What stings the most...

S

STLhawkeye20

Well-Known Member
...is the confirmation that last season was an absolute hoax and fluke. I really bought in last year and loathed the pundits (like Herbstreit and Cowherd) who were marginalizing our success, but now I really have a hard time disagreeing with them. This team is an utterly average, mediocre group that happened to schedule podunk colleges in the non-conference, caught Wisconsin during one of their worst years in recent memory, and rode the momentum off into the sunset against middle of the pack Big Ten teams. I wanted to think that the MSU game validated the 12-0 season, but it seems wrong to validate a team's success with a close loss. Oh, yeah, and the fact that Alabama absolutely crushed MSU three weeks later (and of course you this thing called the "Stanford game")

Iowa is Iowa is Iowa and Iowa will be Iowa forever, and Cowherd is right. We're a program of posers and we just hope that our mediocre team that we put on the field every year aligns with a favorable schedule, powerhouses that are down, and some lucky bounces. That's it. The stars will align every ten or so years with a Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl or Florida-Bowl-Win-Against-an-SEC-opponent, but it doesn't matter whether we have Peyton Manning or Pablo Sanchez coming back to play quarterback for us. Ferentz will continue to make his $4.5 million per year, send some athletes to the NFL, and continue with his great routine of convincing Iowa fans that he's the answer when his mediocre product happens to work out for whatever reasons/act of God.

And that will be Iowa football until at least 2050 when B Ferentz retires. It's a really depressing and sad thought.
 
Nope, don't buy it. We may have been a poser at the Elite (top 4-8) level, but you don't scam or hoax your way to 12-0. Not in the B1G, MAC, WAC, MVC, etc etc. We didn't belong in the CFP, that is fairly clear at this point, but regardless of OOC SOS or favorable conference schedule....you are what your record says you are....this year is says we are average or below, last year it said we were very good, not elite, but very good. Let's say we had OSU and MSU on the regular season schedule and lost both....ok....cool, now we had about the hardest schedule possible and when 10-2....still really good....great even.

We aren't elite, we weren't in '85, '02', '03, '04, '09, '15. This is not a new phenomenon like we are all making it out to be.

In '15 we deserved to be in the conversation, that still remains true regardless of the beating we took in the Rose Bowl.

This year sucks, last year was, and still is, awesome.
 
The Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals were in the NFC Championship game last year. Both are 1-3. It wasn't a fluke they were there last year, they were great teams. This year, they're not playing great. It happens. It's football.
 
HawkeyeWalker said:
Nope, don't buy it. We may have been a poser at the Elite (top 4-8) level, but you don't scam or hoax your way to 12-0. Not in the B1G, MAC, WAC, MVC, etc etc. We didn't belong in the CFP, that is fairly clear at this point, but regardless of OOC SOS or favorable conference schedule....you are what your record says you are....this year is says we are average or below, last year it said we were very good, not elite, but very good. Let's say we had OSU and MSU on the regular season schedule and lost both....ok....cool, now we had about the hardest schedule possible and when 10-2....still really good....great even.

We aren't elite, we weren't in '85, '02', '03, '04, '09, '15. This is not a new phenomenon like we are all making it out to be.

In '15 we deserved to be in the conversation, that still remains true regardless of the beating we took in the Rose Bowl.

This year sucks, last year was, and still is, awesome.
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Agree. That said, there just seems to be a different coaching mentality this year to last. Last year it seemed like no on gave a F and they went out as hard as possible every week. This year I sense a hesitation on offense and defensive miscues not to mention sloppiness (i.e. penalties) that is traditionally uncharacteristic.

I don't think we have that big of a drop in talent at all and what Des King alluded to about being outcoached is probably correct. There's no creativity or utilizing strengths or exposing weaknesses, it seems like "hey lets try this and oh by the way don't run/make a play; take a sack and be as safe as possible, we have a special teams player of the week that will get them in bad field position."

That said, different team, different year, things happen. Sucks. There's only one constant in all of this...
 
SteveGarvey1 said:
The Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals were in the NFC Championship game last year. Both are 1-3. It wasn't a fluke they were there last year, they were great teams. This year, they're not playing great. It happens. It's football.
Click to expand...
It's football - sounds eerily close to something else.
 
