Iowa’s 7-5 record will bring the team to a bowl game but was still disappointing.
By Courtney Baumann
After the first game of the season, way back on Sept. 2, I was incredibly optimistic about the Iowa football team. The Hawkeyes were impressive, particularly on defense, and showed promise for the season to come.
That feels like so long ago.
Now, almost three months later, Iowa is waiting patiently for the weekend to find out which second-tier bowl game it will be
attending.
Iowa’s 7-5 record came with losses to Penn State, Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Purdue. The Penn State loss was fine; Iowa was the heavy underdog yet somehow hung in until the last four seconds. The Wisconsin loss was expected, but the Hawkeye offense looked terrible. Michigan State and Northwestern were frustrating. Purdue was demoralizing.
It’s understandable why some fans may feel cheated out of a season — the offense seen in the Ohio State and Nebraska games were enough to prove that the Hawkeyes could hang with any team, so where was it all
season?
To be fair, though, this season was exactly what Iowans have come to expect out of the football team. Kirk Ferentz has led the team to a 142-97 record in his 19 years with the program — a 59.4 win percentage since 1999. This year, the Hawkeyes won 58.3 percent of their games, just barely worse than what they have continually done for nearly two decades.
RELATED: Wadley’s rushing leads Hawkeyes past Huskers
For some, a bowl game is enough. Ferentz has led his team to its 15th post-season appearance in his tenure, as well as the team’s fifth straight.
Is it enough, though?
Iowa has so much talent on its roster, and although much of it is young, it almost feels like it went to waste this season.
The Hawkeyes had two senior running backs who combined for 5,079 yards from 2014-2016.
Nate Stanley threw 25 touchdowns in his first season as a starter. The tight-end group is the most impressive Iowa has seen since Dallas Clark. The defense boasted one of the best linebackers in the country, as well as the best defensive back statistically.
Yet Iowa sits with a mediocre record once again, stuck in the middle of the Big Ten.
I don’t think it was unfair to expect more out of this team in 2017. There was plenty of talent on both sides of the ball. The schedule could have allowed for a 9-3 record. A new offensive coordinator could have been an offensive spark (in more than just a few games).
Maybe it will take more than just a season to finally get the offense to click week after week and for the young players to settle into every game, but this was definitely not a rebuilding year, although it seemed like it at times.
So the season of optimism that I wrote about after Iowa’s first win of the year over Wyoming has turned into a season that could have been much better. Disappointment may be a little harsh of a word to use, but that’s what I’m left feeling after 12 games.
It will be interesting to see if Iowa can end the season with 8 wins, or if it will drop to .500 in a season that showed so much promise in the beginning.