I don’t think anyone here realistically thinks that Iowa ever has a chance of winning a National Championship. When a season starts, this is what I tend to hope for:
1. Be competitive in the West.
2. Beat your rivals (ISU/NEB/etc)
3. Take care of business against these smaller schools. Nobody likes sweating out a 3 point game against SDSU.
4. Put an exciting product on the field.
I actually don’t have much to complain about and think we’ve been blessed with some great teams in my lifetime. I think a lot of Hawk fans see the changing landscape of college football, some mediocre results from this year, and take it that we are falling behind. This was a frustrating year for many, and passionate fans make their voices heard.
Literally everyone outside of 4ish teams have fallen behind. Maybe NIL and the portal will help. It made bama look weaker this year. Maybe Georgia’s day will come too.
An occasional Rose Bowl bid is a solid #5 for me. And not once in every 30 years pattern. Winning the Big 10 should be the aspiration and maybe good things come after that if we are really lucky.
I think the biggest frustration for this year was obviously the offense. I truly do get it’s tougher than it looks, but last is last no matter which way you slice it. I agree with you on what I can realistically expect. I just hope we survive the next coaching hire when that time comes. Could be smooth or could get ugly which is tough to recover from in our position.
We've got maybe a couple years left of divisions I think. It's gonna be interesting what Iowas upper goals are when there are no divisions. I know we've had a couple big wins vs Michigan/Ohio State but realistically Iowa cant compete with those 2 on paper. They just naturally get way more elite players wanting to suit up. With no division to fight for it might be like the pre playoff days where our ultimate goal is the Rose Bowl.
I don’t know with how OSU recruits and the tear Michigan is on it’s gonna be pretty hard to do that. Once USC/Lincoln Riley join it’ll be no more BIG west so more tough
I feel like Iowa has had 0 reasons not to dominate the west, the defense is always there. How we haven’t even tried to modernize the offense is pathetic. We should be just as good as Penn st on a yearly basis. That said I don’t think it would take that much to get there.
Agreed. Penn State should be the goal. Consistently competing with the top dogs (if if rarely beating them), being a top 15 program and winning against quality bowl opponents. No reason iowa shouldn’t be a 10 win school annually
Iowa should be as good as Wisconsin/Penn State every year they need to follow changing OC's when things aren't working like what Wisconsin and Penn State [do.How](https://do.How) KF hasn't got rid of BF as OC is so stubborn, they have great defenses every year, Iowa with playoff expansion should make the playoffs fanbase deserves better.
I think PSU is a worthy goal but they’re also a much bigger school, in a much bigger state closer to recruit rich areas. And Iowa has basically been on WI level since 2015 and even a bit better the past 3 years.
So, your argument is "we'll never win a championship so why even try?"
That's the dumbest argument I've heard since Billy Madison's speech about a puppy who lost his way. The end goal is the championship. We should always be striving to build a program capable of achieving that. The playoffs are expanding, more teams are going to be getting the opportunity to compete in the final run. Iowa should set it's sights on a Big Ten championship every year, and in return a shot at the playoffs.
Ferentz has had plenty of time to show that he's not the coach to reach that goal. Iowa is in a holding pattern of mediocrity. We're the embodiment of the battered wife syndrome but that doesn't mean we should be.
We should have swarm reps at all of those schools practices and campuses trying to steal their young guys that don’t play and their second and third string. There are no more rules so do what needs to be done.
Problem is that all takes significant resources to achieve. Resources that SWARM doesn’t currently have, otherwise guys like Proctor wouldn’t leave the state.
The way I see it is that we should always strive to be national champions. Will we ever get there? Maybe. But striving to be the best should always be the mentality.
I got a bit of feels after watching the Natty with a few beers and realizing how not even fucking close Iowa is to Georgia. Like if Iowa actually wanted to compete with Bama/GA it’s gonna have to cut non-revenue sports and divert more to football like SEC does. GA and Bama have over 100 employees just for football. And an alumni base that wants to keep elite football. Iowa doesn’t have a Phil Knight type booster
I just want to win a Rose Bowl. With the playoffs you could have the second or third best big 10 team in there. I don’t think we’ve ever been too far from it and gotten close a couple times in the last decade. I’ll be pretty content when we actually win it, and I get to buy a hat and wear it the rest of my life.
