JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
“And even if we win, if we win, HAH! Even if we win! Even if we play so far above our heads that our noses bleed for a week to ten days; even if God in Heaven above comes down and points his hand at our side of the field; even if every man woman and child held hands together and prayed for us to win, it just wouldn’t matter because all the really good looking girls would still go out with the guys from Mohawk because they’ve got all the money!” Tripper, Meatballs
This is a line from one of my favorite cult classic movies, ‘Meatballs‘. Bill Murray’s character said this near the end of the movie to rally his summer camp squad to rally against the opposing summer camp from across the lake. Murray was the head counsellor at Camp North Star, where the misfits and outcasts went to summer camp. Camp Mohawk from across the way, they were the elites, the upper crust kids.
In the end, Camp North Star won.
Iowa fans from around the nation have ‘risen up’ in recent weeks against an onslaught of of ‘national attention’ that has been less than flattering at times, insulting at others and often simply ignorant.
SEC-loving ESPN has seemingly driven this national narrative against the Hawkeyes from program to program and pundit to pundit. The message has been the same; Iowa doesn’t deserve to be in the College Football Playoff discussion. They haven’t beaten anyone and their schedule is ’embarrassing’, to quote Kirk Herbstreit (to his credit, Herbstreit did read and commenton my ‘Dear America, Iowa Doesn’t Care What You Think’ piece).
On Tuesday night November 3rd, the first college football playoff poll of the year will be released. I think Iowa will be ranked 7th or 8th in that poll, but no worse than 10th. From the minute it’s released, it will be the only poll that will matter the rest of the year.
From the moment it’s released, the opinions of the punditry and the narrative driving hounds at ESPN will no longer matter. At that point, Iowa’s motto can be a simple one; it just doesn’t matter.
If Iowa wins, it just doesn’t matter what anyone else says. If Iowa keeps winning, they will keep climbing. If Iowa keeps winning, they will be in the college football playoff.
A 13-0 Iowa? They’re in. Even Kirk Herbstreit agrees, saying as much to a friend on twitter when asked if Iowa would be in the playoff if it went 13-0.
If Notre Dame and Stanford are both ranked ahead of Iowa on Tuesday night? They play one another yet this year. If Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State (or a variation thereof) are ranked ahead of Iowa on Tuesday night? They all play one another as well as Oklahoma. How about LSU and Alabama? They still play one another. Michigan State and Ohio State? They play one another.
For Iowa, it just doesn’t matter as long as they keep winning.
Consider this; last year’s National Champion, the Ohio State Buckeyes, were ranked #16th in the first College Football Playoff Poll (image below). How do you like that big ole heapin’ helping of the SEC Myth right out the gates last year? Three SEC teams were in the initial Top Four. I recall a few ESPN talking heads who had four SEC teams in their Top Four. A few weeks later, none of those three teams (Mississippi State, Ole Miss or Auburn) was in the hunt. The Buckeyes started way down there at 16. Oregon, Alabama and Florida State were the other three teams who made the Final Four, with the Buckeyes getting in by the skin of their teeth. You might recall TCU being right in that mix until the season ended, when they were ‘down-voted’ out of the Top Four after laying waste to Iowa State.
The Buckeyes got in and that was a controversial selection. The Buckeyes won it all.
You don’t have to be popular, you just have to have a chip and a chair. For Iowa, just keep winning and it just doesn’t matter.
I recall another Ohio State team from days gone by, one the national punditry mocked and labelled ‘The Luckeyes’. It was the 2002 Ohio State team, the one who never met Iowa on the field as both teams went 8-0 in Big Ten play but Ohio State won all of their games. They also made it to the BCS national title game and won it all. Do you remember how many close calls they had against so-so teams?
In breaking down the 2002 Ohio State season even farther, Cincinnati finished 7-7 and Bearcat receivers dropped two would be touchdowns in the final minute as Ohio State survived an early upset bid. Their close win against Wisconsin was against a Badgers team that finished 8-6 and who led Ohio State 14-13 in the fourth quarter. They beat a legit Penn State team by six, with their lone touchdown coming on a pick six; their offense did not score a touchdown that game. Their four-point win at Purdue came on the ‘Holy Buckeye’, a 37-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 1 with less than two minutes to play, which was pretty fortuitous.
They beat a 5-7 Illinois team in overtime and knocked off a solid Michigan team with a touchdown in the final six minutes and held off two Michigan drives late in the game, including one just short of the Ohio State goal line.
That 2002 Ohio State team had an above average running game (31st nationally) but a below average offense (70th nationally in total offense) with a quarterback who could not move all that well and one of the best defenses in the nation (3rd in rushing defense and 2nd in scoring defense), they forced teams into mistakes (18th in turnover margin at +.93/game) and they had great special teams (13th in punting and the second best placekicker in the game behind Iowa’s Nate Kaeding)
Some may call them fortunate, or ‘The Luckeyes’, but they call them something else in Columbus, all these years later and forevermore; National Champions.
