Please Jon read and answer this question.

S

selfishlove

New Member
Cmon guys, this is nothing knew. While I am upset and looking forward to Hawkeye basketball versus Dallas Cowboy football and the average year of Hawkeye football there are some things to reflect on. We are having an alright year, not bad not great, just alright. It happens, all of our expectations were dreaming of the National Title game or the Rose bowl, however lets look at our team closer. There are no glaring differences from this years team from last year other than LB. We are weaker, however we are an alright core now just not great. Correct me if im wrong, but last year we skimmed by how many games with close calls and holding our breath.

Arizona, good game at Kinnick. Difference this year in the desert.

Wisconsin, good game in wiscy however, we outplayed them. Difference they are a better team and the best in the big ten this year plain and simple.

Michigan, last year skimmed by at home, this year beat them at there place.

Arkansas State, a late rally fell short last year.

Penn State, blocked punt turnovers doomed them, this year we outplayed a young team at home.

Indiana, Skimmed by last year, skimmed by this year.

Northwestern, plain beaten by them both years.

Sorry my first post in awhile so probably hard to understand but my point is this team other than a few things here and there, is relatively the same death defying team as last year. However, the cards fell different last year than this year so honestly is this team much different than last years? Nope, just with different results, its like anything, one time you get the breaks next time you do not. I do remember Kirk saying last year that team could have easlitly been 8-4 instead of 10-2. So we got ours last year this year its kinda our turn. Jon, you know more about this than me, im an avid hawk fan and supporter and live and die with them, however when I put things in perspective, other than little things here and there this team is just kinda in essence getting now what they got away with last year. Right or wrong?
 
there is no doubt that last year;s Iowa season had a lot of luck in it...and execution when it counted. UNI, pretty lucky. Fortunate to beat Ark State...offense does nothing all game and goes 70 yards in 90 seconds to beat MSU. Down double digits to Indiana to start the 4th Q after five INT's and win by 18 or so.

This year, Iowa hasn't executed the same way. I think the 2008 team was better than the 2009 Iowa team in many ways actually, and said that after last year.

I made the mistake of assuming Iowa would execute the same way this year, ignoring key personnel losses and the law of averages
 
Well, I fully believe this team is not as hungry and I agree our Outback bowl team suffered harsh losses and deserved better fate. Last years team was legit but lucky, this years team kinda the opposite a good team but just not great. Whats on tap for next year in your opinion do the key losses at Dline and QB have Iowa looking at another mediocre year or will we be talked about as a top tiere team. One more thing what does the schedule look like next year with Nebraska in it.
 
I do think that the 2008 team will be the best of the bunch that I get to see in my time at the school, at least up to this point. I've got two more seasons to go, but at least on paper I don't see next year's team being better than '08.

I still watch Shonn Greene's highlight videos, and vividly remember the Penn State game. That may have been the most fun I've had during a football season (though 2009 and 2004 come close), because after 2005-2007, I had no expectations, and was just riding the train one stop at a time. I was able to thoroughly enjoy each game without worrying about: "We have to win this game and hope that so-and-so loses, so we can jump up in the polls."

That doesn't mean I want to have 8-4 seasons every year. But I'm done with preseason expectations. I'm going back to one game at a time. It just makes it so much more fun for me. The rest of you are welcome to join me, though I certainly don't hold it against anyone who doesn't!

GO HAWKS!!!!
 
I think this is a pretty good assessment.
Iowa football, in the KF era, has and will always come down to:
execution and attention to detail
And this to me, not necessarily talent, will always be the reason Iowa's margin for error is slim. What they run offensively and defensively will always leave very little wiggle room. We haven't been beat by double digits in 3 years. Could have easily won them all, could have easily lost some more games over the last 3 years. The only thing that has made this year different is the high expectations.
And I agree Jon, I think the biggest loss was the leadership and toughness Edds and Angerer brought to this program. I was too blind to see how much they meant. To me, those two intangibles that they brought are the biggest difference from last year to this year.
 
I made the mistake of assuming Iowa would execute the same way this year, ignoring key personnel losses and the law of averages[/QUOTE]

Actually I think I recall reading a post you wrote during the summer about how the "breaks" seemed to go Iowa's way last year and that usually those "breaks" average out.
 
tm3308 said:
I do think that the 2008 team will be the best of the bunch that I get to see in my time at the school, at least up to this point. I've got two more seasons to go, but at least on paper I don't see next year's team being better than '08.

I still watch Shonn Greene's highlight videos, and vividly remember the Penn State game. That may have been the most fun I've had during a football season (though 2009 and 2004 come close), because after 2005-2007, I had no expectations, and was just riding the train one stop at a time. I was able to thoroughly enjoy each game without worrying about: "We have to win this game and hope that so-and-so loses, so we can jump up in the polls."

That doesn't mean I want to have 8-4 seasons every year. But I'm done with preseason expectations. I'm going back to one game at a time. It just makes it so much more fun for me. The rest of you are welcome to join me, though I certainly don't hold it against anyone who doesn't!

GO HAWKS!!!!
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A great example of how preseason rankings and the BCS make college football 500% less fun. I just refuse to care about that stuff. It's meaningless, and there's no way to predict from year to year who is going to be good when you haven't seen teams play (paging Florida and Texas...). You can put preseason rankings and hype in one hand and take a dump in the other and see which fills up first.

We have great memories of the '08 team because they had their close losses at the beginning of the year and heated up at the end, but let me tell you, those losses were every bit as painful as today's. They had pretty much the exact same problem as this year's team: they couldn't finish games. Until they went to Penn State and they did. This year's team could do the same next week.
 
olivecourt said:
A great example of how preseason rankings and the BCS make college football 500% less fun. I just refuse to care about that stuff. It's meaningless, and there's no way to predict from year to year who is going to be good when you haven't seen teams play (paging Florida and Texas...). You can put preseason rankings and hype in one hand and take a dump in the other and see which fills up first.

We have great memories of the '08 team because they had their close losses at the beginning of the year and heated up at the end, but let me tell you, those losses were every bit as painful as today's. They had pretty much the exact same problem as this year's team: they couldn't finish games. Until they went to Penn State and they did. This year's team could do the same next week.
Click to expand...

I don't feel like the losses were quite as painful in '08. We weren't expecting much from that team, whereas this year, every loss is just another twist of the knife in our NC/Rose Bowl dreams.

I hope this team finds a way to finish next week. We really need to get that mojo back, even if it's only for a couple games. Show the world that this team isn't dead, like they appeared to be today.
 
tm3308 said:
I don't feel like the losses were quite as painful in '08. We weren't expecting much from that team, whereas this year, every loss is just another twist of the knife in our NC/Rose Bowl dreams.

I hope this team finds a way to finish next week. We really need to get that mojo back, even if it's only for a couple games. Show the world that this team isn't dead, like they appeared to be today.
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I completely (and respectfully) disagree. I don't care if you're playing for the Rose Bowl or the Poulan Weedeater Independence Bowl, when you're in the 4th quarter with a chance to win, you want to finish the thing!

That's why I hate the BCS. It's supposed to make the regular season count, but instead it distracts us from enjoying each game so that we can focus on a rigged and arbitrary "national championship." Go back and look at Hayden Fry's glory years sometime. They would have been perceived a lot differently if everyone had their panties in a bunch about the BCS instead of just focusing on winning the Big Ten.
 
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