Miller in full apologist mode on Twitter right now

F

ferentz4life

Well-Known Member
Using rose colored glasses to try and convince everyone why the lofty expectations for this season were not justified (they were), and why this 8-4 season with home losses to North Dakota and NW, and getting destroyed by PSU really "don't matter that much" (they do).

On the NE instant reaction podcast he even said that he "won't ever" nitpick an 8 win season, even though he has repeatedly said that the 1997 and 2010 teams with similar records were the most disappointing of his lifetime.

Listen, I am happy we finished the season strong and am normally ok with a marginal 7-8 win season. But it's not like this was an inexperienced team that needed time to gel.

This season had high expectations for a reason. Either we still aren't a very good team or we didn't play to our potential for about 70% of the season. I wouldn't get too excited over either answer.
 
ferentz4life said:
Using rose colored glasses to try and convince everyone why the lofty expectations for this season were not justified (they were), and why this 8-4 season with home losses to North Dakota and NW, and getting destroyed by PSU really "don't matter that much" (they do).

On the NE instant reaction podcast he even said that he "won't ever" nitpick an 8 win season, even though he has repeatedly said that the 1997 and 2010 teams with similar records were the most disappointing of his lifetime.

Listen, I am happy we finished the season strong and am normally ok with a marginal 7-8 win season. But it's not like this was an inexperienced team that needed time to gel.

This season had high expectations for a reason. Either we still aren't a very good team or we didn't play to our potential for about 70% of the season. I wouldn't get too excited over either answer.
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In 2015, Iowa had good/great interior speed and speed on the corners. a gutsy QB.
In 2016, a repeat would have been hard. Still, there was a fat cat feeling to several of those losses.
Why a coach in near year sometimes has no running game or a passing game at all behooves me if more than once in a great while.

The strong finish does show an element of not being prepared...fat cat like.

NDSU's do happen. None of the losses were bad losses, except for that one. It was the manner by which they lost. They seemed totally unprepared for NW and PSU. One or 2 in a season...OK I guess, it happens. 4 games? No.

Thx KF for a strong finish. 2016 final Hawks may be better than 2015. You shoulda done better in being prepared.

Could a been OK with 9-3 or even 8-4 if you'd gone down swinging.
 
I don't think anybody "expected" 12-0 again. We did expect a team that looked "together" before November. (please don't site the ISU game, they're pathetic)

Kirk is a classic case of "it's how you look at it". One could say...Wow, he has a way of getting his teams to play their best ball when it matters more at year end. They improve a lot as the year progresses.

OR...you could say, why do his teams tend to start so slow, often struggling with the same things...only figuring it out when the season is almost over.

Option #1 sounds great in a "rebuilding" year, but coming off of 12-0...not so much.
 
HawkGold said:
In 2015, Iowa had good/great interior speed and speed on the corners. a gutsy QB.
In 2016, a repeat would have been hard. Still, there was a fat cat feeling to several of those losses.
Why a coach in near year sometimes has no running game or a passing game at all behooves me if more than once in a great while.

The strong finish does show an element of not being prepared...fat cat like.

NDSU's do happen. None of the losses were bad losses, except for that one. It was the manner by which they lost. They seemed totally unprepared for NW and PSU. One or 2 in a season...OK I guess, it happens. 4 games? No.

Thx KF for a strong finish. 2016 final Hawks may be better than 2015. You shoulda done better in being prepared.

Could a been OK with 9-3 or even 8-4 if you'd gone down swinging.
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You say you would/could be happy with eight wins, but then you explain why you can't be happy with it in this instance. Basically, you are saying you CAN be reasonable so that you seem reasonable and fair. But, when you aren't satisfied with eight wins you give yourself a rational excuse. Not this year, for these reasons. Therefore you can appear reasonable while still being able to bitch about an outcome you should be happy with.

People always talk about being okay with certain outcomes before a season starts. Then, when they get outcomes they say they would be okay with, they still bitch.

