The Big Ten West has least "blue chips" per team by wide margin

[JoelBittner]

OMG Mike Riley? KF has his faults but he is a much better coach and leader than Riley.

Supports an AD who got throttled at trial for obvious reasons. Gives an award to the guy who put 13 kids in the hospital, 2 months after it happens. Tone deaf isn't a leadership quality. I would say that, plus his nepotism and greed make Riley a better example of humanity. Not even close really.

 

[Slappy Pappy]

Supports an AD who got throttled at trial for obvious reasons. Gives an award to the guy who put 13 kids in the hospital, 2 months after it happens. Tone deaf isn't a leadership quality. I would say that, plus his nepotism and greed make Riley a better example of humanity. Not even close really.

Keeping a 4x convicted drunk driver as a mentor and leader of teenagers simply because he's a good recruiter negates any possible humanitarian awards for ol' "But my job was on the line!" Mike Riley.

 

[BirdistheWord]

Supports an AD who got throttled at trial for obvious reasons. Gives an award to the guy who put 13 kids in the hospital, 2 months after it happens. Tone deaf isn't a leadership quality. I would say that, plus his nepotism and greed make Riley a better example of humanity. Not even close really.

Wow, cherry pick much? You are so biased that its not even worth the debate.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Supports an AD who got throttled at trial for obvious reasons. Gives an award to the guy who put 13 kids in the hospital, 2 months after it happens. Tone deaf isn't a leadership quality. I would say that, plus his nepotism and greed make Riley a better example of humanity. Not even close really.

Iowa loses because you think you deserve a better program and coach than what you actually do deserve. It's all your fault.....Ypu are the problem.

 

[Eternal Return]

How do you figure this Wisconsin team is much better than 2015 Iowa? 2017 Wisconsin played a weaker schedule.

Well, if you look at the scores of the games, Wisconsin was never really challenged until the B10 CCG. They were demolishing teams, just controlling the games they played from start to finish. Iowa had a lot of close games in 2015 and had some luck along the way. Plus, look at their offensive and defensive numbers compared to Iowa's in 2015. UW 2017 was better than Iowa 2015.

For example, Iowa beat UW in 2015 10-6 and got a break when UW fumbled inside the five. Iowa had really tough games against Minnesota, UW, Iowa State, Pitt, ILLINI, and Indiana. They also didn't look too good against Purdue after the first quarter, not too hot against a really bad Maryland team, and so-so against Nebraska (good enough, though). They had three easy games Illinois State, N. Texas (just a horrible team), and one truly impressive win against Northwestern.

Meanwhile, UW destroyed Utah State, BYU, Nebraska, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, and IOWA. They ground down and pulled away from FL Atlantic, Illinois, Michigan fairly easily. They beat Purdue in game that wasn't as close as score indicated. And they beat NW (#20) in a hard fought but never really contested game. They beat all but two teams by 8 points or more and they beat the other ten teams by 14 points or more. They just beat people up throughout the entire year. They lost to Ohio State by 6 in the CCG with a chance to win late.

I loved the 2015 Iowa team, but this year's Wisconsin team was better. They had a better running game, stellar defense, and most of their games were pretty much over by the start of the fourth quarter. It's not an insult to Iowa; it's just a recognition of reality.

 

[SconnieAlum]

Well, if you look at the scores of the games, Wisconsin was never really challenged until the B10 CCG. They were demolishing teams, just controlling the games they played from start to finish. Iowa had a lot of close games in 2015 and had some luck along the way. Plus, look at their offensive and defensive numbers compared to Iowa's in 2015. UW 2017 was better than Iowa 2015.

For example, Iowa beat UW in 2015 10-6 and got a break when UW fumbled inside the five. Iowa had really tough games against Minnesota, UW, Iowa State, Pitt, ILLINI, and Indiana. They also didn't look too good against Purdue after the first quarter, not too hot against a really bad Maryland team, and so-so against Nebraska (good enough, though). They had three easy games Illinois State, N. Texas (just a horrible team), and one truly impressive win against Northwestern.

Meanwhile, UW destroyed Utah State, BYU, Nebraska, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, and IOWA. They ground down and pulled away from FL Atlantic, Illinois, Michigan fairly easily. They beat Purdue in game that wasn't as close as score indicated. And they beat NW (#20) in a hard fought but never really contested game. They beat all but two teams by 8 points or more and they beat the other ten teams by 14 points or more. They just beat people up throughout the entire year. They lost to Ohio State by 6 in the CCG with a chance to win late.

I loved the 2015 Iowa team, but this year's Wisconsin team was better. They had a better running game, stellar defense, and most of their games were pretty much over by the start of the fourth quarter. It's not an insult to Iowa; it's just a recognition of reality.

The only reason Wisconsin had larger margins of victory is because the competition they faced was that much worse; 2015 Iowa played 2 P5 teams in non-conference to 2017 Wisconsin's 0 for crying out loud. Both Minnesota and Nebraska (actually pretty much everyone other than Pudue) were significantly better in 2015.

