By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The two guys who can’t seem to agree on anything about Hawkeye sports recently held one final debate about the 2021 Iowa football season, which ended with a 20-17 loss to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day in Orlando, Florida.

And like always, they found no common ground.

Mr. Optimist: The 2021 Iowa football team finished 7-2 in conference play and won the Big Ten West Division, won 10 games for the second time in three seasons and defeated Minnesota and Nebraska for the seventh time in a row and Iowa State for the sixth time in a row.

Mr. Pessimist: The 2021 Iowa football team didn’t defeat an opponent, with exception to Minnesota, that lost fewer than six games, and also lost to Purdue, Wisconsin and Michigan by a combined margin of 93-17 and failed to win the Big Ten title for a 17^th consecutive season.

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Mr. Optimist: Freshmen receivers Keagan Johnson and Arland Bruce provided a huge spark for Iowa this season with 352 and 209 receiving yards, respectively, and they also combined for six touchdowns, including three rushing touchdowns by Bruce.

Mr. Pessimist: Ohio State freshman receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 347 receiving yards and three touchdowns in a 48-45 victory over Utah in the Rose Bowl.

Mr. Optimist: The Iowa football team deserves praise for turning a 13-3 halftime deficit against Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl into a 17-13 lead in the fourth quarter.

Mr. Pessimist: Kentucky deserves more credit for actually winning the Citrus Bowl 20-17 thanks to a late game-winning scoring drive.

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Mr. Optimist: Say what you want about quarterback Spencer Petras, but he still has a 13-6 record as Iowa’s starting quarterback.

Mr. Pessimist: Only four of his wins as a starter have come against teams that finished with a winning record and those records were 4-3 for Wisconsin in 2020, and 7-6 for Iowa State, Maryland and Penn State in 2021.

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Mr. Optimist: The Iowa football team had three victories over ranked opponents during the 2021 season; vs. No. 17 Indiana, 34-6; at No. 9 Iowa State, 27-17, and vs. No. 4 Penn State, 23-20.

Mr. Pessimist: Those three teams finished with a combined record of 16-22 and none of the three finished the season ranked in the Associated Press top 25.

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Mr. Optimist: Iowa punter Tory Taylor finished the 2021 season with an impressive 46.1 average on 80 punts.

Mr. Pessimist: The fact that Tory Taylor punted 80 times, which is an average of 5.7 punts per game, is a testimony to how flawed the Iowa offense was this past season.

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Mr. Optimist: Caleb Shudak took advantage of his free Covid year as a sixth-year senior by making 24 of 28 field-goal attempts and all 36 of his point-after kicks this past season.

Mr. Pessimist: Too bad he doesn’t have a seventh season of eligibility because no other kicker on the team has attempted a field goal, or a point-after kick, in a real game.

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Mr. Optimist: Iowa held five opponents to 14 or fewer points during the 2021 season.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa scored seven or fewer points in three of its four losses during the 2021 season.

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Mr. Optimist: The 2021 season marked just the second time in history that Iowa has played 14 games in a season, with the other time occurring in 2015.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa finished both seasons with back-to-losses in the Big Ten Championship game and in a bowl game.

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Mr. Optimist: Iowa finished the 2021 season with more touchdown passes (12) and fewer interceptions (11) than Wisconsin (11) and (13).

Mr. Pessimist: Wisconsin didn’t allow a touchdown pass, and also completed one, during its 27-7 victory over Iowa on Oct. 30 in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Mr. Optimist: Ohio State returns to the schedule in 2022, but Iowa won its most recent game against Ohio State in dominating fashion, cruising to a 55-24 victory in 2017 at Kinnick Stadium.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa also defeated the Buckeyes 33-7 in 2004, but then lost the next five games in the series, and only has five wins against Ohio State since 1963.

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Mr. Optimist: Junior center Tyler Linderbaum is the 12th Hawkeye to earn unanimous consensus All-America status and the 28th Hawkeye to earn consensus All-America status. The Solon native was also the 2021 Rimington Trophy winner and was also selected as the 2021 Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the year.

Mr. Pessimist: Even with Linderbaum’s consistency, Iowa still finished the 2021 season ranked 11th in the Big Ten in rushing, averaging just 123.6 rushing yards per game and 3.4 yards per carry.

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Mr. Optimist: The Iowa football team has a 63-25 record since the start of the 2015 season.

Mr. Pessimist: All but four of the 25 losses since 2015 were against Big Ten opponents, including five against Wisconsin and four against Northwestern, Purdue and Penn State.

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Mr. Optimist: No. 3 Iowa defeated No. 4 Penn State 23-20 on Oct. 9 at Kinnick Stadium in a rare top-five showdown

Mr. Pessimist: According to Matt Brown from The Athletic, 2021 Iowa-Penn State joins 1984 Penn State-Texas and 1959 Iowa-Northwestern as the only top-5 matchups in which neither team finished the season ranked in the top 20.

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Mr. Optimist: The Iowa football team finished ranked No. 23 in the final Associated Press, marking the first time in 23 seasons under Kirk Ferentz that Iowa has finished ranked in the top 25 in four consecutive seasons.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa climbed to No. 2 in the AP poll after starting the season with six straight wins, but then finished 4-4 over the final eight games and scored 17 or fewer points in all four losses.

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Mr. Optimist: Former Iowa quarterback Matt Rodgers made first-team All-Big Ten as a junior and senior in 1990 and 1991.

Mr. Pessimist: Brad Banks (2002) and Drew Tate (2004) are the only Iowa quarterbacks to make first-team All-Big Ten since 1992.

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Mr. Optimist: Former Iowa wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette had two touchdown receptions as a rookie for the Minnesota Vikings this season.

Mr. Pessimist: Smith-Marsette is the first former Iowa wide receiver to have a touchdown catch in the NFL since Tim Dwight in 2007.

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Mr. Optimist: Nebraska head coach Scott Frost is 0-4 against Iowa.

Mr. Pessimist: Nebraska has a 10-25 record in conference play in four seasons under Frost and is 5-20 in one-possession games, including 0-8 this past season.