Records for the Fry-Ferentz Era at Iowa

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
Another season has come and gone. I was there every season starting in 1961, and then as a young man I saw an intense coach in 1979 at the age of 47 take over the Iowa program. His name was Hayden Fry, and no one knew much about him, except for a wise old owl named Bump Elliott. Iowa was the worst team in the Big Ten at that time, and it wasn't even close. A coaching graveyard!

Hayden built a winner and hired wonderful young coaches, including Bill Snyder, Dan McCarney, Barry Alvaraz, and the great Kirk Ferentz. Here is a summary:

1.Winning percentage at Iowa from 1961 through 1978: 34%. Zero bowls, zero winning seasons, zero championships.
2. Record from 1979 through 2025 inclusive (47 seasons): 355-215-6 (62% winning percentage).
3. Record in the Big Ten: 230-152-6 (60% winning percentage).
4. Record against Minnesota: 32-15
5. Record against Iowa State: 30-16
6. Record against Wisconsin: 28-14-1
7. Record against Nebraska: 11-8
8. Combined record against our 4 rivals: 101-53-1 (65% winning percentage)! Iowa had lopsided deficits against Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska before 1979
9. Big Ten titles: 5
10. Big Ten West titles: 3
11. Rose Bowls: 4
12. Orange Bowls: 2
13. Overall bowl record: 16-18-1

I hope it continues.
 




Back in the day Fry was all about getting Iowa to bowl games. Now the question becomes how often will Iowa be a playoff team? I think that's going to be the new bar going forward.
 


ssckelley said:
Back in the day Fry was all about getting Iowa to bowl games. Now the question becomes how often will Iowa be a playoff team? I think that's going to be the new bar going forward.
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That is really the question, isn't it? Back when Hayden was coaching, there were about 12 bowls, and 24 bids, give or take.

The problem with the current playoff system is that there are only 12 openings, but really 9 when you consider that a bid must be given to the group of 5 (what a joke), the champion of the crappy ACC, and a bid every year to Notre Dame because of their cupcake schedule and political power.

If the field is expanded to 16 teams and the Big Ten is guaranteed FOUR bids (in an 18 team league), the Big Ten would have a one game playoff featuring the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place teams. Iowa would have made the one game play in this year, finishing 6th.

They need to expand it to 16.
 


ChosenChildren said:
That is really the question, isn't it? Back when Hayden was coaching, there were about 12 bowls, and 24 bids, give or take.

The problem with the current playoff system is that there are only 12 openings, but really 9 when you consider that a bid must be given to the group of 5 (what a joke), the champion of the crappy ACC, and a bid every year to Notre Dame because of their cupcake schedule and political power.

If the field is expanded to 16 teams and the Big Ten is guaranteed FOUR bids (in an 18 team league), the Big Ten would have a one game playoff featuring the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place teams. Iowa would have made the one game play in this year, finishing 6th.

They need to expand it to 16.
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I'm good with 12. It just gets watered down. Make it a special season to make the playoffs. No reason to have 5-6 teams from the BIG or SEC get in every year.
 


MelroseHawkins said:
I'm good with 12. It just gets watered down. Make it a special season to make the playoffs. No reason to have 5-6 teams from the BIG or SEC get in every year.
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I mentioned this in another thread but I think it needs to go to 16 and eliminate the first round bye. It still allows the Group of 5 team to get in as well as some other strong candidates. It also allows teams like Boise State last year to host a home playoff game rather than have the first game at a neutral site. It seems goofy to me that the top 4 teams doesn't get to host a game and reward the fans and school with the added revenue and exposure.
 


kameltoez102 said:
I mentioned this in another thread but I think it needs to go to 16 and eliminate the first round bye. It still allows the Group of 5 team to get in as well as some other strong candidates. It also allows teams like Boise State last year to host a home playoff game rather than have the first game at a neutral site. It seems goofy to me that the top 4 teams doesn't get to host a game and reward the fans and school with the added revenue and exposure.
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Agree with this. 12 makes no sense at all, other than it was a number bigger than 2 or 4.
 


ChosenChildren said:
That is really the question, isn't it? Back when Hayden was coaching, there were about 12 bowls, and 24 bids, give or take.

The problem with the current playoff system is that there are only 12 openings, but really 9 when you consider that a bid must be given to the group of 5 (what a joke), the champion of the crappy ACC, and a bid every year to Notre Dame because of their cupcake schedule and political power.