The 2017 Badgers are clownfraud trash.

 

[kceasthawk]

How do you figure this Wisconsin team is much better than 2015 Iowa? 2017 Wisconsin played a weaker schedule.

Thanks for a realistic post from our strong rival to the north. Going 12-0 is a process, even if your not playing the toughest schedule out there. There were some real challenges that year. The Wisky game, at NW with half the offense out with injury. Win and advance.

 

[Eternal Return]

The only reason Wisconsin had larger margins of victory is because the competition they faced was that much worse; 2015 Iowa played 2 P5 teams in non-conference to 2017 Wisconsin's 0 for crying out loud. Both Minnesota and Nebraska (actually pretty much everyone other than Pudue) were significantly better in 2015.

The 2017 Badgers are clownfraud trash.

Iowa's schedule in 2015 was weak as hell and that inflated their record. That's why they got humiliated against Stanford. If Wisconsin gets humiliated by Miami then i'll agree that both teams were way overrated and benefitted from playing in the putrid B10 West.

By the way, Wisconsin had more blowouts because they were a better team than Iowa was. Okay, two more P5 opponents (although I'd say BYU this year was probably better than ISU was that year). And how did Iowa do against a really bad Iowa State team and a middling Pitt team? They barely managed wins. If you want to trash Wisconsin's year this year, fin, but you're trashing Iowa's 2015 team, too. They both played shitty, shitty competition. But if UW beats Miami and especially if they beat the crap out for hem, they'll have had the better season overall.

Okay, enough of this Wisconsin crap.

 

[Baseballa33]

Wait....USC, Miami, and Alabama recruit more/better talent than Iowa and NW?? I’m shocked!

 

[TKingpin]

all Of these blue blood programs out- recruit us every year. And yet - when they count the chips on the table at the end of the year, lots of these great recruiting teams have worse records than we do.

Case-in-point: Texas. In what year since their national championship have we out-recruited them? Ever? How has that worked out for them?

All of those amazing classes for Tennessee haven’t worked out so well, either.

FSU was 6-6 this year after beating an FCS team in one of the final 2 weeks. Should that ever happen? Should Iowa ever beat OSU 55-24? Should we be on the same field with all of these Top10 Michigan recruiting classes? What is our record vs Michigan lately? Until this year, Georgia had top 10 classes, year after year and yet they were mediocre as a football team.

I could go on and on... LSU. UCLA...

 

[Eternal Return]

all Of these blue blood programs out- recruit us every year. And yet - when they count the chips on the table at the end of the year, lots of these great recruiting teams have worse records than we do.

Case-in-point: Texas. In what year since their national championship have we out-recruited them? Ever? How has that worked out for them?

All of those amazing classes for Tennessee haven’t worked out so well, either.

FSU was 6-6 this year after beating an FCS team in one of the final 2 weeks. Should that ever happen? Should Iowa ever beat OSU 55-24? Should we be on the same field with all of these Top10 Michigan recruiting classes? What is our record vs Michigan lately? Until this year, Georgia had top 10 classes, year after year and yet they were mediocre as a football team.

I could go on and on... LSU. UCLA...

It shows you coaching, scheme, program stability, finding players who are the right fit, etc., are just as important as recruiting. The flip side of those teams are Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc. Yes, Ohio State laid an egg against Iowa, but they win 10+ games every year, period, like clockwork. But that's because they also have coaching, program stability, players who fit schemes and program culture, etc.

Texas has been a train wreck every since Charlie Strong took over. UCLA the same ever since Jim Mora took over. Michigan's program stability post-Lloyd Carr has been horrendous until Harbaugh--say what you want about Harbaugh, but he's starting get Michigan back up there in terms of recruiting. Michigan State has decent top 25 recruiting but not elite recruiting. But they also have coaching, program stability, etc., to keep things going well. Penn State was a wreck starting with the Sandusky scandals, but Franklin has gotten them back to top-rated recruiting and has provided stability and buy-in from his players.

Tennessee, another train wreck in spite of recruiting. Stanford, on the other hand, has climbed into the perennial top 25 contenders because of stability started under Harbaugh and continued with Shaw. USC went through their instability phase, but seem to be starting to come out of it again the past couple of years. I think the reason Iowa hasn't see sustained slumps (losing records) is partly because of weak B10 West but also program stability.

Look at Nebraska ever since Osborne retired, just a coaching carousel and program instability even with decent recruiting classes. It's as if fans there forgot that Osborne wasn't an instant national champion contender. The guy worked it and then once he got to a certain level of success he kept them there. It was a different era, too, but the guy did it through being at the same spot for decades. Urban Meyer and Nick Saban have been unique in that they've had success wherever they have gone, but they chose their coaching destinations really well. Few coaches have that kind of power. They are the exceptions. What happens most often is that people believe they can plug in anyone to USC or Michigan and it will automatically work. The recruiting might stay the same or close enough, but it's pretty clear that some coaches just don't know how to run a program properly to take advantage of the kind of talent they land.