for HF.

The blue bloods of college football had many more advantages before the year 2000 or so.

They'll both go down as 2 of the best coaches Iowa has had. I was an Iowa fan as a kid before HF took over. Those were dark days. He'll always be my favorite over KF due to that fact.

They've both been 2 of the classiest coaches the game of football has seen, that cannot be disputed at this moment.

Fry definitely gets the credit for breaking the stranglehold The Big 2 had on The Big 10. He made the program relevant again. And while it's fair to argue the cupboard was bare when KF arrived, the "rebuild" for KF was really more a "retool" in terms of renewing the confidence factor.

But KF needs to be credited, as well, for refining the image of Iowa to not "needing" blue blood in the program to play like one.

Without HF there--literally--is no KF. It's that simple.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Hayden finished 10th in both '85 & '91. Also, the Hawks didn't win a bowl game either year.

They at least tied in 1991. A Leroy Smith injury pretty much kept that game from being a win.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

But Hayden inherited a pretty solid nucleus of talent. Just look at what Hayden did without Bernie. The talent fell off the table.

Hayden lost a lot more than Bernie. By the time he retired, 3/4 of his staff were coaching other teams, usually in bowl games. And the talent didn't exactly fall off the table. Dwight, Banks, Sherman, et. al., came after Bernie. But they also came after several others had gone, too.