Questions from a new Hawkeye

UIClassof13

UIClassof13

Member
Hey, I will be enrolling at U of I in January for undergrad. Having just started paying close attention to Hawkeye sports last month when I decided to go to U of I, I was just wondering how long the strong opposition to Kirk Ferentz has been present among this fan base.

Having grown up in Big Ten Country and as a die-hard (soon to be "former" because I will soon be a Hawkeye) Michigan fan, KF has always been highly regarded as a coach around these parts. I remember U of M even wanted to interview him this past year when they fired Rich Rod and he seems to get a lot of praise around the nation as well.

I guess my questions are, When did all of the hate start? Also as a new Hawkeye, what can I expect from this program? A lot of heartbreak? Will there be consistent success? And will we ever rope in a 5 star recruit or will it always be an unheralded, overachieving class?

Finally, from the outside, I've always seen this program most comparable to Wisconsin, would that be correct?
 
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I don't live in Iowa anymore so I don't know the current mindset but things turned on him a bit in 2005 when Iowa underachieved a bit. It continued to build with mediocre teams and bad QB play in 06, 07 and probably the early part of 08 when they started to play well again.

Iowa then played Ohio State for the right to go to the Rose Bowl in 09 and while they were short handed we had a chance to win (I'm sure you know all this) but at the end of regulation we got the ball in OSU territory or just outside of it and decided that instead of trying to win the game we were going to kneel. We went on to lose later. That, I think started to turn people against Ferentz a bit however we won the Orange Bowl and everyone was happy for the most part.

Things have really started to go sour the last two years. We underachieved again last year and finished 8-5 and while that's not bad, it wasn't what we expected or wanted. This year, we weren't expected to do as well however we lost to a bad Minnesota team and a decent Iowa State team, and that's something we don't like doing, and it's getting worse. At least on these message boards.

Anyways, welcome aboard. Though it's probably not the best times to be switching teams.
 
Welcome! You will never regret coming to Iowa. Don't get discouraged by what you read on this message board this week. Taken as a whole, you will find that the vast majority of the posters here are true Hawkeyes. We just suffered a disapointing loss and some feel the need to vent. So it seems to become a blame game and that's what you are seeing quite a bit of. Attend the Hawkeye games and observe the tremendous fan spirit. You've got some of the best years of your life coming up! Good luck.
 
A few things. Is it too late to retake the ACT to try to get into Northwestern or Michigan if you want to stay in the Big Ten? Have you considered majoring in Communications? There is a guy on here named VintageHawkeye who did that and you have the makings of a young VintageHawkeye. I like the cut of your jib, kid. I'll be watching you (but not in a creepy way).

Anyway, Hawk fans will try to compare us to Wisconsin, but that is not correct. Wisconsin has a lot of recent Rose Bowl appearances. I think the Iowa program is somewhere more around the Michigan State/Purdue/Northwestern tier of the B10, just above Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota.
 
If you are new following the Hawkeyes then how do you know we haven't had many five stars...........???
 
okeefe4prez said:
A few things. Is it too late to retake the ACT to try to get into Northwestern or Michigan if you want to stay in the Big Ten? Have you considered majoring in Communications? There is a guy on here named VintageHawkeye who did that and you have the makings of a young VintageHawkeye. I like the cut of your jib, kid. I'll be watching you (but not in a creepy way).

Anyway, Hawk fans will try to compare us to Wisconsin, but that is not correct. Wisconsin has a lot of recent Rose Bowl appearances. I think the Iowa program is somewhere more around the Michigan State/Purdue/Northwestern tier of the B10, just above Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota.
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THOSE TEAMS AREN'T AHEAD OF IOWA IN MY RANDOM, MADE UP, ARBITRARY RANKINGS!!!!!!!
 
BigD said:
If you are new following the Hawkeyes then how do you know we haven't had many five stars...........???
Click to expand...

I've researched past recruiting classes through rivals and scout and saw the lack of five star recruits and Iowa always has had the rep, under KF, of making a lot happen with not a high amount of talent.
 
okeefe4prez said:
A few things. Is it too late to retake the ACT to try to get into Northwestern or Michigan if you want to stay in the Big Ten? Have you considered majoring in Communications? There is a guy on here named VintageHawkeye who did that and you have the makings of a young VintageHawkeye. I like the cut of your jib, kid. I'll be watching you (but not in a creepy way).
Click to expand...

I'm actually coming to Iowa to double major in Journalism and English (Creative Writing). UI is supposed to have a world renowned creative writing program and it really swayed me to come.
 
UIClassof13 said:
Hey, I will be enrolling at U of I in January for undergrad. Having just started paying close attention to Hawkeye sports last month when I decided to go to U of I, I was just wondering how long the strong opposition to Kirk Ferentz has been present among this fan base.

Having grown up in Big Ten Country and as a die-hard (soon to be "former" because I will soon be a Hawkeye) Michigan fan, KF has always been highly regarded as a coach around these parts. I remember U of M even wanted to interview him this past year when they fired Rich Rod and he seems to get a lot of praise around the nation as well.

I guess my questions are, When did all of the hate start? Also as a new Hawkeye, what can I expect from this program? A lot of heartbreak? Will there be consistent success? And will we ever rope in a 5 star recruit or will it always be an unheralded, overachieving class?

