a lot of people keep bringing up this phrase , I think it’s regurgitated tripe.
Yes, there are. Maybe they aren’t quite as good as the regular ones, but they most certainly exist.
How many here would have preferred rather than the ending today to having the game continue as it was and Iowa losing by 40 on a national stage? The team showed heart and fire and built their own confidence and those of its fanbase that it can play with anyone in the country even a bit outmanned. It’s important for the players, and demonstrates they won’t give up.
The entire early Ferentz early era was built on moral victories: we weren’t winning many games but he demanded to see that they were fighting back, giving it there all and doing our best to execute. They were important building blocks. Hell, even the 2015 championship game was somewhat of a moral victory; people disparaged our undefeated record all year and we earned more respect nationally in that MSU loss than almost all he wins combined. And does anyone want to stand up and equate the Big 10 Championship game to the rose bowl that year? Which would you rather watch? Because if there are no moral victories then you’d hold them in the same light.
That 2nd half helped change the program a lot. We went from being mocked to nationally respected. Great team-building exercise. The players proved they can play with anyone and won’t back down. I wish we would have won, but that was an amazing comeback and infinitely more rewarding than a 30+ point beat down.
I just thought I’d edit and add this Fran quote:
Q. Obviously you're disappointed; you wanted to win this game. But to come back from 25 against a team of that caliber, does it make it more palatable to know that you exited the way that, hey, we left it all out there, was everything we could do?
COACH MCCAFFERY: Absolutely. It's the only thing that we can ever really ask of our guys. We put a game plan together. We know it's not going to be perfection. It never is. But what you hope to get is a perfect effort. And that's what we got. And I think anytime that happens, you just want to hug your guys and tell them how much you love them because you appreciate how hard it was to do what they did.
Yes, there are. Maybe they aren’t quite as good as the regular ones, but they most certainly exist.
How many here would have preferred rather than the ending today to having the game continue as it was and Iowa losing by 40 on a national stage? The team showed heart and fire and built their own confidence and those of its fanbase that it can play with anyone in the country even a bit outmanned. It’s important for the players, and demonstrates they won’t give up.
The entire early Ferentz early era was built on moral victories: we weren’t winning many games but he demanded to see that they were fighting back, giving it there all and doing our best to execute. They were important building blocks. Hell, even the 2015 championship game was somewhat of a moral victory; people disparaged our undefeated record all year and we earned more respect nationally in that MSU loss than almost all he wins combined. And does anyone want to stand up and equate the Big 10 Championship game to the rose bowl that year? Which would you rather watch? Because if there are no moral victories then you’d hold them in the same light.
That 2nd half helped change the program a lot. We went from being mocked to nationally respected. Great team-building exercise. The players proved they can play with anyone and won’t back down. I wish we would have won, but that was an amazing comeback and infinitely more rewarding than a 30+ point beat down.
I just thought I’d edit and add this Fran quote:
Q. Obviously you're disappointed; you wanted to win this game. But to come back from 25 against a team of that caliber, does it make it more palatable to know that you exited the way that, hey, we left it all out there, was everything we could do?
COACH MCCAFFERY: Absolutely. It's the only thing that we can ever really ask of our guys. We put a game plan together. We know it's not going to be perfection. It never is. But what you hope to get is a perfect effort. And that's what we got. And I think anytime that happens, you just want to hug your guys and tell them how much you love them because you appreciate how hard it was to do what they did.
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