living in the beauty of dirtyfaith

So if you have read any comments from the “experts” and, especially, fans over at sportsline you would think that Iowa football is a joke, their trash, overrated, a BCS nightmare, etc.  To be fair, these fans seem to sing the praises of USC, Texas, Florida, et. al., so at least we know, in part, who we are dealing with here.  Whiners.

Now, having said that, I think there is truth that Iowa has gotten extremely lucky in a couple of games this year.  MSU was “lucky” but not in the sense of “that was just stupid luck”.  Northern Iowa was another “lucky” win and that is in the sense of “stupid lucky”.  Blocking one field goal to win the game is amazing.  But two?!?  Come on!  That is crazy.

I, personally, find it rewarding to hear the cries and complaints from the fans of top tier programs against Iowa.  As if the BCS gods only smile down on Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, USC, and OSU.  I think they find it hard to believe that Iowa is as good as they (they = Iowa; and they = Texas, Florida, etc.) are.  Iowa isn’t the most talented team.  They aren’t the most athletic team.  Or the most gifted.  They have a good defense to be sure.  But they are not super stud players.  What gives?

One thing that I was informed of over at sportsline was that Iowa ranks in the middle of the pack concerning recruiting classes the last several years.  The aforementioned teams rank high.  Iowa doesn’t get the blue chip prospects.  Yeah, at times, they get some quality players, but not the caliber of players that a USC or Oklahoma tends to pull in.  So that makes what Kirk Ferentz has done at Iowa all the more remarkable.  He has taken average talent, for the most part, and molded them into strong teams that win games.  So this is why a 42-24 victory over Indiana, in which we were down 21-7 at the half, 24-14 after 3 and outscored Indiana 28-0 in the 4th is much more impressive and far less to worry about than a USC or LSU or OSU winning by 1, 3, or 7 points over a non-ranked or low ranked team.  They recruit the players that should win.  And should win big for their team.  Iowa doesn’t have that luxury, but here we are 9-0.

Second, Ferentz has kept his coaching staff intact.  I think this helps any team.  Coaches have enough to deal with in terms of learning new player quirks every year, the players certainly don’t need to be adapting to a new coaching philosophy (not just head coach) every year.

I think Iowa will beat Northwestern this week to move to 10-0.  I do think, that going into Columbus will be extremely difficult and I honestly don’t think Iowa is going to walk away with a victory (I hope they do!).  And I think Iowa beats Minnesota in a tough game.  Iowa ends up 11-1, I hope it is enough to keep them in the BCS Top 10.  I hope it frustrates the committee to figure out what to do with them.  I hope it irritates the experts who have to admit that, at least for this year, Iowa was a good team.  And I hope it just bothers the fans of LSU, USC, OSU, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida to no end.  And the icing on the cake would be that somehow Iowa staying in the top 10 would leave out one of the above mentioned teams.  That would be beautiful.  And I would almost pay money to hear that teams fans complain and whine about how things are unfair.