My 2018 W-L Prediction thread

U

Undefeated

Well-Known Member
I know our schedule gets easier than last year, but with the loss of this many players I don't feel we are in a position to win more than 7 game this fall. Our offensive line will be worse, which is hard to fathom. I wasn't impressed with Keegan Render at all in 2017. It is too much to lose Welsh and Daniels to see any improvement here. I thought we had something with the Paulsen twins when they signed 3 years ago. Must not.

We've been hoping for some breakout WR's since Nile Kinnick, DJK & McNutt would have been long forgotten at fO$U or Michigan. If a guy with physical size of Brandon Smith doesn't break every Iowa receiving record, I am never going to have any hope that his staff can develop or even utilize a WR.

TE; If Fant can catch passes in clutch games (see jNW) we have arguably the best TE combo in the nation.

Stanley, guy has worlds of upswing. Might be the best passer if used right in the KF era. He needs time to throw, or we need to throw about 50 screen passes a game.

On the defensive side of the ball, we can't be better at LB even though Bo Bower was horrid his entire career. Jewell, that guy was a guy you wanted in your foxhole with you; an animal.

DB, unlikely we have another Josh Jackson stuffed away somewhere. Ojemudia was worked over in a few games. Safety should be better. I think Snyder is too slow for safety after watching the National Title game; maybe he should play WLB.

Our front 4 should only be better. If Anthony Nelson can keep up production, Matt add some pounds and if KF can get around the fact that Eppy has more upside than Parker Hesse we should see Eppy out there more. D. Nixon should help anchor the middle with his Jaleel Johnson type stature.

Punter; no need to explain anything here.

N. IL W
Iowa St. L (were due for a 2005-esque Iowa State performance)
No. Iowa W
Wisconsin L (because this isn't going to just change)
Minnesota W (it will be close)
Indiana L
Maryland L
PSU L
Purdue L (at this point this forum is going to be on total meltdown and Kirk's road paving issues are going to look like a hang nail)
jNW W
ILL W (Lovie Smith is fired after the game)
Nebraska W

I see 2019 as an improvement over 6-6.
 
Dang, with that schedule I was thinking 9 wins.

I will not be happy with 7. but FKF will be. Another year 100% guaranteed. CHA-CHING

Crappy bowl game for win #8. CHA-CHING
 
Undefeated said:
I know our schedule gets easier than last year, but with the loss of this many players I don't feel we are in a position to win more than 7 game this fall. Our offensive line will be worse, which is hard to fathom. I wasn't impressed with Keegan Render at all in 2017. It is too much to lose Welsh and Daniels to see any improvement here. I thought we had something with the Paulsen twins when they signed 3 years ago. Must not.

We've been hoping for some breakout WR's since Nile Kinnick, DJK & McNutt would have been long forgotten at fO$U or Michigan. If a guy with physical size of Brandon Smith doesn't break every Iowa receiving record, I am never going to have any hope that his staff can develop or even utilize a WR.

TE; If Fant can catch passes in clutch games (see jNW) we have arguably the best TE combo in the nation.

Stanley, guy has worlds of upswing. Might be the best passer if used right in the KF era. He needs time to throw, or we need to throw about 50 screen passes a game.

On the defensive side of the ball, we can't be better at LB even though Bo Bower was horrid his entire career. Jewell, that guy was a guy you wanted in your foxhole with you; an animal.

DB, unlikely we have another Josh Jackson stuffed away somewhere. Ojemudia was worked over in a few games. Safety should be better. I think Snyder is too slow for safety after watching the National Title game; maybe he should play WLB.

Our front 4 should only be better. If Anthony Nelson can keep up production, Matt add some pounds and if KF can get around the fact that Eppy has more upside than Parker Hesse we should see Eppy out there more. D. Nixon should help anchor the middle with his Jaleel Johnson type stature.

Punter; no need to explain anything here.

