Iowa football: Another season, another wasted opportunity for the Hawks

After falling to Wisconsin yesterday, the Iowa football team is replaying the same tired story in a different season. It’s another wasted opportunity.

Before the season, I firmly believed the Iowa football team had an opportunity to do something special this season. Yes, their schedule was tough with road visits to Ann Arbor and Madison and a home contest against a top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lion squad, but, it wasn’t impossible.

Moreover, the talent that Kirk Ferentz had assembled for this year could rival almost any of the previous seasons. The Hawks had a third-year starting quarterback who had flirted with first-round consideration for a moment, two top-tier tackles, a top-5 player in the class of 2020, one of the best wide receiver groups in program history, and a potential All-Big Ten Safety.

All of those players are still there but here’s the storyline for each instead:

• A third-year starting quarterback who will likely be drafted as a developmental player based on size and arm. Concerns over the fact that he can’t win a big game.
• Tristan Wirfs is a top-5 tackle. Alaric Jackson is not and could probably use another year in the Iowa football program.
• AJ Epenesa has not had nearly as big of an impact as expected and given his fall in pre-draft rankings, there is growing optimism he could return for his senior season.
• The wide receiver group is one of the better ones, but there’s been a stunning lack of involvement with dynamic playmaker Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Brandon Smith is out for possibly the remainder of the season.
• Geno Stone is still really good.

So where does that leave the Iowa football team?

In the same position that they are nearly every season. Just like last year, they are now faced with a 6-3 record, almost no hope of winning a Big Ten West title, and a likely appearance in the Holiday Bowl.

With three games remaining, the Iowa football team should be favored against Nebraska and Illinois, but will likely be an underdog against a surprising Minnesota team. If they win out, they’ll finish 9-3, but as we have seen in seasons before, there is a strong chance they find a way to lose one of the next three games. This isn’t me hating on the Hawks, this is just me looking at history and realizing the last time Kirk Ferentz won 9 regular-season games was during the Drew Tate-era.

This same old song and dance is getting tiresome Iowa football fans, but it’s what we signed up for. And now we get to watch Wisconsin and Minnesota battle it out for the Big Ten West title a year after Northwestern stole the title.