Iowa football must shake off dust from recent wreckage

Iowa football fans: Would you accept two 3-9 seasons in a four-year period if it meant two trips to the Big Ten title game?

Let that marinate and we’ll get back to it in a bit. In the meantime, how many times has some sap said “Timing is everything” to you as if that were supreme wisdom?

Iowa’s football team started last season 0-2, then won six straight games. The mood from that 6-2 mark was a glow. Warm and contented. It’s all about when you win. And lose.

The Hawkeyes began this season 6-0, and the glow turned white-hot. That was two games ago. Now they have the same record as the one they had at the end of 2020.

This mood from this 6-2? Chilly and unfulfilled. Timing is everything.

Oh, had the Hawkeyes possessed the offensive performance to rival their defense’s. Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta would have had plenty of alone time in a hotel near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport this week and in weeks to come.

College Football Playoff selection committee chair Barta wouldn’t have been allowed to contribute to discussions about the Hawkeyes and where they fit.

Here’s where they fit in the CFP rankings today: Just below Minnesota and Wisconsin, just above Fresno State and San Diego State.

By the way, that CFP thing is a sham controlled by the following: The Power Five conferences, Disney, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Waystar Royco.

Anyway, don’t be too quick to buy into others’ comparisons of this Iowa season with two-game or three-game bumps of the recent past that the Hawkeyes smoothed over and left behind.

One that has been trotted out this week is Iowa losing to Michigan 10-3 and Penn State 17-12 in 2019 before finishing that season with six wins in seven games, including a 49-24 Holiday Bowl curb-stomp of USC.

Iowa matched the Wolverines almost yard for yard (261 to 267) in Ann Arbor, and outgained the Nittany Lions in Kinnick, 356-294.

The Hawkeyes’ two most-recent games were nothing of the sort. They were one-sided losses with their offense badly overmatched.

“Too primal for prime time” was the headline of this column previewing the Iowa-Wisconsin game last Saturday ago, and it was. It was brutal. Told you so.

By the way, “told you so” people are even worse than the “timing is everything” crowd.

Speaking of timing, this is as good a time for the Hawkeyes to play nemesis Northwestern as they come. The question shouldn’t be if Iowa will beat the Wildcats, but how thoroughly.

Northwestern has made all kinds of trouble for Iowa in Kirk Ferentz’s tenure, but it’s a poor Big Ten team this season. So are Iowa’s final two foes, Illinois and Nebraska. The Huskers seem sure to be 3-8 and possibly coach-less on Black Friday as the Hawkeyes arrive in Lincoln.

Next week’s Minnesota game at Kinnick Stadium is the biggest remaining judgment day of the regular season for the Hawkeyes. It should — the operative word is “should” — be what stands between Iowa and a 10-2 regular season.

Northwestern? A team that has lost four Big Ten games by 17 or more points, and was walloped 56-7 at Nebraska? Nope.

The Wildcats won the Big Ten West in 2018 and 2020. They were 3-9 in 2019 and may go from 3-5 today to 3-9 before the month is over.

Iowa was 9-4, 10-3 and 6-2 in the previous three seasons. That’s no losing seasons or anything resembling one. No Big Ten West titles, either.

Would you take 3-9 if it guaranteed you a December game in Indianapolis for the Big Ten title the following season? If you say yes, do you remember what a 3-9 year feels like?

As for reality rather than hypotheticals, Iowa was No. 2 in the nation with what looked like a ticket to ride to Indy for the first time in six years and a chance to win its first league title since 2004. Then it got gobsmacked in back-to-back games.

There was no heartbreaking finish, no controversial call, no fluke play that tipped things to Purdue or Wisconsin. It was a crash.

Well, you can’t rebuild until you’ve shaken off the dust. All the Hawkeyes can do Saturday is add to Northwestern’s misery. A 6-2 mark sure isn’t 6-0, but 7-2 will be way better than 6-3.

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