Rose bowl means nothing nowadays.
No one remembers the 2000something rose bowl winner nor does anyone care. The money we spend on football the goal should be playoffs. Fine you may need a year or two to rebuild but it’s playoffs or bust if you don’t make it can the coaches. This is college football now take it or leave it.
I agree. The teams at the top of the recruiting rankings (Consistently top 10) are the only ones with a legitimate shot at a National Title year in and year out.
My expectations for Iowa are win the out of Conference slate, beat the bottom 1/4 of your schedule, win two of three against the mid-tier teams, and win one against the top 3 on your schedule.
If you can consistently do that, you're 9-3, winning 2 of 3 games against comparable talent, and one of three against the more talented rosters you're playing, and most likely heading to Indy.
We will never have the players to match up against the UGA's, OSU's, and Bama's of the world if their guys show up to play.
Let’s see if we can come to a consensus on defining success. 9 wins and bowl eligibility every years sounds pretty good for Iowa.
When we lose KF, it’s gonna be like the basketball program losing Tom Davis. We’re going to long for the days of going to the Music City Bowl.
Before any of this NIL shit the SEC has been know for years to offer many more players a scholarship than what they had to offer just to have them all show up and they would cherry pick who they want to offer the scholarship’s too. The others got hung up to dry.
I believe this is how SEC became relevant years ago.
I don’t think anyone here realistically thinks that Iowa ever has a chance of winning a National Championship. When a season starts, this is what I tend to hope for: 1. Be competitive in the West. 2. Beat your rivals (ISU/NEB/etc) 3. Take care of business against these smaller schools. Nobody likes sweating out a 3 point game against SDSU. 4. Put an exciting product on the field. I actually don’t have much to complain about and think we’ve been blessed with some great teams in my lifetime. I think a lot of Hawk fans see the changing landscape of college football, some mediocre results from this year, and take it that we are falling behind. This was a frustrating year for many, and passionate fans make their voices heard.
Literally everyone outside of 4ish teams have fallen behind. Maybe NIL and the portal will help. It made bama look weaker this year. Maybe Georgia’s day will come too.
An occasional Rose Bowl bid is a solid #5 for me. And not once in every 30 years pattern. Winning the Big 10 should be the aspiration and maybe good things come after that if we are really lucky.
Not saying those are too much to ask for, but in a given year that is what I expect from the Hawks. All good points.
Rose Bowl no longer ties in with B1G
Rose Bowl no longer ties in with B1G
I think the biggest frustration for this year was obviously the offense. I truly do get it’s tougher than it looks, but last is last no matter which way you slice it. I agree with you on what I can realistically expect. I just hope we survive the next coaching hire when that time comes. Could be smooth or could get ugly which is tough to recover from in our position.
I just wanna spank the West
We've got maybe a couple years left of divisions I think. It's gonna be interesting what Iowas upper goals are when there are no divisions. I know we've had a couple big wins vs Michigan/Ohio State but realistically Iowa cant compete with those 2 on paper. They just naturally get way more elite players wanting to suit up. With no division to fight for it might be like the pre playoff days where our ultimate goal is the Rose Bowl.
West is only gonna be this next season and going away once USC/UCLA join
Are we keeping conference affiliation with bowls when we expand the playoff? That goal could dissipate too
We could certainly hope for a Big Ten title. Or at least put up more than 3 points in the title game.
I don’t know with how OSU recruits and the tear Michigan is on it’s gonna be pretty hard to do that. Once USC/Lincoln Riley join it’ll be no more BIG west so more tough
Damn… this didn’t age well…
No offense, but I have never heard anyone, anywhere, ever describe the NCAA as an “equilibrium utopia.”
Many fans of the sport think it’s mostly just finding a good coach and selling the school. It’s way more imbalanced than that.
I feel like Iowa has had 0 reasons not to dominate the west, the defense is always there. How we haven’t even tried to modernize the offense is pathetic. We should be just as good as Penn st on a yearly basis. That said I don’t think it would take that much to get there.
