I thought I read somewhere The Big Ten West existed for 11 years, Iowa made the championship game 3 times, 2 stompings and 1 loss at the gun.
Cracks in the B1G?
- Thread starter twojman
- Start date
In the beginning, the B12N was the stronger division with 4 ranked teams IIRC. The power shifted south after the TX schools were legitimized again and OU hired Stoops.
The fact Iowa made two conference championships with the worst offense in America is both unbelievable and a huge testament to the defense and special teams.
The putrid conference factored into it largely but their defense and special teams had to essentially play perfect at all times and they did.
SC has to be 9-0 before people start showing up. It has to be the 'in' thing.
SC is both a great job and terrible job all at once.
Agree, but it doesn't matter because Auburn just declared themselves the '97 national champ, so UM and NU supporters can stand down.
When SC is good, it is a social event. When they’re not it’s a morgue.
The Pirates teams are getting lost here. They struggled to be UT and OU but ran wild over about everyone else, including bowl games and nonconf.
Kirk holds the loss record too. This isn't about being the "winningest" but one of the longest tenured coaches in the big. That's meaningful, especially in this day an age. A lot of positives aligned for kirk in his career but you still have to run a successful program and win the games in front of you. He's going to hold the record for a looooong time.
It also helps to have a personality/name like Pete Carrol as HC. He was all about it being the “in” thing
I wonder if even Pete Carrol is as successful competing in LA with the Rams, plus in an era in which schools can pay players to leave CA
Had a Hawkeye fan chirp at me last week about Kirk breaking the record. I told him ‘win or lose Ferentz will set a new record every week’.
Not surprisingly, I had to explain it to him.
When you are around that long, you are eventually going to get the all time winning record... and losing record. It's simply a matter of numbers at that point.
Hayes has a far better winning % in the Big 10 than Kirky.
Hayes: 205-61-10
Ferentz: 206-125
We're actually closing in on the 9 year anniversary of Kirk becoming the "losingest" coach in B1G history! He passed up some guy named Hayden Fry to take that title.
Eventually Pat Fitzgerald would squeeze into the #2 spot between the two hawks.
UCLA is probably even far worse than you imagine. I used to live not far from campus and now live not far from Rose Bowl. I have no doubt ISU has something like 100x more actual real fan eyeballs in person and on streaming/TV. Their fan base is easily not worthy of being in a top 80 or top 100 teams division of college sports.
If you are within a few miles of USC on a gameday though, it's real college football. They are more fair weather than like ISU/Iowa/Nebraska fans but you see the jerseys everywhere like you would in a college town. I've had some mornings I was somewhere around there for breakfast even though it's not my neighborhood, didn't know it was a game day but instantly obvious it's a home game day just fan gear and jerseys everywhere. With UCLA you can be in Westwood or Pasadena on a football game day and have no idea the game is goin on. The flea market at the rose bowl is a way bigger deal than UCLA football.
Since UCLA joined the Big Ten I will see random football tourists from other Big Ten schools, so there is that new sign that a football game exists. When they were Pac I'd never see visitor fans either.
I think our schedule last year was tougher as well. You guys missed the three best teams in the Big 12 other than ISU last year. Happens again this year, there are only two other ranked teams in the Big 12 and you guys miss them both. We play two conference opponents currently ranked in the top-6 and four that are ranked.
That’s the way it panned out, but going into the year Utah was supposed to be much better
Ferentz has been a very good coach for Iowa. He is very smart and identified early in his career he really only needed to consistently be a better program than about 5 or 6 teams ( ISU, Illinois, NW, Indiana, Purdue and Minnesota); be even to the next group ( WI, Mich State); and occasionally a win against Mi, Oh St, Penn State etc. would allow for a "special season".
He is also very aware and prideful of his personal legacy. Brian's method of firing was humiliating, yet Kirk swallowed this for his own personal glory of holding the all time big ten record.
He is also very aware and prideful of his personal legacy. Brian's method of firing was humiliating, yet Kirk swallowed this for his own personal glory of holding the all time big ten record.
Good thing Pat is getting the job in Iowa City in a couple years to keep those numbers going!
