Thoughts on Season

SCHawkeye2

SCHawkeye2

Well-Known Member
Our schedule had more to do with our 10-2 season than our talent and coaching.

- We did not play a team during the regular season that finished the season in the Top 25.

- We lost to the two ranked teams we played in post-season

- We only beat one B10 team with a winning B10 record.

- We played the weak sisters of the B10 East in our crossover games. If we play OSU, MI and MSU this team is likely 7-5
 
SCHawkeye2 said:
Our schedule had more to do with our 10-2 season than our talent and coaching.

- We did not play a team during the regular season that finished the season in the Top 25.

- We lost to the two ranked teams we played in post-season

- We only beat one B10 team with a winning B10 record.

- We played the weak sisters of the B10 East in our crossover games. If we play OSU, MI and MSU this team is likely 7-5
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Appears this is another factor. I would agree. Iowa proved to be a mirage.

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To those on this thread discounting our 10 wins: Apparently that involved 10 teams which we out recruited and out coached. 3 or 4 of them maybe they out recruited or out coached us. Final record: Iowa, 10 wins. Iowa Opponents, 10 losses, 4 wins. Take a 3rd grade math course.
 
HuckFinn said:
To those on this thread discounting our 10 wins: Apparently that involved 10 teams which we out recruited and out coached. 3 or 4 of them maybe they out recruited or out coached us. Final record: Iowa, 10 wins. Iowa Opponents, 10 losses, 4 wins. Take a 3rd grade math course.
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I agree we beat 10 teams.....Nebraska would love that right about now. But we may very well be one of the weakest 10 win teams in recent memory....certainly at Iowa. Our best win may have been Minnesota. Best accomplishment was making it to the BTT game and winning the West outright.
 
I can’t be upset at 10 wins, they simply don’t happen around here often.

I’m not mad about the Michigan or Purdue losses because the way their offenses could score on our D we had no chance with our putrid offense.

Wisconsin had a bad team and we played like shit and the bowl game we just handed to them.

Wins and losses aside I’m getting apathetic towards this team due to the offense. I DVR games now and watch later because they are boring and frustrating. I don’t see a change while Kirk remains in charge.

I don’t want Kirk fired I just really want him to not be happy with being a bottom quadrant offense.
 
Like many, hard to be upset about 10 wins, but this was a tough team to watch week in and week out. So many play calls had me scratching my head. Way too much inconsistent play, and even our defense wore out towards the end of the season. Next year could be brutal. There will not be any coaching changes, and any player development will be overshadowed by the tougher schedule.
 
10 wins are great...yet it still feels a little empty. You realize at some point Minnesota, ISU and Nebraska, at least one of them, if not all of them will crack the code in the near future. That is why it is important for Iowa to start evolving offensively now, this Spring.
 
They basically met expectations in terms of preseason rankings. Being a season ticket holder, the atmosphere for all of the home games was great outside of Purdue and hey, that makes for fun regardless of how the season played out in the end.

Personally I think the team overachieved because it was so young at the LOS and that has been a recipe for 7-5 in the past. Minnesota was a quality win against a very veteran team (especially up front), and neither Iowa State nor Penn State is anything to scoff at. I think the Nebraska and Kentucky games were similar matchups and in the former, Iowa got the drive and the turnover while in the latter the opposite held true. I would keep a win over NE vs UK any year.

Purdue and Michigan were going to be losses no matter who lined up under center because both the OTs and DBs were overmatched. The Wisconsin loss stings because I don't think they were any good and it was basically giftwrapped in the second quarter.

Next year's schedule to open Big Ten play is just brutal but maybe we can catch Minnesota at the right time (their o line will be in rebuilding mode) and then win one of @Purdue, @OSU, home vs Michigan. That would be good enough to set up for a potential run in November behind what should be a much stronger team on both lines.
 
SCHawkeye2 said:
Our schedule had more to do with our 10-2 season than our talent and coaching.

- We did not play a team during the regular season that finished the season in the Top 25.

- We lost to the two ranked teams we played in post-season

- We only beat one B10 team with a winning B10 record.

- We played the weak sisters of the B10 East in our crossover games. If we play OSU, MI and MSU this team is likely 7-5
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Yeah the good thing is as time goes on nobody will contextualize the season in that way. During the 3 yr run of us finishing in the top 10 does anyone remember if we were the beneficiaries of a soft schedule?

I don't anyway but you're not wrong. GA till they'd beaten MI hadn't really had any great wins. But they proved the powers that be right. We proved em all right as well just for the opposite reasons...
 
I'm not sure where I sit. I was both excited and disappointed with the 10 wins and how the season played itself out. On one hand I definitely think they under performed at times, but at the same time I'm not sure how I can be disappointed in the fact we won the west this year.

Ultimately I'll leave it up to the players. If they're happy about how the season went then so am I as they were the ones putting all the work in and I was just along for the ride.
 
I think the 10 win season is great. Indiana and ISU were both feeling great about each other and IU especially was pumped so those are big wins in my book.

But our offense just needs to get 20% better, and extra 40-50 yards of rushing and passing each game would be huge and mean more first down conversions and more pass completions.

But like usual I have a bit of a letdown, negative feeling with a lot of mistakes on basic things, lots of drops, lots of qb mistakes, lots of iffy play calling, etc so this could have been a 12-2 season.

Next year could be tough but they will probably win 1 they shouldnt and lose one they shouldnt and be about 8-4.
 
