When Punting Doesn’t Win: An Iowa Football Story

When a team has kept 5 of their 6 opponents to 10 or fewer points, but has lost three games, a fanbase may need more than therapy. Unfortunately, we’ve reached the point of the season where the therapist becomes the patient.

Iowa fans have ventured to the “fire the AD” stage of grief. That’s basically #FireEveryone.

This, in a thread about how the season is over and Iowa should just be playing for the future, makes an interesting observation about what was working…and how it – the hurry-up offense – wasn’t really used as frequently.

The more things change, the more they stay the same [at Iowa]. It is true that the Big Ten West has been remarkably weak in the last couple of years, which has inflated Iowa football’s success. It is also true that changes are not made within Iowa football unless they are almost forced upon the coaching staff. That said, Hawkeye fans coined the term Kirk 2.0, which was the iteration of Ferentz after changes were made (initially in 2008 and again in 2015). When he makes changes, they are remarkably successful.

I dig the Oscar Meyer musical number here. The entire message board staff appreciates good poetry. Beep.

You can self-righteously yell at a screen about how this is disloyal, but Iowa football is a bit painful to watch at the moment. Can you truly blame someone for looking elsewhere for their football fix?

So, here’s the thing. Iowa football has been mostly good over the last 10 years. Since the early 2000s, our ‘break-out’ seasons have almost always been followed by a disappointing season (for example: 2010 & 2016). Iowa isn’t and never will be a Michigan or Ohio State, so the consistency we’ve received over the last few decades is something rare in football.

When changes are actually made, Iowa winds up picking right back up where they left off.

I get that this year is a special kind of season the other way, but it almost always gets better.

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