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Good by Game #10

Feb 25, 2008
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We all know the narrative about KF-coached teams and how they get better as the season goes along. For a time in the middle portions of his career at Iowa, some began to wonder if that was a myth. But with the hard evidence I bring to you below, I think we can safely remove the tag of that being fiction. It seems that Iowa teams generally strive to be peaking, or at least playing their best ball by around Game 10. That might not always mean playing a complete game (as we saw last week), or even that they'll win. But the records speak for themselves over the last 7+ seasons. Iowa finds ways to win in the final quarter of the season.

(And yes, I'm aware that we aren't exactly always playing the toughest teams on the schedule in November, but many of these games are against key division rivals.)

2015-
Minnesota W 40-35
Purdue W 40-20
At Nebraska W 28-20

2016-
#2Michigan W 14-13
At Illinois W 28-0
Nebraska W 40-10

2017-
At #8Wisconsin L 38-14
Purdue L 24-15
At Nebraska W 56-14

2018-
Northwestern L 17-10
At Illinois W 63-0
Nebraska W 31-28

2019-
#8 Minnesota W 23-19
Illinois W 19-10
At Nebraska W 27-24

2020* (won't count covid year, but we went 4-0 in November)

2021-
Minnesota W 27-22
Illinois W 33-23
At Nebraska W 28-21

2022-
Wisconsin W 24-10
At Minnesota W 13-10

14-game winning streak in month of November.

5-2 in Game 10s
6-1 in Game 11s
6-0 in Game 12s/Nebraska ass whoopin's :cool:

*Full 12-game schedule records only

17-3 overall in final 3 games of the regular season since 2015 (Or 20-3 if you wanna count the covid year.)
 
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We all know the narrative about KF-coached teams and how they get better as the season goes along. For a time in the middle portions of his career at Iowa, some began to wonder if that was a myth. But with the hard evidence I bring to you below, I think we can safely remove the tag of that being fiction. It seems that Iowa teams generally strive to be peaking, or at least playing their best ball by around Game 10. That might not always mean playing a complete game (as we saw last week), or even that they'll win. But the records speak for themselves over the last 7+ seasons. Iowa finds ways to win in the final quarter of the season.

(And yes, I'm aware that we aren't exactly always playing the toughest teams on the schedule in November, but many of these games are against key division rivals.)

2015-
Minnesota W 40-35
Purdue W 40-20
At Nebraska W 28-20

2016-
#2Michigan W 14-13
At Illinois W 28-0
Nebraska W 40-10

2017-
At #8Wisconsin L 38-14
Purdue L 24-15
At Nebraska W 56-14

2018-
Northwestern L 17-10
At Illinois W 63-0
Nebraska W 31-28

2019-
#8 Minnesota W 23-19
Illinois W 19-10
At Nebraska W 27-24

2020* (won't count covid year, but we went 4-0 in November)

2021-
Minnesota W 27-22
Illinois W 33-23
At Nebraska W 28-21

2022-
Wisconsin W 24-10

13-game winning streak in month of November.

5-2 in Game 10s
5-1 in Game 11s
6-0 in Game 12s/Nebraska ass whoopin's :cool:

*Full 12-game schedule records only

16-3 overall in final 3 games of the regular season since 2015 (Or 19-3 if you wanna count the covid year.)
Why not count the COVID year? As far as I knew they were playing football and damn well should count my brother
 
Thanks Monkey.

The shortcomings of KF always seem to be in the spotlight, but the things he does well go unnoticed or are diminished in some way by our loyal fans.

The team gets better as the year goes on. That's a sign of good coaching.
It can be a combination of many things. For example, if the Ohio State, Illinois and Michigan games were in November this year instead of October, would we be talking about Iowa winning 3 straight? Most decidedly not. I do think if Iowa-Illinois played now, Hawks stand a good chance of winning, but that's beside the point.

I will say that the thing KF is good at above all else is creating a culture and recruiting guys who don't quit, even if it would appear they have nothing to play for from the outside. Iowa was sitting at 3-4, being made fun of for the offense, people talking about whether they would win another game all season. They just go about their business, beat a bad Northwestern team. Then go on road to Purdue where they are an underdog and just flatten the Boilers worse than any team has done to them in some time. Then come home and find a way to beat a rival that had Iowa's number for the last decade. Meanwhile, Illinois is imploding with the focus being on their program and they drop two games at home as a favorite, and here we are with Iowa more or less controlling its own destiny in the West with 2 games to go (barring a miracle from Illinois at Michigan).

