Let's rally around our beloved coach, Kirk Ferentz!

Nobody quesitons what Kirk has done in the past. We all know he is a great person, has brought us lots of furtune on the field ... What is concerning is this is not year number 1 of a slide inthe wrong direction. This is year number 3. There is reason to be concerned. We are all Hawk fans. Tired of references to "true" fans versus bandwagon, etc. Fans should be frustrated. All fans. Fans should wonder where we are headed. Consider the fact we that even with Clayborn, Angerer, etc., we struggled. That team was loaded and we mustered 7 wins. It is not a case of us just being a young team this year.

Sorry but next year is not going to be much better. Purdue, MSU, Michigan, Nebby, etc., are in better positions than Iowa. Our schedule next year will be much tougher than this year. This was our year to get at least 7 or 8 wins with a very weak schedule. Instead, we lose to a very bad MAC team at home.

I have had season tickets for 8 years ... Been a die-hard for 32 years... Honestly, I am not so quick to say 'yeah, I want to re-up my tickets and spend all of the money and time to watch make the trek to IC to watch a very average product.' That is human nature. Who wants to spend money on a bad movie? Look at Iowa basketball under Lick ... Fans simply stopped coming. Does not mean they are not "fans" because they simply chose to use their extra funds for something else. Tell me, how fun is it to watch your team in person lose to the #116-ranked team in the country?


For the fans who just keep saying ... be patient ... we will get the ship pointed in the right direction -- well, how do you know that? Three years of mediocre football -- even with talent-laden teams ... Why will next year be any better? Next year the excuse will be we have a young qb ... or young dbacks ... etc. Sorry but the state of the program is all on Kirk's shoulders. He recruited the guys who left ... I think Kirk got a little too comfortable in his bubble ... And now it is showing ... Other programs are passing us by ... including Iowa State ... I guess I don't have it in me to just say 'Golly, let's rally behind Kirk ... etc.' We forget ... Kirk gets an awful lot of money ... to produce a very average product. That's what we are now - an average football program. If you are fine with average and want to ignore the trend and continue to buy your season tickets and continue to watch us lose to the Paul Rhoads and Pat Fitzgeralds of the world ... then more power to you ...
 
GhostofBTT said:
kinnickbob_zpse9de8e10.jpg
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Baghdad bob! A true hawk fan.
 
DesMoinesHawki said:
Nobody quesitons what Kirk has done in the past. We all know he is a great person, has brought us lots of furtune on the field ... What is concerning is this is not year number 1 of a slide inthe wrong direction. This is year number 3. There is reason to be concerned. We are all Hawk fans. Tired of references to "true" fans versus bandwagon, etc. Fans should be frustrated. All fans. Fans should wonder where we are headed. Consider the fact we that even with Clayborn, Angerer, etc., we struggled. That team was loaded and we mustered 7 wins. It is not a case of us just being a young team this year.

Sorry but next year is not going to be much better. Purdue, MSU, Michigan, Nebby, etc., are in better positions than Iowa. Our schedule next year will be much tougher than this year. This was our year to get at least 7 or 8 wins with a very weak schedule. Instead, we lose to a very bad MAC team at home.

I have had season tickets for 8 years ... Been a die-hard for 32 years... Honestly, I am not so quick to say 'yeah, I want to re-up my tickets and spend all of the money and time to watch make the trek to IC to watch a very average product.' That is human nature. Who wants to spend money on a bad movie? Look at Iowa basketball under Lick ... Fans simply stopped coming. Does not mean they are not "fans" because they simply chose to use their extra funds for something else. Tell me, how fun is it to watch your team in person lose to the #116-ranked team in the country?


For the fans who just keep saying ... be patient ... we will get the ship pointed in the right direction -- well, how do you know that? Three years of mediocre football -- even with talent-laden teams ... Why will next year be any better? Next year the excuse will be we have a young qb ... or young dbacks ... etc. Sorry but the state of the program is all on Kirk's shoulders. He recruited the guys who left ... I think Kirk got a little too comfortable in his bubble ... And now it is showing ... Other programs are passing us by ... including Iowa State ... I guess I don't have it in me to just say 'Golly, let's rally behind Kirk ... etc.' We forget ... Kirk gets an awful lot of money ... to produce a very average product. That's what we are now - an average football program. If you are fine with average and want to ignore the trend and continue to buy your season tickets and continue to watch us lose to the Paul Rhoads and Pat Fitzgeralds of the world ... then more power to you ...
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The bolded text above is where there seems to be a double standard with alot of folks... Todd Lickliter got absolutely ROASTED by the fan base for the amount of attrition in the basketball program (and so did Steve Alford, Frankly) but Kirk Ferentz gets a free pass? Why?