N. IL W
Iowa St. L (were due for a 2005-esque Iowa State performance)
No. Iowa W
Wisconsin L (because this isn't going to just change)
Minnesota W (it will be close)
Indiana L
Maryland L
PSU L
Purdue L (at this point this forum is going to be on total meltdown and Kirk's road paving issues are going to look like a hang nail)
jNW W
ILL W (Lovie Smith is fired after the game)
Nebraska W

I see 2019 as an improvement over 6-6.
Click to expand...

I see three of your losses as 50-50 games: ISU, Indiana and Maryland. And I believe we will win 2 of those. I also believe we will beat Purdue - they were a senior laden team this year and don't see them close to the level they were at this year. So that makes us 9-3 with losses to Wisconsin, Penn St and one of ISU, Indiana or Maryland.
 
I expect 9-10 wins next season. The schedule and players returning merit that being a reasonable expectation. I'm not buying tickets next year. I'll watch all of the games because I bleed black and gold but I'm not spending another $5000 going to Iowa City 3-4 times.
 
Ouch, and I have to laugh at you saying you think there will be 2005 type bad performance against ISU because in 2014 we had a total meltdown type 2005 performance in that loss to ISU and 2012 was really bad and 2011 I think we let Steele effing Jantz look like a Heisman Trophy winner against us.

I dont see the loss to ISU because they lose a lot alot a bunch of key players. If Kempf doesnt get another year they are really starting over.

I think we beat Maryland because they werent that good this year and it is at home.

So right now my not official prediction is 8-4. Now which games we should win that we lose because we arent ready on offense for total all out 8 men or more in the box. We could lose to jNW because Fitz knows defensively how to blow up our plays so you have to go offscript against them. The hawks had about 240 yards in the first half this last season against them but then we got way too predictable on BF's play calling in the second half.

Purdue, we can beat Purdue over there but again only if the offense is ready to strike, I dont know enuf about who Purdue loses on defense as that is the unit that won the game for them, and Iowa's bad offense. I will keep that a loss.

Right now 8-4.
 
uihawk82 said:
Ouch, and I have to laugh at you saying you think there will be 2005 type bad performance against ISU because in 2014 we had a total meltdown type 2005 performance in that loss to ISU and 2012 was really bad and 2011 I think we let Steele effing Jantz look like a Heisman Trophy winner against us.

I dont see the loss to ISU because they lose a lot alot a bunch of key players. If Kempf doesnt get another year they are really starting over.
Click to expand...

Not only does ISU lose a lot of players next year, they play Oklahoma the week after the Iowa game. That doesn't mean they'll take Iowa lightly but they don't have Iowa sandwiched between 2 cupcakes like they usually do.

Their Big 12 schedule starts out Oklahoma, at TCU, at Oklahoma State. So there's a nice 0-3 start to their 2018 conference title run.
 
uihawk82 said:
Ouch, and I have to laugh at you saying you think there will be 2005 type bad performance against ISU because in 2014 we had a total meltdown type 2005 performance in that loss to ISU and 2012 was really bad and 2011 I think we let Steele effing Jantz look like a Heisman Trophy winner against us.

I dont see the loss to ISU because they lose a lot alot a bunch of key players. If Kempf doesnt get another year they are really starting over.

I think we beat Maryland because they werent that good this year and it is at home.

So right now my not official prediction is 8-4. Now which games we should win that we lose because we arent ready on offense for total all out 8 men or more in the box. We could lose to jNW because Fitz knows defensively how to blow up our plays so you have to go offscript against them. The hawks had about 240 yards in the first half this last season against them but then we got way too predictable on BF's play calling in the second half.

Purdue, we can beat Purdue over there but again only if the offense is ready to strike, I dont know enuf about who Purdue loses on defense as that is the unit that won the game for them, and Iowa's bad offense. I will keep that a loss.

Right now 8-4.
Click to expand...
Maryland looked really good until that stud freshman QB was lost for the season
 
smitharooney said:
Maryland looked really good until that stud freshman QB was lost for the season
Click to expand...

Good point. I forgot they beat an avg Texas team at TX and then I think they beat Minny at MN.

