Hawkeye football fans, you’ve got to get mad! Your life has value!

The Iowa football Twitter account has over 292,000 followers, twice as many as the University of Iowa’s account. Big surprise, huh?

With that many tweeps, you’ll get some twerps. You’ve never been in a city of 292,000 people that didn’t have some irate citizens expressing perceived grievances.

Saturday afternoon, Hawkeye Football tweeted this: Final Score: Ohio State 54, Iowa 10.

Believe it or not, that got some unkind replies from the Gang of 292,000. I’m not here to give oxygen to the harsher ones. That still leaves a lot to share, however. So with no editing to them, here goes:

How about that 49 yard FG though

At least the bands sounded good.

How many touchdowns did the offense get the past two games? Sorry I was at work with my dad.

My sources say changes are coming in a couple days

nothing worse than waking up from a bender and seeing your own college football team just lost 54-10.

Damn you Ohio State and your your your backyard football

pedmall still way fun. perfect weather.

I dont have anything funny to say, I give up.

Alas, the vast majority of the replies ranged from mean-mad to nasty. So much anger. So many insults. Many want offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz fired. Many want head coach Kirk Ferentz to retire. Many want athletic director Gary Barta to either be fired or retire.

Luckily, no one called for the university president to step down. It’s unclear how many of them could name her.

Well, everybody has opinions. Those who have actual votes, though, are the ticket buyers. The hay’s all in the barn this year. Iowa’s seven home games were sold out before the season began.

That was because the Hawkeyes had the bounce of a 10-win, Big Ten West-winning season, and the home schedule featured Iowa State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Nebraska. It was as attractive a home slate as Iowa ever gets.

Next season’s home schedule is Utah State, Western Michigan, Purdue, Rutgers, Michigan State, Minnesota and Illinois. Not as enticing.

If you’re fed up with Iowa’s woeful offense and you’ve been buying season tickets, you have two choices. One is to keep paying for them, because you just can’t fathom giving up those seven yearly social events in a state with no major-league pro sports.

Empathize with those people instead of judging them. We’ve grown more and more disconnected from each other, and it’s hard to give up the few shared experiences we still have.

If you’re hot and bothered enough about the Hawkeyes’ slippage to seriously consider unhooking yourself from your Iowa IV, heed the words of crazed anchorman Howard Beale from the 1976 movie “Network.”

All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad. You’ve gotta say “I’m a human being, (swear word)! My life has value!”

So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

During halftime of FS1’s telecast of Saturday night’s wildly entertaining Kansas State-TCU football game, the network’s studio talking heads were giggling when discussing Iowa’s offense as highlights of the Hawkeyes-Buckeyes game were shown. Giggling!

If your team is being ridiculed, you’re being ridiculed. To paraphrase hotheaded Hollywood studio head Jack Woltz shouting at Tom Hagen in another classic 1970s movie, “The Godfather,” a person in your position cannot afford to be made to look ridiculous!

What to do about it? Well, you’ve got to start by getting out of your chairs. Go right now to the window, open it, stick your head out, and yell “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

It won’t do a bit of good, of course. But maybe the cops will show up and show you tender mercy as you complain about the Hawkeyes’ offense with them.

In the meantime, 3-4 Iowa plays 1-6 Northwestern Saturday. If you didn’t buy tickets before the season started but want to attend this game, you need not worry. They will be available on the street, and it will be a buyer’s market.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com