 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
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Hlas column: It’s no help, but Iowa fans aren’t monopolizing anger and misery
Many with more football renown have been bruised or battered this year
I almost tapped out Sunday morning.
The comments regarding Iowa Hawkeyes football at my TheGazette.com blog, The Hlog, were 100 percent negative Saturday night and throughout Sunday. What could I possibly write the day after Iowa’s 28-17 loss at Northwestern to comfort the afflicted Hawkeye fans?
Cam Newton is long-gone, Coach Chizik (AP photo)
I’ve got nothing. However, misery supposedly loves company. No one watches the Real Housewives of Wherever because the “housewives” are happy, fulfilled people. They’re paranoid, disturbed train-wrecks, and America loves it!
So, you Hawkeye people who got used to a certain level of football success and now see it out of your grasp should know this: You are not alone. Fans of several teams are leading lives of not-so-quiet desperation. Know about their misery, and revel in it.
Auburn: Oh my. Oh my, my, my.
Two years ago Gene Chizik led the War Eagles to the national-championship. Well, Cam Newton led them to that glorious unbeaten season, but why quibble?
Today, Auburn is 1-7 overall, 0-6 in the SEC. Saturday night at home, Chizik’s team lost to Texas A&M, 63-21. The Aggies gained 671 yards. It was Auburn’s worst loss since 1917.
The Iowa State team Chizik jilted for Auburn is 5-3 with wins this year over TCU and Baylor, who were a combined 21-5 last season.
Texas: OK, the Longhorns’ 6-2 record is all right. Unless you’re a Texas fan.
The Horns are 9-13 in the Big 12 since going to the 2009 BCS championship game. Of their two games that mattered most so far this season, they lost at home to West Virginia, and they got mutilated 63-21 by Oklahoma in Dallas. Last year, they lost to the Sooners, 55-17.
Saturday, Texas needed a touchdown with 12 seconds left to beat Kansas, 21-17. That’s right. Kansas.
Mack Brown coached Texas to the 2005 national-title. That just doesn’t matter in 2012.
Tennessee: The Volunteers are 0-5 in the SEC. It’s too bad they don’t play Auburn.
Tennessee has had 10 or more wins nine times since 1993. But they’re 26-32 since the start of the 2008 season.
That isn’t acceptable in a place like Tennessee, which has a stadium that seats 102,455. That’s a lot of unhappy people in one place.
USC wasn't supposed to be a 2-loss team in October (AP photo)
Miami: This used to be a college football focal point. The Hurricanes were 46-4 from 2000 to 2003. Those days are gone, gone, gone.
Now Miami is 17-16 since the start of the 2010 season. It is 4-4 this season, and got buried at Kansas State and Notre Dame.
The ‘Canes have something worse than anger from their fans. They have apathy.
There are so many other examples. Oklahoma fans have a standard they demand. That isn’t going to an Insight Bowl, like they did last year. That standard certainly wasn’t met Saturday night when the Sooners lost 30-13 to Notre Dame in Norman.
Michigan had a Sugar Bowl season last year, but still isn’t the Michigan of yore. Not at 5-3, with prime-time failures against Alabama, Notre Dame, and now Nebraska.
Virginia Tech had either 10 or 11 wins every year from 2004 to 2011. This year’s Hokies are 4-4.
Arkansas went from terrific to lousy overnight. USC, the preseason No. 1 team, has lost at Stanford and now Arizona. Missouri hopped into the SEC and quickly found out it couldn’t come closer than 21 points to either Georgia, South Carolina or Alabama, and couldn’t even beat Vanderbilt in Columbia.
So, dear Hawkeye fans, does all this help?
I didn’t think so.
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It helps, Mike, yes. Thanks.
I’m not going to get on here and rant about the game or say, “Why don’t the coaches do this or that?” I’m disappointed like everyone else, but the guys in the locker room are a lot more frustrated than any of us, and the coaches and players know more about football than us fans. Iowa teams don’t quit, so I’m not going to quit cheering. Everyone was down on them after the CMU loss, but they followed that with two league wins, so I’m not giving up. (And of all the years we don’t get to play Illinois…)
OR Wisconsin, OR Ohio State!!
I cannot tell you how much this helps… yes, I can. It doesn’t.
I’m wondering if Chizik makes it to 2013.
With the exception of Texas and Oklahoma, how many other of those teams coaches make as much as Ferentz? I didn’t think so.
Well said Scott, I’m with you!!
Past teams regardless of record always had a toughness to them that this team does not have. Vandenberg did step up in this game and this time our other senior (Davis) had the bad day. This team is good enough to have only lost the Penn State game and should only have one loss. With games left at Mich. and home against Nebby, it’s going to be a tough run. But I was encouraged how Iowa played in the second half of the game and I think this team could right the ship. The next game against Indiana becomes the most important game of the year for Iowa’s season and Iowa’s program. A win and we come home against Purdue, beatable, then take a two game winning streak into Ann Arbor. This Michigan team is not setting the world on fire either. No jumping off building yet. Could still be a good season if we finish strong. If not we have basketball and a chance to see Ruddick get some experience. This is a young team and I see potential for the future, but I also see a tougher schedule next year.
How many of those programs are paying 5+ mill a season for their problems I mean coach???
Also even if those teams are having trouble, how many had their #1 recruit blot for………Indiana?!?! I’m not lying he left to play at Indiana. The team that draws 20,000 instead of 80,000+ We have to be the worst recruiting team in the country considering what are fans do for the program. If you think its bad now, what happens when the rest of the big ten recovers and were worse than we are now??? Yikes
Listen I’m not thrilled with the coaching. But I hope Ferentz turns this team around. I would like to see him be a winner(the Hawks be winners), but if JVB doesn’t play better then lets work toward the future. After all I keep reading about all the Freshman that are on the 2 deep, well a lot of teams have freshman on the 2 deep. But if we are having a bad year(which seems to be) then playing freshman for the future means also playing a QB that is coming back next year. I would truly love to see the Hawks win out this season but if somehow (and I hope not) IU beats us or gets us down where we can’t win then lets play for next year, put in someone else at QB and the hell with the bowl games this year.A friend of mine (big Notre Dame fan) told me a couple of years ago that all the big time college teams that go undefeated or with only 1 or 2 losses cheat. Well we know KF would not allow that and we don’t want that, but that being said we all would love a 8 or 9 or 10 win season. If not this year (not) then lets work for the future.
GO HAWKS
DId you really need your ND friend to tell you that colleges cheat? Do you even watch football?
Don’t think for a second that Iowa doesn’t do it too. Ever seen the rides those guys drive around town in? We just pay for 2nd tier, I mean 3rd tier talent now-a-days. KF still gets paid so what does he care?