Tuesdays With Torbee
Tory Brecht | Columnist
The Hawkeyes hope to hang on to the Heartland Trophy this year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It’s hard to believe that Iowa’s football season is past the halfway point, especially when it feels like the “real” part of the schedule has yet to begin.
The Hawkeyes dispatched overmatched, under-talented Purdue with relative ease last Saturday; a late attempt by the Iowa second-stringers to allow the Boilermakers back into the game notwithstanding.
I don’t have a lot to say about the game, except it was great to see the Iowa offense roar back to life behind the two-headed running back monster of Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels. Whether that’s a harbinger of more good times to come, or the result of a Charmin-soft Boilermaker defense remains to be seen. I believe it’s a bit of both.
But now – to use a baseball metaphor – the Hawks face the heart of the order. A typically tough and resilient Wisconsin Badger team is up first, followed by a long road trip to a decent Penn State squad and then an epic home tilt with a top three Michigan team under the lights. This three-game stretch will tell us whether Iowa’s final home game against the (currently undefeated) Nebraska Cornhuskers will be for big prizes and a sunny January destination, or a merciful end to an under-performing season.
And it all starts this Saturday against Bucky.
As I’ve no doubt bored all of you to death with the story of my upbringing as a wide-eyed Badger fan in Madison before seeing the light and attending the University of Iowa, I won’t go into too much detail about WHY this matchup is always so intriguing to me. Suffice it to say that beating the Badgers is always near the top of my pre-season wish list.
This series rarely fails to deliver, both for the good and bad. Typically, whichever team manages to wrest this game from the other goes on to have an above-average or very special season. Typically, the loser of this game is filled with regret about a season wrecked.
That will be the case this Saturday as well, I suspect.
Historically, I’ve not been able to predict the outcome of this game that well. Probably because my judgement is clouded by my desire. Here is what I expect to see, though: a hard-hitting game between two old-school, Neanderthal type football programs with the winning team being the one that makes the fewest mistakes in a low-scoring affair. That is the general template for this matchup, and despite Bucky’s lofty ranking and more-impressive resume (and Iowa’s mixed results against a tame schedule so far) I don’t imagine this week’s clash will look a lot different.
So instead of looking into my crystal ball to make what would likely be a poor prediction, I will instead look back at my top four personal favorites from the series.
#4 – Oct. 5, 1991, Camp Randall. A 4-1, 17th ranked Iowa team needed a big road win to erase the sting of a pretty bad beat down to Michigan at home the week prior. This was also my first time attending a Badger game as a fan of the road team, this being my sophomore year of college. Iowa was in the midst of its two decades worth of dominance over Wisconsin, but the Badgers under relatively new coach Barry Alvarez were showing signs of waking from their long slumber and turning into a college football giant. It was the usual smash-mouth, grinding game, and my Badger fan friends were really giving me the business as the clock wore down under a minute with a stymied Iowa team trailing 6-3. Iowa had failed to move the ball all afternoon and committed a bunch of turnovers. But with only three minutes left, facing a 4th and 8, Matt Rodgers hit wide receiver Jon Filloon for 11 yards to keep the drive alive. The coup de grace, of course, was Wisconsin native Mike Saunders on yet another fourth down – this time from the Badger 14 yard line – catching a perfectly thrown ball from Rodgers and racing into the end zone to escape with a 10-6 win. Ahh, the beer drunk on State Street that day seldom tasted sweeter. Me and fellow Badger stater Saunders had to be the two happiest Hawkeyes in Madison that fine fall day.
#3 – Oct. 3, 2015, Camp Randall. It’s funny that in the midst of last year’s bare-knuckle brawl in the Camp I didn’t have flashbacks to 1991, especially considering the final score – Iowa 10, Wisconsin 6 – ended up the same. Maybe that’s because in 1991, Iowa was a three touchdown favorite and last year all the experts expected Bucky to roll. But as so often is the case in this series, the game devolved into a grunting battle of wills. Again, Iowa made the key plays – including a back-breaking Joel Stave fumble at the goal line – and a critical fourth down stop to preserve the victory. What made this game so special, however, is that it preserved Iowa’s unbeaten record and served as the springboard to Kirk Ferentz’s second undefeated Big 10 regular season and first-ever appearance in the conference championship game. Remember what I said about Iowa usually needing to vanquish the Badger to achieve big-time goals?
