Unrelated to the topic at hand, but this is exactly why we need to keep the next head coach at Iowa in-house. Other programs it doesn't matter so much, but we have something special here that no other team can come close to matching which is 42 years with two coaches and one culture. I don't mean to suggest that we've been more successful than other teams, but it's not arguable that our stability has been greater than anywhere else. And more so now than ever, the odds of hiring a burnt turd and starting a 4-5 year recurrent revolving door of coaching staffs and 4-8 seasons is astronomical.
Agreed. Iowa is never going to do what Alabama has done under Nick. Never. Will never do what Clemson has done under Dabo. Probably will never even win a title, maybe never even a Rose Bowl.
I hate to say this and this is in no way me saying we will win this week because we are going to lose badly, but I actually think that it would be more difficult to claw Iowa out of football purgatory and reach a sustained level of success we have had under Ferentz than it would be for Iowa to jump up from where they are now and have a puncher's chance at the title. Stop and think about it. Iowa is essentially neck and neck with Michigan and PSU in the Big Ten. It is probably in a better place than Texas, Tennessee, USC and Florida State. The air has been sucked out of the room by a handful of teams in the South that are at a level of elite that Iowa will never touch, but leaving them aside, in relative terms Iowa is in a place where I never could have imagined 10, 20 or 30 years ago. And that's not about this vastly inflated #3 ranking, that is irrelevant. Iowa and Wisconsin are paragons of consistency. Sure, they'll have down years, but they are pretty damned steady programs.
Remember, Wisconsin had Russell Wilson and they lost two games on last second hail mary plays. Their season hung on two plays and had those TWO FREAKING PLAYS gone their way, they had a puncher's chance in the title game. Particularly with the new transfer rules, Iowa can be there.
But mark my words. If they F up the post-Ferentz hire, Iowa will be relegated to battling for 5th or 6th in the division every year. The fall that teams suffer when they hire the wrong guy is precipitous and it is a massive snowball that grows and is next to impossible to turn around. The competition is just too good. Even in bad conferences, a darling can turn into a dud in no time. You miss on a QB, you lose some guys on the line, you get some key guy arrested and the wheels are off the bus. You're toast. Clemson isn't even ranked. Top 5 recruiting classes all over the place, recent nattys, soft conference and they're not even freaking ranked. Clemson fans wish they had our offense. It is real easy to fall into purgatory.