Whatever it is that they do in the off-season, camp and in season, they get guys to stick to it and sacrifice for their teammates. It must be hard to do as a coach, because if it was then every team would do it. But many don't. It's typically at this time of year you see teams kind of pack it in if there's "not a lot to play for." KF gets the team believing/thinking that the game/team itself is worthy of their best effort. This runs counter to what we are told by the punditry, where if you aren't in the playoff discussion you might as well quit. And I get that to a degree. But KF obviously believes, and his players buy into it, that giving your best effort every day and every game until the season is over has its own rewards. Probably a life lesson in there somewhere.
 
It can be a combination of many things. For example, if the Ohio State, Illinois and Michigan games were in November this year instead of October, would we be talking about Iowa winning 3 straight? Most decidedly not. I do think if Iowa-Illinois played now, Hawks stand a good chance of winning, but that's beside the point.

....
which month do you think the wins against top 5 osu (woodshed game) and top 5 michigan (walk off FG) occurred? the wins came on Nov 4 and Nov 12 respectively.
i would not be so hasty to dismiss op's thesis. we would have a decent shot at beating our peers (the teams we currently play in November) early in the season but a significantly better shot at the elites late in the year. maybe mich and osu are the teams that ought to feel relieved at not having to undergo physical trauma against iowa in november. which brings me to the ccg. what wouldn't i give for that game to be played in a open stadium instead of a cozy enclosed piece of shit :)
 
which month do you think the wins against top 5 osu (woodshed game) and top 5 michigan (walk off FG) occurred? the wins came on Nov 4 and Nov 12 respectively.
i would not be so hasty to dismiss op's thesis. we would have a decent shot at beating our peers (the teams we currently play in November) early in the season but a significantly better shot at the elites late in the year. maybe mich and osu are the teams that ought to feel relieved at not having to undergo physical trauma against iowa in november. which brings me to the ccg. what wouldn't i give for that game to be played in a open stadium instead of a cozy enclosed piece of shit :)
There is some truth to this considering how much OSU whined about having to play in the snow against Michigan's run game and couldn't turn it into a f***ing track meet.....
 
We all know the narrative about KF-coached teams and how they get better as the season goes along. For a time in the middle portions of his career at Iowa, some began to wonder if that was a myth. But with the hard evidence I bring to you below, I think we can safely remove the tag of that being fiction. It seems that Iowa teams generally strive to be peaking, or at least playing their best ball by around Game 10. That might not always mean playing a complete game (as we saw last week), or even that they'll win. But the records speak for themselves over the last 7+ seasons. Iowa finds ways to win in the final quarter of the season.

(And yes, I'm aware that we aren't exactly always playing the toughest teams on the schedule in November, but many of these games are against key division rivals.)

2015-
Minnesota W 40-35
Purdue W 40-20
At Nebraska W 28-20

2016-
#2Michigan W 14-13
At Illinois W 28-0
Nebraska W 40-10

2017-
At #8Wisconsin L 38-14
Purdue L 24-15
At Nebraska W 56-14

2018-
Northwestern L 17-10
At Illinois W 63-0
Nebraska W 31-28

2019-
#8 Minnesota W 23-19
Illinois W 19-10
At Nebraska W 27-24

2020* (won't count covid year, but we went 4-0 in November)

2021-
Minnesota W 27-22
Illinois W 33-23
At Nebraska W 28-21

2022-
Wisconsin W 24-10

13-game winning streak in month of November.

5-2 in Game 10s
5-1 in Game 11s
6-0 in Game 12s/Nebraska ass whoopin's :cool:

*Full 12-game schedule records only

16-3 overall in final 3 games of the regular season since 2015 (Or 19-3 if you wanna count the covid year.)
Those last three ‘Juggernaut’ opponents though… LOL
 
I still wonder why almost every year the hawks are a work in progress or worse on offense in Sept, just starting to improve in Oct, and then get better to a degree in Nov?
 
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