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1986 Rose Bowl

Ferentz benches Harmon after which fumble?

  • 1

    Votes: 2 3.1%
  • 2

    Votes: 45 69.2%
  • 3

    Votes: 15 23.1%
  • 4

    Votes: 3 4.6%

  • Total voters
    65
  • Poll closed .

Eternal Return

HR Heisman
Oct 15, 2009
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Let's say modern-day Kirk Ferentz coached that game. After which fumble would Ferentz have benched Ronnie Harmon?
 
Not ao sure KF would have pulled him Who was backup RB that year. Kevin Harmon??

ronnie was a stud. He had bad game but don’t think you bench him as he was the big play threat
 
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Would have benched him after the 2nd, at least for a few series. The weird thing about this game is that it was an anomaly for Harmon. I read that he had only fumbled once all year until this game. And FWIW, Ferentz was the line coach then so he may have had some input but Hayden had the call.
 
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10000 multi purpose yards in the NFL. Only guy in NFL history I read to average over 4.5 yards per carry on 500 career carries and 10 yards a reception. 8 catches in the Super Bowl. Most versatile and best back we’ve ever had in the modern era and not even close. And our defense gave up 45 pts to a 3 loss UCLA team.
 
LOL, BAD GAME??? You know the backstory on this, right?
The funny part with the back story is that neither Hayden nor Kirk believe(d) it.
I have never been able to reconcile that.
Would Kirk bring Ronnie in as an honorary captain if he believed Ronnie threw the game?
Do fans have better information than the coaches?
Or maybe, did Ronnie just have a horrendous game?
 
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10000 multi purpose yards in the NFL. Only guy in NFL history I read to average over 4.5 yards per carry on 500 career carries and 10 yards a reception. 8 catches in the Super Bowl. Most versatile and best back we’ve ever had in the modern era and not even close. And our defense gave up 45 pts to a 3 loss UCLA team.


NFL stats: 615 rushes, 582 receptions and 76 kick returns. Out of all those touches during his entire NFL career, he fumbled only seven times. Yes, you read that correctly - seven.


I've always wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but that is just not a good look.
 
  • Iowa recovered a fumble at the UCLA 5 from a bad snap of a UCLA punt on the first series of downs. In the first play from scrimmage, Iowa quarterback Chuck Long gave the ball to Ronnie Harmon, who fumbled the ball and UCLA recovered.
  • Iowa running back Ronnie Harmon fumbled the ball a total of four times, and later dropped a pass while wide open in the end zone as Iowa attempted a late comeback. He had only fumbled one time in the regular season.
I Believe!
 
Always hate this topic. Objectively it appears clear something was amiss. A couple fumbles were on good hits however probably not more so than in the Big 10. A couple not so much. That dropped pass was bad. Especially cause that was his strength. I don’t know that Kirk would bench him however. If Shonn Greene looked “off” would KF have benched him? Don’t know. But back then much easier for guys to be “on the take” without all the social media, etc. and the NFL money was much less even for very good players back then. Now if you were going to be a top 3 round draft pick be surprised people would “throw” a game so who knows.
 
I should also say I heard some Clone guy keeps posting he has inside info Kirk paid a “HUGE sum of money” to an Iowa player during his tenure as a coach. So now all Clones are guessing the player or players. If true, then maybe KF wouldn’t bench a player. Of course, I would be shocked if KF was paying a bunch of recruits/players. I am guessing another Clone troll to try and obfuscate the fact their entire athletic program is a joke and can’t recruit.
 
Always hate this topic. Objectively it appears clear something was amiss. A couple fumbles were on good hits however probably not more so than in the Big 10. A couple not so much. That dropped pass was bad. Especially cause that was his strength. I don’t know that Kirk would bench him however. If Shonn Greene looked “off” would KF have benched him? Don’t know. But back then much easier for guys to be “on the take” without all the social media, etc. and the NFL money was much less even for very good players back then. Now if you were going to be a top 3 round draft pick be surprised people would “throw” a game so who knows.
Iowa handled this well. Don't air your dirty laundry in public, and let sleeping dogs lay. Would not have got to the Rose Bowl without Ronnie Harmon.
What a thrill it was that year to see Iowa NO. 1 in the polls, so what really hurt was when Ohio State beat us in a thunderstorm.
 
Let's say modern-day Kirk Ferentz coached that game. After which fumble would Ferentz have benched Ronnie Harmon?

KF never would have yanked him. Just like Hayden. Or do you not remember the Indiana game @ Kinnick in which Stanzi threw, I think, five INTs--three or four in one quarter--and never missed a snap?

The Harmon Rose Bowl will live on as long as the Hawkeyes play football as, perhaps, the most inscrutable performance on the biggest stage by an All-American in Iowa history. I was there, and if Ronnie Harmon didn't throw that game, I have no idea what that would look like. But it was only afterward when the reality started to sink in. I don't believe anyone if they claim they thought, as the game was unfolding, that Ronnie was single-handedly giving the Rose Bowl win to UCLA.
 
I would just like to add that not only was there the Rose Bowl debacle, but wasn't there at least one incidentin a playoff game in the NFL where Harmon supposedly fumbled or dropped a pass on purpose,and that that is why Buffalo traded him? I may be off base on this, but seem to recall that.
If that is true, then it just adds more circumstantial evidence to the theory that the 1986 Rose Bowl was a fraud.


some please enlighten me.
 
