They lost to 3 teams that year that finished 7-5. How in the hell can you possibly get more mediocre than that?
da coach, is that you?.....First you threaten to call people morons, then you call someone an idiot. Working your way up in the world, huh.
Anyway, gave you time, and you did nothing with it, so now onto the show:
Yes, 2005 was a disappointment. We blew several games, including 3 against beatable teams. We under-performed based on the expectations set for us in the preseason, but the talent was there to suceed. Unfortunately for you, you don't seem to look past records alone. If all records are equal then what would an 8-4 Iowa team be in your book? Slightly above mediocre? Is that what the 1990 Iowa team was then? Ya know, the ones that won the Big Ten title, played in the Rose Bowl and had co-conference MVPs. Yeah, they lost 4 games.
2005 was to 2004 what 2010 was to 2009. The prior years we won most all our close games and knocked off some good teams along the way. The following years, teams
wanted revenge on us and got it, and we couldn't win close games anymore. Now let's look at 2005.
Wins:
Ball State, Northern Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, #15 Wisconsin, Minnesota
Losses:
Iowa State, #3 Ohio State, Michigan, Northwestern, #12 Florida
Ball State- blowout
Northern Iowa- going through the motions victory against a team that would play in the FCS title game
Illinois- blowout
Purdue- first win at Purdue since 1991, lost Ed Hinkel in this game to a broken arm
Indiana- going through the motions 17-pt victory with fans realizing James Hardy would be a thorn in our side for the next few years.......
Wisconsin- rebound win, after a tough 2-game skid, at Madison in Barry Alvarez's final game
Minnesota- typical first half-Kirk era blowout of a decent Minnesota team. Iowa led 52-14 at one point. Hinkel had 4 TD catches.
Iowa State- typical Dan MacCarney rah-rah revenge game in Ames that was perpetuated by Drew Tate's concussion midway through the game. Iowa had no offense and the defense was not ready. Sign of things to come unfortunately.
Ohio State- typical "we're Ohio State and don't like other teams beating us" game. All OSU fans talked about in the week leading up to the game was how much they HATED Iowa for blowing them out last year and how they were FOR SURE going to blow Iowa out the next year. And of course they did.
Michigan- Overtime loss to a Michigan team back when they were still "Michigan". Down by their own standards, this was a Michigan team that gave Penn State their only loss, after losing to Minnesota at home, and losing a thrilling home final against Ohio State for a possible share of the Big Ten title...........oh wait, what's that, you say? Yes, this Michigan team that also went 7-4 in the regular season still had an outside shot at the Big Ten title had they held on to beat Ohio State and had MSU upset Penn State. Sounds like a mediocre team to me. They then lost a clusterf*** of an Alamo Bowl to Nebraska in the
second-worst officiated game of that bowl season.
Northwestern- Prior to this game, Ferentz was 3-1 against Northwestern with all 3 wins coming in double digit fashion and the lone loss coming on essentially the final play of the game. This game was effectively a sign of things to come, as Iowa's "going through the motions" caught up to them in this game and Northwestern stormed back for the victory, after which Brett Basanez infamously said about Chad Greenway's late hit on him that "that must be what they teach at Iowa" (paraphrasing here). Northwestern does not get up for Iowa at all..........
Florida- So Iowa rebounds from the 2-game skid that saw losses by a combined 4 points and dominates their next two opponents to earn a fourth straight New Year's Day bowl (one of only 4 teams at the time, I believe, to have that going for them. Mediocrity defined....), and THIS is where we find 2005's worst-officiated bowl game/clusterf***. This "bowl" game might as well not even count when detracting against the 2005 Hawkeyes in the annals of history.
So you take that out and you're left with a 7-4 team (This was the last 11-game CFB regular season to date....), that was essentially 4-pts from winning their 3rd Big Ten title in 4 years. Had Iowa hung on against Michigan and Northwestern, they would've tied Penn State and Ohio State for the Big Ten title. That sounds like a mediocre team if you ask me. Iowa did lose to three 7-5 teams. ISU would've won the Big 12 North had they not gotten in their own way. Michigan was between 10-win seasons and Rose Bowl appearances, essentially that same team returned for the 2006 campaign that had them unbeaten going into the Ohio State contest. And Northwestern had their best team since 2000, which was better than the team we lost to in 2006. Plus, had we come back and won that clusterf*** of an Outback Bowl, we would've finshed 8-4 and suddenly that season doesn't look
as underwhelming....
Here's a look at Iowa teams that went 5-3 in Big Ten play since 1979:
1984- (8-4-1, 5-3-1)
1986- (9-3, 5-3)
2003- (10-3, 5-3)
2005- (7-5, 5-3)
2008- (9-4, 5-3)
2013- (8-5, 5-3)
I see a few teams that may have under-performed based on preseason, or fan, expectations, but none of those teams were mediocre.
