There are a lot of words that could describe Iowa football so far in 2007, most of them bad but a few good, a jumbled mass of paradoxes and missed opportunities. It really all comes down to the fact that we aren't an elite program anymore, and it is going to take some time to rebuild the winning attitude and the swagger needed to bring a Big 10 championship back to Iowa City. Expectations were probably too high coming into the season with all the new faces on offense, but injuries have also really killed the team and hurt the progress of new QB Jake Christensen, who is obviously not comfortable at all w/ all the freshmen wideouts that he probably didn't intend to throw too much when he was warming up in spring ball. The amazing 3 year period that Kirk Ferentz brought Iowa fans from '02-'04 was thought to be that 1st step that vaulted Iowa into the consistent elite of college football, constant finishers in the upper echelon of the conference with Ohio State and Michigan. Two underacheiving years later, it looks like we are back at square one and it has become painfully apparent to Iowa fans that we will never be a real "national power" of a program because we have to recruit and rebuild, not reload like the Big 2 of the conference. Recruits come to those places because they are nationally recognized powers and NFL factories, while Iowa is not the most appealing place in the world to the 5-star recruits of the world. But Iowa has not built the third best record in the conference over the past 3 years on highly-rated studs, but on walk-ons, hard workers, blue-collar athletes willing to work their butts off for the pride of Iowa football. I think the main reasons we didn't live up the lofty championship (national and conference) goals set for us the past two years was because we grew complacent with success and got the attitude that we were better than these other teams. We didn't work as hard and we played like we were owed a victory on Saturday. There is also something to be said for just bad breaks and a lack of luck, as those little nuances that turned into game-saving plays that magically fell into our laps during the B10 championship seasons were now going to the other team, and it appears once again that the power is shifting in the B10. Right now, our boys in black and gold are 2-3 with victories over some of the worst teams in the nation, Northern Illinois and Syracuse, and losses to Iowa State, Wisconsin, and Indiana. These losses were all painful for their various reasons. The sad thing to watch is how all the other teams in the conference have improved, while we have regressed so much. Keep in mind that we have such a young team that the potential is there to turn it around at any time, we are just going through some bumps and learning curves at the moment. Hell, all this "the world is ending" crap could end with a victory over Penn State at Beaver Stadium this weekend. But there are numerous things that need to be corrected if we want to salvage this season, and none of the solutions are simple. Coaching has honestly been a big problem, as our offensive play-calling has been questionable at best and not really taking advantage of our talents, mainly at running back. Norm Paker has always been critiqued a bit for using such conservative defensive formations when we have so much talent on that side of the ball, but we have proved that our defense can be dominate, mainly against the run. Against the pass we often struggle because our starting corners are average and we never blitz, and I'm starting to think Parker just got spoiled by great defensive players when he almost won the Frank Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant. Not counting the NIU game, we have not established the running game all year, a tragedy considering that we might have the best running back duo in the B10. JC has also not performed well, even though he has solid stats for a 1st year QB. He makes a lot of bad throws when his wideout is open, his rhythm is totally off, and all of his throws just seem a second too late. I'm sure the horrific mass of injuries endured at the receiving positions is a major factor, as well as the poor blocking of our offensive line. JC is way too indecisive with the ball and when the pocket breaks down he often just looks like he is looking for a place to fall down. I know he is young but that instinctiveness is something that you cannot teach. But he has shown flashes of great potential and he is still learning, I just think a lot of fans were disturbed by his regression against Indiana. It all comes down to our guys adopting Kirk's policy of "next man in" and not using injuries for an excuse, and our whole offense, including the coaching staff, just needs to come together and execute better. A different story altogether has been the abysmal play of special teams. Ryan Donahue has been struggling big time all year on punts, even getting an obligatory shank every game, but he has a big leg and was great in high school so hopefully he can improve as he gets less nervous. Our two place kickers, Daniel Murray and Austin Signor, have both been incredibly inconsistent, with Signor missing two extra points so far and Murray missing a 25 yard field goal right down the middle. Neither of these guys can be relied on. So a young offensive unit has had to grow up too fast with all the injuries and suspensions (at least I'm proud of our coaches for adequately punishing our