Who Was Your Favorite Hawkeye that Things Didn't Work Out in Playing Time

[Seth53]

...back on track....Jess Settles really had his playing time diminished. Would have panned out as a true warrior....like Chris Street. Too had his back didn't hold up.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

I'll have to flip-flop the MSU loss and the UNLV loss as the most gut-wrenching.

I was a student at Iowa during Iowa's Final four run with Lester, etc. I went to all the homes games and tuned in all the away games. I had major buy-in with Lute and the boys. With the UNLV loss, I at least had solace that I had witnessed one final four run in my lifetime.

Not so with the MSU loss. It was a perfect storm of a season...one that comes along maybe twice in a lifetime (Iowa had an outside chance at a mythical FB NC in 1985 before the Rose Bowl loss)....we were one 4th down stop, one turnover away from doing something IMO even more difficult than making a BB final four. Those final nine minutes reminded me at the time of the 2nd half of the UNLV game. C'MON HAWKS...make a play...please!! I was at the game and dejectedly told a buddy this is the closest I'll see an Iowa FB team make the playoffs in my lifetime. I was spent and distraught.

To add insult to injury, I then had to endure idiotic fans crowing about "the rose bowl, the rose bowl" for weeks. Pfffft. Nothing more than a fancy consolation prize. It was a nightmare to get to and a national embarrassment eleven seconds into it. Yes, I tuned in...for about 1 & 1/2 quarters, then I had enough. One play away from the playoffs, one stop away from true coast-to-coast program recognition.... to that debacle. Still majorly pisses me off. I've never watched the replay...and never will.

That loss still haunts me, and probably always will.

What makes me particularly sick is watching Josey get tackled on that final play. Not just held, but tackled. Probably due to shock, very few talk about it, but the view from above shows one of the MSU linemen literally tackling him to keep him from getting to the edge.

I personally loathe blaming officiating for a loss, but, boy, it's hard not to on that one. It was "Jim Bain-esque."

 

[Northside Hawk]

I'm kind of in the same boat. I think non-playoff bowl games are ridiculous now that there are 40 of them and the MSU loss is the one that upset me the most in my entire life.

That said, the rational part of me knows that Alabama would have rolled us 63-0 and they'd have been playing walk on freshman by the 2nd half kickoff. Iowa just wasn't equipped for that sort of thing and it would have been way more embarrassing than even the Rose Bowl bed shitting.

This is a good program and it's fairly clean by modern standards, but the SEC/ACC blue bloods are on a totally different level.

Yes, Alabama would have rolled us similar to how they toyed with Sparty.

But that's precisely why the UNLV loss hurt so much. UNLV was the closest thing basketball had to an Alabama that year and we had those bastards on the ropes.

UNLV was better than the Indiana team who did knock them out and win it all. But no way does Indiana hang with them in a seven game series. Our disposing of the Rebs would have made for a wide open Final Four. We would have played Indiana next, and we split with them in conference play. Syracuse would have been for the championship, and I would have like our chances there as well.

Sadly we will never know!

 

[StatelineHawk]

That loss still haunts me, and probably always will.

What makes me particularly sick is watching Josey get tackled on that final play. Not just held, but tackled. Probably due to shock, very few talk about it, but the view from above shows one of the MSU linemen literally tackling him to keep him from getting to the edge.

I personally loathe blaming officiating for a loss, but, boy, it's hard not to on that one. It was "Jim Bain-esque."

I am still pissed about the helmet to helmet in the end zone that ended up being an interception.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I am still pissed about the helmet to helmet in the end zone that ended up being an interception.

I was going to post about that as well. The play where Kittle got targeted. That cost us a TD.

Then the ball ends up settling in the back of a fallen Spartan player and their d back is the first to react. So we lose our chance at a FG attempt as well.

How about Vandenberg getting tackled when he was about to turn his pattern upfield? Actually that was more a smart play by the defender and a shitty rule then anything else. Pass Interference is a spot foul in the NFL. It is only fifteen yards in college. But going up another TD in that situation would have been insurmountable.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

I am still pissed about the helmet to helmet in the end zone that ended up being an interception.

I have mixed feelings about the targeting rule, but, if we are going by the letter of the law, that definitely was targeting. It was another ref miscue in that game that had huge implications.

 

[trj]

I was going to post about that as well. The play where Kittle got targeted. That cost us a TD.