I would just like to add that not only was there the Rose Bowl debacle, but wasn't there at least one incidentin a playoff game in the NFL where Harmon supposedly fumbled or dropped a pass on purpose,and that that is why Buffalo traded him? I may be off base on this, but seem to recall that.
If that is true, then it just adds more circumstantial evidence to the theory that the 1986 Rose Bowl was a fraud.


some please enlighten me.

 
I think Aristotle hit it on the head. Stanzi during the 2009 season is evidence that he sticks with his best players. So unless there was someone BETTER than Harmon behind him on the bench, Ferentz would have stayed with Harmon just like Hayden did.
 
LOL, BAD GAME??? You know the backstory on this, right?
KF never would have yanked him. Just like Hayden. Or do you not remember the Indiana game @ Kinnick in which Stanzi threw, I think, five INTs--three or four in one quarter--and never missed a snap?

The Harmon Rose Bowl will live on as long as the Hawkeyes play football as, perhaps, the most inscrutable performance on the biggest stage by an All-American in Iowa history... ...that Ronnie was single-handedly giving the Rose Bowl win to UCLA.
So Ronnie also played on D?

45-28.

Despite Ronnie's uncharacteristic bad day, 28 could have won this anyway.

Look up Coach Patterson's comments - I would believe those over anyone else's uninformed opinion / conspiracy bs.
 
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I would just like to add that not only was there the Rose Bowl debacle, but wasn't there at least one incidentin a playoff game in the NFL where Harmon supposedly fumbled or dropped a pass on purpose,and that that is why Buffalo traded him? I may be off base on this, but seem to recall that.
If that is true, then it just adds more circumstantial evidence to the theory that the 1986 Rose Bowl was a fraud.


some please enlighten me.
Thats some funny sh...
 
I would argue after the second fumble Kirk would have benched Harmon. Stanzi had multiple ints. during his tenure, but fumbling the way Ronnie did in the Rose is a different situation. The first two were so costly too.
Great question to debate, OP.
Go Hawks!
 
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1100 yards rushing and almost 600 yards receiving back in 1985, which is a really big number for that time. Do you think Iowa would have made him an honorary captain against Ohio State in 2006 if they really thought he threw the game? And again, we gave up 45 points to a very mediocre team. If Harmon played his usual game and doesn't have those miscues, it still would have been tough to get more than 45 points. 12 year NFL career, pro bowler and played in a super bowl. Best back I've ever seen at Iowa. One game doesn't define him in my opinion.
 
I would just like to add that not only was there the Rose Bowl debacle, but wasn't there at least one incidentin a playoff game in the NFL where Harmon supposedly fumbled or dropped a pass on purpose,and that that is why Buffalo traded him? I may be off base on this, but seem to recall that.
If that is true, then it just adds more circumstantial evidence to the theory that the 1986 Rose Bowl was a fraud.


some please enlighten me.

You are not off base. He alligator armed a winning TD pass in the playoff game against Cleveland in 89. Last game he played for Buffalo. He was enormously talented but his character didn't match his talent.
 
He played for 12 years in the NFL. People of poor character normally don’t make more than a few years. Do you know him personally?
 
Overlooked from that Rose Bowl is the fact that Harmon had 11 receptions for 102 yards in the game. If I'm not mistaken, the 11 receptions set a Rose Bowl record at the time. The fumbles were a factor in the outcome, no question, but there were more than a few balls he didn't drop as well.
 
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He played for 12 years in the NFL. People of poor character normally don’t make more than a few years. Do you know him personally?

Did he sign with an agent and take money while still in college? I believe that is a matter of record.
 
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A poor kid from Queens signed with an agent in college? Terrible.

And if he played for Nebraska or PSU we Iowa fans would be pointing to it as evidence of corruption. If a poor kid from Queens knocked off a liquor store, would he do time or would we just say it was OK because he was poor? He put his team in jeopardy for what he did. Iowa was in serious risk of going on probation over Harmon.
 
I remember a bowl game where Beathard could barely walk and even the announcers were repeatedly commenting on how Ferentz should take him out. We were losing something like 30-3 by the end but Ferentz wouldn’t put in the backup. I’m not criticizing that decision and I later saw that that game was part of the reason the 49ers decided to draft CJ. But it definitely casts doubt on whether Ferentz would have benched a player for having multiple fumbles.
 
You can watch all of the fumbles on YouTube. The first one (1:15 mark in the video) is ridiculous. He practically throws the ball to the defender.


 
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If it was current time, two of his fumbles would've been overturned by replay anyway. He "caught" a pass that would be ruled incomplete today without a football move, and another his knee was down before the ball came out.
 
So Ronnie also played on D?

45-28.

Despite Ronnie's uncharacteristic bad day, 28 could have won this anyway.

Wow. You are brilliant. Ever hear of many teams winning a game when they have five TOs? :rolleyes:

Harmon's first "fumble" should have been an Iowa TD instead. He had a clear lane to the end zone from inside the UCLA five, but somehow dropped the ball.

When the offense (Harmon) turns the ball over time after time after time after time after time against any team with a pulse, it's pretty tough to overcome. So ya, Harmon lost the Rose Bowl all by himself. Have you ever seen the game? Maybe you'd better check it out again.

And not only did Harmon lose all those fumbles, he also dropped a perfect TD pass in the end zone. The guy made more mistakes that day than he had in his entire football career up to that point. If he didn't throw the game, Harmon had the biggest meltdown in sports history.
 
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