1990 Iowa at Illinois.
It was an epic beat down and a surprising one.
It was an epic beat down and a surprising one.
A game in Hawkeye history that best resembles the beat down of OSU
- Thread starter NorthernHawkeye
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I was to young for that one... the only one I had that came to mind was 2002 Michigan
Not a ranked opponent, but Iowa Illinois in 1985 after we lost the #1 ranking at Ohio State.
Iowa came out and kicked ass like I haven't seen very often. Just smoked the Illini.
Iowa came out and kicked ass like I haven't seen very often. Just smoked the Illini.
The 35-7 beat down or so of #5 MSU in 2010. But I don't think any of them compare because OSU is the Death Star of the B1G.
The real win in '04 was when a 1 loss Wisky came to town rated # 9 in the country with a chance to win the big 10 and go to the Rose Bowl and we beat em 30 - 7.
Sun Bowl 1995 vs Pac-10 co-champs Washington was an even bigger beatdown than the 38-18 score indicated, kicked 5 field goals and Tim Dwight threw a pick in the end zone. Had that been Hayden's swan song as was rumored at the time, would've been a great way to go out. But Washington was ranked 15th at their highest that year, so maybe that's not quite high enough.
OSU was like 7-4 that year.
The only comparison (at least in my lifetime) is the Illinois win in 1990. I remember my dad used to turn the TV volume off and had Zabel on radio for about every game. Nothing like listening to Zabel call a game. A five-yard run sounded like a pick-6 with Zee calling the game. Zabel went absolutely crazy that Illinois game. If memory serves me correct, that game hooked me on Iowa football.
I agree--shocking beatdown. Yet that 2004 Ohio St. team was probably their worst team of the last 20 years. Today, we smacked a highly rated OSU team and I can't recall a similar game vs OSU in myh life.
Hayden didn't mind running the score up on some schools. Supposedly he didn't like Fred Akers at Texas and ran up the score in the Freedom Bowl.
I could never put any bowl games in the class of today's game. Most bowl games are supposed to be even match ups ( on paper anyway ). Sometimes players sandbag bowl games to preserve their bodies for the pros. Just a vacation for some teams. Rivalrys just aren't there like a hated conference team that has had your number forever.
I considered the Freedom Bowl, but Texas limped into that one losing 3 of 4 and didn't want to be there and it was horrible rain, so I went with the Sun Bowl (although maybe Washington didn't want to be there either!)
Texas was 7-3-1 and ranked #19 heading into the Freedom Bowl. Earlier in the year they were ranked #1 so they were disappointed to be playing in the Freedom Bowl. Similarly, Iowa was disappointed to be there as well, having recently blown the inside track to the Rose Bowl. The attendance was listed at only 24,000 but it certainly looked worse due to the pouring rain.
Sorry, the Freedom Bowl doesn't hold a candle to 1990 Iowa vs Illinois.
As I'm typing this I'm getting a blowjob from Lucy Pinder and she says my take is the better one.
That 1990 squad was a rose bowl participant and the 84 team wasn't. Making them more like this year's team. Also Texas is a legendary program like OSU. Score! Those tidbits coupled with Lucy Pinder's expanding mouth gives me the edge.
btw I luv that this is what we get to argue about before the next game, so refreshing
I think that had similar emotions that day for Iowa fans, even if most of them weren't able to attend the game like they were able to on Saturday this week...
But Iowa was ranked and playing well. So that one doesn't have the same level of surprise. Sure a blowout wasn't expected, but were people calling for Fry's head?
Nah, although we didn't know it yet, OSU was "bad" (by their standards) and we were already in our winning streak. Not to the same level for me.
Big win, and very surprising, given the circumstances. But again, we were ranked, and on a roll late in the year. So we'd shown we were capable of playing well.
And none of those teams is Ohio State. None of them have the history of beating us down, even when we have great seasons.
I remember around that time being so happy about that-it felt like a little measure of revenge for their RB wins over us. Because of those RBs, those 90s UW teams always seemed so intimidating. But I was 11 when that happened and didn't have perspective that UW wasn't quite so good.
Michigan 02 is the best comparison I've seen. But again, Iowa had already shown some flashes and more promise than we thought about this year's team coming into Saturday.
I'm not going to say this was the biggest or best anything. I do think it was a unique kind of game that has few, if any, precedents.
Our group of 5 made it to that game. That, along with Michigan State "Stanzi to McNutt" rate as the top two road games we made. It was great to see all the Michigan fans leave early in the 4th qtr.
