My response is that you aren't divine and don't get to dictate what people can or can't think or say. They were very valid reasons for criticism during that "most successful" time. And the record shows 6-4 in 23.
So, SOS, and "very valid reasons", amounted to a justifiable all-time negativity during the winningest stretch of a long winning program?
What am I missing, here? You're going to have to present a better case than that.
Because the only thing "valid", were the numbers going into the record books.
And the fact that some wins have since been vacated does nothing to change negative fan behavior during, what at the time, were games recorded as wins.
That's probably the 3rd time you've mentioned the vacated wins to me, and each time they have remained irrelevant to the point. Seriously, are you trolling, or what?
But again, I'm glad you brought that up, because it again further illustrates the illegitimacy of the SOS complaint.
Because the toxicity didn't just exist at the end of what was a 10-4 '23 season. It existed throughout an entire 10-2 division champ regular season.
And in previous seasons, where Iowa could only beat the teams that were on their schedule, they did so without anyone having any knowledge of whether those teams might end up in the top 25, or not. Yet the negativity persisted that entire time.
Basically, what was a growing negativity from fans was put on display many gamedays that resulted in wins.
To me, absent immoral behavior within the program, the fan's role is simply, to support. Always. Negativity should never reach the level it did.
But for the sake of this point, I'll entertain a world in which fan negativity is going to exist in proportion to lack of success.
But again, no lack of success can be found during that time of peak negativity.
So I now have to also make concessions, for the sake of this point, and entertain a world in which SOS carries significance.
Again, I don't give signficance to SOS. But if I did, it certainly wouldn't be significant enough to minimize a peak level of success of a long successful coach. In other words, KF should have earned the benefit of the doubt a long time before that.
But let's say Iowa played the "easiest" schedule of all-time in a 10-2 regular season. Wouldn't that only drop fan appreciation to something commiserate with more like a 9 or 8 win season? How the hell do fans justify acting as if Iowa only won 3 or 4 games?
You mentioned other "very valid reasons", without specifying what those are.
Let me save everyone the suspense, because whatever those reasons were, they in no way, justified the level of negativity.
Because newsflash, sports teams are fairly judged by their record only.
To value something different than the team values, to judge them in any other way than how they judge themselves, is completely disrespectful.
Members of the '23 team experienced that season as one of the most special in Hawkeye history. For fans to have somehow reached an all-time time high in negativity that season, is nothing other than a commentary on fans. It was completely wrong, completely unjustifyable, and quite sad
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