2002 Hawkeyes Best Shot

[PlutoDroid]

Was the 2002 Iowa team the closest to National Title?

Remember all throughout that year many analysts were saying they were better than the eventual National champion Buckeyes. They are forgotten because of a loss to the emerging USC dynasty. Had they got in over Ohio State I wonder if they could have beaten Miami and won a title.

Who is the greatest team in your lifetime?

 

[ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAWK]

Was the 2002 Iowa team the closest to National Title?

Remember all throughout that year many analysts were saying they were better than the eventual National champion Buckeyes. They are forgotten because of a loss to the emerging USC dynasty. Had they got in over Ohio State I wonder if they could have beaten Miami and won a title.

Who is the greatest team in your lifetime?

No

 

[bhawk24bob]

That was the best team in the ferentz era imo but it wasn't national champion material. That Miami team was stacked

 

[scarletred]

Fry best team was 1985
Ferentz best team was 2002 the Iowa State loss hurt.

 

[Big Hawk D-Port]

Had Shonn Greene come back in 09 I think Iowa is in the NC game.

 

[DavenportHawk8]

For Iowa yes it was the best team. 2009 was right there, but we lacked the explosiveness that 2002 had.

I think KF will get the OL like 2002 again and if he can find some outside weapons this team could get back to that level.

 

[General Roman Malaise]

Had Shonn Greene come back in 09 I think Iowa is in the NC game.

This. I’m too young to remember Hayden’s best squads. And as much as I freaking loved Banks and Co. in 2002, they were exposed in the Orange by USC, a truly elite team that year.

That 2009 team was just sick. I really think they were Greene and a no-ankle-break Stanzi away from IT ALL.

 

[Keeker16]

1985 was the closest in my lifetime in my opinion. Maybe its because I was a youngster but they were easily my favorite team to watch. The OSU game still hurts.

 

[scarletred]

Had Shonn Greene come back in 09 I think Iowa is in the NC game.

Texas played Alabama for the National title that year.

Just saying.

 

[Big Hawk D-Port]

Texas played Alabama for the National title that year.

Just saying.

And they both were undefeated. It was one of the great college football games of all time. So maybe not, but still.

 

[scarletred]

And they both were undefeated. It was one of the great college football games of all time. So maybe not, but still.

You maybe thinking of the 2006 Rose Bowl when Texas beat USC 41-38 to win the 2005 national title.

 

[HawkAlum2002]

They couldn't play with USC the last 30 minutes, they probably couldn't have played with Miami for 60 minutes, I'm guessing there is not CJ Jones return to even get us a lead to start. And Brad Banks was awful in the Orange Bowl (and his three and out in the Alamo Bowl the year before wasn't pretty either), so I can't give him the benefit of the doubt that he'd play at his Davey O'Brien level either.

If we are counting what ifs, then 1997 if Vernon Rollins doesn't get hurt against ISU and Matt Sherman doesn't break his hand against Michigan and we hold on (although we'd still have the OSU loss most likely even with Rollins). We certainly beat Northwestern without even having to miss four FGs, and we'd have beat Wisconsin too. We'd have beat them if we'd started Reiners for that matter, but we started Mullen and missed a golden opportunity to score first before Hayden finally put Reiners in after a couple wasted possessions. Could've easily been a 10-1 year and right there in the Rose Bowl picture with Michigan, OSU, and PSU at around 7-1 in conference with that Michigan win. That'll always be the "what if" year for me.

 

[Big Hawk D-Port]

You maybe thinking of the 2006 Rose Bowl when Texas beat USC 41-38 to win the 2005 national title.

Yeah you’re right. I quit the internet for today.

 

[General Roman Malaise]

They couldn't play with USC the last 30 minutes, they probably couldn't have played with Miami for 60 minutes, I'm guessing there is not CJ Jones return to even get us a lead to start. And Brad Banks was awful in the Orange Bowl (and his three and out in the Alamo Bowl the year before wasn't pretty either), so I can't give him the benefit of the doubt that he'd play at his Davey O'Brien level either.

If we are counting what ifs, then 1997 if Vernon Rollins doesn't get hurt against ISU and Matt Sherman doesn't break his hand against Michigan and we hold on (although we'd still have the OSU loss most likely even with Rollins). We certainly beat Northwestern without even having to miss four FGs, and we'd have beat Wisconsin too. We'd have beat them if we'd started Reiners for that matter, but we started Mullen and missed a golden opportunity to score first before Hayden finally put Reiners in after a couple wasted possessions. Could've easily been a 10-1 year and right there in the Rose Bowl picture with Michigan, OSU, and PSU at around 7-1 in conference with that Michigan win. That'll always be the "what if" year for me.

This is a fascinating post to me, if only for the fact I’ve never seen 1997 mentioned in prior “what if” threads. Did we really miss FOUR field goals against NW? Were we controlling ISU and Michigan before those key injuries? Was OSU so good we wouldn’t have had a shot either way?

(very interested over here)

 

[HawkAlum2002]

This is a fascinating post to me, if only for the fact I’ve never seen 1997 mentioned in prior “what if” threads. Did we really miss FOUR field goals against NW? Were we controlling ISU and Michigan before those key injuries? Was OSU so good we wouldn’t have had a shot either way?