players, something teams like Wisconsin and Florida haven't done), our defense has kept us in most games but have been exposed through the air and have had to take the field too long, and our special teams has been abysmal. This year has really shown me so far how important every little special teams play can be: one missed field goal can change the momentum and take the confidence out of an inexpereiened offensive unit that just worked their tails off to drive the ball down the field, all for not. We need to get better in this area and many others but I can only hope more game experience will do the difference. A seventh-straight bowl game is currently out of the question for our boys until we can get of our current skid of 7 straight conference losses dating back to the heartbreaking defeat at Indiana last year. The year looked fairly promising, especially for our dominate defensive line, after we won 16-3 against NIU at a predominately black and gold crowd at Solider Field. The offense was pretty underwhelming, but that was expected with a new QB and the 1st game of the season, plus the main problem was all the drops by the wideouts, an easily correctable and expected problem considering all the young guys catching passes for the 1st time. Our running game and our o-line also controlled the action from start to finish, as Albert Young and Damian Sims both went well over 100 yards rushing, with AY nabbing a touchdown. Since our offense got off to a slow start we relied on our stud running backs all day long, and they delivered. JC also got his confidence up in the 2nd half, hitting on more of his passes and throwing a nice touchdown pass to TE Brandon Myers. Our defensive line was fantastic all day long, harassing the NIU QB and stuffing any semblance of a running game. The Huskies really had plenty of opportunities but had decisions by their QB and the pressure of our defense took those chances away. Charles Godfrey also had two big picks, because NIU was driving both times. Mitch King deserves not only All-Big Ten consideration but All-America consideration, he is obviously not the biggest defensive tackle on the block but he goes hard every possesion and is always making plays somehow. Our offense also missed plenty of opportunities and we probably should have scored more on such an average squad, but once we got in control in this game Kirk pretty much just dictated the tempo with running game and defense, not trying to score. Next week the Hawks dominated a horrible looking Syracuse team 35-0 behind a rowdy night crowd at Kinnick. Our offense finally got rolling, especially the passing with JC, who looked very confident. It was hard to judge our performance against such an poor looking squad, but the way we dominated on both sides of the ball after barely squeaking out a win last year was enough to get everybody happy. A week after our wideouts embarassed themselves with all the drops, TE Tony Moeaki stepped up in a big way, catching 9 balls for about 120 yards and 3 TDs, demonstrating why is a John Mackey candidate and probably our most reliable reciever. He got started early with a 56 yard TD catch, while his other two were on the goal line, including one highlight worthy scramble by JC when he eluded two defenders to throw across his body to a wide open Moeaki. Albert Young also took a screen pass 30 yards for a score. Our defense was once again the real story of this game, holding the Orange to one total yard of offense in the 1st half, dominating all facets of the game and only giving them a few passing yards when it was garbage time in the 2nd half. Truly one of the most impressive defensive efforts I have seen and one of the worst offensive performances I have ever seen by the Cuse. Kenny Iwebema also blocked two field goals, preserving our 1st shutout in a while. The only thing we did not dominate at was the running game, as Albert Young never got going and Sims only had one big run.

The big Iowa-Iowa State rivalry game was up next, JC's 1st road test at Ames in what was quite a hostile crowd for such a small stadium. No matter how bad the Cyclones' record is, they always play hard against Iowa. And no matter what the fans say, the Iowa game is their Super Bowl. They could go 1-11 and Iowa could go 11-1, so while this game doesn't tell a whole lot about how the rest of the season will go down it is always hard-fought and intense with plenty of bad blood between the fans. Another disturbing trend in this game is that Kirk has only won 3 times in his tenure, while ISU has won 5. Well the 'Clones took back the Cy-Hawk trophy that we won last season with a 15-13 victory, a defensive struggle decided by big plays and the kickers. Our lack of offense was very disconcerting, as JC could never really get us started and our running game was lackluster all day long. ISU got pressure on us fairly easily and their offense was efficient, not finishing drives but getting into Iowa territory on a regular basis thanks to Brett Meyer's multidimensional skill-set. Their inconsistent kicker, Brett Culbertson, was also fantastic, relied on all day and delivering with 5 field goals, including the eventual gamewinner. We hung in there by holding them to field goals with our bend but don't break defense, and eventually JC got into the endzone on a QB run to make it 12-10 ISU. In the 4th quarter we got a short field goal blocked, which proved to be a defining moment, but ended up getting the ball back