It's four full days after Thanksgiving and the gravy is still overflowing.
That gravy, of course, being every Hawkeye win surpassing preseason expectations. For some, the gravy boat came in after a measly five or six wins. I officially predicted eight victories, but said if things went amazingly well, Iowa might notch nine. Now, sitting at 12-0 with the regular season over, Iowa fans are unbuttoning their pants in an effort to make room.
Everyone loves gravy , but keeping sticking to a food metaphor theme, now that Iowa is in its first-ever conference championship game with a legitimate shot at making college football's final four - why not start thinking about winning the whole enchilada?
Iowa may not pass the "eye test" utilized by expert college football media optometrists, but a statistic I saw today sure says a lot. Only two teams in college football trailed in their 12 regular season games for less than one hour: Clemson (48 minutes) and Iowa (55 minutes). That is a mere 55 out of 720 minutes of playing football where Iowa was not either tied or leading. That is just over 7 percent of the time.
Think that might have something to do with those two programs being the only pair to make it through the entire season unscathed?
Yet Iowa - which hasn't been behind on the scoreboard since trailing Illinois briefly 7-6 back on October 10 - again finds itself in the underdog role against the mighty Michigan State Spartans. You know, the team that won two games it never led at all on virtual miracles and lost to the same Nebraska team Iowa took down in Lincoln.
Ironically, it's MSU coach Mark Dantonio who thrives on the disrespect card -but while he may be the Big 10's Aretha Franklin crying for R-E-S-P-E-C-T, it's Iowa that's been college football's Rodney Dangerfield since the first kickoff of the year.
The newest knock on Iowa is their alleged inability to attack a team with a passing game, based on C.J. Beathard's pedestrian 9 for 16 for 97 yards performance against Nebraska. Of course, Iowa never trailed in the second half and only attempted 5 passes in the frigid wind of Memorial Stadium. The Hawkeyes were content to concede any style points, instead focusing on game control and defense to cruise to yet another victory.
If you watch a lot of college football you quickly realize that most teams - even the supremely talented squads full of blue chip recruits - mess around and make lots of mind-numbing mistakes, especially compared to their professional counterparts. But not these 2015 Iowa Hawkeyes.
Coach Ferentz's mantra of execution, execution, execution above all sounds (and can be) boring as heck to watch at times. But when he gets a team that can execute, limit mistakes, take care of the ball and do all the little things right - they just slowly grind teams to death with "good enough" and never seem to make that huge error that gives the opponent life and momentum. To a true football purist, that is poetry, even if it drives the pundits up a wall.
It almost sounds comically simple, but in college football if you can stop from beating yourself (see Armstrong, Tommy) you have exponentially increased your odds of winning, and that is what Iowa has mastered this season.
An added bonus for fans is getting to hear the lamenting and wailing of all your opponents - who just can't believe they were beaten by such a mediocre team. If only, they say, we hadn't (fumbled after tripping on a foot, muffed a punt, thrown those interceptions, gave up a long return, been hosed by the refs, etc., etc, etc.) by golly we'd of have beaten those overrated Hawkeyes!
Funny how the excuses seem to pile up at the same rate as Iowa victories isn't it?
We are most definitely in gravy time, but that doesn't mean Iowa fans shouldn't keep dreaming big. Every potential playoff opponent standing in Iowa's way - minus Clemson - has done something Iowa hasn't, and that's drop a game to an allegedly inferior opponent. As noted, the Spartans came up short against the Cornhuskers and needed divine intervention to beat Michigan after playing from behind all day. Oklahoma got thumped by a Texas team that was blown out by the Iowa State Cyclones. Even mighty Alabama bumbled and fumbled their way to an ugly loss against a middling Ole Miss team.
As an added bonus, Iowa may finally have the opportunity to unleash its full offensive arsenal after trading in the muck and mire of late November on the plains for the climate-controlled perfection of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy. Perhaps C.J. can put up some style points after all. But even if he can't, don't count out the Hawks from grabbing a little bit of a lead and squeezing the life out of the Spartans.
Boring and undefeated beats style any day.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and follow the 12Saturdays podcast @12Saturdays.