(very interested over here)

We won big at ISU, but Rollins was the defensive captain at LB and would've probably been the all time leading tackler at Iowa had he played all four healthy seasons, instead we only got two seasons and two games. Yes, we missed four FGs at NW in the snow, and still only lost because of a punt return TD 15-13 IIRC. And we blew the 21-7 halftime lead at Michigan, or they wouldn't have won the co-national title that year. To be fair some say Sherman broke his hand in the locker at the game out of frustration, but I still think it was on a helmet during the fourth quarter and he tried to play through it like you'd expect. He overshot a wide open Banks down the sideline that last drive and then his final pick was an ugly throw. As for OSU, they shut down Banks and dominated that game at the line, so I'd say we wouldn't have beaten them at the Shoe that day regardless.

 

[General Roman Malaise]

This is a fascinating post to me, if only for the fact I’ve never seen 1997 mentioned in prior “what if” threads. Did we really miss FOUR field goals against NW? Were we controlling ISU and Michigan before those key injuries? Was OSU so good we wouldn’t have had a shot either way?

(very interested over here)

We won big at ISU, but Rollins was the defensive captain at LB and would've probably been the all time leading tackler at Iowa had he played all four healthy seasons, instead we only got two seasons and two games. Yes, we missed four FGs at NW in the snow, and still only lost because of a punt return TD 15-13 IIRC. And we blew the 21-7 halftime lead at Michigan, or they wouldn't have won the co-national title that year. To be fair some say Sherman broke his hand in the locker at the game out of frustration, but I still think it was on a helmet during the fourth quarter and he tried to play through it like you'd expect. He overshot a wide open Banks down the sideline that last drive and then his final pick was an ugly throw. As for OSU, they shut down Banks and dominated that game at the line, so I'd say we wouldn't have beaten them at the Shoe that day regardless.

Very interesting, thanks for responding.

 

[BioHawk]

Texas played Alabama for the National title that year.

Just saying.

So? Iowa nearly went undefeated that year without Shonne Green. If they had him, then they likely win out even after Stanzi got hurt.

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

That 2009 team was just sick. I really think they were Greene and a no-ankle-break Stanzi away from IT ALL.

Yep. Since defense wins championships, 2009 was more elite. Stanzi was undefeated that year and we probably win it all without the injury against Northwestern while we were winning.

People forget how good that Georgia Tech team was on offense that year we beat them in the Orange Bowl. Clemson couldn't stop their offense in the ACC Championship game, and they beat the Tigers with CJ Spiller that year to win it. The Jackets hadn't had to punt in like their last 3 games and we had them punting every quarter. Absolute masterpiece of a game plan by Norm Parker.

 

[tony0051]

2009 team was best in my lifetime. If Stanzi and the RB crew stays healthy Iowa goes unbeaten and plays for NC. Or gets left out and finishes undefeated and we still debate today if we should have the ring

 

[Big Hawk D-Port]

2009 team was best in my lifetime. If Stanzi and the RB crew stays healthy Iowa goes unbeaten and plays for NC. Or gets left out and finishes undefeated and we still debate today if we should have the ring

And yet by all rights they should have lost to UNI at home.

 

[cecilB]

For Iowa yes it was the best team. 2009 was right there, but we lacked the explosiveness that 2002 had.

I think KF will get the OL like 2002 again and if he can find some outside weapons this team could get back to that level.

Yet the 2009 Defense was awesome, and the 2002 D fairly pedestrian.

Defense wins championships... in this hypothetical question, 2009>chance than >2002

 

[Herky T Hawk]

In 2002 at the end of the regular season Iowa was 3rd in the AP and Coaches polls, yet 5th in the BCS poll for some reason.

If Brad doesn't hurt his thumb and we maintain the lead against ISU to finish 12-0 for the regular season we likely finish 3rd in the BCS, but don't jump over Miami or OSU to play in the title game.

If we had gone to the Rose Bowl that year I think we easily beat Washington State. Would that have been enough for the AP to vote us #1? A lot of people thought that we were better than OSU that year and if we both finished undefeated a lot of AP voters would have voted for us to stick it to the BCS.

As for the USC game, it unfortunately was a bad night for us. We had two drives into the red zone in the first half that came away with 3 points total. Those two drives cost us that game as the 2nd half would have played out completely different if we had scored at least 10 there. I think if we played that game 10 times we probably win 4 or 5 of them. The teams were fairly evenly matched on offense, their defense was a little better than ours, and our special teams was better than theirs.

2009 was different because the pollsters hated us that year. Here's how a stretch went during the season for the AP poll.
7-0 #7
8-0 #7
9-0 #8
They dropped us a spot when we were 9-0 that year. Even if we were undefeated, there's no way we would have passed Texas or Alabama to make it to the BCS title game. TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise State were also undefeated that year. With the way we were barely winning some games they likely would have voted one of them higher than us too. Now, if Shonn Greene had stayed for that season, things would be different We probably would have been winning some of those close games by a lot bigger margin. Would that have been enough to vault us past two of the biggest name programs that finished 13-0 since they had conference championship games? Maybe, but probably not.

So, in 2009, I don't think we make the BCS and I don't think we can win a split vote in the AP because Alabama was on fire at the end of that season including a bunch of wins against top 25 teams.
In 2002, I don't think we make the BCS, but we may have been able to get a split vote to win the AP #1 since that was Ohio State's first "good" season in a while. They didn't yet have the recognition of dominance that they have had over the past 15 years since that title. Plus AP voters were itching to have an opportunity to vote for a split title at that point. 2002 would have been the perfect year with the title game going into overtime, but nobody else was undefeated. They finally got their opportunity in 2004, but USC dominated the title game against Oklahoma and the AP voted for them instead of 13-0 Auburn.

 

[PlutoDroid]

No