By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – It usually takes something pretty significant to bring Mr. Optimist and Mr. Pessimist to the debate table, something like Iowa’s annual media day event.

That will be held on Friday with Kirk Ferentz scheduled to address the media, followed by his assistant coaches and players.

This will be Ferentz’s 24th media day as most of his players weren’t even born when he started coaching the Hawkeyes.

Mr. Optimist and Mr. Pessimist once again couldn’t agree on anything with one glass always half full and the other always half empty.

Here is the complete transcript from their debate:

Mr. Optimist: Iowa returns eight starters on offense from a team that won the Big Ten West Division last season and 10 games overall.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa returns eight starters from an offense that finished last season ranked 121^st nationally in total offense.

Mr. Optimist: The Big Ten Conference landed a major counterpunch against the Southeastern Conference when it added both UCLA and USC as members beginning in 2024.

Mr. Pessimist: The Iowa football team has a combined record of 6-13 against UCLA and USC, and Kirk Ferentz hates playing on the West Coast.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa has one of the top collegiate tight ends in the country in senior Sam LaPorta who led the team with 53 catches and 670 receiving yards last season.

Mr. Pessimist: No other Iowa player had more than 31 catches last season, and the one with 31 was former running back Tyler Goodson.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa should be heavily favored to win all three of its nonconference games against FCS opponent South Dakota State, and against Nevada and Iowa State, both of whom face major personnel losses from last season.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa stands to gain very little from winning its three nonconference games, but a loss to any of the three opponents, even Iowa State, would cause great harm to Iowa from a perception standpoint.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa senior quarterback Spencer Petras has a 13-6 record as a starter dating back to the 2020 season, including 2-0 against Penn State.

Mr. Pessimist: Petras has yet to complete 60 percent of his passes for a season and he has passed for fewer than 200 yards in 11 of his starts 19 starts.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa returns four offensive line with starting experience from last season.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa only averaged 123.1 rushing yards per game last season, and that was with former All-America center Tyler Linderbaum leading the way.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa hasn’t lost to Ohio State since 2013, and in their most recent meeting, Iowa pounded the Buckeyes 55-24 in 2017 at Kinnick Stadium.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa has only played Ohio State once since 2014 and only twice has Iowa defeated the Buckeyes in back-to-back games in 1922 and 1923 and in 1959 and 1960. Those four Iowa teams had a combined record of 25-8 and were coached by Howard Jones and Forest Evashevski, respectively.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa returns four players in the secondary with starting experience, including 2021 Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year Riley Moss, and Iowa also added five-star recruit Xavier Nwankpa from the 2022 recruiting class.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa has to replace three starters in the secondary from last season, including first-team All-Big Ten selection Dane Belton, who excelled at the cash position.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa has one of the nation’s top punters in junior Tory Taylor, who averaged 46.1 yards on 80 punts last season.

Mr. Pessimist: To have punted 80 times in 14 games, an average of 5.7 punts per game, speaks volumes about Iowa’s offensive shortcomings.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa has been a force on special teams since LeVar Woods became the special teams coordinator in 2017.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa has to replace one of the nation’s top kickers from last season (Caleb Shudak) and the 2021 Big Ten Return Specialist in Charlie Jones, who has since transferred to Purdue.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa has won seven games in a row against Nebraska.

Mr. Pessimist: Only one of those seven Nebraska teams finished with a winning record as the 2016 squad finished 9-4 under former coach Mike Riley.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa defeated Wisconsin 28-7 the last time the teams faced each other at Kinnick Stadium in 2020.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa has lost five of the last six games against Wisconsin at Kinnick Stadium.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa won 10 games last season for the second time in the last three seasons, marking just the ninth time in program history that Iowa has won at least 10 games in a season.

Mr. Pessimist:  Only one of Iowa’s 10 wins last season came against a team that won more than seven games, that being 9-4 Minnesota.

Mr. Optimist: Iowa has won two of the last three games against Northwestern, suggesting maybe that Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald has lost his knack for defeating the Hawkeyes.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa has lost four of the last five games against Purdue, suggesting strongly that Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm has a knack for defeating the Hawkeyes.

Mr. Optimist: All seven of Iowa’s home games are sold out, marking the first time since the 2011 season that Iowa has sold out all of its home games.

Mr. Pessimist: Iowa won six of its seven home games in 2011, but still only finished 7-6 overall.

Mr. Optimist: This season marks the 20-year anniversary of Iowa’s 2002 Big Ten champion team that finished undefeated in conference play at 8-0 and 11-2 overall, and that was led by dual-threat quarterback Brad Banks, who finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy as a senior that season.

Mr. Pessimist: Many of the players from that team are now in their early 40s, which means us two are approaching the old and crusty stage.