and completing a nice pass to James Cleveland, and Austin Signor ended up kicking it through the uprights for the 13-12 lead. It looked like our defense had done a fantastic job to prevent the Cyclone comeback, leading to a 3rd and long play for Meyer. Well he ended up chucking a pass up for grabs, and lucky for him one of their wideouts was in single coverage with our linebacker Mike Klinkenborg. So 50 yards later, they were in field goal range and knocking on the door. Sure enough, Culbertson nailed the kick and the Ames crowd was on the field. Not so fast though, as Derrel Johnson-Koulianos returned the kick to the 29 yard line, striking a little fear into the hearts of the ISU fans. But the game was over, another poor performance against our rival and another reason for our fans to gripe over the fact that we can never seem to get prepared for this rivalry. But too bad, because now Wisconsin at Camp Randall was on our minds, and dwelling on this loss has never seemed to be a problem for the Hawks. The red-hot Badgers, a Big Ten favorite at the time, welcomed my Hawks to Camp Randall in front of a rowdy crowd and national TV audience, our chance to get back on track and get our 1st Big Ten win while also reclaiming the Heartland Trophy after a tough loss at Kinnick last year. This one turned out to be one of the best efforts the Hawkeyes have put forth in a couple years, with the defense playing all-out, inspired football and the offense making enough big plays to stay in the game until the end, when Iowa tragically fell 17-13. This game started off being a battle of puntes, as neither team could move the ball no matter how great of field position they got. Wisconsin did drive once but Klinkenborg forced a fumble to keep the Badgers out of the red zone. It looked like our defense came up big again when PJ Hill fumbled in the endzone, but somehow Wisconsin recovered and ended up throwing a touchdown pass to Beckum, their great tight end. But surprsingly Iowa drove right down the field, and Derell Johnson-Koulianos had an amazing one handed catch after a beautiful pass from JC to grab a touchdown and the lead before the half. But Hill ended up just wearing our exhausted and overworked defense out as the game wore on and he lead Wisky down the field for a touchdown, which turned out to be the gamewinner. Iowa had a very good chance at the end when freshman Paul Chaney was sprinting past the defense for what could have been an easy jaunt into the endzone, but he tripped a bit and didn't catch the pass, and Iowa's incredible effort fell just short.

Once again the opportunity was there for a quick turn around, as the Hawks welcomed the Indiana Hoosiers to Kinnick Stadium for Homecoming. The atmosphere was fantastic, the hatred brewing for a Hoosier team that stunned Iowa in a 31-27 upset last season. They are a scary team playing with plenty of motivation and heartbreak after the death of their coach Terry Hoeppner, trying to reach their 1st bowl game in many moons with a potent offense led by dual-threat QB Kellen Lewis and his favorite target, 6 foot 7 record breaking, Iowa killing stud James Hardy. But their defense was considered very average and Iowa hardly ever loses on Homecoming, especially to these perennial losers. Well lose we did; the Hawks got spanked in almost every facet of the game in an embarassing 38-20 defeat, a game in which the stats don't tell the true story of the Indiana domination. They came out the gate firing and it took a lucky break for us to get into the end zone, but by then we really had to battle back and it was too late, especially for our worn out defense. The Hoosiers struck fast with two huge plays by Hardy; one for a touchdown and one to set up a touchdown pass by Lewis, a pass where Lewis showed off his impressive improvisational skills. As if a 14-0 hole in which we couldn't move the ball past the 50 yard line wasn't bad enough, it was about to get worse. It looked like we finally got the big break we needed, forcing a fumble on their fullback, but somehow Lewis picked up the fumble and sprinted all the way down the sideline for a fluke touchdown. Things could not go against us anymore is this game, and Indiana was just catching all the lucky breaks in the world. Very tough and frustrating to stomach. But the Hawks showed life after a miraculous fluke of their own, a last second before the half Hail Mary that was deflected by multiple IU defenders and eventually caught by Trey Stross in the endzone. No matter how lucky we got, a touchdown is a touchdown and we got great momentum from this. It looks like a comeback might be within reach after a Brandon Myers touchdown catch, but our offense struggled to find consistency thanks to a poor running game, a plethora of bad throws by JC (even though he had 300 yards and 3 TDs), and major struggles in the kicking game. This lead to our defense being exhausted, and IU answered after that Myers' touchdown and just kept going from there, hitting us hard with the run and the pass and getting crucial 3rd down after crucial 3rd down. JC did throw another TD to DJK but the game was already in hand, and he really had a poor day throwing the ball. Sad to see Iowa regress in this one, especially at home, but no time to dwell on it as we traveled to Penn State next week to play at one of the toughest stadiums in college football, but one where we have had some recent success at. Penn State is a tough team with a great