Season tarnished

Seth53 said:
I was at Indy, as I'm sure a lot of you were. The team played its guts out. Left it all on the field. 110% effort because there was so much on the line.

Alas, even the "rose bowl" as a nice consolation prize couldn't quite get the team as fired up as for Indy.

Sure, the "rose bowl" is important to us who have been watching Iowa for a long time and remember when it meant something. That's why the ticket demand went bonkers. It was the fanbase hearkening back to the glorious RB days of yesteryear.

Alas, to the kids playing now, they don't remember any of it. None. The RB was a nice trip after being 27 seconds away from the playoffs. No more, no less.

Difficult for the staff obviously to convince them otherwise and get them as fired up as they were for Indy.
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Also very good points. Also concerning was how Ferentz said before the game it was more about the experience of going to the Rose Bowl for this team....especially the young players. That was your white flag being waved right there.
 
trj said:
In your opinion what is different between 02 and this year? Is it KF's body of work for 17 years versus what at the time was the unknown after year 4?
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I was really just comparing each year in a vacuum. They won @PSU (who went to the Cap1 bowl that year IIRC), blew out Michigan in the Big House and could've hung 50+ on them if they had wanted. They scored 40+ on MSU, Minnesota, etc. 63 against NW IIRC. Just more impressive wins, and more fun to watch IMO with more big play ability. The win over PU was nerve-wracking yet thrilling, ditto for PSU. Then the Orange Bowl, disappointing as it was, was a tied game at half and Iowa's D was just gassed in the 2nd. But at least they showed up for that game. This year, it was over before it started.

This year's success wasn't expected either, but in 2002, it had been a long time since Iowa had a great season, so maybe that's part of it. Sitting here today, we've had 2002, 2004, 2009, 2015.. Before that, 1991 was the most recent 10+ win season. Is it possible I've gotten a bit spoiled, where in '02 I wasn't? Could be.

That said, I still do feel that 2002 team is KF's best overall team, even though some of his other teams have been comparable record-wise. I never got the sense that this year's team could dominate like the 2002 team could, even with the 30 point win @NW. Most games were fairly close.

I've also lived in FL since 2004, so I don't have any close Hawkeye friends I can share the excitement with, unlike in 2002. It was great sharing the fun with coworkers, friends, etc. and I don't have that now. But that's just a personal factor for myself.
 
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Great season, it was a blast. Right up until the rose bowl where we were absolutely embarrassed. We didn't even belong on the same field. Facts are facts.
 
Chips28 said:
Thats fine, but you have to admit there is a major problem with Iowa/Ferentzs bowl prep.
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They got beat by a better team yesterday, vs Oklahoma in 2011, v LSU in 2013, v Texas in 2006. 2002, that one was a bowl prep issue and one Kirk acknowledged.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Honestly, look for Iowa to win 8-9 games next year and be playing in the Outback or Citrus Bowl and getting handled again by a team with speed. They may or may not make the Big Ten Title Game.
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Like they did in 2003 Outback v Florida, or 2009 Outback v So Car, or 2004 Cap One v LSU?
 
JonDMiller;1484061 [B said:
They got beat by a better team yesterday[/B], vs Oklahoma in 2011, v LSU in 2013, v Texas in 2006. 2002, that one was a bowl prep issue and one Kirk acknowledged.
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You're saying Stanford was 29 points (four touchdowns) better just on the rosters alone? I don't think so, sorry.

My take it was a combo of:

#1--talent level (moderate input)
#2--execution (major input)
#3--coaching/gameplan (moderate input)(i.e. we play vanilla, a team has a month to plan for it and we think we have better athletes who can pull it off?...similar to GTech in 2010)...again, don't think so.

It was a mix of 1,2,3....what ever percentage you want to attach to them is up to you, but for me, #1 certainly wasn't the end all to the beat down story.

We've beaten other teams with better talent by demonstrating #2 and #3 (LSU for example). Can't hang your hat on that.
 
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Seth53 said:
You're saying Stanford was 29 points (four touchdowns) better just on the rosters alone? I don't think so, sorry.

My take it was a combo of:

#1--talent level (moderate input)
#2--execution (major input)
#3--coaching/gameplan (moderate input)(i.e. we play vanilla, a team has a month to plan for it and we think we have better athletes who can pull it off?...similar to GTech in 2010)...again, don't think so.

It was a mix of 1,2,3....what ever percentage you want to attach to them is up to you, but for me, #1 certainly wasn't the end all to the beat down story.

We've beaten other teams with better talent by demonstrating #2 and #3 (LSU for example). Can't hang your hat on that.
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They were 29 points better yesterday. Are they That much better, no, but they likely beat Iowa 8 times out of ten and probably by more than 10 a few times.

It's cliche and made fun of because it's a Kirkcism, but ebbs/flows is real. It's the same reason a team we beat by 30 beat the team that beat us by 29. It sucks, but it happens.
 
