How y’all feeling about Monday?

[RockyTopRowdy58]

Very much a new-look Tennessee team. Replacing 4/5 in the secondary. Missing a transfer at DE. Top 2 RB’s opting out. QB opting out.

Iowa has a way of making every game they play into a rock fight. As a Tennessee fan, I worry our youth may show in a low-scoring, low-possession game.

 

[Graham84]

Offense needs to really establish the run game. If we can’t then I don’t think we win. Non-existent pass game.

 

[J0nnyHB]

I’m confident in Iowa. I think they have the motivation based on less opt outs and just the culture Iowa has with regard to bOwl games (pretty important to them under KF). The OP has a good point about teams getting sucked into an ugly game that Iowa is good at. It happens a lot. It will be frustrating for Tenn fans to endure. Iowa is good at this, Tenn is not

 

[RockyTopRowdy58]

I’m confident in Iowa. I think they have the motivation based on less opt outs and just the culture Iowa has with regard to bOwl games (pretty important to them under KF). The OP has a good point about teams getting sucked into an ugly game that Iowa is good at. It happens a lot. It will be frustrating for Tenn fans to endure. Iowa is good at this, Tenn is not

You good?

 

[J0nnyHB]

You good?

I’m not good! But thanks for the wellness check LOL

 

[rattlesnake jack]

Very much a new-look Tennessee team. Replacing 4/5 in the secondary. Missing a transfer at DE. Top 2 RB’s opting out. QB opting out.

Iowa has a way of making every game they play into a rock fight. As a Tennessee fan, I worry our youth may show in a low-scoring, low-possession game.

No complaints. Tennessee has a very good team. We deserve all of the criticism, we (fans) have been suffering with this for years. Half of our problem is gone....BF. Now we need to get rid of the other half. Pay the buyout and cut your losses. Iowa just has no talent at all at the skill positions. Iowa has lacked team speed for years. The game has passed Ferentz by, years ago. We have a new OC coming in, we need help in the portal, and maybe Beth will come up with the buyout, which incidentally is all Barta's fault, giving him a long extension. So, ya we deserve the criticism, but it is not the fans fault, it is the administrations fault....

 

[hawkisak]

It’s obvious that your ROI on the QB investment was better than ours!

 

[IMACSAVOL]

Iowa is a great program, it's sad what the HC has done to y'all...Explain to me how y'all won 10 games? Were opponents just really bad? With the complete lack of O, how could the Hawks win so many?? Good luck to you guys going forward, maybe the hostage situation will end soon for y'all.

 

[BCRoss89]

Iowa is a great program, it's sad what the HC has done to y'all...Explain to me how y'all won 10 games? Were opponents just really bad? With the complete lack of O, how could the Hawks win so many?? Good luck to you guys going forward, maybe the hostage situation will end soon for y'all.

A bit of four(4) reasons.

1- Mostly, our Defense and Punting game was just that good, truly entertaining how well they could shut down most teams' offenses (Penn State, Michigan) as the two exceptions, and to watch truly the best punter in the country flip the field position time after time again, truly entertaining, never seen a thing like it in 43 years as a College Football fan.

2- Injuries: Our first-team QB (Michigan Transfer) and 2 All-Conference caliber TE's were injured and unavailable mostly in the 2nd half of the season. Our best Wide Receiver, an Ohio State transfer RB to WR convert, took about 7 games to hit high gear. All of this seriously hit our Offensive stat line.

3 - And, yes, the Western Division of the B1G at the top, was not near as good as Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in the Eastern Division but very comparable bottom 4/5 down in each Division, 9 or 10 teams in the B1G where very comparable, overall.

4. Finally, the part you probably want to blame Kirk and Brian for most, they enjoyed too much the moniker of being a "development program", taking walk-ons and 2-Star & 3-star talent, and developing them over 5 year college careers into NFL talent. We don't typically get a lot of 5 Star kids although by most accounts, our first year in the transfer portal was decent. Still, we are rarely deep Offensively, especially on the QB, O-line and at WR ranks. Offensive Injuries impact our team more than other teams.

When you consider the Iowa Fan's tolerance for low offensive production over his tenure at Iowa, Kirk discovered a way to win at least 7 and 8 games a season, with a few 9, and 10 and 11 and 12 win years sprinkled in his 22 years at Iowa, that he calls complimentary football, discounting the need for high octane offensive output, slowly building the negative offensive reputation. I am sure this has impacted Iowa's recruiting of Offensive talent, which brings us to our current position. That is the real answer to how we landed in this predicament.

The truth is, it should be all about the W's - anyway, anyhow, right? Championship Games, NewYear Bowl Games, all good right? But noooo, the W's haven't brought the Offensive Recruits to Iowa. Sorry for the long-winded reply.