defense, considered a Big Ten title threat before the season but down on their luck after two tough consecutive losses to Michigan and Illinois in which their offense stalled and inconsistent QB Anthony Morelli failed to step up for them. Iowa has had great success against the Nittany Lions in the Kirk Ferentz era but this was an Iowa team playing very poorly on offense, failing to give our fantastic defense any help. This game ended up being one of the ugliest I have seen as a Hawkeye fan and the most painful game of the season, a 27-7 butt-kicking in which we failed to move the ball for 3 whole quarters. Offensive ineptitude was at a premium at the start, as both defenses made big plays, stuffing the run and forcing the respective QB's into bad decsions. Morelli got off to a horrible start and was getting booed by the fans, but all the consecutive three and outs by the Hawks were starting to wear on our defense and slowly Morelli started making good throws and getting his confidence up. A couple big throws and defensive breakdowns by freshman Brett Greenwood led to a 14-0 Penn State lead before we knew it; maybe this was the wake-up call we needed. It wasn't. We still weren't moving the ball, and Penn State's suspect running game started to roll as our defense, which is known for stuffing the run, just got pooped. Questionable and conservative play calling by Ferentz and by Ken O'Keefe also was frustrating, but the fact that the players couldn't execute was even more brutal. We even tried to run the clock out before the half with more than a minute to work with, and ended up having to punt, which led to PSU getting a 50+ yard field goal as time expired, taking a 17-0 lead to the half. THe 3rd quarter was more of the same, and the lead started to look insurmountable as offense seemed to be a term our Hawks just couldn't grasp. Our defense was playing as hard as they could but being on the field for so long was just wearing on them. Christensen couldn't complete a pass, our line couldn't block, and Albert Young couldn't run when the whole Lions' defense was expecting it. Eventually we put up a great drive in the 4th, leading me to wonder where that was the whole game. JC completed pass after pass, especially to Trey Stross, and ended up throwing a TD to Stross to make it a 20-7 game with about 7 minutes left. Amazingly, we still had hope. After a couple INTs on Morelli failed to turn into points, our hope vanished and Penn State put the finishing touches on their win with a late rushing touchdown. We played hard at the end, but only for one quarter and our offensive struggles were tough to witness and a disturbing trend for the rest of the season.
But little did anyone suspect that Iowa was about to turn their season around against arguably the hottest team in the nation, the 18th ranked Illinois Fighting Illini. Since this is the part of the season where Iowa actually started playing with some pride, I'll stop analyzing the negative and breifly go over big win after big win on Iowa's road to a bowl game and back to respectability. The Illini came into their game against Iowa at a rainy blackout-crowd at Kinnick with one of the hottest offenses around, a run-oriented spread option attack exectued with perfection by QB Juice Williams and unstoppable running back Rashad Mendenhall. If we could stop their variety of pitches and misdirection runs, then we had a very good chance to beat the Zooker and his squad because Juice and his iffy but talented backup Eddie McGee can't pass. Well stop them we did, with one of the best defensive performances of the past few years for the Hawks and a very efficient, ball-control attack from our offense to pull off the big upset and win 10-6, holding the Illini to 28 points less than their season average and shutting down Mendenhall and their running game. Our offense was far from stellar, but our running backs carried us, chewing up plenty of clock, while JC was an extremly effective game-manager and made all the big throws on third down, including a great throw to Brandon Myers for a TD. Mike Humpal was the man on defense, getting 18 tackles with a bunch of them for losses along with a forced fumble and a recovery. Brett Greenwood also came up with the game-saving interception when McGee and the Illini were driving late. Iowa missed various opportunities to put the game away for good, but questionable calls on penalties by Zook and turnovers by his squad kept them from taking advantage, and my Hawks got the much needed win.
One would think this would lead to a bevy of momentum for Iowa the rest of the way, but they came out flat the next week against a downtrodden Purdue team at Ross-Ade and ended up getting embarassed 31-6. The Hawkeyes hung in there for a while because of their defense, but our offense went back into Penn State mode again and boneheaded play-calling by Ken O'Keefe, who insisted on passing 40 times even after the success of our rushing attack the week before, and our defense got exhausted and started getting burned by Purdue's speedy wideouts. The main culprit here was Dorien Bryant, who got behind our corners all day and broke off big plays. Jake couldn't complete passes and we were eventually forced to turn away from Albert/Damian when we fell behind so much; our defense couldn't make the crucial stops because they were too tired once again and we eventually gave in and let the Boilermakers finish us off and end the offensive misery.