Then the ball ends up settling in the back of a fallen Spartan player and their d back is the first to react. So we lose our chance at a FG attempt

How about Vandenberg getting tackled when he was about to turn his pattern upfield? Actually that was more a smart play by the defender and a shitty rule then anything else. Pass Interference is a spot foul in the NFL. It is only fifteen yards in college. But going up another TD in that situation would have been insurmountable.

So many what if(s) in that game as others have mentioned. Another big if is Tevaun Smith misjudging that 2nd big throw from CJB. That would have put the dagger in MSU. Greg Davis had his faults but he dialed up both of those throws at the perfect time. Too bad Iowa could only execute on one of them.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I have mixed feelings about the targeting rule, but, if we are going by the letter of the law, that definitely was targeting. It was another ref miscue in that game that had huge implications.

Its too bad that it seems to be a judgement call on the part of the official, or that crew, and it shouldn't be. Josey Jewell got a targeting call on the opening kickoff of the first game that year, or the first play from scrimmage. Desmond King had a more agregous hit in the Wisconsin game that wasn't called (a doubly huge break because King had two picks that day). Nebraska's Nate Gerry was ejected on his senior day with a hit that was nowhere near as agregous as the hit on Kittle in Indy.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Its too bad that it seems to be a judgement call on the part of the official, or that crew, and it shouldn't be. Josey Jewell got a targeting call on the opening kickoff of the first game that year, or the first play from scrimmage. Desmond King had a more agregous hit in the Wisconsin game that wasn't called (a doubly huge break because King had two picks that day). Nebraska's Nate Gerry was ejected on his senior day with a hit that was nowhere near as agregous as the hit on Kittle in Indy.

The Nate Gerry hit was called for one reason, and one reason only: the second he went down, Tevaun reached up to his helmet. Even the Nebraska medical staff bolted onto the field since they were a lot closer to him. If they were allowed to review based on "result", that may have been overturned, or at least not been an ejection, ditto with the Bosa head butt on Stanley in 2017.

But...with hits to the head, you have to draw the line at "Was it a hit to the head?" and "Did the player 'launch' or 'crown' the opponent?" In the case of Kittle, given that it was MSU, I default to "intentional". How they let that go was inexcusable.

 

[Fryowa]

Its too bad that it seems to be a judgement call on the part of the official, or that crew, and it shouldn't be. Josey Jewell got a targeting call on the opening kickoff of the first game that year, or the first play from scrimmage. Desmond King had a more agregous hit in the Wisconsin game that wasn't called (a doubly huge break because King had two picks that day). Nebraska's Nate Gerry was ejected on his senior day with a hit that was nowhere near as agregous as the hit on Kittle in Indy.

Josey's hit was actually the fault of the Miami kid. Jewell was positioning for a block on Merimee, Merimee's weight got in front of his feet, and he quite literally stuck his own helmet right in front of Jewell.

He stumbled kind of like when you're running downhill, and got blasted by his own doing.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Josey's hit was actually the fault of the Miami kid. Jewell was positioning for a block on Merimee, Merimee's weight got in front of his feet, and he quite literally stuck his own helmet right in front of Jewell.

He stumbled kind of like when you're running downhill, and got blasted by his own doing.

Something similar happen in a Dubuque Hempstead vs Wahlert JV game in the 1980's and it almost ended in a freakish tragedy. The safety stumbled as he lowered his shoulder to hit the running back and didn't see the running back juke at the last second. The safety's face mask collided flush with the running back's sternum, caved in some of his ribs, and collapsed borh lungs. For a couple minutes it looked like he would perish right on the field. His parents were summoned to the field and a priest was called down to administer last rights. He was able to be sent to the ER and even ended up playing football the next year but it was a scary five minutes.

 

[VTHawk]

Ronnie Lester. He stays healthy his senior year and we win it all.

Gerry Wright. The dunking machine was a key cog in Iowa's 86-87 all-star team. But damn, he somehow hurts his wrist, has it in a cast, and because of this his defense prowess and getting to the rim dunking suffered. He stays healthy and Iowa goes to the Final Four.

I'll agree with you on that but at the same time I will state the obvious of that game that prevented us from the final four. If Tom Davis doesn't tell his team to take their foot off the pedal, we are in the final four. If the team just stayed aggressive we would have basically been in the final four.

Probably the most heart breaking loss I have ever experienced in sports.