This coach has more conference titles to his name than any program outside of OSU and Michigan during his tenure, I believe. Correct me if I am wrong. But yet people are ALWAYS BITCHING about him or his results. You can tell me I am wrong, if I am. But I am pretty sure I am right.
 
ferentz4life said:
Using rose colored glasses to try and convince everyone why the lofty expectations for this season were not justified (they were), and why this 8-4 season with home losses to North Dakota and NW, and getting destroyed by PSU really "don't matter that much" (they do).

On the NE instant reaction podcast he even said that he "won't ever" nitpick an 8 win season, even though he has repeatedly said that the 1997 and 2010 teams with similar records were the most disappointing of his lifetime.

Listen, I am happy we finished the season strong and am normally ok with a marginal 7-8 win season. But it's not like this was an inexperienced team that needed time to gel.

This season had high expectations for a reason. Either we still aren't a very good team or we didn't play to our potential for about 70% of the season. I wouldn't get too excited over either answer.
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I am not telling you, or anyone, how to feel. I was sharing my views on this season, and also some cracks in how I think I approach every season. I think I easily see the flaws in other programs, but don't use the same measuring stick against Iowa and their flaws.

As for this season, they were ranked 17th in the preseason AP poll. If they win their bowl game, they might finish exactly 17th....you don't have to be excited about anything you don't want to be excited about. For me, this season was very interesting and in the end, filling enough, for me.
 
Playmaker said:
What in the hell happened to the old Jon???????????
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The old Jon flew off the handle and chased squirrels a lot, and was pretty immature. Not saying that won't happen again, but I am cognizant of it now.

But in reality, let me translate this for you: "JON NO LONGER SEES THE WORLD THE WAY I SEE IT. THEREFORE MY FEELINGS ARE NO LONGER VALIDATED. MUST RIP JON'
 
Cases in point. I predicted every B1G schedule before year:

http://hawkeyenation.com/2016/miller-big-ten-prediction

Some huge swings and misses...I gave MSU way too much credit, and Ohio State, not enough. I gave Iowa way too much credit despite real problems I discussed at WR and lack of pass pro with an OL that I felt had way too many guards and not enough tackles.

I hit Minnesota exactly right, by the game, hit Indiana, Nebraska and a few others...but was -2 on PSU, whiffed on Rutgers....

So when you make predictions and things don't happen the way you thought, it's incredibly arrogant to say 'what is wrong with that team or this team?'
 
As is now a familiar tune, Jon blames his "unrealistic" preseason pick on WR problems.

We have won the last three despite the WR play, correct? And therefore, its not really valid to say 8-4 was more in line with reality even though the WRs allegedly dragged this team down the "whole season."

Are the 1997 and 2010 teams now filling enough for you too? I'm not sure why not. They too didn't live up to (justified) lofty expectations yet won a middling 7-8 games.
 
ferentz4life said:
As is now a familiar tune, Jon blames his "unrealistic" preseason pick on WR problems.

We have won the last three despite the WR play, correct? And therefore, its not really valid to say 8-4 was more in line with reality even though the WRs allegedly dragged this team down the "whole season."

Are the 1997 and 2010 teams now filling enough for you too? I'm not sure why not. They too didn't live up to (justified) lofty expectations yet won a middling 7-8 games.
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I wrote and talked about the WR issues and my OL pass pro concerns all summer long...and then I don't factor it into my predictions. That's on me. But that's just for me. We each have our own views.

You just seem a bit bitter about a sports team over which you have no control...I just refuse to get angry over these things any more.
 
ferentz4life said:
We have won the last three despite the WR play, correct? And therefore, its not really valid to say 8-4 was more in line with reality even though the WRs allegedly dragged this team down the "whole season.".
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I'm sure you remember the 2004 season. Things can change during the course of the year based on what you had to begin with vs what you wind up having after attrition.
 