#2 – Nov. 12, 2005, Camp Randall. It was rainy. It was cold. It was legend Barry Alvarez’s final home game. I can’t think of any other time I was more certain Iowa was doomed to lose to the Badgers. And early on, it looked like a foregone conclusion when Wisconsin jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead. Then a funny thing happened. Iowa’s defense – led by the ferocious defensive line duo of Mitch King and Kenny Iwebema – pitched a shutout in the second half while scrappy Drew Tate managed to find Clinton Solomon for a long touchdown to completely shock and silence a stunned Badger crowd. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, sweeter in sports than being a fan of a road team that shocks and dismays a raucous home crowd expecting an easy victory. Not only did Iowa ruin Barry’s big day, this game arguably saved Iowa’s season. The Hawks were a very pedestrian 5-4, having suffered two straight heartbreaking losses (23-20 in OT at home to Michigan and 28-27 in a late collapse at Northwestern) and the defending Big 10 co-champions from 2004 were in danger of flopping to barely-or-not-even bowl eligible. The big win over UW was followed up by a curb-stomping of Minnesota the next week, and Iowa ended with a solid-if-not-spectacular 7-4 regular season before being absolutely screwed out of a bowl win against Florida in the Outback Bowl I will never mention in print again.
#1 – Nov. 20, 2004, Kinnick Stadium. What is this home game, 30-7 “easy” victory doing on this list of close-calls and stunning road victories? Very simply, beating Wisconsin to secure a completely unexpected Big 10 championship wasn’t on anyone’s radar until right before kickoff of this one. Again, Wisconsin, ranked #9, was favored over #17 Iowa. And when Drew Tate threw picks in his first two series, it looked like it could end up being a long afternoon. Instead, the defense manned up, Tate got hot, and the party (and massive field rush) was on. The crowd that day was the single loudest I’ve ever heard in Kinnick and it was in full throat from kickoff to “In Heaven There is No Beer.” Thousands of cocky Badger fans had made the trek to cheer their team on to victory, and seeing them slump out of Kinnick to drown their sorrows in (gallons) of beer downtown – knowing Iowa ripped a Rose Bowl trip out of their brat-loving hands - was the icing on the cake of a perfect autumn afternoon.
I also want to throw out an honorable mention to the 2003 game at Camp Randall, where my good friend Kurt and I huddled in freezing drizzle in the very tip-top row of the upper deck and watched one of the most heroic goal line stands ever by Iowa to preserve a tough win. That 2003 team wasn’t that great, but they showed great character that day and let me leave the Camp with my head held high.
So as you can see, this is a big game. It very likely will determine whether this is a season to remember or forget.
Let’s remember.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and @12Saturdays.
Tory Brecht | Columnist
The Hawkeyes hope to hang on to the Heartland Trophy this year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It’s hard to believe that Iowa’s football season is past the halfway point, especially when it feels like the “real” part of the schedule has yet to begin.
The Hawkeyes dispatched overmatched, under-talented Purdue with relative ease last Saturday; a late attempt by the Iowa second-stringers to allow the Boilermakers back into the game notwithstanding.
I don’t have a lot to say about the game, except it was great to see the Iowa offense roar back to life behind the two-headed running back monster of Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels. Whether that’s a harbinger of more good times to come, or the result of a Charmin-soft Boilermaker defense remains to be seen. I believe it’s a bit of both.
But now – to use a baseball metaphor – the Hawks face the heart of the order. A typically tough and resilient Wisconsin Badger team is up first, followed by a long road trip to a decent Penn State squad and then an epic home tilt with a top three Michigan team under the lights. This three-game stretch will tell us whether Iowa’s final home game against the (currently undefeated) Nebraska Cornhuskers will be for big prizes and a sunny January destination, or a merciful end to an under-performing season.
And it all starts this Saturday against Bucky.
As I’ve no doubt bored all of you to death with the story of my upbringing as a wide-eyed Badger fan in Madison before seeing the light and attending the University of Iowa, I won’t go into too much detail about WHY this matchup is always so intriguing to me. Suffice it to say that beating the Badgers is always near the top of my pre-season wish list.
This series rarely fails to deliver, both for the good and bad. Typically, whichever team manages to wrest this game from the other goes on to have an above-average or very special season. Typically, the loser of this game is filled with regret about a season wrecked.
That will be the case this Saturday as well, I suspect.
Historically, I’ve not been able to predict the outcome of this game that well. Probably because my judgement is clouded by my desire. Here is what I expect to see, though: a hard-hitting game between two old-school, Neanderthal type football programs with the winning team being the one that makes the fewest mistakes in a low-scoring affair. That is the general template for this matchup, and despite Bucky’s lofty ranking and more-impressive resume (and Iowa’s mixed results against a tame schedule so far) I don’t imagine this week’s clash will look a lot different.
So instead of looking into my crystal ball to make what would likely be a poor prediction, I will instead look back at my top four personal favorites from the series.
