Agree. Indiana ended up being truly terrible last year, and Maryland was its usual self of being terrible against good teams. Good on the Hawks for obliterating both teams, that what you need to do against terrible teams. But replacing Penn State, Maryland, Indiana with Michigan, OSU, and at Rutgers is a big difference. To your point, Iowa could have a better team by the advanced metrics and a worse record in 22 than in 21.
I think that folks have to be careful concerning declarations about Indiana last year.
We got into the head of Penix ... and got them out of sync from the outset. However, their D did the best they could in order to try to keep it a game.
2 games later ... Indiana was in a position where minus a completely GAME-CHANGING targeting penalty by their top LB ... the woulda/coulda/shoulda beat Cincinnati (a team that went on to go to the play-offs).
When the Hawks faced IU ... they still had a pulse. IU's roster went on to get absolutely obliterated by injuries. Furthermore, given that they had so many mercenary transfer-portal players ... when the losses pile on, having mercenaries doesn't exactly help locker-room chemistry and cohesiveness.
Similarly, the Hawks played Penn State when perfection was on the line for PSU. Quite a salty defense ... particularly stout in the red-zone. PSU was no joke in '21 ... they lost to Illinois largely because the Hawks had injured Clifford. They lost to Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State by a grand-total of 16 points! Late in the game ... they were in a position where the arguably should have beaten Michigan.
Head-to-head Maryland plastered Rutgers ... so the trade-off from '21 to '22 of replacing Maryland with Rutgers isn't the biggest deal.
Replacing the '21 PSU team (at that juncture of the season) with the '22 Michigan squad ... I'd argue that the difference there is rather moot.
The PRIMARY difference is that Ohio State is the closest thing to a sure-loss on the schedule. That's something that we didn't have on our schedule last year. Of course, back in 2017 ... pretty much everybody had the Ohio State game locked in as a loss too. So this sort of prognostication is obviously far from an exact science.
So sure ... the schedule is a little harder. The margin of which might be less significant than many believe.
However, for a greater contrast - the 2021 starting line-up featured a ridiculous among of inexperience in the trenches. One of the last times I remember the trench-warriors being that inexperienced at spots so pivotal to our schemes and identity was back in 2012. On the OL, that year, our primary returning "regular" starters were J. Ferentz and Tobin. Scherff had some experience ... but also ultimately went down with injury. On the DL, Dom Alvis was the closest thing to a regular returning starter ... but even he was regularly injured. Bigach saw some starts prior to '12 ... but just starting in place of guys who were injured. So what ... in '12, for all intents and purposes, returned 3 regular starters among our trench-warriors.
Now look at 2021! Our only returning starter on the DL was VanValkenburg. On the OL, our primary returning regular starter was Linderbaum. Ince also started a bunch during the covid-limited season ... and Schott rotated in a lot (having 2 "official" starts). Entering the 2021 season ... Schott was injured and Ince was rather "limited" (for a myriad of reasons). Consequently, the '21 trench-warriors were largely manned by just 3 prior regular starters too!
Now fast forward to the '22 season! The Hawks return no fewer than 3 regular starters on the DL ... and that is with Evans being viewed solely as our 6th man on the DL. When you consider how active that DL-rotation was and given the productivity of Van Ness ... that extremely heartening!
On the OL ... the Hawks have 2 extremely promising returning starters in Colby and Richman (both of whom were freshmen last season). Plumb and/or DeJong return with every bit as much experience as Ince had following the '20 season. So what ... MAYBE we have the equivalent of ALMOST 3 returning regular starters on the OL? Obviously, the situation on the OL could be as tenuous as it was in '21 depending on the health of our guys. However, had Shooter been healthy in '21 and had Ince been healthy and NOT faced the adversity he had ... then the scaffolding for the '21 OL looked like it could be quite promising too!
As others have noted, the Hawks have recruited quite well over the past several years ... and that includes getting quite a number of promising guys in the trenches. Consequently, I'm willing to speculate that it's not a bad situation having quality RS FR like Stephens and Davidkov ready to step-up and contribute. Furthermore, when healthy, Mylinski could make noise. Much to the chagrin of Kelvin Bell ... quality D-linemen like Liddle and Jones are poised to give the OL an infusion of depth and talent.
Looking to the DL, I wouldn't consider it an unlikely scenario that Graves could earn some situational snaps.
Anyhow, suppose my optimism concerning our 2022 trench-warriors is merited? Then, even with a harder schedule ... might that not count for something?