I get that Ferentz has actually accomplished something at Iowa, and that definitely bought him a lot of good will - but the bulk of KF's success was nearly a decade ago, with the 2009 season (the very fortuitous 2009 season - pinball plays, multiple FG blocks, last minute TD drives, etc.) being the one lone exception in the past 8 years. That is what concerns me.

Some people will say we're just in the middle of the "down" 3-year cycle, and we will cycle back in a year or two. Maybe. Maybe not. Or you could say that 5 of the last 7 seasons have seen regular season win totals of 7 wins or fewer. It will be 6 of 8 after this year, barring a miraculous turnaround. Does next year look better with another 1st-year QB running the offense? Will we have more attrition this off-season? What is the real trend here? I guess that's the great unknown at this point.
 
I've been "rallying around Kirk" for the last 13 years...buying Hawkeye gear, traveling 600 miles round trip to games and purchasing season tickets. I'm doing my job in spades.
 
KF for Coach Of the Year!!!! Just the fact he coached Iowa to victories over UNI and N Illinois with this talent is enough to secure my vote.
 
83Hawk said:
3 Top 10 finishes, 2 Big 10 titles, Iowa's first BCS-level bowl win since the 1959 Rose Bowl. A couple of January bowl wins over SEC teams. 3 straight wins over Michigan (and counting). Numerous players drafted by the NFL.

I rest my case.
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Three straight wins over a reeling Michigan.
 
83Hawk said:
3 Top 10 finishes, 2 Big 10 titles, Iowa's first BCS-level bowl win since the 1959 Rose Bowl. A couple of January bowl wins over SEC teams. 3 straight wins over Michigan (and counting). Numerous players drafted by the NFL.

I rest my case.
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How f'n long are Iowa fans going to use the "well we finished in the top 10 three times in the last 10 years"? Guess what....that was nearly 10 years ago and the product since then has been average to slightly above average at best (this is with your "numerous players drafter"). Who cares about all the players drafted???!! This is college football, and the last time I checked it was KF's job to WIN college football games. I sure has h$ll do not show up on Saturdays, fork over well over $200 to do so, just to enjoy the weather and ask myself who I think KF puts into the NFL. I can't believe how sad we are as a fanbase. People care more about defending Ferentz than they do about winning football games.
 
FalseMirage said:
Three straight wins over a reeling Michigan.
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Right??!! Probably the worst their program has been in decades. Yeah, let's use tout that as some sort of success. Meanwhile completely ignoring the all too frequent losses to gutter programs like ISU, MN....geezus this is depressing even typing these. Wake the f up people.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
The bolded text above is where there seems to be a double standard with alot of folks... Todd Lickliter got absolutely ROASTED by the fan base for the amount of attrition in the basketball program (and so did Steve Alford, Frankly) but Kirk Ferentz gets a free pass? Why?

I get that Ferentz has actually accomplished something at Iowa, and that definitely bought him a lot of good will - but the bulk of KF's success was nearly a decade ago, with the 2009 season (the very fortuitous 2009 season - pinball plays, multiple FG blocks, last minute TD drives, etc.) being the one lone exception in the past 8 years. That is what concerns me.

Some people will say we're just in the middle of the "down" 3-year cycle, and we will cycle back in a year or two. Maybe. Maybe not. Or you could say that 5 of the last 7 seasons have seen regular season win totals of 7 wins or fewer. It will be 6 of 8 after this year, barring a miraculous turnaround. Does next year look better with another 1st-year QB running the offense? Will we have more attrition this off-season? What is the real trend here? I guess that's the great unknown at this point.
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I call BS on your comments about the 2009 season. You can't call that year lucky, and then turn around and be really ticked when Iowa loses close games. In other words, if we win those crazy close games, we're lucky, and if we lose them, KF sucks, right?

I'm annoyed as hell that Iowa lost last week, but I swear some of you have absolutely no perspective at all. The bottom line is that this really IS a very young team, and they're not very good...yet. Next year will be different.

The real disappointment was 2010. If they had gone to a BCS bowl that year, and won those close games against Arizona, Wisky, OSU, Northwestern, and Minny, then the next two years don't seem so terrible. Iowa had a ton of NFL talent that year, and really underperformed. That warrants criticism. I'm not sure that railing on this year's team is warranted. They're not that talented, and they're very young.
 
SheagleHawk said:
Right??!! Probably the worst their program has been in decades. Yeah, let's use tout that as some sort of success. Meanwhile completely ignoring the all too frequent losses to gutter programs like ISU, MN....geezus this is depressing even typing these. Wake the f up people.
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I think we are awake. We're just not psycho about it. Disappointed, yes. Pitchfork mob disappointed, no.
 
