Man, if the season starts whining, we’re all fucked.

As much as I enjoy being obtuse for the sake of a punchline, this merits actual discussion.

Whining about Iowa’s non-conference schedule? Whining about Iowa’s lack of offensive innovation? Combo platter? Nonetheless, I think they’ve both been covered.

1) that has absolutely never stopped either Bellanca or BHGP.

2) To some, they’re two aspects of the same problem: the athletic department has (what appears to be) an inferior product on their hands, and one whose price has been rising rather substantially in the last decade or so. Granted, there’s never going to be a return to the times when you could pay a fin and get season tickets or whatever things were like before I was born (I am like 12, tops, if my humor is any indication). But the dissatisfaction crops up in more than one area, and expecting us to discuss them in vacuums is a bit unfair, especially when that “us” includes Bellanca.

Granted, there’s really not a whole lot Iowa can do about the schedule, especially as long as ISU cranks out three wins a year, Mizzou and Nebraska duck us, and Saskatchewan demands 110-yard fields (grow up, guys! Come on!). At the very least, Pitt’s moderately regarded this year—remember how ill we were over that scheduling decision 12 months ago?

And yes, even if we stray from the BCS in the other non-conference games, we can probably do better than FIU and fucking Maine.

which I hope is something more than “shut up already”, but that’s fine too if it is, I say:

— other schools are struggling now with their pro-set O’s, and they are schools that have a deeper talent base than ours.

— if we look at the 20- and 40-year schedule samples, we see this year, clearly, that there is a massive trend downward and away from the historical class and quality of Iowa opponents. This is ironic because vs. 20 and 40 years ago football has become a business larger today than the New York Giants were in 1970. And if we extrapolate this trend forward, in 20 years, who will we be playing? Our OC’s most recent employer. Hayden and Bump were not scheduling programs that schedule NJ commuter schools. And Evy? Evy playing someone who plays someone who plays in Moon Township, Pennsylvania?

— the two observations above, and I guess it is a combo platter (I’d like my fries well done) tied together by KOK’s Allegheny history, trouble me. (I have a theory on the offensive frustrations, below.)

Institutions change incrementally, not all at once. Still, occasionally events conspire to reveal the extent of the change; there is a tipping point in perception. I reached mine. We all know what’s gone in the past three years. I think it’s useful to ask where we’re going now with this program and university. We seem to justify our cupcake-scheduling with the big-money requirements and annual bowl qualification, even if the bowl is just an exhibition game used to sell a commercial product on Wednesday night TV. Meanwhile, the sordid police blotter; year-round practice for 18 year-olds who would find college, by itself, a challenge (or, have some sympathy, man, for what a Spievey has to deal with his first semester away from home); a college president who speaks rhetorical, self-congratulatory mush about important matters. Revenue, television, and annual increases in “exposure” for the “product” being their own reward. I think it’s a joke if this is achieved by playing an airport.

At this point I would be a bigger fan of Iowa football if the following were true, because I hit my tipping point:

— if we don’t go to a major bowl, we don’t go — so’s the kids can spend the last month of the first semester being students and getting healthy.

— we’re of the opinion that we should play schools of similar class and character, and if others follow suit, 2-loss national champions will happen and appropriately so.

— the university president is someone who is capable of saying, “I don’t know” or “I made a mistake” or “I don’t want to hear about another picayune ‘process’ being followed, I am in the process of finding out who did what to whom, and whether or not I am responsible personally for the outcome. I may be.”

*

Here’s what I’m wondering about our offense. As I assume everyone knows, the so-called spread is distinct from a pro-set mainly in one regard: the QB is a potential ball-carrier on every play. Therefore, it’s 11 on 11. In our offense, or, more pleasantly to watch, in Joe Philbin’s Packer O, the QB never is; it’s 10 on 11. Sometimes it’s 9 on 11 (that’s when we go two-back and the fullback blocks down, which is 98% of the time).

In the spread, or in, say, the Navy triple option, it’s explicit that a goal is to NOT block every defender. This lowers the bar for the offense’s ability to execute. Also, in college, there’s only one or two Shawn Merrimans on your schedule every year, so your QB has a better chance of surviving. Not true in the NFL. This was Spurrier’s mistake with the Skins. He thought he could pass protect and let plays develop with the time he had in college. There’s too much speed.

Our O, as in Philbin’s, requires all 11 Iowa players to get their guy. That’s the question. Can we block or defeat all 11 when D’s can game plan by watching 2002 tape?

In 1985 Fry took the approach that he couldn’t beat Michigan if he reiterated 1985 tape.

So are we brilliant or stubborn?