If the field is expanded to 16 teams and the Big Ten is guaranteed FOUR bids (in an 18 team league), the Big Ten would have a one game playoff featuring the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place teams. Iowa would have made the one game play in this year, finishing 6th.

They need to expand it to 16.
Click to expand...

Don't worry they will keep expanding it, it's just a matter of time. It won't be long and it will look like the FCS playoff bracket. I'd rather they go back to a 4 team playoff as I think it worked, but that will never happen.

Looking through the recent seasons the only one that looked like definite playoff team was 2015 in the current set up.
 


kameltoez102 said:
I mentioned this in another thread but I think it needs to go to 16 and eliminate the first round bye. It still allows the Group of 5 team to get in as well as some other strong candidates. It also allows teams like Boise State last year to host a home playoff game rather than have the first game at a neutral site. It seems goofy to me that the top 4 teams doesn't get to host a game and reward the fans and school with the added revenue and exposure.
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Yea I guess. Eliminating the byes would be good.
 


ssckelley said:
Don't worry they will keep expanding it, it's just a matter of time. It won't be long and it will look like the FCS playoff bracket. I'd rather they go back to a 4 team playoff as I think it worked, but that will never happen.

Looking through the recent seasons the only one that looked like definite playoff team was 2015 in the current set up.
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On the Legends and Listeners podcast last week, Scott Dochterman said that he is hearing that they are proposing to jump straight to 24 teams. Not sure who is being that but probably Pettitti. I think that is too many. I think 12 is enough. This isn't like college BB where 10-15 teams legitimately have a chance to win it all. In football, it is usually 3-4 teams and the more you let in, the more unwatchable games we will see.
 


haydensly said:
On the Legends and Listeners podcast last week, Scott Dochterman said that he is hearing that they are proposing to jump straight to 24 teams. Not sure who is being that but probably Pettitti. I think that is too many. I think 12 is enough. This isn't like college BB where 10-15 teams legitimately have a chance to win it all. In football, it is usually 3-4 teams and the more you let in, the more unwatchable games we will see.
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It's all about money, the playoff with 4 teams was getting it right and crowning the best team. Honestly they should just have the winner of the Big Ten play the winner of the SEC championship games and be done with it. A team having to potentially play 16 games in order to win the NC is crazy.
 


haydensly said:
On the Legends and Listeners podcast last week, Scott Dochterman said that he is hearing that they are proposing to jump straight to 24 teams. Not sure who is being that but probably Pettitti. I think that is too many. I think 12 is enough. This isn't like college BB where 10-15 teams legitimately have a chance to win it all. In football, it is usually 3-4 teams and the more you let in, the more unwatchable games we will see.
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If it leads to death of the bowl system, I am all for it. Talk about an idea that has outlived its utility and is only hanging on due to legacy/inertia.
 


CP87 said:
If it leads to death of the bowl system, I am all for it. Talk about an idea that has outlived its utility and is only hanging on due to legacy/inertia.
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It's already dead, the bowl games are glorified exhibition games now with the athletes with NFL aspirations rarely participating. The last couple I've been too had a lot of empty seats.

It does suck for the rest of the student athletes, coaches, band, and cheer squads as those trips were nice rewards for the hard work they put into the season. Bowl trips was a big reason why my son joined the HMB.
 


ssckelley said:
It's already dead, the bowl games are glorified exhibition games now with the athletes with NFL aspirations rarely participating. The last couple I've been too had a lot of empty seats.

It does suck for the rest of the student athletes, coaches, band, and cheer squads as those trips were nice rewards for the hard work they put into the season. Bowl trips was a big reason why my son joined the HMB.
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I know, but they still won't go away! And, people use their existence as justification for non-sensical playoff formats. Why are there 3 weeks between the conference championship games and the start of the CFP?!?!?
 


CP87 said:
I know, but they still won't go away! And, people use their existence as justification for non-sensical playoff formats. Why are there 3 weeks between the conference championship games and the start of the CFP?!?!?
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Except they are not, the playoffs will keep expanding and having bowl games around will not stop it from expanding.
 




CP87 said:
But why the 3 week break between conference championships and CFP? That has to be a bowl legacy thing, right?
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Likely because of semester finals, people forget there are classes involved. But the first round is only 2 weeks after the conclusion of the conference championships.

I don't think bowl games have anything to do with the CFP schedule. I could be wrong.
 


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