The recruiting rankings post wasn't dramatic at all. It was a series of facts and, when no one chimed in about the possible meanings of the rankings, I decided to give a brief analysis of each team. If you disagreed with the analysis that would have been the thread to post in.
Why are you so concerned about whether I'm impressed by the Hawkeyes season? I thought it was inconsistent so I wasn't impressed. i didn't say it was a dismal season, though, either. It had highs and lows. Iowa's wins against Ohio State and Iowa State were excellent. The losses to UW and Purdue were really bad. The wins against Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska were what you'd expect from Iowa against the worst teams in the B10 West. I WAS impressed with how Iowa destroyed Nebraska, though anyone watching had to admit that Nebraska quit at a certain point. Still, great that Iowa put their foot on their throat. The wins over Wyoming and North Texas are not impressive to me. The losses to Michigan State and Northwestern weren't surprises to me, either. Disappointing, but not surprising. The loss to PSU was heartbreaking, but a valiant effort by Iowa.
Iowa is currently ranked #51 overall as a football team by Sports Illustrated (they ranked all of the bowl teams). That's about consistent with their recruiting rankings as was their wins and losses this year, with Ohio State being a shocking over performance and Purdue being a shocking underperformance. Overall, though, the team performed at about the level they were expected to perform based on talent on the team, expectations, new offensive coaching staff, etc. I'm not one who expects national championships nor am I one who thinks Iowa has better talent than UW or Nebraska. Even Northwestern has slightly better talent overall which makes that game a coin flip with a slight edge to whichever team has home field. Nebraska is putrid given the talent on its roster. They quit by the latter half of the year and their defensive coaching and philosophy was terrible. Their coaching period was terrible. I'm glad of that.
But Iowa was neither overly impressive or overly disappointing. All signs in terms of talent, coaching, etc., pointed to them being a 3rd or 4th ranked team in the B10 West. I posted the recruiting rankings in the "realistic" thread to demonstrate that their rankings realistically put them at 3rd or 4th in the B10 West. And they accomplished that. They didn't exceed it nor did they fall below it. In other words, i didn't post rankings to shame Iowa; I posted them to demonstrate that expecting nine or ten wins was unrealistically optimistic given the teams they played. But thinking they'd lose six or more games was also unrealistic given the teams they played. They are an average B10 West team this year as they were the prior year. There's nothing wrong with that other than believing they are better or worse than that.
Of course, I understand wanting better results and hoping, at the beginning of each season, that they'll exceed expectations. And I understand younger fans getting a little more emotional about it all. I certainly was when I was in my teens and 20s. But there's no reason to be upset with anyone who says the team was average or mediocre. That's not the same as saying they were bad. And, yes, this is another long post because I have concepts to communicate. I probably wrote this faster than it takes anyone to read it. It's not my problem.
