If u honestly think that everyone didnt want JR, then u werent at Tiger Stadium... b/c I guarantee at least 90 of the 91 thousand wanted Russell... The rest were the Randall family and road fans hahahah
You're right, of course, but I think you can shoot holes in any of the teams ranked 2-10 in the various preseason polls. Analysts say a knock on Iowa is schedule, with road games at West Lafayette and at Columbus plus a home game against Michigan (the roadie at Badger Stadium in Madison won't be a cakewalk, either). What they're not saying but thinking when they keep Iowa out of the top 5 (or even 10) in some of these pretend polls is they can't keep winning games like they have in recent seasons. In other words, the breaks are going to start going against the Hawkeyes and when things like having multiple RBs hurt happen, you lose as a result. It's straight from the Phil Steele school of analysis: he's all over teams that had multiple "close losses" the year before as bounceback candidates, and he's cool to teams with multiple "close wins" the year before. Iowa's 7 wins in 2004 by a combined total of 28 points certainly qualifies for that second list. Again, any team not named USC in the preseason top 10 has questions they need to answer. Thank goodness we start getting those answers in about 10 weeks. :thumb:
Yep, any of us there that day remember the applause JR received when he ran out on that field. Perrilloux will get the same when he hits the field about five minutes into the 4th quarter (assume Flynn will get the 3rd qtr.) of the N. Texas game.
"Iowa's 7 wins in 2004 by a combined total of 28 points certainly qualifies for that second list". I think Iowa can be a top ten team again (only fitting that we should finish 8th in the final rankings for the 4th straight year, right?), but we'll need some good bounces to win the league. However, the 7 wins by 28 points is quite misleading. In most of those games we were ahead quite comfortably, then went into our soft prevent defense and teams scored to make the final score look closer than it was. We do that prevent thing all the time and God knows I hate it. It's gonna bite us big time one of these days. But the facts are hard to argue with... in the past three years we are 27-1 when leading at the half and 30-0 when leading after 3 quarters. You guys nearly ended that streak... and I'm sure someone will soon... but it is what it is. btw, Steele has completely avoided ranking us anywhere from 2002 to 2004, so, accordingly, we think he's an idiot.
I am not sure where you get that idea... 6-4 vs Penn State? 23-21 against Purdue in which they scored 6 points in the 4th quarter and Iowa scored 7 points. 23-13 against Illinois which was tied at halftime 29-27 vs. Minn was never set in stone as UM scored with 5 minutes remaining and almost got a chance to tie/win it.
hawker is losing a little cred here. Prevent defense when LSU went ahead over only linebackers? Weak arguments at best. JR was feeling it and its something you notice when a qb is 'in the zone' regardless the defense.
23-13 against Illinois which was tied at halftime 29-27 vs. Minn was never set in stone as UM scored with 5 minutes remaining and almost got a chance to tie/win it. Trust me , Illinois was never in doubt and Minnesota is a perfect example of what I was talking about.... 8+ point lead late in the game and we almost blew it playing soft.
6-4 vs Penn State? 23-21 against Purdue in which they scored 6 points in the 4th quarter and Iowa scored 7 points. ...never said we didn't have close games, doesn't everyone?
