Mediocre program that cannot win close games 
These stats say a lot
- Thread starter QChawks
- Start date
I mean, Iowa has only beaten 1 Big Ten program that finished a regular season with a winning record since 2017. VERY few decent/good wins.
But at least many of Kirk's friends and family have very high paying jobs with no performance expectations!
Iowa’s goal is to keep it close, especially when the other team is better, so it’s not really surprising we lose close games at a higher %. It’s not such a bad thing to lose close if the other team is better. We just need to get better to beat them. 4 out of the last 6 losses to PSU were close I think. Maybe Wisconsin similar. The problem is when we allow a bad team to stay close.
I think we are and have been better than “mediocre”.
But I am not satisfied with us.
But I am not satisfied with us.
The problem is Iowa is average and us fans continue to think we are above average. And yes that was a nice win vs Miss St last year and also a good win vs OSU the year before.
Meaningless unless compared to other teams in the Big10. How do these stats compare to the Big10 ovetall?
Well, the 61% w/l record would be the same going all the way back through the Hayden Fry days, so nothing there has changed.
How do these numbers compare to the Big10 averages?
The recipe is the same every year. Play two easy non-conference teams, play Iowa state and the beat the teams you’re supposed to beat (Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota...and the easy crossover teams). IF you beat a team better than you, great, but this recipe gets you in a bowl game more times than not. Rinse and repeat.
What are the stats from 2000 - present?
Thanks in advance.
Hardly better than mediocre - with the exception of Ohio State, all of our conference wins in recent years have come at the expense of, AT BEST, average teams.
Something has got to change. Something.
More like it just means Kirk's teams dont get blown out. Not saying I'm satisfied tho at all. Also those stats could depict the way iowa plays down to the opponent more often then not.
Nah, you want a "Real Talk" stat........
Hayden Fry arrived at Iowa in 1979. In just his 3rd season, Iowa was Big Ten champion. Prior to that, Iowa had experienced 20 straight losing seasons since the 1960 season that also saw Iowa win a Big Ten title.
This is important to remember, as fans, for what's to follow.
Hayden's last title was in 1990......Iowa would have to wait another 12 years to experience a Big Ten football championship, when Kirk Ferentz led the Hawks to a title in 2002.
You add in the title Iowa won in 2004, and yes that's right folks......fast forward to 2019, and going on a few years now, we are further removed from Iowa's last Big Ten title than we were from Hayden's last to Kirk's first (which felt like the 108 years Cubs fans had to wait between titles).
And unfortunately these past two years (2018-2019) were gonna be our best hope of winning another title before we pass that 21 year gap in championships from 1960-1981.
That is REALLY f***ing unfortunate.
Hayden Fry arrived at Iowa in 1979. In just his 3rd season, Iowa was Big Ten champion. Prior to that, Iowa had experienced 20 straight losing seasons since the 1960 season that also saw Iowa win a Big Ten title.
This is important to remember, as fans, for what's to follow.
Hayden's last title was in 1990......Iowa would have to wait another 12 years to experience a Big Ten football championship, when Kirk Ferentz led the Hawks to a title in 2002.
You add in the title Iowa won in 2004, and yes that's right folks......fast forward to 2019, and going on a few years now, we are further removed from Iowa's last Big Ten title than we were from Hayden's last to Kirk's first (which felt like the 108 years Cubs fans had to wait between titles).
And unfortunately these past two years (2018-2019) were gonna be our best hope of winning another title before we pass that 21 year gap in championships from 1960-1981.
That is REALLY f***ing unfortunate.
Hayden played all the BIG teams every year and it seemed like his OOC schedule was a little stiffer. HF didn’t have the benefit of a tie to win the BIG. He had to win outright.....something KF has not done. Just sayin....
I.....o.....w......a
The Kansas state/ Virginia tech/Baylor of the big ten.
The Kansas state/ Virginia tech/Baylor of the big ten.
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Lol well there's so much wrong with this post, I may not even bother correcting it........
I started to type something up but figured it would fall on deaf ears.
First of all, the BIG is much tougher today then it was when Hayden coached. I don't remember every non conference game Hayden had Iowa play, but they played Drake a lot and Iowa State. ISU Stunk for the majority of those years, and Drake I wouldn't say was a powerhouse, although they did win ten games one year. Yes, they played Nebraska a couple times, winning once and losing the second under Fry. But Wisconsin and Northwestern are both far better then they were for the majority of time Fry was here. Kirk is 8-8 in Bowl games while Fry was 6-7-1. Fry went to three major bowls ( 3 ROSE) and was 0-3 while Ferentz has been to three major bowls (2 Orange and 1 Rose Bowl) and is 1-2. Bottom line, the W\L percentage is basically equal, and the results are basically equal. So I stand by what I said, Iowa has basically been the same since Hayden Fry took to the sidelines back in 1979. BTW, when Hayden won the Big ten, there was the original 10 schools less Penn State. Hayden split the big ten championship in 1981 with tOSU, won it outright in 1985, split it with Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State in 1990, while Ferentz has split his with tOSU and Michigan. Bottom line, Apples to Oranges.
