I’ll go on record as saying that Iowa does not deserve to play in a bowl game this year. Any team that loses 5 of their last 6 games is on shaky ground at best.
The biggest win for the Hawkeyes this season was probably the Northern Illinois game. The only two road wins were at Syracuse and Illinois. That is one sad season.
Then, the scheduling gods determine that the Hawkeyes would be a good match for Texas in the Alamo Bowl. Ouch. I am not expecting an miracles.
The good news about getting into a bowl game is that Iowa gets to practice for several weeks longer than they would have if they did not get a bowl game. And, Iowa could use some practice.
Speaking of stupid rules. Is there one much dumber than saying that only the teams that get into a bowl game get the extra weeks of practice? Isn’t it really the teams that did not make it into a bowl that should need that extra practice the most? The season should end after the BCS Championship game and everybody should be able to practice until then. Some teams end up getting something like 6 or 7 weeks less practice than others. That’s just wrong.
[edited to fix several really horrendous typo/grammar type of things. Must not write while sleeping anymore. Thanks, Jeff for actually bothering to read that as it was originally written]
December 13th, 2006 at 7:00 am
I agree with what you’re saying, but you should really proofread your blogs for grammer before posting them. I’m still hopeful the Hawks can come out and play like they did vs. Purdue and Michigan. I know they lost at Michigan, but that team should be playing in the championship game (again).
December 13th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Jeff, you are definitely right about the proofreading. That was just ugly. Hopefully it is a little better now.
I completely forgot about that Purdue game. It must be because it seemed so out of place compared to the rest of the games this year.
The Michigan game was not horrible. At least they avoided a ton of turnovers. Let’s face it, 6 points no matter who the opponent is not a good game. I was actually a lot happier with the OSU game than the Michigan game. At least against OSU they showed some life once in a while but just couldn’t keep track of the football.
December 13th, 2006 at 8:04 am
I was at the OSU game, and I feel that Michigan is a better team than OSU. The Hawks had alot of chances to win vs. Ohio State, but they kept shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and poor execution. Michigan beat them outright, but the defense and offense were at least consistant throughout most of the game. It was 13-6 through 3 1/2 quarters. I’ll take a 20-6 point loss over 37-17 anyday.
December 14th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I was at the OSU game too and I will definitely take that loss over the Michigan one.
Against OSU we looked like a team that had a chance of beating OSU if we could just catch the ball and not make turnovers. We had a bit of flash and competitiveness. And, don’t forget we were 14 points down in the 4th quarter and driving across midfield again when Chandler fumbled the ball putting the game out of reach.
That, to me, is better than the Michigan loss where I never really saw signs that convinced me the team had a chance.
But, then again we didn’t have the big low moments against Michigan so I guess it justs depends on what you look for when deciding which loss is worse.