3. 2012 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-8)
This 2012 team was one of the least talented rosters Kirk Ferentz has assembled, and it was the third-worst season in the Kirk Ferentz era overall. The difference between this season and the other two were the other two came the first two seasons Kirk spent in Iowa City as head coach, while this was 15 years after his arrival.
The Hawks struggled out of the gate, barely beating Northern Illinois before falling to in-state rival Iowa State. They took care of FCS Northern Iowa before losing to Group of 5 team Central Michigan. At that point, it was pretty clear this wasn’t going to be a good season.
Iowa won their next two games before dropping six straight. Despite having a talented defense, their offense under James Vandenberg was absolutely anemic. They averaged 19.3 points per game which ranked 113th in the nation.
Unlike the upcoming two seasons, we are going to be talking about, this one is disappointing because of how bad they did in general. 4-8 is terrible, and the Iowa football team, if nothing else, is almost always good for 7-8 wins in any season.