STLhawkeye20 said:
...is the confirmation that last season was an absolute hoax and fluke. I really bought in last year and loathed the pundits (like Herbstreit and Cowherd) who were marginalizing our success, but now I really have a hard time disagreeing with them. This team is an utterly average, mediocre group that happened to schedule podunk colleges in the non-conference, caught Wisconsin during one of their worst years in recent memory, and rode the momentum off into the sunset against middle of the pack Big Ten teams. I wanted to think that the MSU game validated the 12-0 season, but it seems wrong to validate a team's success with a close loss. Oh, yeah, and the fact that Alabama absolutely crushed MSU three weeks later (and of course you this thing called the "Stanford game")

Iowa is Iowa is Iowa and Iowa will be Iowa forever, and Cowherd is right. We're a program of posers and we just hope that our mediocre team that we put on the field every year aligns with a favorable schedule, powerhouses that are down, and some lucky bounces. That's it. The stars will align every ten or so years with a Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl or Florida-Bowl-Win-Against-an-SEC-opponent, but it doesn't matter whether we have Peyton Manning or Pablo Sanchez coming back to play quarterback for us. Ferentz will continue to make his $4.5 million per year, send some athletes to the NFL, and continue with his great routine of convincing Iowa fans that he's the answer when his mediocre product happens to work out for whatever reasons/act of God.

And that will be Iowa football until at least 2050 when B Ferentz retires. It's a really depressing and sad thought.
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Wisconsin had one of their worst teams, ever?? They were 10-3 and beat USC in their bowl game..
 
Motigerhawk said:
What stings the most is that our fool of an AD just gave up another fire proof extension.

Unless of course the big donors step up. COME ON BIG DONORS, STEP UP!
Click to expand...

The irony in all this is that Barta likely consulted the big donors prior to the extension, and they gave the thumbs up.

Hell, I like and respect KF, and even I think the length of extension and terms if the buyout are absolutely absurd. You could have done a 3-4 year extension with reasonable terms for a buyout and accomplished the same regarding stability and recruiting defense.
 
CJ was just that much better last year and willing to lay everything on the line, every play but that has taken it's toll. Also, the OL is about the worst in 15 years and the defense is vastly underperforming. CJ at 100% would have made up for all that though.
 
HawkeyeWalker said:
Nope, don't buy it. We may have been a poser at the Elite (top 4-8) level, but you don't scam or hoax your way to 12-0. Not in the B1G, MAC, WAC, MVC, etc etc. We didn't belong in the CFP, that is fairly clear at this point, but regardless of OOC SOS or favorable conference schedule....you are what your record says you are....this year is says we are average or below, last year it said we were very good, not elite, but very good. Let's say we had OSU and MSU on the regular season schedule and lost both....ok....cool, now we had about the hardest schedule possible and when 10-2....still really good....great even.

We aren't elite, we weren't in '85, '02', '03, '04, '09, '15. This is not a new phenomenon like we are all making it out to be.

In '15 we deserved to be in the conversation, that still remains true regardless of the beating we took in the Rose Bowl.

This year sucks, last year was, and still is, awesome.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of this, but I take slight exception to the bolded part.

In '85, we stubbed our toes in Columbus on a rainy, nasty day and lost to a Buckeye team that we should have shellacked. We had a QB who finished second in Heisman voting to arguably the best athlete of all time. The roster also included names like Quinn Early, Jay Norvell, Larry Station, and Ronnie Harmon (try to forget the Rose Bowl). Without the loss at OSU, the Rose Bowl would have been for the NC. This team was ELITE.

In '09, we stub our toes on little brother, which never should have happened either. Again, a second place finish in Heisman voting. Roster also included Dallas Clark, Robert Gallery, Bob Sanders, Nate Kaeding, and Eric Steinbach, to name some. Without the loss at ISU, it would have been up to the voters to pick Iowa over OSU for the NC game. This team was also ELITE.

I guess it comes down to the definition of elite, but when you are 1-2 plays away from playing for all the marbles, I think it qualifies.

As for this year's squad...definitely NOT ELITE.
 
In my opinion there are only a few elite programs in which you can expect them to compete for a national championship every single year. That said I don't think its far fetched that a program can put together an elite team every few years that exceeds expectations and plays at an entirely different level. Unfortunately sometimes those teams come crashing back to reality in a hurry.
 
I think the worst thing is our inability to capitalize on last season to 'advance our brand' as John Miller pointed out. I had no expectations of 12-0 but a follow up season of 9-10 wins would be huge on many levels for us. That's gone now and I really blame the head coach for this.
 
I just think it's all summed up with beat the teams you SHOULD beat, coin toss the rest and you're looking at at least 8 wins usually. I despised Bielema, but maybe bc I was just jealous. The teams at wisky he was favored by 15, he'd stomp em by 40.
 
Barta says elite starts at 7-5. That is the point KF starts to earn bonus money in the new contract. This will probably be an elite year by Barta's standard.
 
Last season was no fluke.

I think this season is demonstrating how important focus and want-to football demands.

I think this team has had a hangover from the MSU B1G CC. I think the Rose was a let down.

The only focus and want-to game this year was ISU.

