Iowa’s strength of schedule leaves much to be desired.
By Jordan Hansen
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The crowd of 56,401 that watched Iowa beat North Texas on Saturday, Sept. 26, was the smallest home crowd since a game against Buffalo on Sept. 6, 2003.
After Marshall Koehn’s heroics last week against Pittsburgh, the number should be at least a little surprising. Then again, it could very well be a symptom of a larger issue.
For as much as the Iowa coaching staff, especially head coach Kirk Ferentz, seemed to have made huge changes to their philosophy this season — one thing is missing.
Upgrading the nonconference schedule.
Iowa’s game against North Texas is simple proof of this. The 62-16 trouncing wasn’t so much because of the Hawkeyes being overwhelmingly good but because the Mean Green looked as if they belong in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The game — and the nonconference schedule as a whole — may have been fun for fans and the players, but outside of the game with Pittsburgh (more on that in a moment) did little to prove how good or bad this team is going to be this year.
Iowa is winning games by an average of 21.5 points, but it’s a misleading statistic.
CBSsports.com ranks all 128 teams each week, and it’s a fairly good measuring stick as far as team rankings go. The site has North Texas ranked No. 119, Iowa State No. 96, and Pittsburgh No. 61.
Pittsburgh, of course, tested Iowa physically, and Iowa State gave the Hawkeyes fits at times. With that said, neither team has much for a ceiling this season, and neither will end up being very impressive at the end of the year.
Illinois State wasn’t ranked by CBSsports, but just last week, it struggled and nearly lost in overtime to Eastern Illinois — a team that both Western Illinois and Northwestern pummeled by more than 30 points.
Point being, Iowa needs an upgrade in its schedule. At the beginning of the season, FootballSchedules.com had Iowa’s overall schedule ranked at No. 100 in strength.
Meanwhile, other Big Ten teams are playing schedules that include the likes of Stanford and Alabama, among many others. Those are the type of games fans want to see, and those are the type of games that can have defining moments on a season.
If Iowa wants to get to the next level of football — contending for a championship — then it must to get out of its comfort zone and play teams out of conference that see success year in and out. Those types of wins look good on résumés for what we can only imagine will be an expanding playoff.
With the Hawkeyes new facilities being competitive with the best around the country, the next step to bring in better recruits is to play a flashy team with a big name.
Not a North Texas, or any other low conference team, but someone “sexier.”
Ferentz and his staff have been close several times to building a championship-caliber program. There is a long history of identifying, developing, and shipping talent to the NFL.
In 2009, the Hawkeyes were a few plays away from going to a Rose Bowl and perhaps beyond. When Brad Banks was running around in early 2000s, they were also getting serious looks nationally.
To get back to those places, this “new” Kirk Ferentz needs to take chances not only on game day but when trying to figure out schedules.
Next year, when Iowa starts playing nine conference games, the Hawkeyes will have even less of a chance to play a big-ticket school.
The opener is Miami (Ohio), followed by Iowa State and then North Dakota State — an FCS team. The 2017-18 season isn’t much better; Iowa opens with Wyoming before playing Iowa State and then another date with North Texas.
Of those six nonconference games, only the Iowa State games stand out — and even then, only for rivalry reasons.
With the Big Ten West as weak as it is right now, there is a very real chance Iowa could become the driving force in the division. Now is the time for the Hawkeyes to take a few chances and see if they can get break into the level of contention.
Follow @jordyhansen on Twitter for news, updates, and analysis on the Iowa football team.