Back to Iowa’s here and now…nobody is calling them lucky, they are just taking pot shots at their schedule, even though through this past week’s action (which accounts for two-thirds of the entire season) Iowa has faced a better strength of schedule than any of the other unbeatens save Clemson and LSU.
Iowa is doing it with an above average running game (33rd nationally) but a below average offense (65th nationally in total offense) with a quarterback who can’t move all that well right now and one of the best defenses in the nation (5th in rushing defense and 6th in scoring defense), they are forcing teams into mistakes (tied for 6th in the nation at +1.25/game) and they are getting some great contributions from special teams (Dillon Kidd is 30th in the nation but punting much better than pure numbers can account for).
Having said all of this, if you ask me ‘Do you think Iowa will go undefeated, win the Big Ten title and be 13-0?’, I would say ‘no, I don’t.’ Like the 2002 Ohio State team, Iowa has some holes but that 2002 OSU team was far more talented than this year’s Iowa team is. It could afford some attrition and I don’t believe this Iowa team can keep avoiding such potholes.
Perhaps this coming weekend at Indiana is going to be that game. Whenever I’ve doubted Iowa this year they have proven me wrong, and I have not minded it one bit. If Iowa does misstep, be prepared for an onslaught of Iowa Haterade. If that happens, it doesn’t render this and other arguments supporting Iowa’s case to date as moot, either. ‘Case to Date’ is the key, something so many talking heads seem to forget. I have been speaking out because I feel the narrative that is being painted is unfairly dismissing what Iowa has done to get to this point. For me, it’s not been about a belief that Iowa will actually finish the year undefeated, it’s about not sitting by idly while a network who is in bed with the SEC keeps trumpeting an unbalanced narrative on Iowa’s season. If you don’t speak up and show the other side, then Low IQ America just assumes what they are being spoon fed by ESPN has to be the truth.
That said, what if the Hawkeyes do keep winning? If Iowa keeps churning out some meat grinder style wins the rest of this year and gets to 13-0, we don’t have to make apologies for them. Ask an Ohio State fan if they have to make any apologies for their 2002 National Title. Ask an Ohio State fan if they have to make apologies for gaining access to last year’s Playoff amidst controversy.
It just doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there. If Iowa doesn’t score ‘style points’ along the way yet still gets to 13-0 (which would include a win over #1 Ohio State or a Top Five Michigan State in the Big Ten title game), none of this schedule talk will matter.
It just doesn’t matter; but I don’t begrudge you for disliking the forced national narrative.
This is a line from one of my favorite cult classic movies, ‘Meatballs‘. Bill Murray’s character said this near the end of the movie to rally his summer camp squad to rally against the opposing summer camp from across the lake. Murray was the head counsellor at Camp North Star, where the misfits and outcasts went to summer camp. Camp Mohawk from across the way, they were the elites, the upper crust kids.
In the end, Camp North Star won.
Iowa fans from around the nation have ‘risen up’ in recent weeks against an onslaught of of ‘national attention’ that has been less than flattering at times, insulting at others and often simply ignorant.
SEC-loving ESPN has seemingly driven this national narrative against the Hawkeyes from program to program and pundit to pundit. The message has been the same; Iowa doesn’t deserve to be in the College Football Playoff discussion. They haven’t beaten anyone and their schedule is ’embarrassing’, to quote Kirk Herbstreit (to his credit, Herbstreit did read and commenton my ‘Dear America, Iowa Doesn’t Care What You Think’ piece).
On Tuesday night November 3rd, the first college football playoff poll of the year will be released. I think Iowa will be ranked 7th or 8th in that poll, but no worse than 10th. From the minute it’s released, it will be the only poll that will matter the rest of the year.
From the moment it’s released, the opinions of the punditry and the narrative driving hounds at ESPN will no longer matter. At that point, Iowa’s motto can be a simple one; it just doesn’t matter.
If Iowa wins, it just doesn’t matter what anyone else says. If Iowa keeps winning, they will keep climbing. If Iowa keeps winning, they will be in the college football playoff.
A 13-0 Iowa? They’re in. Even Kirk Herbstreit agrees, saying as much to a friend on twitter when asked if Iowa would be in the playoff if it went 13-0.
If Notre Dame and Stanford are both ranked ahead of Iowa on Tuesday night? They play one another yet this year. If Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State (or a variation thereof) are ranked ahead of Iowa on Tuesday night? They all play one another as well as Oklahoma. How about LSU and Alabama? They still play one another. Michigan State and Ohio State? They play one another.
For Iowa, it just doesn’t matter as long as they keep winning.
