Rob Howe's 2010 Iowa & Big 10 FB Predictions

[bb4hawks]

You never know what is going to happen...I would think we would know that by now.

 

[Saginawbay]

I would agree would be satisfied any place between 9-3 and up.

 

[fufred]

I'm totally NOT sold on Mr. Pryor.

His offense is typically.....1/2-a-look one way, 1/2-a-look the other, tuck it and run.

His passing is almost by accident it seems.

I like Iowa beating them this year, and going 11-1....the lone loss at scUM.

Pryor looked great in the spring game (yes I know its just a glorified practice) and I think he turned the corner in the Rose Bowl. He isn't going to be a prolific passer but with his running ability he doesn't have to be. He needs to improve his completion percentage and OSU will be tough to stop. I think OSU only has 3 real games this year, Miami, Iowa and Wisconsin. I believe that OSU can beat Miami at home and should have enough talent to top Iowa and Wisky. OSU's depth is the key to their B10 dominance of late, OSU can withstand an major injury where others cannot. If OSU finishes worse than 11-1 it would be a disappointment.

 

[Not4cy]

Pryor looked great in the spring game (yes I know its just a glorified practice) and I think he turned the corner in the Rose Bowl. He isn't going to be a prolific passer but with his running ability he doesn't have to be. He needs to improve his completion percentage and OSU will be tough to stop. I think OSU only has 3 real games this year, Miami, Iowa and Wisconsin. I believe that OSU can beat Miami at home and should have enough talent to top Iowa and Wisky. OSU's depth is the key to their B10 dominance of late, OSU can withstand an major injury where others cannot. If OSU finishes worse than 11-1 it would be a disappointment.

Is there ever a year that an OSU fan doesn't say"If OSU finishes worse than 11-1 it would be a disappointment?"

I definitely believe that OSU can go 11-1 or 12-0 but sometimes your fan base just gets carried away. There are other great teams/programs in college football than just THE Ohio State University. If you guys don't win the national championship every single year, you are calling for Jim Tressel's job. Jim Tressel is very underappreciated at OSU and I have no idea why. The guy goes to a BCS game almost every single year and beats Michigan every single year. How much more do you want?

Also, if Terrell Pryor goes down, OSU is a 9-3 team at best! Any other player, then I agree with you that OSU will just bring in another stud.

 

[fufred]

With all that OSU is returning and their dominance of the B10 the last 5 years of course expectations are high. I'm not the type that expects 11-1 or better every year but barring an injury to TP OSU should continue to be the class of the B10 in 2010. The only real question marks are at safety and punter. This year lines up perfectly for a title run.

 

[JHHawk]

I think you mean they play better when YOUR expectations are lower. Everybody keeps going back to 2005. That was a stupid year for people to expect much from Iowa. Not only was Iowa replacing the whole defensive line and many other key players, they were replacing them with complete inexperience and guys that were not physically developed.

That year was about the prognosticators having their heads on backwards. This was mainly due to them missing on Iowa three years running. However, even at this, Iowa was still only a few plays away from 9-3 or even 10-2.

In 2005 the Hawks were two short missed field goals away from a 3rd big ten title in 4 years. Schlicher messed up or we would have been above expectations. Just a fine line. Michigan and NW were games we had,and those missed fgs were brutal.

 

[bud2380]

Rob has a flaw in his predictions. He has Purdue at 6-6 but no bowl game. Under his scenarios Purdue would go to the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl as the Big Tens 8th tie in.

 

[deanvogs]

With all that OSU is returning and their dominance of the B10 the last 5 years of course expectations are high. I'm not the type that expects 11-1 or better every year but barring an injury to TP OSU should continue to be the class of the B10 in 2010. The only real question marks are at safety and punter. This year lines up perfectly for a title run.

I don't disagree with this. If I were an OSU fan I would feel the same about a title run in '10. Isn't there some trepidation coming into Kinnick though seeing how Iowa almost beat you at home last year with a backup QB with ZERO starts under his belt. OSU played a mistake free game, and Iowa turned it over 3 times, and it still took OT to win?

I know it would be hard to make an OSU fan wary of any game, but this is one I would look at and say to myself we were lucky to come away with a win last year at home, it will be even tougher on the road this year.

 

[fufred]

Yeah I don't think Iowa is a guaranteed win by any means. I also fear the trip to Madison as UW is the one team that Tressel has had issues with since becoming OSU's coach.

 

[lightning1]

I could predict the B10 race better than both of them.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

I'm not sure what you are talking about...but if you're implying that Tressel didn't want Pryor throwing the ball in the Rose Bowl I will go ahead and disagree with you there.

His line from that game was:

23/37 266 yards 2 tds 1 int 20 carries 72 yards

He absolutely looked phenomenal that day.

I was agreeing with the previous poster (it may have been you) in that Pryor's success that day was largely a result of the type of defense he was going up against.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

Yeah I don't think Iowa is a guaranteed win by any means. I also fear the trip to Madison as UW is the one team that Tressel has had issues with since becoming OSU's coach.

I think Wisconsin will win that game, but I also think Wisconsin will lose two of three at Iowa, MSU, and Michigan.

 

[PJHawk]

I think you mean they play better when YOUR expectations are lower. Everybody keeps going back to 2005. That was a stupid year for people to expect much from Iowa.

WTF? Either you didn't actually watch Iowa football back then or someone is feeding you some bad information as that statement could not be further from truth of what the 2005 Iowa football team was capable of.

 

[DaHawk56]

Scout.com: Hawkeye Insider Big Ten Football Preview

Nothing original there. Pretty much the exact same thing that everyone else is saying. The safe pick so to speak.

In my opinion, this season will be a disappointment if Iowa doesn't make a BCS bowl game. This is one of those rare seasons where the team has the potential to be very, very special. You have a team coming off one of its best seasons since the late 1950s and returns a ton (at least, all the key components).

The coaches are still able to keep the kids' heads out of the clouds by pointing to the several close games last year. But let's be honest. Last year's team was a bunch of winners and they are back, better, with an easier schedule (i.e., tough games at home instead of one the road like last year).

This is a top 10 team and top 10 teams win more than 8 or 9 games. Top 10 teams play in BCS games or for championships. With this Iowa team, that is what we should expect, if we ever are going to have those expectations.

Or we could just play it safe and predict 8 or 9 wins when we have the core of an 11 win team returning and an easier schedule. Maybe I'm being nice referring to those predictions as "playing it safe."

 

[ThunderHawk]

The whole talk of Iowa losing at Arizona is completely overblown. It's being overblown simply because many people are liking it to the Arizona St. game played in 2004. However, there really isn't any parallels between the two. The main being a 5th year Senior QB in Stanzi versus a True Soph in Tate who happened to be making his first start on the road. Big difference. Not to mention the skill positions Iowa has this time and not to mention that this Arizona team, which lost a lot on defense from last season, is no where near that Arizona St. team as far as talent.

Yeah, and this team proved last year that they care exactly zero about playing in "hostile" environments.