83Hawk said:
3 Top 10 finishes, 2 Big 10 titles, Iowa's first BCS-level bowl win since the 1959 Rose Bowl. A couple of January bowl wins over SEC teams. 3 straight wins over Michigan (and counting). Numerous players drafted by the NFL.

I rest my case.
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And how long ago was all that....he has been going down hill lately end of story.
 
racerhawk said:
I think we are awake. We're just not psycho about it. Disappointed, yes. Pitchfork mob disappointed, no.
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Maybe you're awake, but lots of people acting like Iowa football is all rainbows and daffodils right now. I get so tired of people trotting out the standard "3 top 10 finishes, blah, blah blah". Fact of the matter is college football is a "what have you done for me lately" type of business, and KF and the football program has done nothing but disappoint despite having a ton of momentum leading into recent years. It's just frustrating that so many choose to stick their head in the sand and say things like "we're just a young team". Well so are a lot of other teams, but they're not consistently losing to lesser opponents.
 
83Hawk said:
3 Top 10 finishes, 2 Big 10 titles, Iowa's first BCS-level bowl win since the 1959 Rose Bowl. A couple of January bowl wins over SEC teams. 3 straight wins over Michigan (and counting). Numerous players drafted by the NFL.

I rest my case.
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That is the weakest case I have ever read. Seriously Johnnie Cochran had a better case for OJ, and he may have won, but the whole nation knows it was B.S.

Here is the deal it is really stupid to even argue, KF is going no where. The only reason why we are is BB has not started yet, so there is nothing else to talk about. Also I will continue to watch and support this team, it's not their fault. What I will not do is support any talk of keeping KF around. If there is a way to buy him out DO IT! I just don't think he is the GREAT coach everyone else does. This is an opinion based on his WHOLE resume at Iowa. Not just the selective one.
 
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racerhawk said:
I'm annoyed as hell that Iowa lost last week, but I swear some of you have absolutely no perspective at all. The bottom line is that this really IS a very young team, and they're not very good...yet. Next year will be different.
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Why do fans keep using this as an excuse? It works against you. In a coaches 14th year why is a team sooooo young?!?!?
 
Hate to say it, but to me it's all about recreation and enjoying it. When I get the to point that I become an obsessed lunatic after a loss and begin head hunting the next week, I think it's time to realize that the enjoyment simply isn't there anymore and I need to find another hobby. I have a life outside of Kinnick and as much as I love the Hawkeyes, when my passion starts to affect my real life as it does some in here I think I might need to find a new hobby.

Absolute truth and not a cheap shot at any posters in here.
 
kicker22 said:
Hate to say it, but to me it's all about recreation and enjoying it. When I get the to point that I become an obsessed lunatic after a loss and begin head hunting the next week, I think it's time to realize that the enjoyment simply isn't there anymore and I need to find another hobby. I have a life outside of Kinnick and as much as I love the Hawkeyes, when my passion starts to affect my real life as it does some in here I think I might need to find a new hobby.

Absolute truth and not a cheap shot at any posters in here.
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This is the correct answer.
 
kicker22 said:
Hate to say it, but to me it's all about recreation and enjoying it. When I get the to point that I become an obsessed lunatic after a loss and begin head hunting the next week, I think it's time to realize that the enjoyment simply isn't there anymore and I need to find another hobby. I have a life outside of Kinnick and as much as I love the Hawkeyes, when my passion starts to affect my real life as it does some in here I think I might need to find a new hobby.

Absolute truth and not a cheap shot at any posters in here.
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Oh so you have come to the Aaahaaaa moment in life. What is the new hobby your going to pick up?
 
imported_blkngldFRO said:
Why do fans keep using this as an excuse? It works against you. In a coaches 14th year why is a team sooooo young?!?!?
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It's not an excuse. It's a fact. I know the pitchfork mob isn't "into" facts, but this is actually a very young team.

The reason why they are so young (and now we can probably both agree that some fault should be assigned) is because the 2008 and 2009 recruiting years sucked. Additionally, there has been a lot of attrition from those classes as well.

I want to be clear that I'm definitely critical of KF for a few things:

1. They grossly underperformed in 2010 with a very talented and experienced team. KF does deserve some blame for that.
2. As I noted above, recruiting sucked for a few years. I have no idea why.
3. They do tend to lose to lesser opponents.

However, this year, I'm not sure a lot of those other teams really are "lesser." Iowa just ain't that good this year.

I'm not all rainbows and sunshine, but I think some of you folks are hysterical. I actually think Iowa will be pretty darn good the next couple of years, for the same reason that they're lousy right now. Youth is playing in 2012.

We also have a lot of new coaches. See Wisconsin.
 
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