The path to the West Division Championship

I

Ian Pike Hammer

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Obviously requires wins over both Wisconsin and Northwestern. When was the last year we beat them both in the same year? Surely it hasn't been that long ago... has it?
 
2015 has got to be the answer

the division race is interesting this year because Iowa plays all 6 division foes in its last 6 games of the season.

although all conference games count in the standings, no team has ever gone 6-0 against its own division and not won the division. Yes its mathematicly possible to not win the division but the odds are extremely low.

so Iowa could get off to a really slow start losing to Indy, ISU and PSU and still have a realistic chance to win its division if it finishes 6-0 in its last 6 games. . Kind of like NW in 2018 or Wisconsin in 2017.
 
No excuse for not beating Wisconsin and Northwestern this year. I really believe we are the better team right now. Evanston is like a home game for us, although Madison is always tough when they their stadium is full.
 
No excuse for not beating Wisconsin and Northwestern this year. I really believe we are the better team right now. Evanston is like a home game for us, although Madison is always tough when they their stadium is full.
Watch this will probably be the year that both Wiscy and NW are down, and then a team like Purdue will finally gets its Sh!t together and win the West.
 
Could probably afford a loss to one of them, as long as we win our crossovers. All 3 avoid tOSU but somebody will drop one and they play each other.
 
Watch this will probably be the year that both Wiscy and NW are down, and then a team like Purdue will finally gets its Sh!t together and win the West.

Don't sleep on Illinois, either. Watch us beat Illinois but wind up with a few fluke losses and losses to Indiana and Penn State that leave us in third for the division even though it totally sucks.
 
Got to get past the first 2 games to see how Iowa is going to do this year. 0-2 and it's a long year. 2-0 Iowa has a team and Northwestern and Wisconsin are looking winnable.
 
Don't sleep on Illinois, either. Watch us beat Illinois but wind up with a few fluke losses and losses to Indiana and Penn State that leave us in third for the division even though it totally sucks.
Overlooking Illinois would be a huge mistake. Last year they played Iowa tough in the first half. They looked like contenders. Many of those seniors are taking the extra year of play. They have an experienced QB and a proven coach. We may not like Belima but it's tough to dispute his record in the B1G.
 
Overlooking Illinois would be a huge mistake. Last year they played Iowa tough in the first half. They looked like contenders. Many of those seniors are taking the extra year of play. They have an experienced QB and a proven coach. We may not like Belima but it's tough to dispute his record in the B1G.
I don't know what happened to their personnel with the coaching change, but they had some really decent young talent in 2019 and looked okay at times in 2020. Lovie just wasn't very good at developing college guys and teaching fundamentals. They are precisely the kind of team that comes out of nowhere and wins 9-10 games in our lackluster division.
 
I loath to say this, but Nebraska is due for some breaks. Way overdue. Now, they have about the most brutal schedule imaginable so I am not suggesting they will contend. But, Frost is on the warm seat and I am expecting them to get in the 6-7 win range so they will be relevant. And even though we have a nice streak going against those dirty bugeaters, the last two years have been narrow escapes.

I think Iowa has the most talent in the West, but I still would wager on Wisconsin based on history. Indeed, the safest bet in the West is that Iowa will finish second. :)
 
I loath to say this, but Nebraska is due for some breaks. Way overdue. Now, they have about the most brutal schedule imaginable so I am not suggesting they will contend. But, Frost is on the warm seat and I am expecting them to get in the 6-7 win range so they will be relevant. And even though we have a nice streak going against those dirty bugeaters, the last two years have been narrow escapes.

I think Iowa has the most talent in the West, but I still would wager on Wisconsin based on history. Indeed, the safest bet in the West is that Iowa will finish second. :)
Its actually been the last three years. The 2018 game at Kinnick was poised to go to OT when Stanley hit TJ with a clutch fourth down pass that got Iowa into field goal range...

I say this every year. The reason a team like Nebraska always seems to have a brutal schedule is because they are not on it. They do seem to get stuck with tOSU every year though (hee, hee, hee)

Our crossover is no walk in the park this year, especially if Indiana is for real. Penn State is always a threat and Maryland could be the most improved team in the B1G.

Summers flyin'! All of this goes down in about ten weeks!
 
Its actually been the last three years. The 2018 game at Kinnick was poised to go to OT when Stanley hit TJ with a clutch fourth down pass that got Iowa into field goal range...

I say this every year. The reason a team like Nebraska always seems to have a brutal schedule is because they are not on it. They do seem to get stuck with tOSU every year though (hee, hee, hee)

Our crossover is no walk in the park this year, especially if Indiana is for real. Penn State is always a threat and Maryland could be the most improved team in the B1G.

