The next 20 days

hawkdrummer1 said:
That is nowhere in what I said. Reading comprehension remains an issue for many on this site.

The idea is the THE ONLY teams we've beaten are the bad ones, excepting Minnesota, of course. That's fine, but it's nothing to get too excited about.

You might also notice that I said 7-5 would be a good year for this club, and 8-4 would be great. But that would require a little more focus. Don't hurt yourself.
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Speaking of reading comprehension, I said EVERYONE COMPLAINS, I wasn't specifically speaking of you or your post. It is a general complaint by many on the board that we lose to teams we shouldn't.
 
Scooby said:
Another good way to get 2 BCS teams from the B1G.
No way Debbie gets magic a third week in a row.
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I firmly believe because of the B1G's perception this year, the ONLY way we get two teams into the BCS is if this scenario plays out. I don't believe Wisconsin winning out will get them into a BCS bowl. I believe Wisconsin is a good enough team to be in a BCS bowl, but those outside the B1G probably disagree. Many will point to the debacle in the desert as a reason why Wisconsin should be 9-1, however, they have an atrocious field goal kicker. So there was no guarantee they would have made the game winning field goal.
 
CRHawk25 said:
I firmly believe because of the B1G's perception this year, the ONLY way we get two teams into the BCS is if this scenario plays out. I don't believe Wisconsin winning out will get them into a BCS bowl. I believe Wisconsin is a good enough team to be in a BCS bowl, but those outside the B1G probably disagree. Many will point to the debacle in the desert as a reason why Wisconsin should be 9-1, however, they have an atrocious field goal kicker. So there was no guarantee they would have made the game winning field goal.
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Is their kicker the guy named after a dog? Like Jack Russell or something?
 
okeefe4prez said:
Is their kicker the guy named after a dog? Like Jack Russell or something?
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Yep, Jack Russell it is, haha, my friend is a huge Badgers fan (has season tickets). He said that their poor field goal kicking is a big concern for the coaching staff. They go for it on 4th and medium a bit because of their inability to kick FG's. He isn't a scholarship kicker, they currently don't have one on their team. They got to the point where before Borland got injured, he was supposed to take over the long distance field goal kicking heading into the Iowa game.
 
CRHawk25 said:
Yep, Jack Russell it is, haha, my friend is a huge Badgers fan (has season tickets). He said that their poor field goal kicking is a big concern for the coaching staff. They go for it on 4th and medium a bit because of their inability to kick FG's. He isn't a scholarship kicker, they currently don't have one on their team. They got to the point where before Borland got injured, he was supposed to take over the long distance field goal kicking heading into the Iowa game.
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Nothing is more frustrating than losing due to a bad kicking game. Didn't we have a period where we had two or three guys on scholarship who couldn't make extra points regularly?
 
Scooby said:
Sad wasn't the best word. In a typical season, 8-4 would get you no worse than the Outback Bowl.
This year, even at 8-4, there's about a 1% chance of the Outback Bowl.
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I think the Outback is going to have a tough call taking an 8-4 Nebraska team over an 8-4 Iowa team when they hosted Nebraska last season, and Iowa and MN, who also would be 8-4, beat them. I understand it's about money, but having a fresh team and an Iowa fan base that didn't get to travel last year, and has shown well there, over an apathetic Nebby fan base may be enough to get them in.

BUT, none of this matters if we don't win the next two, so let's focus on Michigan first and then Nebby.
 
HawkeyeMcNutt said:
I think the Outback is going to have a tough call taking an 8-4 Nebraska team over an 8-4 Iowa team when they hosted Nebraska last season, and Iowa and MN, who also would be 8-4, beat them. I understand it's about money, but having a fresh team and an Iowa fan base that didn't get to travel last year, and has shown well there, over an apathetic Nebby fan base may be enough to get them in.

BUT, none of this matters if we don't win the next two, so let's focus on Michigan first and then Nebby.
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Nebraska would still brings lots of fans to Tampa. IMO, they are the best traveling school for bowl games.
Iowa is easily top 5.
Outback Bowl is probably the best overall bowl experience, and I've been to just about all of them the last 20 years.
Trust me on this, no bowl will ever take Minnesota, unless they have to.
 
This team has already overachieved and beaten the expectations for the year. They can take the next three weeks off, visit their families and add weight over the holidays, and the bowl game is just for fun.
 
thetrza said:
This team has already overachieved and beaten the expectations for the year. They can take the next three weeks off, visit their families and add weight over the holidays, and the bowl game is just for fun.
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Ironically, there's a ton of truth in that post. If we win out for 8-4, and Minnesota, Michigan and Nebby all finish in the 7-5 to 8-4 range, we still won't do much better than Gator. Tampa is a pipe dream at best, in spite of the fact we would have beaten the other 3 teams head-up and would be clearly the #2 in Legends division. May as well stay injury-free for the bowl game and for next year and not risk anything the last 2 games.

Or maybe not! :)
 
CRHawk25 said:
I firmly believe because of the B1G's perception this year, the ONLY way we get two teams into the BCS is if this scenario plays out. I don't believe Wisconsin winning out will get them into a BCS bowl. I believe Wisconsin is a good enough team to be in a BCS bowl, but those outside the B1G probably disagree. Many will point to the debacle in the desert as a reason why Wisconsin should be 9-1, however, they have an atrocious field goal kicker. So there was no guarantee they would have made the game winning field goal.
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Bowls care about fans showing up, competitive match-up for TV and bowl sponsor, and one of the last factors is if the team is "good enough."
Wisconsin travels just as good as Iowa for bowl games, and if they are top 14 in the BCS, and if Northern Illinois/Fresno State is not in the BCS mix, then Wisconsin will get 1 of those 2 at-large BCS spots.
 
The last two games are very winnable ones and Iowa has the bye week to get ready for Michigan. 7-5 would be fantastic but 8-4 is doable.

It's going to be a fun close to the season. 6-6 might not be the watermark for Iowa football, but just going bowling is a good thing for the program and the kids.
 
Winning out would be incredible. Not likely unless the offense somehow improves enough to score more points against better teams.

The amount of improvement necessary is not huge but significant. First and foremost the playcalling has to help the execution get better.

What I mean but this is that when the opposing defense knows the stretch play is coming on 3rd and short (and believe me they KNOW it) the offensive execution has to be nearly PERFECT for the play to have a chance to work. If you can fool the defense once in a while you dont have to excute perfectly to make a play work if the defense is caught out of position or blows a coverage.

Iowa has to finish the big plays. There were several instances this saturday where a slightly better thrown ball is a TD. Against good teams you have to make those kinds of plays.

Iowa will have to win the time of possession against Nebby and Michigan. All other things being equal, if we don't win TOP or keep it close, Iowa will not win.
 
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