The reality of it

[NCHawker]

And we'll still continue to win 8-9 games a year under KF. Mediocre teams are everywhere and everyone plays them. There's no shame in beating the teams your supposed to whether we consider them creampuff's or mediocre, while winning games against decent (but not great) teams, and losing to the truly elites. If people find themselves fuming after losing to an elite, or demanding that we should be competitive with everyone then I recommend finding a team with deep NIL wells and elite status, because they're most likely going to continue to find themselves disappointed regardless of who's coaching.

a good reminder for me. cue the 'you must have low standards in your life' narrative.

each saturday, millions of fans stop what their doing and cheer like hell for their team Most realize (or should realize) that only about 3-5 teams have a realistic shot at winning it all...usually that number is no more than 3

 

[kicker22]

The only way we get out of this funk is to start preparing for next year now. That means getting our other QB's game reps. Lester has already improved our offense. Our OL needs to improve a lot and we should be getting the bench game reps as we will have a mostly new line next year. We have good enough RB's and tight ends. I expected much better defense than we have seen so far. Based on last year's play they can become great again. Those turnovers to OSU really put the defense in a hole.

I'm not saying it's long term, but I think we got out of our funk Saturday. While I'm not a McNamara guy I thought he did exactly what our offense needed him to do against Washington. The numbers weren't perfect, but he did just enough to compliment the running game and managed to throw a pair of TD's in the process. I though he played well Saturday.

 

[Will C]

I'm not saying it's long term, but I think we got out of our funk Saturday. While I'm not a McNamara guy I thought he did exactly what our offense needed him to do against Washington. The numbers weren't perfect, but he did just enough to compliment the running game and managed to throw a pair of TD's in the process. I though he played well Saturday.

It was the kind of team, all-around effort that we need to be effective. How about a 61 yard punt with no return?

 

[dagdaj]

each saturday, millions of fans stop what their doing and cheer like hell for their team Most realize (or should realize) that only about 3-5 teams have a realistic shot at winning it all...usually that number is no more than 3

I'm right with you guys on this.
I figure there's a dozen teams who win the championship.
And of those dozen, there's generally only 3-5 that are in the mix in a given year.

My gripe isn't that Iowa isn't doing enough. I'm in the "Kirk and Iowa outpunch their weightclass" camp. I've posted before that like only Montana/Wyoming have a lower in-state population1 roster spots than Iowa/Iowa State. There's only maybe 20-25 teams I would change results with over the last 20+ years.

My gripe is, and always has been, this march to the national championship. It feels very short term gain, getting lots of eyeballs who normally wouldn't care as much about college football. But I think it is a very dangerous game to play with something that has never been incapable of delivering eyeballs, buzz, and lots of revenue. It runs the risk of making a lot of programs fully irrelevant. And for programs like Iowa, it highly mitigates the relevancy of even a 'quite good' season.

Seems risky to me.

 

[Gibsonian]

I am hopeful CM and the receiving corps is in the process of taking baby steps towards an actual and real complimentary passing game that could support a win out for 2024/25 season. The rest of the pieces we already have.

 

[kicker22]

I'm right with you guys on this.
I figure there's a dozen teams who win the championship.
And of those dozen, there's generally only 3-5 that are in the mix in a given year.

My gripe isn't that Iowa isn't doing enough. I'm in the "Kirk and Iowa outpunch their weightclass" camp. I've posted before that like only Montana/Wyoming have a lower in-state population1 roster spots than Iowa/Iowa State. There's only maybe 20-25 teams I would change results with over the last 20+ years.

My gripe is, and always has been, this march to the national championship. It feels very short term gain, getting lots of eyeballs who normally wouldn't care as much about college football. But I think it is a very dangerous game to play with something that has never been incapable of delivering eyeballs, buzz, and lots of revenue. It runs the risk of making a lot of programs fully irrelevant. And for programs like Iowa, it highly mitigates the relevancy of even a 'quite good' season.

Seems risky to me.

I think it all depends on your definition of "irrelevant" and how its being used. If you mean it from a national standpoint or a contender standpoint I totally agree with you. However, from a local perspective or from a fanbases perspective I don't see it changing anything that much.