Schwartz's Article - Dreamland

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WinOneThisCentury

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I'd go with Stanzi healthy to see if that team could have run the table. The defense was good enough thats for sure. GT was averaging 50 and hadn't punted in a few months, nor gone three and out for some ungodly number of quarters. They went three and out on their first four possessions I think.

If I'm really dreaming though...I'd have wanted the real Ronnie Harmon to show up in the 1986 Rose Bowl. If he plays the way he normally plays, that's a completely different outcome to a great team's legacy...and we had the Rose Bowl curse off our backs.
 
I will take Drew Ott to be healthy all year. We couldn’t rush the passer for squat once he was out of the line-up. Fortunately, we were still good enough to win until MSU. I think he makes a difference in that game, and we are conference champs, and in the BCS playoff.

We still won an awesome bowl game in 2009.
 
Lumberman said:
I will take Drew Ott to be healthy all year. We couldn’t rush the passer for squat once he was out of the line-up. Fortunately, we were still good enough to win until MSU. I think he makes a difference in that game, and we are conference champs, and in the BCS playoff.

We still won an awesome bowl game in 2009.
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I have to agree with Lumberman here. As much as I love Stanzi, one play could have made the difference in that MSU game, and Ott could have provided that extra bit.
 
I'm just not sure how you can pick Ott...although I would have liked to see him all season and you are right, he is most likely the difference against MSU. He would have made a play. That being said, if we win against MSU with Ott, he wasn't going to make one bit of a difference against Alabama in the playoff. That my friends was a mismatch at several positions and it would not have been a ball game. They were dominate on the defensive line and our offense would not have stood a chance...so the glory ends there.

In 2009, although the offense wasn't necessarily great...that defense was. Because of the that defense...they are in every game they play no matter who they play. They could have run the table and had a legitimate shot at a National Title if Stanzi doesn't go down.

There is no way in hell you can make an argument that the 2015 team had any shot of winning against the three other playoff teams. It was the end of the road, even if they had won against MSU.
 
I think the 2009 team was the best team of the Ferentz era. If Stanzi doesn't get hurt against Northwestern, we beat Northwestern and thus we would have won at least a share of the Big Ten. That is my only real regret of the Ferentz era - that team deserved a Big Ten title.

The 2015 team at least won a Western Division championship....
 
2003 With a Maurice Brown and Jonathan Babineaux the entire year. I like Iowa's chances against Purdue with Babineaux in the defensive line even though it wasn't a particularly close game. Purdue exploited that side of the line all game. Matt Roth may have been dinged up for that game too, now that I think about it. Maurice Brown was lost for the season in the Iowa State game. Iowa lost to Michigan State 10-20 and Ohio State 10-19.

As it stands the 10-3 season may be the most under-rated of the Ferentz era.
 
I would go with Stanzi, but it is very possible Ott could have changed the game I will not speak of. That guy was unlucky and really got screwed. Basically got burned for being tough.
 
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AreWeThereYet said:
2003 With a Maurice Brown and Jonathan Babineaux the entire year. I like Iowa's chances against Purdue with Babineaux in the defensive line even though it wasn't a particularly close game. Purdue exploited that side of the line all game. Matt Roth may have been dinged up for that game too, now that I think about it. Maurice Brown was lost for the season in the Iowa State game. Iowa lost to Michigan State 10-20 and Ohio State 10-19.

As it stands the 10-3 season may be the most under-rated of the Ferentz era.
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I agree. I've always felt like 2003 was the biggest "what might have been" in the KF era. Don't forget Jermelle Lewis tore an ACL before the season. Two starters went down on the O-line in David Walker and Brian Ferentz. You mentioned Mo Brown's injury. If IRC Ed Hinkel missed most of that season as well. Plus Clinton Solomon was academically ineligible.That adds up to 5 likely starters on offense that missed most of the season. I don't think its an exaggeration to say that team could easily have run the table if they would have had even half of those guys playing the whole season. We saw in the bowl game against Florida how much Mo Brown meant to that offense.

