Harty: Risky to assume anything good or bad about Iowa football
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The perception of the Iowa football team has changed dramatically over the past two weeks.
A stunning 23-21 loss to FCS power North Dakota State on Sept. 17 at Kinnick Stadium, coupled with an uninspiring 14-7 win at Rutgers last Saturday has cast a shadow of doubt over the 3-1 Hawkeyes.
The same Iowa team that was picked by many to defend its Big Ten West Division title is now considered suspect and vulnerable heading into Saturday’s homecoming game against Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium.
All it took was two disappointing performances to completely change the narrative about Iowa. And one of those disappointing performances was a Big Ten victory on the road.
The lesson in this case is simple, yet so difficult to learn: don’t overreact to success or failure.
The narrative would start to shift back to the bright side should Iowa defeat Northwestern on Saturday. Follow that with a victory at Minnesota a week later and the Hawkeye bandwagon would be full once again.
It is hard to stay even-keel in this age of social media where patience and perspective get you no attention and little satisfaction in the short term.
Patience and perspective are probably what you need more than anything, though, when cheering for the Iowa football team.
Just when you think you know an Iowa team under Kirk Ferentz, it does something good or bad to surprise you.
“The way I look at this whole thing, we’re building a team right now,” Ferentz said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “We’re trying to build a team. It’s not the same as or just like, but we’ve gone through a lot of things historically where the one commonality is we’ve never been a smooth, crisp, really smooth team in September. That’s really kind of unusual.
“I think October is coming, so it will be a really good time to get in that gear. But that’s part of the deal, so you’re working through those things all the time. And we’ve had good teams that were 2-2 at this point. But the key thing is to try to move forward every week and see if we can make some improvements, significant improvement. And if you do that, the results – you kind of get what you deserve usually. But when you’re not pushing it forward enough, then that opens the door for some disappointment.”
Unrealistic expectations also opens the door for disappointment.
There were some fans before the season started who resented any suggestion that Iowa could lose more than two or three games.
And now there are some fans who scoff at the suggestion of Iowa winning more than eight or nine games, even more so now that senior receiver Matt Vandeberg is out indefinitely because of a broken foot.
The situation looked bleak for Iowa in 2004 when it started 2-2, including a humiliating 44-7 loss at Arizona State in the third game.
Amazingly, the team never lost again despite having virtually no rushing attack.
The situation also looked grim for Iowa in 2008 when the Hawkeyes lost three consecutive games, falling to 3-3 overall despite having Shonn Greene as a running back. Iowa then got hot, winning six of its last seven games, including a 31-10 victory over South Carolina in the Outback bowl.
But on the flipside, Iowa won five of its first six games in 2006, but then lost six of the last seven games.
That was the season Ferentz coined the phrase “fat cats” to describe a sense of entitlement that some of his players apparently had in 2006.
Iowa also started the 2010 season by winning five of the first six games, only to crash and burn down the stretch.
Iowa lost its final three Big Ten games to Northwestern, Ohio State and Minnesota by a combined 10 points.
The Hawkeyes rebounded to defeat Missouri 27-24 in the Insight Bowl to finish 8-5 overall. The victory stopped the bleeding, but it didn’t stop the season from being a disappointment to many fans who had expected more from a star-studded Iowa team.
Having expectations is a big part of being fan. It’s okay to think big and to expect your team to do well.
But to assume anything is just asking for trouble, especially when it comes to a developmental program like Iowa.
The Hawkeyes might be predictable on the field with regard to their offensive and defensive philosophies under Ferentz.
But they’re highly unpredictable with regard to how a season will unfold.
That’s why you shouldn’t make any assumptions, either good or bad, unless you don’t mind being wrong.