The season finished really well but one has to ask why the defense was on fire especially against the run most of the last 6 games but was giving up big chunk yardage especially up the middle in the first 5 or so games. It just makes me wonder that the coaches especially knew what needed to be happening but it was not in place at the start of the season. And I am not going to get into what the coaches and players did for the last 3 games especially, whether all it took was to be more aggressive and get into the offensive backfield and penetrate more instead of read and react.

And I still do not know why the pass protection wasnt better as it was some of the worst I have ever seen on KF's teams.
 
JonDMiller said:
I'm sure you remember the 2004 season. Things can change during the course of the year based on what you had to begin with vs what you wind up having after attrition.
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I'm not sure how that has any relation, other than 2004 actually found a way to consistently win despite a positional deficiency.

I also know that this season is NOT like 2008, despite the media spin looking for a superficial headline.

2008 was coming off a bad year in 2007. The QB situation was unsettled. We had a starting RB who wasn't even with the team the year before, nobody expected it to be good, and on and on. It needed time to gel and come together.

None of those things were at issue with the 2016 team. The 2016 team was coming off a historic year, with many key players returning, and had high expectations for good reasons. The only thing the 2008 and 2016 teams had in common was a winning streak at the end of the year--and that is hardly uncommon in college football. Other than that, the 2016 and 2008 teams look nothing like each other.
 
ferentz4life said:
I'm not sure how that has any relation, other than 2004 actually found a way to consistently win despite a positional deficiency.

I also know that this season is NOT like 2008, despite the media spin looking for a superficial headline.

2008 was coming off a bad year in 2007. The QB situation was unsettled. We had a starting RB who wasn't even with the team the year before, nobody expected it to be good, and on and on. It needed time to gel and come together.

None of those things were at issue with the 2016 team. The 2016 team was coming off a historic year, with many key players returning, and had high expectations for good reasons. The only thing the 2008 and 2016 teams had in common was a winning streak at the end of the year--and that is hardly uncommon in college football. Other than that, the 2016 and 2008 teams look nothing like each other.
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So basically 2008 is different from 2016 because of your expectation going into the season.

Our schedule for 2016 was much more difficult than 2008. We faced 4 top 25 teams and 3 top 10 teams. In 2008 we faced one ranked opponent. One could say that 2016 was therefore better than 2008 because of the competition we faced.
 
deanvogs said:
So basically 2008 is different from 2016 because of your expectation going into the season.

Our schedule for 2016 was much more difficult than 2008. We faced 4 top 25 teams and 3 top 10 teams. In 2008 we faced one ranked opponent. One could say that 2016 was therefore better than 2008 because of the competition we faced.
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Yes, just my expectation. And a returning Thorpe winner, along with a good CB on the other side. And starting productive RBs. And a QB that had not yet lost a regular season game. And some other things. Other than that, just my expectation, yes.
 
Thawki said:
You say you would/could be happy with eight wins, but then you explain why you can't be happy with it in this instance. Basically, you are saying you CAN be reasonable so that you seem reasonable and fair. But, when you aren't satisfied with eight wins you give yourself a rational excuse. Not this year, for these reasons. Therefore you can appear reasonable while still being able to bitch about an outcome you should be happy with.

People always talk about being okay with certain outcomes before a season starts. Then, when they get outcomes they say they would be okay with, they still bitch.

This coach has more conference titles to his name than any program outside of OSU and Michigan during his tenure, I believe. Correct me if I am wrong. But yet people are ALWAYS BITCHING about him or his results. You can tell me I am wrong, if I am. But I am pretty sure I am right.
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How many outright titles does he have again? That's what I thought. You're the type of person that would have bragged about winning the West again this year even though we got beat down by Wisky.
 
ferentz4life said:
Yes, just my expectation. And a returning Thorpe winner, along with a good CB on the other side. And starting productive RBs. And a QB that had not yet lost a regular season game. And some other things. Other than that, just my expectation, yes.
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Well at least you admit it is just your expectations.

I see you ignored the fact that the 2008 team played 1 ranked team. The 2016 team played 3 top 10 teams, and 4 top 25 teams.
 
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