Finally, from the outside, I've always seen this program most comparable to Wisconsin, would that be correct?
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Welcome to the University of Iowa! I agree with the first reply to your opening post, but I also think that much of the 'opposition' to Kirk/staff is the vocal minority. Now they are going to huff and puff and say those in support of Kirk have rose colored glasses and ask if they are satisfied with a 7-5 record...in my opinion, they are short sighted, spoiled, out of touch, bullies, and a few other select adjectives could also be used to describe them.

Read the article on the front page about McNutt and the other Big Ten awards this current team achieved. The stats are also impressive, eleven consecutive bowl trips is impressive, our win/loss record is impressive over the last eleven years, and the stats go on...can we be better, absolutely, unless you are the National Champion you can always do better. Am I happy with our record this year, let me just say that I am nuetral. I know the coaches and the players would have liked to have had a better record than they ended up with, but we have fans that only think of themselves and forget that football is a team sport and a loss is a team loss, yes, coaches included, but in my opinion they do not deserve the insults/complaints that some chose to send their way.

Kirk is a coach who will never throw anyone under the bus, including players and assistants. We have fans that are rabid, they want someone to blame when there is a loss or a 7-5 season or 8-5 season like last year. When things go right, these fans slither back in their holes until the next loss. Pre-forums, these fans were rarely heard from by the average fan, they sat in bars or other holes in the ground and whined, or ranted if they had an audience, but now they have forums, and they feel like their 2 inch member is suddenly 8 or bigger. They crow loudly and constantly. On forums, they even seem like the majority, in reality the majority is sitting back shaking their heads at the small, childish behavior of those in question and hoping their children or future children never act like some on here.

Kirk is an excellent coach and I hope that you will take the time to educate yourself (Your post here is a first step, although you have to read all posts and make your own decisions, mine included), but go to some games, watch how the team acts and how the coaches conduct themselves. Then make up your own mind...
 
Hey OP welcome to the hawkeyes. It is a small minority that really want Kirk fired. Many fans just want some changes because to some they are so predictable that other teams know what is coming which leads to unnecessary losses. Kirk is a good man and a really good coach who needs to add some new flair to the program.
 
UIClassof13 said:
I've researched past recruiting classes through rivals and scout and saw the lack of five star recruits and Iowa always has had the rep, under KF, of making a lot happen with not a high amount of talent.
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We don't get 5 star recruits because we are lil' ol' Iowa and we do more with less.
 
welcome to hawkeye nation!

dont get discouraged with what is posted, most of it is venting in frustration. yes the loses to ISU & minny are hurtful, but the fact of the matter is we flipped those for games we really should have lost this year-like michigan. we fans are fed up without having much success following our 2 BCS games but each time we lost a ton to the NFL & graduation. i dont think talent is that far off from other big ten schools as the playing field has evened out some the past decade. and when we lose student athletes to the NFL and graduation, we become young and inexperienced and our down years of 6-6 or 7-5 finishes we have lacked a standout junior or senior leader on the team. most coaches do a good job of leading whereas ferentz encourages the student athletes themselves to appoint leadership or to have someone sack up and take that role. for the most part, in essence preparing the student athletes for stellar careers & decison making when football is over. again, we have lacked that team leadership the past 2 seasons.
5*'s? well, ferentz finds diamonds in the rough and it would be nice to have that. however we've gotten burned on heralded recruits & thats probaly bc they dont fit in the hard working, earn your keep mentality we iowans pride ourselves on. we lost chris leak to florida, jake christianson was a bust and domink douglas was a criminal (DJK did a good job of hiding his criminal activity) and benny sapp also didnt fit in. we would much rather have the matt roths, bob sanders and dallas clraks that fight and scratch with their fingernails into success opposed to having life and opportunity handed to them just bc theyre athletic. we iowans have a histrory of working hard and earning everything we have accomplished.
id also much rather have a "clean" program finish with 7 or 8 wins than to finish a champion by cheating and breaking rules. i believe most TRUE iowans would agree to that.
ferentz is a perfect fit for the program, the state of iowa and most importantly to the student athletes. however, we fans would have like to have seen more aggressiveness this year with game planning. we love ferentz and we might monday morning quarterback it, but we love what ferentz has done and dont want him to leave. we must be reminded that even at nebraska, it took tom osborne something like 15 seasons before he won a national championship and that is even after being at a program rich in football history.

i rambled on a bit there...but i hope this helps. welcome to iowa friend
 
UIClassof13 said:
I'm actually coming to Iowa to double major in Journalism and English (Creative Writing). UI is supposed to have a world renowned creative writing program and it really swayed me to come.
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Well, welcome to the board. Sorry you couldn't get into Medill, but the creative writing component will really supplement your journalism degree. There is a guy on here by the name of tm3308 who is allegedly in j-school at Iowa. He has written some pretty hard hitting articles about the freshmen members of the women's golf team. Follow him around and he'll show you the ropes.
 
Color me dubious but the OP has me doubting his authenticity. Does anyone else find the style or content suspiciously close to the jottings of our good friend OK4P, who provided probably his quickest responses ever to a thread, or even the Duffman, assuming he has stopped peeing in empty milk jugs? Alt sig, anyone?

Just sayin ...
 
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