Some coaches step into a cauldron of bowl-game pressure because their teams are doubted. To a certain extent, this is the situation Kirk Ferentz of Iowa enters as he prepares his team for the 2016 Rose Bowl against Stanford.
Yet, while doubt forms a part of the backdrop to the Granddaddy, the bigger and more central reason Iowa has a lot to prove is that the Hawkeyes’ season is simply incomplete.
Wait, you say — Iowa has played 13 games this season and gone 12-1. What’s incomplete about that? How can any college football team go through a regular season and yet attain a largely (if not entirely) incomplete verdict?
The answer — unsurprisingly — lies in the content of the Hawkeyes’ schedule. They beat a decent Pittsburgh team and handled Iowa State out of conference. In the Big Ten, though, the Hawkeyes didn’t play either Ohio State or Michigan. when they faced Michigan State, they narrowly lost on a night when their defense soared. Yet, Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook did not look right on Dec. 5 in Indianapolis. He clearly appeared to be hampered by a nagging shoulder injury which limited his throwing range and velocity.
That last detail is not something Iowa could have done anything about, but it’s the sort of thing which coulds the picture in relationship to a team… even one which has played 13 games.
Should Iowa be seen as a team which played great defense, independent of how well Connor Cook did or didn’t feel? Or, on the other hand, should Cook’s health mean that the Hawkeyes really let an opportunity slip through their fingers? It’s true that Michigan State won at Ohio State without Cook, primarily because its offensive and defensive lines manhandled the Buckeyes in the rain, overcoming two turnovers and 14 gifted points (allowed) in the process. Iowa did not get dominated up front (except on Michigan State’s last drive), so the case can be made that the Hawkeyes acquitted themselves well.
Skeptics will make the claim that Iowa played Michigan State on generally favorable terms (with the Spartans’ most important offensive player far from 100 percent) and still couldn’t capitalize.
The point here is not to say that one side (the sunshine pumpers) or the other (the raging skpetics) is fundamentally correct and enjoys the upper hand in the argument. The point is that the debate is contentious (and even) enough that we don’t yet know what Iowa’s made of. It seems fair to say that the Hawkeyes are a legitimate team, but how legitimate is the open question.
When such a profound uncertainty exists in relationship to a team and its identity, it’s reasonable to conclude that the season remains incomplete. It’s not so much that Iowa hasn’t proved itself, or that the Hawkeyes have somehow fallen short. They haven’t — anything but. They’ve substantially overachieved this season.
The better way to express Iowa’s reality heading into the Rose Bowl: The Hawkeyes haven’t had a full chance to show how good they are.
In Stanford, Iowa faces an opponent which will reveal either the best or the worst of the Hawkeyes, possibly a lot of both. Given that Iowa pounded Northwestern — a team which defeated Stanford earlier in the season — a victory over Stanford would represent a major victory for both the Hawkeyes and the Big Ten.
A loss would create a plot twist and give ammunition to the many people outside the Midwest who think Iowa’s record remains a product of its schedule.
Iowa is not an overrated team. The Hawkeyes’ season is, however, one best graded as “incomplete.” Kirk Ferentz gets a straight A for his coaching job this season, but the way his team performs in Pasadena on Jan. 1 will dramatically affect the way the 2015 Hawkeyes are remembered.