Because of the fact that team finished in the top ten despite all those injuries is the reason Nate Chandler gets my vote for most underrated player ever for KF.
 
Stanzi. I don’t think anything would change the MSU game, and two Reggie Whites playing left and right DE wouldn’t have stopped the colorectal exam that Stanford gave the Hawks.
 
Fryowa said:
Stanzi. I don’t think anything would change the MSU game, and two Reggie Whites playing left and right DE wouldn’t have stopped the colorectal exam that Stanford gave the Hawks.
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No Iowa played with a wounded player on D and they exploited it. Dont remember who it was. Iowa entered the game like they had no idea who ir ehat they were playing agaibstveith that stubborn this os what we do attitude.
 
peerok said:
I agree. I've always felt like 2003 was the biggest "what might have been" in the KF era. Don't forget Jermelle Lewis tore an ACL before the season. Two starters went down on the O-line in David Walker and Brian Ferentz. You mentioned Mo Brown's injury. If IRC Ed Hinkel missed most of that season as well. Plus Clinton Solomon was academically ineligible.That adds up to 5 likely starters on offense that missed most of the season. I don't think its an exaggeration to say that team could easily have run the table if they would have had even half of those guys playing the whole season. We saw in the bowl game against Florida how much Mo Brown meant to that offense.

Because of the fact that team finished in the top ten despite all those injuries is the reason Nate Chandler gets my vote for most underrated player ever for KF.
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Can't argue that at all. KOK did a great job of handling that offense and using him and his strengths. He played solid that year no doubt about it.
 
Stanzi being healthy that entire season would be my vote. I think we easily would have pulled that game off against NW and definitely would have had a shot to beat OSU. Heck, we took them to OT with a RS FR making his first start ever.
 
First I'd need to answer the question, would have I preferred for Iowa to get humiliated against Stanford in the rose bowl, or Alabama in the college football playoffs.

I guess the CFP. Just to say we've been there. But on game day, it would have felt even worse, if that is possible. So I'm going with Stanzi healthy 2009.

Better question: A healthy Stanzi 2009 or Shonn Greene returning to that same 2009 team.

Now imagine having both... Ugh...
 
^ It would have felt no worse than that piece of crap Rose Bowl. And like you say, it would have been nice to say we made it once.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
I'm just not sure how you can pick Ott...although I would have liked to see him all season and you are right, he is most likely the difference against MSU. He would have made a play. That being said, if we win against MSU with Ott, he wasn't going to make one bit of a difference against Alabama in the playoff. That my friends was a mismatch at several positions and it would not have been a ball game. They were dominate on the defensive line and our offense would not have stood a chance...so the glory ends there.

In 2009, although the offense wasn't necessarily great...that defense was. Because of the that defense...they are in every game they play no matter who they play. They could have run the table and had a legitimate shot at a National Title if Stanzi doesn't go down.

There is no way in hell you can make an argument that the 2015 team had any shot of winning against the three other playoff teams. It was the end of the road, even if they had won against MSU.
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Wouldn’t be the first time Ferentz beat Saban. We may well have at least played better than MSU.
 
^ Yep, no "Rose Bowl Curse" in effect for that game. It might not have turned out as bad as many assume. Probably not, but you never know.
 
Tough question.
I'll take Stanzi.
That Rose bowl left a nasty after taste. That was the very first time I have walked away from a game and not come back to it. It wasn't just bad, it was a "you don't even belong on the same field" type of bad.
Say whatever you want, but that usually does not happen.
 
HawkGold said:
No Iowa played with a wounded player on D and they exploited it. Dont remember who it was. Iowa entered the game like they had no idea who ir ehat they were playing agaibstveith that stubborn this os what we do attitude.
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Game was over the first 10 seconds of the game. That's how long it took Mccaffrey to score.....

All hope was gone.....

It was Ken Burns fault. He tossed the coin the wrong way.....

Damn
 
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