DuffMan
Well-Known Member
I've often heard that Iowa football is one of those teams that is just one bad hire away from being the 1960's and 70's version of the Hawkeyes, as opposed to the Hawkeyes from 1980 to current.
The points supporting that argument are valid, Iowa City is not a destination for most, we are a cold weather state, Iowa has a relatively small population, and we cant rely on instate recruits to field a winning team.
That's all very true, but what is also true is that we aren't the 1990 Hawkeyes or even the 2000 Hawkeyes anymore. A small blip around the Fry-Ferentz transition not withstanding, we have been a consistently winning and nationally relevant program for over 30 years now. That's a LONG time. How long is it? It's long enough for a kid who grew up watching the Hawks play in big bowl games in the early 80's to have their own kids who are growing up watching the Hawks play in big bowl games. That's two generations of success; it takes a while for people to forget about that.
In additions to 3 decades of success we also have other things working for us. We are part of the BEST collegiate athletic conference in the nation. Am I biased when I say that? Yes, but I’m also correct. No other conference in America has been able to do for their schools what the B10 conference has done for Iowa and the now 11 other schools who round out the conference. They pioneered the B10 network which makes its entire product readily available to sports fans in nearly 1/3 of the country and they have TV deals in place with ESPN/ABC to put their elite games in front of the whole nation. With those TV deals comes big money, and it is money that Iowa has smartly re-invested directly back in the product. Iowa used the TV money, along with abundant private donation, to refurbish historic Kinnick stadium and turn it into a place that caters to both Coors Light swigging proles as well scotch sipping big wigs. They built a new state of the art weight room and training facilities in the mid-late 90’s and are rolling out a new state of the art practice facility in the next few years.
All of those things put Iowa on pretty safe ground program wise, and barring unforeseen disaster (hey there fOSU) I think it will take more than bad hire to change the course of the Iowa Football program
The points supporting that argument are valid, Iowa City is not a destination for most, we are a cold weather state, Iowa has a relatively small population, and we cant rely on instate recruits to field a winning team.
That's all very true, but what is also true is that we aren't the 1990 Hawkeyes or even the 2000 Hawkeyes anymore. A small blip around the Fry-Ferentz transition not withstanding, we have been a consistently winning and nationally relevant program for over 30 years now. That's a LONG time. How long is it? It's long enough for a kid who grew up watching the Hawks play in big bowl games in the early 80's to have their own kids who are growing up watching the Hawks play in big bowl games. That's two generations of success; it takes a while for people to forget about that.
In additions to 3 decades of success we also have other things working for us. We are part of the BEST collegiate athletic conference in the nation. Am I biased when I say that? Yes, but I’m also correct. No other conference in America has been able to do for their schools what the B10 conference has done for Iowa and the now 11 other schools who round out the conference. They pioneered the B10 network which makes its entire product readily available to sports fans in nearly 1/3 of the country and they have TV deals in place with ESPN/ABC to put their elite games in front of the whole nation. With those TV deals comes big money, and it is money that Iowa has smartly re-invested directly back in the product. Iowa used the TV money, along with abundant private donation, to refurbish historic Kinnick stadium and turn it into a place that caters to both Coors Light swigging proles as well scotch sipping big wigs. They built a new state of the art weight room and training facilities in the mid-late 90’s and are rolling out a new state of the art practice facility in the next few years.
All of those things put Iowa on pretty safe ground program wise, and barring unforeseen disaster (hey there fOSU) I think it will take more than bad hire to change the course of the Iowa Football program
