Rebuilding?

by Buck18 on Nov 4, 2011 5:16 PM CDT

Several posters have mentioned that we of Hawkeye Nation should not have expected much from this year's team because it was to be a "rebuilding" year. My question....how could it be a rebuilding year when it was, by any rational measure, a year of failure. We all thought, coming off an 11-2 record in 2009, that we had a pretty good shot at (gasp!) the National Championship in 2010. Foolish mortals! The Football Gods decreed that, for our hubris, we limped to an 8-5 finish, only salvaged by a truly miraculous and totally unexpected interception return by Micah Hyde.

So how is this a rebuilding year? You rebuild after success, not failure, it seems to me. What we need to rebuild is some of the coaching smarts we seemed to acquire in 2002, 3 and 4. Then, it suddenly all went south. If any one play exemplifies Iowa football it was during the 2006 Alamo Bown vs. Texas. We could have won that game if only we could have gotten close enough for a field goal. Running the ball was called for. Instead, we ran an end-around against A TEAM THAT WAS FASTER THAN US, and the ball game was over. Bonehead is too positive a word for this coaching mistake. After that, 6-6. True, we have won 3 bowl games in a row, for which I am delighted. But, we need to realize that, perhaps because we don't get top-drawer talent, we have to play balls-out in every game. Conservative football only wins when you have talent. Ferentz is great, respected, and I love that he tears up a lot---that soft side to him is very endearing. But we have to replace O'Keefe. I want to see (wait for it) Bob Toledo, who was just let go at Tulane. The man couldn't win at Tulane because, well, who wants to play at Tulane. But his teams played crazy football. And I think, given our rank in the pecking order of the Big Ten/11/12/13, we have to do the same. Bob Toledo would be to football what our new basketball coach is to hoops. Let's get crazy and win some games! Oh, yeah. Prediction for Iowa-Michigan? Michigan 45, Iowa 24. If Michigan is ahead by more than 14 points at the half, it will be a blood bath. We will hang our heads, watch the clock and go home. Sad, but true. Please, Football Gods, prove me wrong.

Unless otherwise expressly indicated by BHGP editors, this FanPost is strictly the viewpoint of the author and is not endorsed by BHGP in any way.

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/eyeroll

//wanking motion

Executive Producer - WRNL TV

by CyHawk on Nov 4, 2011 11:12 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs

Lemme get this straight

You want somebody that wasn’t good enough for Tulane?

//moar wanking

by Norm Parker's Amputated Toes on Nov 5, 2011 12:12 AM CDT reply actions

Again, if 8-5 and a bowl win is a failure, then how often will you be happy?

Probably not very often, because you cite a play from a bowl game (where Iowa was competitive with the team who had won the previous national title) from a year where Iowa was ultimately under .500 that year.

The Hawks went on to three bowl wins in the next 4 years (including our first BCS win since the 1950s), but you glide past that to harp on the conservatism?

And as for Toledo, here is his arc at UCLA:

1996, 5-6
10-2 (conference title, Cotton Bowl win)
10-2 (conf title, Rose Bowl loss)
4-7
6-6 (Sun Bowl loss)
7-4
2002, 7-4 (fired after 4th straight loss to USC)

If his offense didn’t work out in the long run in the Pac-10 (or in C-USA), how in the hell would it work at Iowa?

We will become more intensity!!! --What Reading Rambler thinks Tom Brands should do.

by WaterlooChazz on Nov 5, 2011 4:35 AM CDT reply actions

As always, Chazz is the voice of reason...

wait. Hmmm.

"Gophers are filthy digging rats"
-one of HFMR's many amazing tags

by Eyeheartfreedumb on Nov 5, 2011 9:05 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

not only that

but if we get so little talent. Why are we 3rd in the past 3 years with number of players drafted into the NFL?

Advocating the correct nickname for Tyrus Thomas be: Tyrusauras.

Blindly Optimistic follower of The Iowa Hawkeyes, San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Hurricanes, Charlotte Checkers, and the Charlotte Bobcats.

by HAWKEYESBABY on Nov 5, 2011 4:15 PM CDT reply actions

Valid

All valid comments. I stand corrected… well, actually, our win over Michigan corrects me. But I still think Toledo has a great football mind. I don’t think he should ever be a head coach. But….a coach of the offense, with the level of talent Iowa has, would fit him like a glove. Not too much talent, not too little.

"It's a cookbook!"---The Twilight Zone

by Buck18 on Nov 5, 2011 8:59 PM CDT reply actions