Hlas column: Today's tale is about Hype and the Hawkeyes

Forgive me if I don't spend this space today dissecting the Iowa football team's play-calling or time-management, or its physical condition and emotional state.

This is about hype and the Hawkeyes.

It would be pretty hypocritical of me to mock great expectations for the 2010 Iowa team when a) I put the Hawkeyes No. 7 on my preseason Associated Press Top 25 ballot and b) I participated in the writing of a preseason magazine SourceMedia put out about the Hawkeyes called “If the Stars Align.” The suggestion was clear. This could be a big, big year for Iowa.

In addition, I've laid out scenarios about Big Ten title tiebreakers in the past couple weeks on my thegazette.com blog, with the assumed possibility Iowa and Ohio State would each be 5-1 in the conference when they met this Saturday in Iowa City.

And two weeks ago, I compared Hawkeye quarterback Ricky Stanzi's statistics to those of quarterbacks who seem to be candidates to be Heisman Trophy finalists.

That's not standing back and watching a fire burn. That's fanning the flames.

Still, there were legitimate reasons for each item. I make no apologies or have no embarrassment for voting Iowa No. 7 in August. Not when the Hawkeyes finished last season No. 7 and had so many key returnees back from that squad. Not when there seemed to be several future NFL players among those veterans. Virtually everyone else had the team in their preseason top 10 or 12.

The magazine? Hey, this is a business and that was an opportunity. Not much sells better than hope, and Hawkeye fans lapped it up by the barrel for this season from the moment the Orange Bowl ended the ‘09 season until Iowa's first, then second, and now third defeats of ‘10.

Stanzi's numbers did (and do) compare favorably to Boise State's Kellen Moore and Stanford's Andrew Luck. The third loss Iowa suffered Saturday at Northwestern is what removes Stanzi from serious top-five Heisman discussion. His fourth-quarter interception didn't help.

But I can't pretend the Iowa media I lurk among hasn't had a major role in overhyping this team. The main reason is, I think, it's better for business. Sports writers and broadcasters aren't shy about floating large possibilities and potential excitement to come. That generates way more interest and reaction than keeping the stove settings on lukewarm.

However, there were some truths that weren't mentioned loudly in these parts a few months ago. For instance:

1. No college team is the same from one year to the next no matter how many players and coaches are back. Some players take swift and huge steps forward all of a sudden. Some continue to make steady growth. Some max out.

2. No team is even the same from one week to the next. These are college kids. When U.S. government agencies decide behind closed doors to solicit the services of America's steadiest, most-predictable people, they don't raid college campuses.

3. The other team tries to win, too. The other team's coaches are capable, and work just as hard as your team's. The other team's players are as fully committed to realizing their individual and group dreams as are your team's. The other team usually has players who are pretty darn good.

4. Football is a complex, chaotic, punishing game. In three hours of slugging it out, results are often decided by one botched play, or by or one remarkable play an opponent is helpless to stop. Sometimes, you botch the play. Sometimes, you do something remarkable.

5. Iowa had a lot of teams on its schedule that ranged from quite competent to extremely good.

6. Stuff happens.

The ping-ponging back and forth from euphoria to aggravation that a sports team causes its fans? That's good for my business, too. We'll probably feed on Hawkeye fans' frustration as much as their glee from two weeks ago after the Michigan State game.

That doesn't mean the sky is really falling.