The Iowa Hawkeyes Will Win the West

Case History

2017 Iowa was a fairly typical Iowa year. A boring, closer than should be opener against Wyoming. A wild El Assico, that was one of the most fun games of the college football season. A few up and downs in Big Ten season until Ohio State came to town. Dear Reader, were you aware that the Iowa Hawkeyes American football team absolutely beat the piss out of the Ohio State Buckeyes American football team in the sport of American football? Because, I think that’s something you should know. In fact, let’s take a few minutes to relive that.

Anyway, they followed that up with the worst offensive performance in Iowa history against wisconsin, got beat by a single receiver in a single quarter against Purdue. But then performed euthanasia on the Mike Riley era to end the regular season. In a surprise turn of events, Iowa decided to win the Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College (first bowl win since beating Mizzou following the 2010 season).

Opening Statement

Listen, Kirk Ferentz has been at Iowa for 20 years, now. He’s what might be termed a known quantity. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, death, taxes, and Kirk Ferentz running the outside zone to the short side of the field to an 8-4 record. But this year the schedule (wisconsin soft), QB (Nate Stanley is far and away the best QB in the division), and defense (the best Iowa DL since at least 2010) should line up for a potential run to Indianapolis and a Big Ten West Division Title.

Discovery

Iowa Hawkeyes Review and Preview

Line of Succession

Go Ahead and Wave

The Iowa Hawkeyes May Be Doomed To A Poor Start To 2018, And Also Wrestling: Podcast 5/23/18 // B1G 2018

Iowa Hawkeyes Mailbag Answers

Expert Testimony

Go Iowa Awesome

Black Heart Gold Pants

Marc Morehouse at the Cedar Rapids Gazette

Scott Dochterman at The Athletic

Teams generally get the local coverage they deserve. And Iowa’s local beat writers are some of the best in the country.

Emotional Plea

I’m an engineer and Kirk Ferentz is the long time head coach of my favorite team. Emotion is not welcome here.

Closing Argument

Iowa doesn’t have an away game until October. Gets wisconsin early (like 2015, remember that year?) and at Kinnick. The game at PSU is almost certainly a loss, but it’s cross division, so it’s not nearly as important. The next scariest game on the entire schedule is the opener against Northern Illinois, and that’s mostly because Sutton Smith is a very bad man, and Iowa will be without both starting offensive tackles (Alaric Jackson and Tristan Wirfs) due to suspensions.

Verdict

The books in Las Vegas have the Over/Under for this year’s team at 7.5 wins, and our panel of “experts” is pretty much right in line. Townie is the most bullish, as I believe he’s a big fan of Nate Stanley, whereas UNL “writers” Jesse and BRT are what can probably be described as “Haters” (I believe that’s the correct term).