Analysis: Iowa aims to put turkey of a season behind them
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By Eric Page | Sunday, November 25, 2007 |
Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz has led the Hawkeyes to a 19-18 record since winning the Big Ten title in 2004. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo
IOWA CITY — The Iowa football team had a chance to make the 2007 season about something other than injuries, off-the-field issues and on-field disappointments.
The Hawkeyes had a chance to clinch a seventh straight bowl berth, probably the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz. They had a chance to win five of six games to finish the season, a stark contrast to 2006 when they lost five of six down the stretch.
From head coach Kirk Ferentz on down, they preached progress all year, said they had better leadership and a better attitude, that 2006 was an aberration, “a blip on the radar.” This was their chance to substantiate that claim, their chance to show the program was moving forward rather than stuck in reverse.
A 28-19 loss to Western Michigan on Saturday ended all that.
Iowa most likely will not go to a bowl game. What’s done is done. There is a long offseason of reflection and regrouping ahead.
“Win, lose or draw, you’re always evaluating what it is that you’re doing,” Ferentz said after Saturday’s loss. “I don’t want to let this one game diminish any of the positive things that happened the past six weeks. But we’ll evaluate like we do anything else, and hopefully we’ll find ways we can improve and find things we can do better.”
Really, what would a victory over a 3-7 Western Michigan team have meant for this program? Yes, a bowl game. Yes, a winning season. But Iowa is 19-18 since winning its second Big Ten championship in two years in 2004, 11-13 in the Big Ten.
A win against Western Michigan would have been a Band-Aid on a wound that needs stitches, a reward for a program undeserving, false hope for a fan base clinging to the past.
The Hawkeyes had their share of problems on the field this season. The offense ranked last in the Big Ten and currently ranks 109th out of 119 FBS teams in the nation. The defense got progressively worse throughout the season, culminating with a horrendous performance Saturday in which it gave up nearly 500 yards of total offense to a team from the Mid-American Conference.
Off the field, 11 players have been arrested 15 times since April, including last season’s leading receiver Dominique Douglas, who is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 10 on charges of unauthorized use of a credit card.
Three others have been questioned in an investigation into an alleged sexual assault on campus. News of that investigation came just days before the season-finale.
Ferentz says the crime wave is a cyclical thing, similar to a string of legal problems the Hawkeyes experienced in 2001, a year before they ran the table in the Big Ten and earned a trip to the Orange Bowl, the first of a three-season run in which they finished each year ranked No. 8 in the country.
But were the most recent legal troubles a distraction to a team already treading rough waters?
“That could be a theory,” Ferentz said, “but I don’t think it affected us at all.”
So, here they are, another mediocre record, another offseason of asking why and how it came to this. Another spring and preseason of saying they’ve found the answers.
Will they, though?
The Hawkeyes will return nine starters on offense in 2008, including quarterback Jake Christensen, who flashed potential at times but struggled mightily at others. Every offensive lineman in the two-deeps will be back, but that’s an offensive line that surrendered 46 sacks.
Receiver Andy Brodell and tight end Tony Moeaki will return from injuries. Douglas and Anthony Bowman may or may not return from suspension. Regardless, the receiving corps figures to be deep.
Is returning the bulk of an underachieving offense a good thing? Only time will tell. Be it scheme or personnel, the Hawkeyes fell short on that side of the ball again and again this season.
The defense loses six starters, but it appears young talent is in place to step in.
“To think anybody’s set in their positions right now would be short-sighted,” said Ferentz. “We’re a 6-6 team, so everything’s up for grabs.”
Ferentz said that Saturday. He made the exact same statement before spring practice in April, the same statement before preseason camp opened in August.
He called the depth chart an open book then. The book is now closed on 2007. It’s one the Hawkeyes would just soon forget.
But maybe remembering is a good thing. Maybe remembering a year like this is better for a program than hanging on to a string of seasons like 2002 to 2004, when Iowa went 31-7. Maybe remembering the feeling after a loss like the one suffered Saturday will be enough to avoid similar letdowns in the future.
Ferentz rebuilt the Iowa program once, taking it from 1-10 in his first year in 1999 to 11-2 in his fourth in 2002. He said Saturday the program is somewhere between 2000 and 2001.
That’s halfway between 1999 and 2002, 1-10 and 11-2. That’s about right, but which way are the Hawkeyes headed?
“I think we’re moving forward, that’s the positive news,” Ferentz said. “In comparison to a year ago, we are moving forward. We’re heading in a more positive direction than we were 12 months ago.
“We’re certainly not as good as we’d like to be. So, we’ve got work to do. It’s not going to happen just by saying we hope it happens. We have to push through and keep improving. That’s where our focus will be.”
Contact Eric Page at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com. For more on the Hawkeyes, log on to Hawkmania.com.
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