Summers flyin'! All of this goes down in about ten weeks!
Fair point on schedule. But, I would rather get PSU then OSU any day. And, even though the Clowns will likely be a top 10 team when we play them, I would rather go to Ames than Norman any day and twice on Sunday.

Also, I am on record as saying I think Indiana was a one hit wonder helped by Covid. They will not contend for the East.
 
I am worried that we dont have a preseason game this year. That will really put pressure on everyone to be ready week one and have we ever seen that under KF?

I could easily see an 0-2 start and a 3rd place finish as usual. The experts have our over/under at 8.5 wins. That isnt winning the West I dont think.
 
I think having Indiana at home the first game is an advantage. With fans having a year off, and then throwing cold beers into the mix on a warm day, Kinnick is going to be rocking. When Kinnick is crazy, it is a very tough place to win. Both teams had strong years last year, and on paper this is probably a toss up. Starting off with a conference game is new to everyone. I just think home field advantage is the difference in this game.
 
Overlooking Illinois would be a huge mistake. Last year they played Iowa tough in the first half. They looked like contenders. Many of those seniors are taking the extra year of play. They have an experienced QB and a proven coach. We may not like Belima but it's tough to dispute his record in the B1G.
That's a team I wish we could play earlier in the season... I wish we could play them week 1 and play Indiana later in the yr. I think IL will improve as the yr goes on as Bielema gets more established.

This team Iowa team could be really good or maybe not so much. I think our D will be solid but so so so much of how well we do on O will be on Petras. If he hasn't improved significantly we could be in for a frustrating season. But if he has we have weapons all over the place and the sky is the limit. I just don't think (like with most programs) you can hide your QB. You can have the best running game or short passing game but if your QB can't make clutch throws and stretch the field you're going to be limiting yourself.
 
Petras was a first year starter in a pandemic year with essentially no off season and a truncated preseason. While that was true of everyone, I think the lack of offseason and cupcake games would have the most impact upon a young, first year QB starter. They have the biggest learning curve.

Despite that, he led the team to a 6-2 season, which we all agree with a couple breaks could have been 7 or 8 wins. Most importantly, he finished the year with three strong games. He improved.

With a full offseason, I expect Petras will be better and look more comfortable back there. Experience and reps breed confidence. If he makes just a normal progression from year 1 to 2, Iowa will have a shot at a relatively weak West. But, if he makes a big leap, this team could be very dangerous. I don't see him regressing.
 
Petras was a first year starter in a pandemic year with essentially no off season and a truncated preseason. While that was true of everyone, I think the lack of offseason and cupcake games would have the most impact upon a young, first year QB starter. They have the biggest learning curve.

Despite that, he led the team to a 6-2 season, which we all agree with a couple breaks could have been 7 or 8 wins. Most importantly, he finished the year with three strong games. He improved.

With a full offseason, I expect Petras will be better and look more comfortable back there. Experience and reps breed confidence. If he makes just a normal progression from year 1 to 2, Iowa will have a shot at a relatively weak West. But, if he makes a big leap, this team could be very dangerous. I don't see him regressing.
This is all true and makes perfect sense. It woulda been nice if a kid that was in year 3 of the program being a little more ready to go last yr then he was. But yeah covid the lack of practices/spring etc etc are legit reasons.

That said I wonder how long of a leash he'll have. What if he does struggle the first 2 games and we lose?... I'm just playing devils advocate I'm sure as hell not rooting for that but if that were to happen does he get that 3rd start or would they give Padilla a chance against a cupcake and see how that goes?

I hope that doesn't happen that'd be a disaster in a half. I hope Petras comes out firing and is everything he was thought to be when we recruited him out of Cali. He's plenty capable.
 
I don't want to rain on the parade here, but the trend for Iowa has been pretty bad on QBs. Most of our QBs have their best W/L record in their first full season as a starter.

Tate started with 10, then dropped.
I'm not even going to give Christensen the time to look into it, but he got bailed by Stanzi in 2008.
Stanzi won 9 (should have been 12 but for that illegal tackle) in 2009 and then the production fell in 2010.
JVB won 6, then 4.
Rudock won 8, then 7 before losing his job.
CJB won 12 and dropped.
Stanley's teams got better.

Luckily Petras only had 8 games last year so topping 6 should be easy, but if we extrapolated it to a full 12 games he would have been 9-3. I don't know that I'd take the over on 9 wins.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of key personnel losses play into this trend over time as well, but losing Nixon on the line and WRs doesn't really instill a ton of confidence in this fan.
 

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