#4 – Oct. 5, 1991, Camp Randall. A 4-1, 17th ranked Iowa team needed a big road win to erase the sting of a pretty bad beat down to Michigan at home the week prior. This was also my first time attending a Badger game as a fan of the road team, this being my sophomore year of college. Iowa was in the midst of its two decades worth of dominance over Wisconsin, but the Badgers under relatively new coach Barry Alvarez were showing signs of waking from their long slumber and turning into a college football giant. It was the usual smash-mouth, grinding game, and my Badger fan friends were really giving me the business as the clock wore down under a minute with a stymied Iowa team trailing 6-3. Iowa had failed to move the ball all afternoon and committed a bunch of turnovers. But with only three minutes left, facing a 4th and 8, Matt Rodgers hit wide receiver Jon Filloon for 11 yards to keep the drive alive. The coup de grace, of course, was Wisconsin native Mike Saunders on yet another fourth down – this time from the Badger 14 yard line – catching a perfectly thrown ball from Rodgers and racing into the end zone to escape with a 10-6 win. Ahh, the beer drunk on State Street that day seldom tasted sweeter. Me and fellow Badger stater Saunders had to be the two happiest Hawkeyes in Madison that fine fall day.
#3 – Oct. 3, 2015, Camp Randall. It’s funny that in the midst of last year’s bare-knuckle brawl in the Camp I didn’t have flashbacks to 1991, especially considering the final score – Iowa 10, Wisconsin 6 – ended up the same. Maybe that’s because in 1991, Iowa was a three touchdown favorite and last year all the experts expected Bucky to roll. But as so often is the case in this series, the game devolved into a grunting battle of wills. Again, Iowa made the key plays – including a back-breaking Joel Stave fumble at the goal line – and a critical fourth down stop to preserve the victory. What made this game so special, however, is that it preserved Iowa’s unbeaten record and served as the springboard to Kirk Ferentz’s second undefeated Big 10 regular season and first-ever appearance in the conference championship game. Remember what I said about Iowa usually needing to vanquish the Badger to achieve big-time goals?
#2 – Nov. 12, 2005, Camp Randall. It was rainy. It was cold. It was legend Barry Alvarez’s final home game. I can’t think of any other time I was more certain Iowa was doomed to lose to the Badgers. And early on, it looked like a foregone conclusion when Wisconsin jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead. Then a funny thing happened. Iowa’s defense – led by the ferocious defensive line duo of Mitch King and Kenny Iwebema – pitched a shutout in the second half while scrappy Drew Tate managed to find Clinton Solomon for a long touchdown to completely shock and silence a stunned Badger crowd. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, sweeter in sports than being a fan of a road team that shocks and dismays a raucous home crowd expecting an easy victory. Not only did Iowa ruin Barry’s big day, this game arguably saved Iowa’s season. The Hawks were a very pedestrian 5-4, having suffered two straight heartbreaking losses (23-20 in OT at home to Michigan and 28-27 in a late collapse at Northwestern) and the defending Big 10 co-champions from 2004 were in danger of flopping to barely-or-not-even bowl eligible. The big win over UW was followed up by a curb-stomping of Minnesota the next week, and Iowa ended with a solid-if-not-spectacular 7-4 regular season before being absolutely screwed out of a bowl win against Florida in the Outback Bowl I will never mention in print again.
#1 – Nov. 20, 2004, Kinnick Stadium. What is this home game, 30-7 “easy” victory doing on this list of close-calls and stunning road victories? Very simply, beating Wisconsin to secure a completely unexpected Big 10 championship wasn’t on anyone’s radar until right before kickoff of this one. Again, Wisconsin, ranked #9, was favored over #17 Iowa. And when Drew Tate threw picks in his first two series, it looked like it could end up being a long afternoon. Instead, the defense manned up, Tate got hot, and the party (and massive field rush) was on. The crowd that day was the single loudest I’ve ever heard in Kinnick and it was in full throat from kickoff to “In Heaven There is No Beer.” Thousands of cocky Badger fans had made the trek to cheer their team on to victory, and seeing them slump out of Kinnick to drown their sorrows in (gallons) of beer downtown – knowing Iowa ripped a Rose Bowl trip out of their brat-loving hands - was the icing on the cake of a perfect autumn afternoon.
I also want to throw out an honorable mention to the 2003 game at Camp Randall, where my good friend Kurt and I huddled in freezing drizzle in the very tip-top row of the upper deck and watched one of the most heroic goal line stands ever by Iowa to preserve a tough win. That 2003 team wasn’t that great, but they showed great character that day and let me leave the Camp with my head held high.
So as you can see, this is a big game. It very likely will determine whether this is a season to remember or forget.
Let’s remember.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and @12Saturdays.