That gravy, of course, being every Hawkeye win surpassing preseason expectations. For some, the gravy boat came in after a measly five or six wins. I officially predicted eight victories, but said if things went amazingly well, Iowa might notch nine. Now, sitting at 12-0 with the regular season over, Iowa fans are unbuttoning their pants in an effort to make room.
Everyone loves gravy , but keeping sticking to a food metaphor theme, now that Iowa is in its first-ever conference championship game with a legitimate shot at making college football's final four - why not start thinking about winning the whole enchilada?
Iowa may not pass the "eye test" utilized by expert college football media optometrists, but a statistic I saw today sure says a lot. Only two teams in college football trailed in their 12 regular season games for less than one hour: Clemson (48 minutes) and Iowa (55 minutes). That is a mere 55 out of 720 minutes of playing football where Iowa was not either tied or leading. That is just over 7 percent of the time.
Think that might have something to do with those two programs being the only pair to make it through the entire season unscathed?
Yet Iowa - which hasn't been behind on the scoreboard since trailing Illinois briefly 7-6 back on October 10 - again finds itself in the underdog role against the mighty Michigan State Spartans. You know, the team that won two games it never led at all on virtual miracles and lost to the same Nebraska team Iowa took down in Lincoln.
Ironically, it's MSU coach Mark Dantonio who thrives on the disrespect card -but while he may be the Big 10's Aretha Franklin crying for R-E-S-P-E-C-T, it's Iowa that's been college football's Rodney Dangerfield since the first kickoff of the year.
The newest knock on Iowa is their alleged inability to attack a team with a passing game, based on C.J. Beathard's pedestrian 9 for 16 for 97 yards performance against Nebraska. Of course, Iowa never trailed in the second half and only attempted 5 passes in the frigid wind of Memorial Stadium. The Hawkeyes were content to concede any style points, instead focusing on game control and defense to cruise to yet another victory.
If you watch a lot of college football you quickly realize that most teams - even the supremely talented squads full of blue chip recruits - mess around and make lots of mind-numbing mistakes, especially compared to their professional counterparts. But not these 2015 Iowa Hawkeyes.
Coach Ferentz's mantra of execution, execution, execution above all sounds (and can be) boring as heck to watch at times. But when he gets a team that can execute, limit mistakes, take care of the ball and do all the little things right - they just slowly grind teams to death with "good enough" and never seem to make that huge error that gives the opponent life and momentum. To a true football purist, that is poetry, even if it drives the pundits up a wall.
It almost sounds comically simple, but in college football if you can stop from beating yourself (see Armstrong, Tommy) you have exponentially increased your odds of winning, and that is what Iowa has mastered this season.
An added bonus for fans is getting to hear the lamenting and wailing of all your opponents - who just can't believe they were beaten by such a mediocre team. If only, they say, we hadn't (fumbled after tripping on a foot, muffed a punt, thrown those interceptions, gave up a long return, been hosed by the refs, etc., etc, etc.) by golly we'd of have beaten those overrated Hawkeyes!
Funny how the excuses seem to pile up at the same rate as Iowa victories isn't it?
We are most definitely in gravy time, but that doesn't mean Iowa fans shouldn't keep dreaming big. Every potential playoff opponent standing in Iowa's way - minus Clemson - has done something Iowa hasn't, and that's drop a game to an allegedly inferior opponent. As noted, the Spartans came up short against the Cornhuskers and needed divine intervention to beat Michigan after playing from behind all day. Oklahoma got thumped by a Texas team that was blown out by the Iowa State Cyclones. Even mighty Alabama bumbled and fumbled their way to an ugly loss against a middling Ole Miss team.
As an added bonus, Iowa may finally have the opportunity to unleash its full offensive arsenal after trading in the muck and mire of late November on the plains for the climate-controlled perfection of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy. Perhaps C.J. can put up some style points after all. But even if he can't, don't count out the Hawks from grabbing a little bit of a lead and squeezing the life out of the Spartans.
Boring and undefeated beats style any day.
Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht and follow the 12Saturdays podcast @12Saturdays.
