Schwartz: “Would You Rather?” Hawkeye Edition

[trj]

ISU, Pitt, Indiana, Minny, we would have eeked by NT and Purdue, along with losing by double digits to MSU if we still managed to get to Indy.

While I don't think CJ was necessarily the sole "savior" of 2015, he was better than Rudock by that point and could stretch the field in a way we needed badly.

He did push the ball down the field with his arm and before the injuries piled up, his legs........that's fair.

 

[trj]

If we had JR in 2015, he would have set an all-time NCAA record for sacks. He simply didn't have the arm or wheels to deal with blanketed receivers that much. Hell, in 2014 there were several times JR looked straight at wide open receivers on deep post routes and wouldn't throw it. CJB threw a lot of completions into very tight windows that year. I'm not sure which way the Wisky game would have went with JR, but all the other close games would have easily been losses with JR at QB (Pitt, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, probably even against INT Armstrong at Nebraska). There's no way in hell we go 12-0 with Rudock at QB that year. You don't honestly believe we would have, do you?

My point, was that it was a really good thing that CJ's dad did that radio interview or do you think it didn't have anything to do with Kirk's first ever January depth chart release?

point well taken.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Iowa and Michigan State both went into the game with a limp and came out on crutches. Neither team recovered.

Agreed. Still surprised at how uninspired MSU appeared. Then again, they were actually driving to keep the game close but threw an INT at the Bama goal line and never threatened again.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

If we had JR in 2015, he would have set an all-time NCAA record for sacks. He simply didn't have the arm or wheels to deal with blanketed receivers that much. Hell, in 2014 there were several times JR looked straight at wide open receivers on deep post routes and wouldn't throw it. CJB threw a lot of completions into very tight windows that year. I'm not sure which way the Wisky game would have went with JR, but all the other close games would have easily been losses with JR at QB (Pitt, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, probably even against INT Armstrong at Nebraska). There's no way in hell we go 12-0 with Rudock at QB that year. You don't honestly believe we would have, do you?

My point, was that it was a really good thing that CJ's dad did that radio interview or do you think it didn't have anything to do with Kirk's first ever January depth chart release?

I essentially agree that it is very unlikely that Rudock could have taken the team 12-0. Throw in the fact that CJB was going to get to the marker any way he could, even if it killed him. I don't think the situation at Iowa in 2015 would have been as conducive to Rudock's growth as having a better cast of players around him at Michigan.

I would have liked to see what they could do with Alabama even though my expectations would have been low. MSU's quarterback Conner Cook was having all sorts of trouble with his shoulder, which may have played into MSU having nothing for that game. I have my doubts Iowa would have done better against Alabama, but Iowa does have a reputation for kicking the cyclops in the seeds.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Both of these are punches in the gut. But Im going MSU.

We would have been in the playoffs. That means you have a legit shot. And you thought baseball was a game of inches.

This was kind of a depressing article.

 

[Fryowa]

Would you rather have had CJB's dad forcing Kirk's hand or JR running the show in '15?

Rudock was never a Hawkeye. He never wanted to be here and no one ever wanted him here.

 

[hawkeyes87]

How about a HF "what if"?

Here are some choices:
(assumes, as Schwartz did, that all other regular season games play out as they originally did)

1. 1981 Rose Bowl
#13 Big-10 co-champ Iowa lost 28-0 to #12 Wash.
A win likely means a top-10 finish, and that much more of a push to the newly contending Hawks
or
2. 1985 @OSU
#1 Iowa suffered their only regular-season loss at the #8 Bucks.
By our rules, they still go to the Rose so they still lose the last game, but they'd have an undefeated regular-season and a top-5 finish (and a win in the Shoe).

or
3. 1985 Rose Bowl
#4 Big-10 champ Iowa lost 45-28 to #13 UCLA.
Top-5 finish, and a much better ending to Iowa's only modern "we're #1" season.
or
4. 1991 Michigan
#9 Iowa suffered their only regular-season loss to the #7 Wolverines.
A win means they replace Mich as outright Big-10 champs, and take their 11-0 record to the Rose for another matchup w/ Washington.
The Hawks would've likely entered that game around #4, as Michigan did. Wash was undefeated #1 / #2 (polls were split between them and Miami). Miami won, so a Hawk win would not have meant a NC (Wash beat Mich 34-14 to finish as split champs).

It's a tough choice, but I gotta go w/ '91 Michigan because of the Big10 Championship.​

 

[AreWeThereYet]

What if's?

What if Howard Jones wife liked the Iowa weather.

 

[EstronHawkKing]

The 02 Iowa team would have had a much better chance vs Miami, FL than the Iowa 2015 team vs Alabama which means our chances for a national title would have been better vs the Hurricanes.

 

[Fryowa]

This is a pick ‘em. Both would have turned out the same way. The Hawks weren’t ready for big time football even if they only had one loss, as evidenced by the USC and Stanford games. Both years would have possibly gotten national championship talk but they would have gotten destroyed against real contenders. As someone posted before, look at what happened to MSU...Iowa wasn’t and isn’t on the level of a championship team.