The bowl thing is becoming a major drag for the Hawkeyes

TAMPA, Fla. — At the end of every season, there's a certain amount of warm reflection. And, without question, the 14 Iowa seniors went around the world and back during their careers.

The fifth-years walked into a 4-8 backyard tire fire. They also went 12-2 and played a game with a Rose Bowl patch on their jerseys, not a regular occurrence for Iowa football. It's barely a lifetime occurrence. They went out with four flat tires in Monday's Outback Bowl, falling 30-3 to Florida.

Quarterback C.J. Beathard and cornerback Desmond King charged the Hawkeyes' battery the last two seasons. Let's bow our heads and give them a moment of appreciation.

'I don't know what the fans will say, but I think it was a great senior class,' Beathard said. 'The 14 seniors we had, I love them to death.'

These seniors also finish their careers without a bowl victory. That's a stinger. Monday's Outback Bowl repeated what has become a painfully familiar postseason fate. It was the Hawkeyes' fifth straight bowl defeat. The games haven't been close. The Hawkeyes have averaged just 15.0 points in those five games.

'It's a goal to win a bowl game,' said King, who picked off his 14th career pass. 'Being here four years and not winning, it's not mind blowing or anything like that. It's not about the score, it's about giving your all in those games. I felt like as a team we gave it our all and we all stuck together.'

That's enough warm reflection. You're probably not in the mood for a ton of that.

Where do you file the 2016 Hawkeyes? At 8-5 and with a bowl flop, the end result is average. The lows (North Dakota State, Penn State) were kicks to the face. The highs (Michigan, Nebraska) were poster-worthy. In the end, it was 8-5. Not the best, not the worst, but you're probably not wondering how to order season tickets, which Iowa announced Monday won't have a price increase in 2017.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz was asked in the postgame to cap the season, with all precincts now reporting.

'I evaluate seasons on a lot of things, not just wins and losses,' Ferentz said. 'That's certainly part of the criteria. In the court of popular opinion, that's certainly a big, big part of it and I get that, I understand that, but the little things that the teams do, the way they operate and the way they work ... This game didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but I'm not so sure what I would change this month. I think the guys really did a great job with our preparation. I thought our plan was good. I thought our game plan was good, and there were just some things that we didn't execute.'

Not everyone is privy to the growth every individual player makes in the weightroom or classroom. This is college football and all of that certainly matters. So, 'court of popular opinion' is way more into the wins and losses part of this.

And today that's a fifth straight bowl defeat, a fifth straight dreadful offensive performance in a bowl game and a wide receiver position that has shown little development over the last five seasons.

The Hawkeyes scored three points on Monday. All this game did was throw a few more logs on the 'fire offensive coordinator Greg Davis' inferno.

After a blowout loss in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl, Ferentz did a deep dive into what worked and what didn't. He polled assistants and players. He eventually named Beathard No. 1 QB over two-year starter Jake Rudock and implemented a few other tweaks, including adding 'run game coordinator' to O-line coach Brian Ferentz's title.

Something has to give with this offense — and probably beginning at the base of the pyramid with recruiting — or you're going to stop paying attention. Yes, Iowa finished 12-2 just last season and is 20-7 in the last two years. Yes, Iowa's offense produced a pair of 1,000-yard rushers for the first time in school history (Akrum Wadley finished with 1,081 and LeShun Daniels at 1,058).

But Monday was a step back, another painful postseason thud.

'It's definitely frustrating and embarrassing,' said Wadley, a junior, who also said he's thinking about forgoing his senior season next year and entering the NFL draft. 'Knowing how hard we worked in the offseason and the whole year, and three bowl games we lose, we lose by a lot.

'That's not our team, that's not how we play. It's frustrating and embarrassing.'

But this is how Iowa has played. Five straight bowl games now. Frustrating and embarrassing splitting snaps on offense.

The season was 8-5, not the best and not the worst. It ended with another splat and that's where the Hawkeyes have to sit for the next nine months. No one wants to sit in splat.