"Under The Radar"

T

TurkeyLegs

Member
We've been described as an under the radar team this year, which is a welcome sight to Hawkeye fans...
HOWEVER...
Yesterday, Herbstreit picked Iowa in the B1G Championship game, based on the fact we're under the radar again. Others have predicted similar positive outcomes.
Is there a point where being "under the radar," only to get more attention because of it, brings us "on the radar?"
What I'm asking is...even though we're unproven now, many people are choosing us to do well- can we still consider ourselves "under the radar?"

...my apologies if you're confused now...
 
Yes, if enough prognasticators predict a great season because the hawkeyes are underrated then we will lose all the games we are supposed to win and win all the games we are not favored. Or, vise versa.
 
I have asked this question before. I dont think we are totally under the radar now that the term under the radar is used all the time.
 
The truth is nobody knows what this team is going to do. We can all guess based on the O-line, or being under the radar, but there are some major questions at major positions. We really don't know how good or not good the team is going to be until we see them play a couple of times.
 
We will know a lot about this team by how they play at Iowa State. If we roll in that game I will feel good about the season. I know ISU sucks but for whatever reason even past decent Iowa teams struggle at Trice. We play well I think that is a good measure.
 
IMO, the "under the radar" comments are a way for the media to flatter Iowa. Iowa is a tough team to figure out many years. Just when the media think the Hawks are flat on their backs they win the Big 10 or challenge for it and go to a BCS game. Just when they think Iowa is loaded and about to break loose and challenge for a National Championship they have a mediocre year. So telling people that Iowa is "under the radar" is a good way to avoid having to make a commitment but they know Iowa will be tough regardless of how they finish in the W-L column.

It sounds like that the media now see Iowa as a very sound tough team and perennial contender but one that might or might not do well in any one season because of the style Iowa plays football. They know that if the Hawks get some breaks and win close games (that they are always in), they will be a very good football team; on the other hand, they also know that Iowa can lose those close games just as easy because of Iowa's style. They realize that Iowa is typically a very tough physical team but that Iowa also typically loses games they should not lose.
 
Iowa doesn't have any dominant players at any hyped position, so naturally people are not going to pay much attention. I think you guys put waaaaay to much analysis into this stuff. Some of these media guys breakdown 50 plus teams, so they don't have the time or willingness to breakdown every team, particularly one like Iowa which few people notice or care about outside of Iowa.

Last year Iowa was hyped because they had a great returning QB and DE. This year your best returning player is, what, your left tackle? Not going to move the needle there.
 
MultipleDundieAwardWinner said:
Iowa doesn't have any dominant players at any hyped position, so naturally people are not going to pay much attention. I think you guys put waaaaay to much analysis into this stuff. Some of these media guys breakdown 50 plus teams, so they don't have the time or willingness to breakdown every team, particularly one like Iowa which few people notice or care about outside of Iowa.

Last year Iowa was hyped because they had a great returning QB and DE. This year your best returning player is, what, your left tackle? Not going to move the needle there.
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You say that like it's not an important position.

Is it really surprising that a message board based on the Iowa Hawkeyes would put too much analysis into the Iowa football team a week prior to the season starting?
 
DexterMorgan said:
You say that like it's not an important position.

Is it really surprising that a message board based on the Iowa Hawkeyes would put too much analysis into the Iowa football team a week prior to the season starting?
Click to expand...

He didn't say it wasn't important. But left tackle isn't usually a spot that an analyst looks at when talking about hype. It's not a "hype" position, like any skill position.
 
MultipleDundieAwardWinner said:
Iowa doesn't have any dominant players at any hyped position, so naturally people are not going to pay much attention. I think you guys put waaaaay to much analysis into this stuff. Some of these media guys breakdown 50 plus teams, so they don't have the time or willingness to breakdown every team, particularly one like Iowa which few people notice or care about outside of Iowa.

Last year Iowa was hyped because they had a great returning QB and DE. This year your best returning player is, what, your left tackle? Not going to move the needle there.
Click to expand...

Marcus Coker and Marvin McNutt disagree with your assessment.
 
DexterMorgan said:
You say that like it's not an important position.

Is it really surprising that a message board based on the Iowa Hawkeyes would put too much analysis into the Iowa football team a week prior to the season starting?
Click to expand...

His point is that the media and mainstream fans aren't going to give much credence to the Hawkeyes because they aren't returning big name skill guys. I'd agree that if your left tackle is great, no one is going to talk your team up.

Compare Iowa to MSU. MSU lost most of their o-line and most of their best defensive guys, but they return their offensive skill guys so the media is falling all over themselves talking about how good they will be.
 
I agree, you're not really under the radar if people are picking you to compete at a high level or be a highly competitive team.

I also don't like that Iowa fails with they hype but strives with the underrated. If you look at the years where Iowa is hyped, it's because they did so well the previous year. And what most don't understand is that it takes really good players to do that, and sometimes those players graduate and then you're not as good the next year, and they also don't understand the injury thing can be devestating.

Finally, when Iowa exceeds expectations it comes after a year where there were big injuries, or the talent level wasn't that good (JC etc). However if Iowa can stay healthy they are talented and can surprise.

I can't remember where I read it, I think it was Brian Bennett at ESPN who said we should just stop trying to figure out Iowa before the season starts. AMEN!
 
Don't weathermen use radar as well? Just look at how well they do predicting what's going to happen. I say the heck with all this blah blah blah, let's play some football and see what happens!
 
Let's not pretend that Coker, McNutt, Prater, and Hyde are enough to garner serious hype as a team. Prater is good, but he's not Patrick Peterson. Same goes for Hyde. McNutt isn't Larry Fitzgerald, either. He's good, but he's not THAT good at this point. And the same goes for Coker.

Bottom line, we don't have SUPERSTARS at any position outside of left tackle right now.
 
tm3308 said:
Let's not pretend that Coker, McNutt, Prater, and Hyde are enough to garner serious hype as a team. Prater is good, but he's not Patrick Peterson. Same goes for Hyde. McNutt isn't Larry Fitzgerald, either. He's good, but he's not THAT good at this point. And the same goes for Coker.

Bottom line, we don't have SUPERSTARS at any position outside of left tackle right now.
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Marvin McNutt is the best WR in the B10, but I guess your right, he prolly isn't as good as the best WR in the NFL :rolleyes:
 
Multiple and IC, hit it right on the head. 90 % of the guys doing all the talking, look at who is returning how many honor players. They simply do not spend hardly any time breaking down teams that are not preseason top 15-20. Then everyone goes "wow" that team came out of nowhere", I say bs, everyone just overlooked their talent in the matchups they had that year. Yes a few breaks here and there help, but they never just come out of now where, they simply did not dig that deep. So when we are ranked out of the top 20, even if we know what we have or not, we are under the radar. The radar only covers the pre season top 15-20. It's an easy way to say, Iowa was not preseason ranked high enough for us to spend the time to take a hard look at them, yet to cover our own butts cuz we know they are almost always good, we will call them a dark horse or under the radar.
 
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