I am one that strongly believes this happens in College Football and at pretty much every school.
I do not believe it is just coincidence that Iowa played PSU down to the wire and thumped OSU. It has to be more than just being fired up to play one game and not being fired up the next.
There is a reason an ISU beats an Oklahoma, but loses to Texas. There is a reason an Ohio State loses big to Iowa and then thumps MSU.
Remember when everyone was so down on the Hawks last year going into the Michigan game? That game had been circled. They went with plain vanilla in other games and hoped they could still win those games. That allowed them to save wrinkles for Michigan. That created tendencies that they were then able to break against Michigan. Or OSU this year.
It is why ISU would look like world beaters against Iowa, and then like crap the rest of the year. He was willing to put everything out there for that game, often to the detriment of other games. Were they prepping for Iowa when they barely beat the Little Sisters of the Poor the week before? I think so.
Sometimes it works to perfection and you have a magical year like Iowa in 15' or Wisconsin this year. Easier when you get an easy schedule, because then you use your primo preps for the 2-3 teams that have a reasonable chance of beating you.
So what do fans prefer? Rolling the dice a bit on trying to beat the blue bloods, but we may also get caught by a Purdue occasionally? Or getting thumped by the blue bloods, but routinely beating the Purdues, etc?
The answer is nothing short of perfection is ever enough for most of the fans on this board. All you would have to do is go back to the 2015 season on this board to see so.
Not winning convincingly enough, style points, etc. during a perfect regular season year. Really?
The Hawks losses this year: PSU in a squeaker, MSU on the road, Northwestern(who has won 5-6 in a row), Wisconsin on the road, and Purdue at home.
There is only one bad loss in that group. And the team also has a very unlikely win on their resume(OSU). Not saying everyone should be happy and rosy. But, this was a tough schedule. A very good year probably has 3 losses on that schedule, so maybe the world isn't ending either?
I do not believe it is just coincidence that Iowa played PSU down to the wire and thumped OSU. It has to be more than just being fired up to play one game and not being fired up the next.
There is a reason an ISU beats an Oklahoma, but loses to Texas. There is a reason an Ohio State loses big to Iowa and then thumps MSU.
Remember when everyone was so down on the Hawks last year going into the Michigan game? That game had been circled. They went with plain vanilla in other games and hoped they could still win those games. That allowed them to save wrinkles for Michigan. That created tendencies that they were then able to break against Michigan. Or OSU this year.
It is why ISU would look like world beaters against Iowa, and then like crap the rest of the year. He was willing to put everything out there for that game, often to the detriment of other games. Were they prepping for Iowa when they barely beat the Little Sisters of the Poor the week before? I think so.
Sometimes it works to perfection and you have a magical year like Iowa in 15' or Wisconsin this year. Easier when you get an easy schedule, because then you use your primo preps for the 2-3 teams that have a reasonable chance of beating you.
So what do fans prefer? Rolling the dice a bit on trying to beat the blue bloods, but we may also get caught by a Purdue occasionally? Or getting thumped by the blue bloods, but routinely beating the Purdues, etc?
The answer is nothing short of perfection is ever enough for most of the fans on this board. All you would have to do is go back to the 2015 season on this board to see so.
Not winning convincingly enough, style points, etc. during a perfect regular season year. Really?
The Hawks losses this year: PSU in a squeaker, MSU on the road, Northwestern(who has won 5-6 in a row), Wisconsin on the road, and Purdue at home.
There is only one bad loss in that group. And the team also has a very unlikely win on their resume(OSU). Not saying everyone should be happy and rosy. But, this was a tough schedule. A very good year probably has 3 losses on that schedule, so maybe the world isn't ending either?
