Voted "Even when".
First, can anybody name 3 players from last year who are noticeably better this year? I don't know that there's that much "development" happening. Positive development anyway - CJ obviously looks different.
But they have to hope for "development" because they consistently play guys with limited / questionable skill when there are more talented players on the roster. And, the limited guys need more polish.
Also, being so predictable on both sides of the ball means that execution needs to be close to perfect to have success against decent teams.
Lombardi, Van Ginkel, French are are developmental guys. Heck Van Ginkel only has 2 years left and hasn't played 1 down of P5 football. Lombardi is 3 years away from every contributing and French was recruited by Iowa as a DE, because that is what he was. These 3 are/were developmental guys.
I'll give you Pierschbacher, Arrington and Darboh. Would have loved to see those guys in black and gold. Yet if you are saying that the home state should beat out Bama and Michigan for recruits every time, then every school in the country has the same problem Iowa does.......cause Bama and
Michigan have been taking the best players from other states for decades.
Maybe being 1900 miles away makes me a little more bitter with the product. Maybe it's more fun if I was able to go to Kinnick and take in the atmosphere of gameday along with the results on the field.
But since I'm not there, all I can say is that Iowa is one of the most boring teams to watch. To say it has worked is true, it's worked 5x in 18 years. 33% of the time, we have a great team. The rest, average.
For me to watch another team, I couldn't even possibly dream of it. Grown up with the Hawks, and just like those people who grew up and watched the "dark ages", I'll continue to support the players throughout any season. But this staff, no way. He almost had me back in his camp after last year, but this year put me on the retirement watch again
You do realize having a great team 33% of the time is pretty damn good at a place like Iowa though right? I can see how some people may feel like I'm not setting my standards high enough, but I could just as easily argue you aren't being realistic. There's a boatload of programs out there who would take that in a heartbeat. It bothers me that so many Hawk fans seem to take it for granted. The successful years tend to make people demand more and expect more. That's human nature. I'm guilty of that too. However, every once in awhile I'm quickly reminded that what we have is pretty damn good, and I'm not the type of person who isn't going to appreciate what I have. I prefer to count my blessings and be happy than constantly wish for something better.