The others have been uninspiring and uncharacteristic performances.
 
DDThompson said:
Last season was no fluke.

I think this season is demonstrating how important focus and want-to football demands.

I think this team has had a hangover from the MSU B1G CC. I think the Rose was a let down.

The only focus and want-to game this year was ISU.

The others have been uninspiring and uncharacteristic performances.
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I hate saying this, as generally I've refused to believe this, but these "uninspiring and uncharacteristic performances" are becoming synonymous with this program. This staff has shown time and time again that as a program/fan base we can/should expect these "uninspiring and uncharacteristic performances" because we've been seeing it for years. Unfortunately this has become the norm and as much as it pains me to say, I think last year may have been one of those fluke seasons in which a team (coaches and players) plays outside themselves before reverting back to the way things have always been.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
I think the worst thing is our inability to capitalize on last season to 'advance our brand' as John Miller pointed out. I had no expectations of 12-0 but a follow up season of 9-10 wins would be huge on many levels for us. That's gone now and I really blame the head coach for this.
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I do agree that what stings the most is our inability to advance the brand (and likely attract higher levels of talent on a more consistent basis) after all the momentum that was built last year. Those years don't come around too often as we know so it looks like we're headed back to the traditional roller coaster ride of yearly uncertainty. Can't say that it's still impossible to pull of a strong year yet but who would take that bet right now.
 
You look at Iowa, and we aren't flashy. That is completely on the coaches. I would argue in 2002-2004 we seemed to be "sexy". 2002 our offense could score on anyone. 2003 and 2004 we beat the crap out of teams.

That showed up in recruiting, with the 2005 class being a top 10.

Then something changed. Don't know if it was all the legal problems in the 2006-2009 teams or what, but we shut everything down and became one of the most boring teams ever. While we don't have the best talent, it's pretty useless in our schemes. Unless we have a QB playing out of his mind, or an NFL running back running out of his mind.....we sit in the 80-100th rankings for offense

We should be able to use the fact that if you start on our OL, DL, LB, and CB you will probably make an NFL camp at the very least. We are an NFL factory, and for the positions I listed above, we should be much better on O and D than we are. If we're getting better recruits on the OL and DL, that makes both sides of the ball so much better.....and allows us to do what KF wants....Ball control, defense

Instead we have an OL that has multiple WalkOns starting, and a defense that has a WalkOn starting one of our most important positions, FS.

What stings me is the fact that this staff, until recently, has showed no desire to recruit. 2017 class looks decent, but if we continue to sink, it'll be hard to keep everyone.
 
DDThompson said:
Last season was no fluke.

I think this season is demonstrating how important focus and want-to football demands.

I think this team has had a hangover from the MSU B1G CC. I think the Rose was a let down.

The only focus and want-to game this year was ISU.

The others have been uninspiring and uncharacteristic performances.
Click to expand...

Here's what last season was.. We had an unbelievably easy schedule, all the bounces went our way, we hung with a very overrated MSU team, and then we played a team with a pulse in the Rose Bowl. You saw the result, we were annihilated. We are a bad football team with very little talent. Things are going to get much, much worse. Just sit back and watch.
 
STLhawkeye20 said:
...is the confirmation that last season was an absolute hoax and fluke. I really bought in last year and loathed the pundits (like Herbstreit and Cowherd) who were marginalizing our success, but now I really have a hard time disagreeing with them. This team is an utterly average, mediocre group that happened to schedule podunk colleges in the non-conference, caught Wisconsin during one of their worst years in recent memory, and rode the momentum off into the sunset against middle of the pack Big Ten teams. I wanted to think that the MSU game validated the 12-0 season, but it seems wrong to validate a team's success with a close loss. Oh, yeah, and the fact that Alabama absolutely crushed MSU three weeks later (and of course you this thing called the "Stanford game")

Iowa is Iowa is Iowa and Iowa will be Iowa forever, and Cowherd is right. We're a program of posers and we just hope that our mediocre team that we put on the field every year aligns with a favorable schedule, powerhouses that are down, and some lucky bounces. That's it. The stars will align every ten or so years with a Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl or Florida-Bowl-Win-Against-an-SEC-opponent, but it doesn't matter whether we have Peyton Manning or Pablo Sanchez coming back to play quarterback for us. Ferentz will continue to make his $4.5 million per year, send some athletes to the NFL, and continue with his great routine of convincing Iowa fans that he's the answer when his mediocre product happens to work out for whatever reasons/act of God.

And that will be Iowa football until at least 2050 when B Ferentz retires. It's a really depressing and sad thought.
Click to expand...
Well then root for someone else if it is so upsetting to you.........Nobody is forcing you to be a 'fan'.....
 
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