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anon_i8nzeu2gbf0ba
Guest
Based on the quality of opponent combined with total domination by Iowa, the 1985 win over Illinois is tough to beat. Illinois had already beaten #6 Ohio State and tied #4 Michigan the week before, 3-3.
Meawhile, Iowa was being upset in Columbus and lost its perfect season and #1 national ranking.
Seven days later, Iowa led Illinois 35-0 at the end of the FIRST QUARTER!
It was 49-0 at the half, and Iowa cruised in with a 59-0 win. Not much could compare to that until Saturday's annihilation of Ohio State.
Meawhile, Iowa was being upset in Columbus and lost its perfect season and #1 national ranking.
Seven days later, Iowa led Illinois 35-0 at the end of the FIRST QUARTER!
It was 49-0 at the half, and Iowa cruised in with a 59-0 win. Not much could compare to that until Saturday's annihilation of Ohio State.
Up until last Saturday, that was by far my favorite Iowa victory in my lifetime.
It's one thing to beat Michigan, but back then going into their place and destroying them the way Iowa did was darn near unthinkable.
My non-bowl games "most satisfying"...
2017 OSU
2002 at Michigan
2004 OSU
1991 at OSU
1981 at Michigan
1985 Michigan
1981 Nebraska
2008 Penn State
Notice a theme?
That's why, Penn State and Nebraska threads here...meh. It's always been OSU and Michigan for me.
This is the best rundown of why this past weekend's Ohio State game was so unique, but I'll add that the sense coming into it was that Iowa was going to be absolutely destroyed, and we came out having dismantled them. That total swing of expectations is simply unprecedented. We've certainly won when expecting a beat down, and we've certainly been expected to lose and given a beat down, but not the total swing on its head like this.
Maybe because it was so recent, but 40-10 over #16 Nebraska last year was a pretty big surprise, but still not as surprising because of the recent series history. 2002 vs Michigan came to mind, but we already knew we were pretty good. 1990 vs Illinois was Illinois, and (maybe because I had the optimism of youth) not completely unexpected considering Iowa already had some established wins. The BEST comparison I can offer is the 2004 Outback Bowl. Myself and most people expected another Iowa flop in a January 1st bowl, and expected Chris Leak to pick us apart while Nathan Chandler would plod along and throw some bone-headed interceptions, and get sacked a couple times. The Purdue game late in the year really made me think we were not ready to face an elite program in their home state, and that our ranking was undeserved. They hit that bomb to start and it seemed that was going to plan. Then, well, EVERYTHING went right...
If not for the "fake" punt, the score could've easily been 55-17. Texas made just 2 more bowl games in the 80s, while Iowa went on to 4 more bowl games in the decade.
I guess I always had an anti-Ohio State bias that started in my high school years before I went to Iowa. In those days I was living near the campus of Michigan State University, and attended Spartan games with my dad then who was a professor there. Perhaps some of you wonder about what went in to my sig handle here on this board. That situation itself was controversial. I respect Griffin a bit more now with the way he handled himself then.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...b-ohio-state-legend-archie-griffin-apologizes
The best game I attended there, and still one of the best games I was ever at, was the big upset MSU had over Ohio State in 1974, 16-13 that was controversial on whether Archie Griffin scored before the clock ran out or not. The Big Ten office had to decide this, and we didn't know until there was a big announcement when most of us were walking to our cars in the parking lot that the Big Ten decided Iowa had won as the game was called. Probably a prelude to the video replay processes we have now that is part of today's game.
Woody was pretty upset with that game and punched a fan on the way out of the stadium. It was also rumored that he was so upset that he sicc'd the NCAA and the Big Ten on MSU then, which got Denny Stolz out as their coach and put them on probation for a few years in subsequent years after that. Still have my old "OHowIHate Ohio State" t-shirt somewhere in a closet someplace here. I wore that at Iowa/Ohio State games later too.
When I was watching Michigan State on the victory stand after their B1G championship game win against Iowa two years ago by the exact same score (16-13) and Archie Griffin was handing the MVP award to an MSU player then, I wondered how much Archie Griffin was looking back to that game against MSU then where OSU lost by the same score when he crossed the goal line a few seconds late for it to count then.
I don't think that Urban is nearly as vindictive or a bad sport as Woody was then, so I don't think he'd try to get Iowa put on probation like Woody did to MSU then, but who knows how badly he feels about Saturday's game!
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