Hawks I think will be very productive on defense as far as scores against category. The Offense needs to be able to back off the blitzers and burn teams early and I think they can avg 35 pts a game
 
uihawk82 said:
Good point. I forgot they beat an avg Texas team at TX and then I think they beat Minny at MN.

Hawks I think will be very productive on defense as far as scores against category. The Offense needs to be able to back off the blitzers and burn teams early and I think they can avg 35 pts a game
Click to expand...
I have a weird feeling our running game will be even better next year. I think the kids coming up will be just fine and the two top running backs we have next year are more designed for the zone blocking. they won't miss the inside cutbacks. Wadley struggled with the inside runs sometimes and just always tried to cut it to the outside making the lineplay worse than they really were. It didn't make much sense to have a homerun hitter in short yardage. It should have been automatic for Butler
 
Northern Illinois --- W
ISU --- L
UNI --- W
Wisconsin --- L
Minnesota --- L
Indiana --- W
Maryland --- W
PSU --- L
Purdue --- L
NW --- L
ILL --- W
Nebraska --- W

6-6, lose in the Greater Snohomish County Goat Breeders Bowl presented by Dale's Transmission, against the Upper Central Northeastern Idaho State-(Pocatello Campus) Bluebirds.

The streak against ISU isn't sustainable, and the Minnesota/Indiana/Maryland games are toss-ups but we lose 2/3.

People are underestimating losing Jewell, Niemann, Bazata, Jackson, Wadley, and Daniels all in the same year. Four will be NFL starters at some point, and Niemann & Bazata both have a better than average shot at becoming UDFA's. Fart rainbows and tell me I'm crazy if you want, but this team will not be above .500. I hope I'm wrong.
 
If when we have a guy like Wadley the excuse is youth around him and we're developmental then when you develop all those younger guys you can't turn around and go, well, Wadley's gone so we still suck.
 
uihawk82 said:
Ouch, and I have to laugh at you saying you think there will be 2005 type bad performance against ISU because in 2014 we had a total meltdown type 2005 performance in that loss to ISU and 2012 was really bad and 2011 I think we let Steele effing Jantz look like a Heisman Trophy winner against us.

I dont see the loss to ISU because they lose a lot alot a bunch of key players. If Kempf doesnt get another year they are really starting over.

I think we beat Maryland because they werent that good this year and it is at home.

So right now my not official prediction is 8-4. Now which games we should win that we lose because we arent ready on offense for total all out 8 men or more in the box. We could lose to jNW because Fitz knows defensively how to blow up our plays so you have to go offscript against them. The hawks had about 240 yards in the first half this last season against them but then we got way too predictable on BF's play calling in the second half.

Purdue, we can beat Purdue over there but again only if the offense is ready to strike, I dont know enuf about who Purdue loses on defense as that is the unit that won the game for them, and Iowa's bad offense. I will keep that a loss.

Right now 8-4.
Click to expand...

Steele Jantz did have Heisman trophy winning super hero name.
 
smitharooney said:
Wadley struggled with the inside runs sometimes and just always tried to cut it to the outside making the lineplay worse than they really were.
Click to expand...
Along the same lines, if the OL was more competent he wouldn't have had to duck outside.

Point is moot because Wadley should have played at slot anyway.
 
We always lose top players every year. The standard model of development at Iowa predicts that every time. We lost King, Leshun, Kittle, Beathard, Mabin, and others. Many of those are having more than just a bench-warming spot in the NFL. I'm going to assume similar production in general (just not in specific positions).

Northern Illinois --- W
ISU --- W
UNI --- W
Wisconsin --- L
Minnesota --- W
Indiana --- W
Maryland --- W
PSU --- L
Purdue --- W
NW --- W
ILL --- W
Nebraska --- W

So I'm expecting at least 9-3, but probably 10-2 regular season. It's possible we drop one against Maryland or NW, because they're just weird for us always.
 
Kirk voiced a lot of confidence in the O line yesterday. That leads me to believe running into 9-in-the box isn't going away.
 
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