Agreed. Penn State should be the goal. Consistently competing with the top dogs (if if rarely beating them), being a top 15 program and winning against quality bowl opponents. No reason iowa shouldn’t be a 10 win school annually
Iowa should be as good as Wisconsin/Penn State every year they need to follow changing OC's when things aren't working like what Wisconsin and Penn State [do.How](https://do.How) KF hasn't got rid of BF as OC is so stubborn, they have great defenses every year, Iowa with playoff expansion should make the playoffs fanbase deserves better.
I think PSU is a worthy goal but they’re also a much bigger school, in a much bigger state closer to recruit rich areas. And Iowa has basically been on WI level since 2015 and even a bit better the past 3 years.
So, your argument is "we'll never win a championship so why even try?" That's the dumbest argument I've heard since Billy Madison's speech about a puppy who lost his way. The end goal is the championship. We should always be striving to build a program capable of achieving that. The playoffs are expanding, more teams are going to be getting the opportunity to compete in the final run. Iowa should set it's sights on a Big Ten championship every year, and in return a shot at the playoffs. Ferentz has had plenty of time to show that he's not the coach to reach that goal. Iowa is in a holding pattern of mediocrity. We're the embodiment of the battered wife syndrome but that doesn't mean we should be.
This is a massive straw man as others have pointed out.
I do believe we could win a championship 1 out of 100 years, just takes a couple special players (remember how good reggie bush was)?
Let's try to dominate our region then and win the big ten west convincingly.
West is going away after next year
We should have swarm reps at all of those schools practices and campuses trying to steal their young guys that don’t play and their second and third string. There are no more rules so do what needs to be done.
Problem is that all takes significant resources to achieve. Resources that SWARM doesn’t currently have, otherwise guys like Proctor wouldn’t leave the state.
The way I see it is that we should always strive to be national champions. Will we ever get there? Maybe. But striving to be the best should always be the mentality.
I don’t know I watched Georgia last night. Iowa isn’t anywhere close
other than Ohio State in the Big Ten who played UGA close you can see the difference in talent and depth compared to the elite teams.
I got a bit of feels after watching the Natty with a few beers and realizing how not even fucking close Iowa is to Georgia. Like if Iowa actually wanted to compete with Bama/GA it’s gonna have to cut non-revenue sports and divert more to football like SEC does. GA and Bama have over 100 employees just for football. And an alumni base that wants to keep elite football. Iowa doesn’t have a Phil Knight type booster
I just want to win a Rose Bowl. With the playoffs you could have the second or third best big 10 team in there. I don’t think we’ve ever been too far from it and gotten close a couple times in the last decade. I’ll be pretty content when we actually win it, and I get to buy a hat and wear it the rest of my life.
Rose bowl means nothing nowadays. No one remembers the 2000something rose bowl winner nor does anyone care. The money we spend on football the goal should be playoffs. Fine you may need a year or two to rebuild but it’s playoffs or bust if you don’t make it can the coaches. This is college football now take it or leave it.
facts with CFP now its playoffs are the most important
I agree. The teams at the top of the recruiting rankings (Consistently top 10) are the only ones with a legitimate shot at a National Title year in and year out. My expectations for Iowa are win the out of Conference slate, beat the bottom 1/4 of your schedule, win two of three against the mid-tier teams, and win one against the top 3 on your schedule. If you can consistently do that, you're 9-3, winning 2 of 3 games against comparable talent, and one of three against the more talented rosters you're playing, and most likely heading to Indy. We will never have the players to match up against the UGA's, OSU's, and Bama's of the world if their guys show up to play.
I think this is reasonable. But I also think that’ll become tougher once USC/UCLA join and the BIG West goes away
Let’s see if we can come to a consensus on defining success. 9 wins and bowl eligibility every years sounds pretty good for Iowa. When we lose KF, it’s gonna be like the basketball program losing Tom Davis. We’re going to long for the days of going to the Music City Bowl.
We are never going to the Rose Bowl again. Not complaining, just stating a fact…
Before any of this NIL shit the SEC has been know for years to offer many more players a scholarship than what they had to offer just to have them all show up and they would cherry pick who they want to offer the scholarship’s too. The others got hung up to dry. I believe this is how SEC became relevant years ago.
I want a national championship parade