. “Prior to that, Iowa had experienced 20 straight losing seasons since the 1960 season that also saw Iowa win a Big Ten title.”
Actually 20 straight ‘non winning’ seasons
Average is accurate. Maybe slightly above average. I guess the question is whether beating 5-6 bad teams, 1-2 decent teams a year is enough to warrant remaining excited about the program moving forward. 2017 OSU is fading farther into the rearview mirror by the week. I will definitely watch this weekend but I am not sure about the Wisconsin game. I have zero expectation of the Hawks winning that one.
I guess the driving question is what does a team need to do to keep you wanting to follow them year after year? I suspect that answer is different from one person to the next. For me, I got hooked by watching them beat Nebraska in 81. It was my first college game I ever attended. It developed into a way of life. But my passion for Saturday is diminishing as the years go by.
You know, it's interesting to me because I don't really think there were accurate recruiting rankings before the 2000s and the Internet explosion of such information. So I can't really say anything about Fry in that regard. When it comes to Iowa, though, KF hasn't had a top 40 recruiting class for about a decade and he's typically around 8th or so in the B10. So, in a sense, he outperforms his recruiting rankings. The fact that Iowa can even compete against Michigan and Penn State is remarkable.
On the other hand, imagine what Iowa could do if he could pull in a top 25 recruiting class every other year and/or a top 5 B10 recruiting class every couple of years. Somehow Fleck is out-recruiting Ferentz and they're starting to win games because of it. I used to make fun of Fleck, but Minnesota's future now looks brighter than Iowa's in the coming years. I think Iowa will beat Minny this year at home and Minny will lose three games even with an easy schedule, but he's recruiting good athletes. And Nebraska, other than name recognition, has worse recruiting grounds than Iowa does. Over the past few years Iowa's recruiting has picked up, but "picked up" is teams ranking in the early 40s instead of 56th or 59th.
On yet another hand, maybe this is the best recruiting Iowa can do. It's hard to know when Iowa has only had two coaches in 40 years. At some point, Iowa needs to take a "risk" and find a new head coach after 20 years with one guy leading the helm. There's a possibility that next guy won't last 20 years (which has somehow become the norm at Iowa), but, well, it's getting close to being time if Iowa can't rise up in years like this when the stars are aligned for them to compete for a B10 West title. If there's early NFL attrition again this year (Jackson, Wirfs, AJ), will Iowa have any B10 caliber offensive lineman on the roster ready to play at a B10 level???
Ask Debbie how a revolving door of coaches is working out for them. Even the can't miss savior Native son Scott Frost is struggling to revive Fusker football.
Oof...Not what I wanted to see, but its the truth. We have gotten to 61% in part because of a powder puff out of conference sched.
Its like folks who lived thru the great depression....it altered their perceptions and mentality the rest of their lives.
Any Hawk fan who lived thru and hung tough during the dark decades understand true pain.
I embrace every victory like my newborn beautiful grand-daughter and realizehow lucky I am to be alive during the last 40 years.Go Hawks!
Any Hawk fan who lived thru and hung tough during the dark decades understand true pain.
I embrace every victory like my newborn beautiful grand-daughter and realizehow lucky I am to be alive during the last 40 years.Go Hawks!
Iowa did play Drake in 1985, but Drake was a full scholarship program at the time. Drake had beaten UNI several times while I was a student there(1982-1986). My senior year, the new president killed Ofc the football program for a year, then went the non-scholarship route in 1987. In 1981, Drake was actually ranked in the Top 25 for a couple of weeks, until Tulsa blew them out 56-0 at the end of the season. It was all downhill from there.
ISU playing Drake last year was not even comparable.
ISU playing Drake last year was not even comparable.
This is false. In both 1981 and 1989, Iowa went 6-2 in conference, tied with other B1G teams. They went to the Rose Bowl each year.
Kirk went 8-0 in 2002 and 8-0 in 2015. He didn't win it outright either year, but HF never went 8-0.
Of course since the big ten title game you cannot use past big ten championships as a measure. Some of those we tied with someone else. In 2015 Iowa had the best record in the conference, but didn't win the now, title game
What your facts are ignoring all wise one is Iowa PLAYED the teams they tied and won a tiebreaker during Hayden’s time! KF DID NOT play the team he tied and benefits on regular basis of not playing all the big boys and still can’t win it!
HF didn’t have the luxury of skipping the best teams in the conference every year. Undefeated til he played someone. Wisconsin is the only good team on that schedule in 2015... had to beat one good team!!
If a undefeated conference record is your measure of success then you must be very proud!!
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OFGS give it up. Iowa has had good and bad teams in every decade. The fact that We have only had 2 coaches in 40 years is a good thing. This constant bashing/bitching is getting ridiculous.
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