Iowa's football history is up and down if you go back over the past. All you have to do is look at the coaches' records and it mirrors those successful and those that were not. You could almost say the same thing about Iowa's ADs. Brechler, and Elliot were very successful. Nebraska's football history compared Iowa's is like comparing apples with oranges.. The conference rules were vastly different when it came to scholarships, academic requirements, and state populations. Until Nebraska became a member Iowa was the smallest populated state in the B1G.
Nebraska fans point to their teams 900+ win total. It is in the top ten of college football. But here's the asterisks, 292 of those wins came against Iowa State (86), Kansas State (78), Kansas (91), and Oklahoma State (37). They lost a grand total of 61 games against those 4 teams. That is almost a 83% winning percentage. It is quite easy to understand that lofty winning total given the opposition. Three of those four teams have ranks over 100 in FBS according to Winsipedia's ranking system.
Iowa has improved the last 40 years, but is now only 77th all time. The period from 1965 to 1980 was horrific for Iowa. During my lifetime I have seen the best of Iowa football and the worse. The last 40 years have been seasons that are mostly enjoyable. Iowa has been competitive and has had some real highs. But it is always in the back of one's mind, having lived as long as I have, how things can regress and how difficult a place it is to win in Iowa City.