JonDMiller said:
Like they did in 2003 Outback v Florida, or 2009 Outback v So Car, or 2004 Cap One v LSU?
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Those were better Iowa teams Jon. This is not the same thing. South Carolina (god bless their fans for loving us afterwards and to this day they still say nice things) I would not say very good (South Carolina finished 7-5). LSU and Florida were decent teams. But, Iowa had better talent compared to this year's team. And that Florida team was coached by a goof ball....Ron Zook who thought our place kicker was a running back.

I see Iowa getting ran on again by good SEC or PAC 10 team. This current team does not have enough team speed. Just see the same thing happening again.....along with ole conservative game planning.
 
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HawkeyeWalker said:
They were 29 points better yesterday. Are they That much better, no, but they likely beat Iowa 8 times out of ten and probably by more than 10 a few times.

It's cliche and made fun of because it's a Kirkcism, but ebbs/flows is real. It's the same reason a team we beat by 30 beat the team that beat us by 29. It sucks, but it happens.
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Yes, yes they were when you factor in all three elements I listed.

I was challenging Jon's assumption Iowa simply lost because Stanford is a better team, roster wise, as the sole reason.

True...they might be a better team talent wise, but they certainly had a better game plan and executed better.
 
Seth53 said:
Yes, yes they were when you factor in all three elements I listed.

I was challenging Jon's assumption Iowa simply lost because Stanford is a better team, roster wise, as the sole reason.

True...they might be a better team talent wise, but they certainly had a better game plan and executed better.
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Agreed Seth. We looked we had not practiced in a month. And where were the basic screen plays? Where was a flee-flicker? Where was a jet sweep call? Heck, where was a bubble screen or a tunnel screen called? Just had up the middle or ole stretch play on 1st and 2nd down followed up by a checkdown pass on 3rd down.

I get CJ was hurt and also took a huge shot in the game that limited him. But, we could have put in him shot gun on 1st down and tried to throw down field more. We could have tried a lot more things on offense. Heck, put Desmond King in there at wide receiver.

Might have still lost, but man give the Iowa defense something to believe in.

Man, it was the freaking Rose Bowl! Down several scores.... Why on earch do you have to hold back?
 
Seth53 said:
Yes, yes they were when you factor in all three elements I listed.

I was challenging Jon's assumption Iowa simply lost because Stanford is a better team, roster wise, as the sole reason.

True...they might be a better team talent wise, but they certainly had a better game plan and executed better.
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Game plan usually looks good when you execute almost to perfection. And the best player in the country assists with that.

Iowa did lose simply because Stanford was better, yesterday. They lost by 29 because of a series of 3 plays that were devastating and we couldn't recover because of 1) execution 2) Oline 3) Playcalling/formations to help the Oline..

1st play (McCaffrey)
Punt Return (McCaffrey)
Pick 6
...^^^^^....That was the reason for the blow out, not the loss, but the blowout loss and it had nothing to do with gameplan.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Agreed Seth. We looked we had not practiced in a month. And where were the basic screen plays? Where was a flee-flicker? Where was a jet sweep call? Heck, where was a bubble screen or a tunnel screen called? Just had up the middle or ole stretch play on 1st and 2nd down followed up by a checkdown pass on 3rd down.

I get CJ was hurt and also took a huge shot in the game that limited him. But, we could have put in him shot gun on 1st down and tried to throw down field more. We could have tried a lot more things on offense. Heck, put Desmond King in there at wide receiver.

Might have still lost, but man give the Iowa defense something to believe in.

Man, it was the freaking Rose Bowl! Down several scores.... Why on earch do you have to hold back?
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I don't recall a single screen play. Inexcusable when you have a defense blitzing every other play.
 
In all the years of coaching experience on the Iowa staff, we didn't have anything to at least slow down what happened to us last night? We didn't have anything to stop the bleeding? Nothing? 48-16? It was a high school team playing the 10th graders.
 
Still a good season. Stanford was in their time zone and punched Iowa in the mouth. Iowa woke up when it was already too late. Just one of those days.
 
Crimson said:
Still a good season. Stanford was in their time zone and punched Iowa in the mouth. Iowa woke up when it was already too late. Just one of those days.
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Iowa woke up because Stanford put their 2nd team defense in. The talent difference was huge, but all I heard before the game was how we were gonna run on them because their defense wasn't that good. What happened? Our Oline isn't good. Completely embarrassed. They better hit the recruiting hard. We might do okay in the West division, but that has more to do with how awful the division is than us being good.
 
Words mean things. The season wasn't "tarnished" because of this game.

An embarrassing loss? Sure.
All the luster removed from the season? No. Not even close.
A blowout to MSU on top of this one? Yeah, I'd side with a tarnished season.
 
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