Iowa has turned the corner?

[jumbopackage]

You make some excellent points. Some are hard to argue against - I guess I'm just going to hold out hope. That's really all it is - I'm not going to deny that I'm a homer and therefore my opinions are clouded. We'll just have to wait and see.

Oh I expect nothing else :wink: I just wouldn't go thinking that not getting to 8 wins will be a failure. It's ok to admit that Iowa is in a bit of a "rebuilding" mode. It's ok to lower your expectations for a year and be pleasantly surprised when they are exceeded. As we get more years behind us, it is beginning to become apparent that 2002-2004 was a pleasant bump in the road, and that Iowa is a consistent 6-9 win program that can jump up and compete on the national stage once a decade or so. There's no shame in that. In fact that's precisely where ISU wants to go. All this "we don't go to a Jan 1 bowl game and the year is a failure" is just going to be harder and harder to deal with the longer the gaps between those bowl games becomes.

 

[CrossCyed]

Michigan State may be the single biggest cocktease in the history of college football.

 

[PolkCityClone]

This is the same thing that everyone was saying about Iowa LAST year. Last year should have been MUCH better than it was. Promising WRs, proven, solid RBs, a small question mark at QB, but a highly touted guy. A lot of guys returning. A pretty soft schedule.

Before the season, the WRs mostly go bye bye. Injuries plague "playmakers" early (just like the year before in the backfield). The wheels fall off, before Iowa makes a stab at the soft underbelly of the Big 10.

Next year looks even worse, IMO. Unproven WRs, a backfield in disarray, a QB that nobody is all that high on, an o-line that looked like swiss cheese last year. Not to mention the issue with predictable play calling. A defense that loses 4 of it's top 6 tacklers from the year before. A predictable defense that can't defend the spread.

I don't mean to hate on the Hawks, but there really isn't a whole lot saying to me, at least, that next year's team has anything more to be hopeful for than last year's team. The Big 10 may have been down a bit last year, but it won't stay that way forever. You put Iowa in the Big 10 of 10 years ago, and they would have had 3 or maybe 4 wins.

Don't feel bad about hating on the Hawks. That is why they exist.

 

[keepngoal]

i think they reran that article from last year at this same time. Really a pathetic/ homeristic article.

-keep

 

[Broodwich]

I found this story linked on the Des Moines Register. There was a story a few weeks earlier about how Herbie thinks that Iowa will make January bowls again. I wonder if Herbie and Ivan Maisel got these talking points along with a fruit basket from the Sports Information Director at Iowa.

This seems like a PR effort similiar to the Heisman campaigning to pat the Hawkeye faithful on the back, and make them feel all better about their program. Can any of you recall speculative "comfort" pieces at the end of a bad season? If I read this stuff in Athlon's in June I think is to be expected, but this seems like a big effort for damage control and to make people feel good about a situation that doesn't warrant it.

 

[CTTB78]

You can sum up Iowa's dramatic fall from the Fry days in one statement--- when Iowa State plays Iowa we EXPECT to beat them.
Ole "runner up Hayden" has to wonder if the Cummings days are returning to Iowa City.