Consider this; last year’s National Champion, the Ohio State Buckeyes, were ranked #16th in the first College Football Playoff Poll (image below). How do you like that big ole heapin’ helping of the SEC Myth right out the gates last year? Three SEC teams were in the initial Top Four. I recall a few ESPN talking heads who had four SEC teams in their Top Four. A few weeks later, none of those three teams (Mississippi State, Ole Miss or Auburn) was in the hunt. The Buckeyes started way down there at 16. Oregon, Alabama and Florida State were the other three teams who made the Final Four, with the Buckeyes getting in by the skin of their teeth. You might recall TCU being right in that mix until the season ended, when they were ‘down-voted’ out of the Top Four after laying waste to Iowa State.
The Buckeyes got in and that was a controversial selection. The Buckeyes won it all.You don’t have to be popular, you just have to have a chip and a chair. For Iowa, just keep winning and it just doesn’t matter.
I recall another Ohio State team from days gone by, one the national punditry mocked and labelled ‘The Luckeyes’. It was the 2002 Ohio State team, the one who never met Iowa on the field as both teams went 8-0 in Big Ten play but Ohio State won all of their games. They also made it to the BCS national title game and won it all. Do you remember how many close calls they had against so-so teams?
In breaking down the 2002 Ohio State season even farther, Cincinnati finished 7-7 and Bearcat receivers dropped two would be touchdowns in the final minute as Ohio State survived an early upset bid. Their close win against Wisconsin was against a Badgers team that finished 8-6 and who led Ohio State 14-13 in the fourth quarter. They beat a legit Penn State team by six, with their lone touchdown coming on a pick six; their offense did not score a touchdown that game. Their four-point win at Purdue came on the ‘Holy Buckeye’, a 37-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 1 with less than two minutes to play, which was pretty fortuitous.
They beat a 5-7 Illinois team in overtime and knocked off a solid Michigan team with a touchdown in the final six minutes and held off two Michigan drives late in the game, including one just short of the Ohio State goal line.
That 2002 Ohio State team had an above average running game (31st nationally) but a below average offense (70th nationally in total offense) with a quarterback who could not move all that well and one of the best defenses in the nation (3rd in rushing defense and 2nd in scoring defense), they forced teams into mistakes (18th in turnover margin at +.93/game) and they had great special teams (13th in punting and the second best placekicker in the game behind Iowa’s Nate Kaeding)Some may call them fortunate, or ‘The Luckeyes’, but they call them something else in Columbus, all these years later and forevermore; National Champions.
Back to Iowa’s here and now…nobody is calling them lucky, they are just taking pot shots at their schedule, even though through this past week’s action (which accounts for two-thirds of the entire season) Iowa has faced a better strength of schedule than any of the other unbeatens save Clemson and LSU.
Iowa is doing it with an above average running game (33rd nationally) but a below average offense (65th nationally in total offense) with a quarterback who can’t move all that well right now and one of the best defenses in the nation (5th in rushing defense and 6th in scoring defense), they are forcing teams into mistakes (tied for 6th in the nation at +1.25/game) and they are getting some great contributions from special teams (Dillon Kidd is 30th in the nation but punting much better than pure numbers can account for).
Having said all of this, if you ask me ‘Do you think Iowa will go undefeated, win the Big Ten title and be 13-0?’, I would say ‘no, I don’t.’ Like the 2002 Ohio State team, Iowa has some holes but that 2002 OSU team was far more talented than this year’s Iowa team is. It could afford some attrition and I don’t believe this Iowa team can keep avoiding such potholes.
Perhaps this coming weekend at Indiana is going to be that game. Whenever I’ve doubted Iowa this year they have proven me wrong, and I have not minded it one bit. If Iowa does misstep, be prepared for an onslaught of Iowa Haterade. If that happens, it doesn’t render this and other arguments supporting Iowa’s case to date as moot, either. ‘Case to Date’ is the key, something so many talking heads seem to forget. I have been speaking out because I feel the narrative that is being painted is unfairly dismissing what Iowa has done to get to this point. For me, it’s not been about a belief that Iowa will actually finish the year undefeated, it’s about not sitting by idly while a network who is in bed with the SEC keeps trumpeting an unbalanced narrative on Iowa’s season. If you don’t speak up and show the other side, then Low IQ America just assumes what they are being spoon fed by ESPN has to be the truth.
That said, what if the Hawkeyes do keep winning? If Iowa keeps churning out some meat grinder style wins the rest of this year and gets to 13-0, we don’t have to make apologies for them. Ask an Ohio State fan if they have to make any apologies for their 2002 National Title. Ask an Ohio State fan if they have to make apologies for gaining access to last year’s Playoff amidst controversy.
It just doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there. If Iowa doesn’t score ‘style points’ along the way yet still gets to 13-0 (which would include a win over #1 Ohio State or a Top Five Michigan State in the Big Ten title game), none of this schedule talk will matter.
It just doesn’t matter; but I don’t begrudge you for disliking the forced national narrative.