The underlying point of my OP is that it seems we have trotted out essentially the same team for about a decade.
Good Defense.
Good Special Teams
Bad - to - terrible offense.
I feel the biggest differentiating factor from one year to the next is less related to talent or coaching, but the difficulty of the schedule.
Who we play in the B10 East crossover games can mean the difference between 10-2 and 7-5 seasons.
When we have the occasional highly favorable schedule as we did this year, it masks the underlying mediocrity of the program under KF.
 
I'm old school and grew up tuning into 1040 WHO and the zipper to listen to Iowa. It was 3 hours of oh shucks, by gollee, get em next time, etc.

I vividly remember the 0-11, 1-10, 2-9 etc seasons. Getting a first down was cause for celebration. As a student, Iowa games under Commings were a party, a social event. Weed and booze mattered more. FB was almost a distraction.
Expectations were lower since we were "just Iowa." We were irrelevant.

Then Fry changed all of that. #1 rankings, Rose Bowls, All-Americans, Heisman chatter, multiple draft choices, on and on. Ferentz perpetuated it. We became relevant.

Glorious but a trap. Expectations changed. The bar was raised. "What have you done for me lately" was the new mantra.

So, this past season....a mediocre 10 wins against 4 painful losses. Should I look at it through the lower bar of my youth (and be satisfied) or the raised bar of my mature years (multiple what-ifs)?
 
Seth53 said:
I'm old school and grew up tuning into 1040 WHO and the zipper to listen to Iowa. It was 3 hours of oh shucks, by gollee, get em next time, etc.

I vividly remember the 0-11, 1-10, 2-9 etc seasons. Getting a first down was cause for celebration. As a student, Iowa games under Commings were a party, a social event. Weed and booze mattered more. FB was almost a distraction.
Expectations were lower since we were "just Iowa." We were irrelevant.

Then Fry changed all of that. #1 rankings, Rose Bowls, All-Americans, Heisman chatter, multiple draft choices, on and on. Ferentz perpetuated it. We became relevant.

Glorious but a trap. Expectations changed. The bar was raised. "What have you done for me lately" was the new mantra.

So, this past season....a mediocre 10 wins against 4 painful losses. Should I look at it through the lower bar of my youth (and be satisfied) or the raised bar of my mature years (multiple what-ifs)?
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This post is great use of long term perspective that is a foreign language to many on this forum. Knowing history is one thing. Living through that history is quite another vision.
The expectations that have emerged in more recent years, fueled by belief that the final four in both football and basketball are the only true measures of success, have become the new reality for many.
Maybe, when we mourn the apathy among college football or basketball fans at the college level, that it may not be the cost of tickets, or the advances in technology, or the inconvenience of in person attendance, but rather the surrender to the perceptions that only the zero sum game mentality prevails and satisfies us?
I ain’t boarding that train.
 
Seth53 said:
I'm old school and grew up tuning into 1040 WHO and the zipper to listen to Iowa. It was 3 hours of oh shucks, by gollee, get em next time, etc.

I vividly remember the 0-11, 1-10, 2-9 etc seasons. Getting a first down was cause for celebration. As a student, Iowa games under Commings were a party, a social event. Weed and booze mattered more. FB was almost a distraction.
Expectations were lower since we were "just Iowa." We were irrelevant.

Then Fry changed all of that. #1 rankings, Rose Bowls, All-Americans, Heisman chatter, multiple draft choices, on and on. Ferentz perpetuated it. We became relevant.

Glorious but a trap. Expectations changed. The bar was raised. "What have you done for me lately" was the new mantra.

So, this past season....a mediocre 10 wins against 4 painful losses. Should I look at it through the lower bar of my youth (and be satisfied) or the raised bar of my mature years (multiple what-ifs)?
Click to expand...
I was there as well.
However, since you were there, consider this....
In 1974, Commings first season, Iowa went 3-8.
Iowa played 6 teams ranked in the Top 20 at seasons end. Six.
How many final top 20 teams did we play this year in the regular season?
Zero.

This is not a defense of Commings. But an attempt to put our 'success' in perspective. How many regular season 'wins' would this team have, had we played 6 top 20 teams this year?
(Hint: in the post-season, we played two / lost two.)

Many on this site point to 'wins' in defense of the program's stagnant status quo.

Q: How many B10 championships have we won in the last 10 years?
A: But "10 wins!"

Q: How many Top Tier New Years bowls have we won in the last 10 years?
A: But "10 wins!"

Q: How many Top Ten finishes have we had the last 10 years?
A: But "10 wins!"

Q: Will we finish in the Top 20 of the final AP poll?
A: But "10 wins!"
 
Seth53 said:
I'm old school and grew up tuning into 1040 WHO and the zipper to listen to Iowa. It was 3 hours of oh shucks, by gollee, get em next time, etc.

I vividly remember the 0-11, 1-10, 2-9 etc seasons. Getting a first down was cause for celebration. As a student, Iowa games under Commings were a party, a social event. Weed and booze mattered more. FB was almost a distraction.
Expectations were lower since we were "just Iowa." We were irrelevant.

Then Fry changed all of that. #1 rankings, Rose Bowls, All-Americans, Heisman chatter, multiple draft choices, on and on. Ferentz perpetuated it. We became relevant.

Glorious but a trap. Expectations changed. The bar was raised. "What have you done for me lately" was the new mantra.

So, this past season....a mediocre 10 wins against 4 painful losses. Should I look at it through the lower bar of my youth (and be satisfied) or the raised bar of my mature years (multiple what-ifs)?
Click to expand...
My brother was in the Hawkeye marching band and they would play the fight song for a first down... if they didn't play it then, they wouldn't be able to play it at all because they simply didn't score that much, FGs or TDs.
 
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