Once again like the Illinois win, no one could have seen it coming how the next game would play out, against Michigan State at Kinnick Stadium, especially after starting dead and being down 17-3 at halftime. It looked like it would be more of the same offensive struggles and defensive exhaustion. But the next half of Hawkeye football was one of the most enjoyable and exhilariting of my life. Albert Young went into beast mode, putting the other 10 guys on his back and carrying them like an ox to the 34-27 2OT victory. Albert ran as hard and as purposeful as I have ever seen him, making guys miss and breaking tackles like it was routine. He ended up with 180 yards and 2 touchdowns, all of them needed in the comeback. AY kept up the great running throughout the 3rd and early 4th, complimented well by the speedy Damian Sims. After we tied the game, our defense came up big with stops and some freshmen/backups proved how great they are right now and how great they are going to be someday, coming in for some injured Hawkeyes in a big way. Everyone from Adrian Clayborn racking up sacks to Bradley Fletcher nabbing 12 tackles to the usual from Mike Humpal, our defensive stars came up with all the big momentum-changing stops when we needed them too. MSU completed an amazing pass and ended up getting a field goal out of it to send the game into OT. By the way, JC only had 32 yards and 4 completions at this point of the game, so we were winning in spite of him, not because of him. But he would make one of the biggest plays of his career in the 1st OT, after MSU scored on a Jehuu Caulcrick run, when he hit speedster frosh Paul Chaney (who broke some tackles) for a great touchdown pass to send the game into the 2nd overtime. Albert Young immediately sprinted down to the 1 yard line before limping out with injuries, but Jevon Pugh punched it in for the TD. MSU tried to get a touchdown of their own to stay in the game, but amazingly a backup walk-on defensive back named Drew Gardner made the game saving tackle for the thrilling Iowa win! Great game and a win we really needed.
Quick recaps of the next two games now, at Northwestern and at home against Minnesota. Crazily, we started off sluggish against Northwestern just like the MSU game, giving them a 14-0 lead after our defense looked like it had never seen a pass before and JC struggling to make even routine throws. All Iowa fans know about the two painful defeats the undermanned Wilcats have laid on us the past two seasons, winning in the final seconds in '05 and embarassing us at Kinnick last season, so we were all hungry for a victory. Well the Hawkeyes did bounce back, but not necessarily because of the player you might think, Albert Young. Christensen had his best game of his young career, rebounding from his horrible 1st quarter to throw for 300 yards and a touchdown, making some great deep throws and moving us down the field at will. He could have had a few more TDs but Sims punched it for us twice at the goal line, with Albert Young getting another touchdown from 15 yards out. Our defense also shut down NU in the 2nd half and frustrated the hell out of CJ Bacher (the quarterback), who looked invincible at the beginning. We picked him off three times and put constant pressure on him, mainly from frosh Clayborn and Christian Ballard. So a great 2nd half effort and surprising offensive balance supplied by JC led to a 28-17 victory. Against Minnesota we jumped out to a 21-10 lead at the half, thanks to great running by Young and some sharp passes from JC, who had a bit of a fluke TD pass after it bounced off James Cleveland's fingers into the waiting hands of Brandon Myers. Keep in mind this game would put us at 6-5, bowl eligible, and we would get back the rivalry trophy known as the Floyd of Rosedale, a trophy the Gophers took back last year after we had it for 5 years straight. In the 2nd half, our offense totally died and odd play-calling (turning away from the success of the running game again) led to ZERO 2nd half points. JC didn't look as sharp and the potentially-potent Minne. offense made some big plays, especially in the passing game. Our defense made big stops, including a Fletcher interception, but late in the 4th they ended up getting a TD pass, making the score 21-16 before a potential 2-point conversion. Lucky for us, Greenwood picked it off and Cleveland recovered the onside kick and we held on for the big win. So while the Hawks haven't put up a complete game this year, getting 4 wins in their past 5 is huge considering where they were before and this has to be considered one of Kirk Ferentz's best coaching jobs of his career in keeping these young guys' heads up and their attitudes confident even with the horrible losing. One more game remains, at home for a date with Western Michigan on Senior Day. If we win we are 7-5 and for sure looking at a solid bowl game; a very different 7-5 then we were 2 years ago. Unfortunately for Hawk fans all across America, the horrible, the unexpected, the unimaginable happened; we got beat. By Western Michgian. On Senior Day, at home, playing for a bowl game. No 7-5 for us. Just an amazing loss, words can't even describe how bad this was for the program. Don't you think your football team has some problems if they come out totally flat and not prepared to play when a bowl game is on the line and it's the last game for your seniors at Kinnick, especially against a middling MAC team? WMU totally picked apart our vaunted defense through the air, jumping out to a 19-0 lead thanks to big pass play after big pass play. JC played all out of whack as he tried to get us back in the game through the air, while the coaches befuddled everyone who had an inch of sanity by turning away from our running game, as they have done too many times this season. Quote me as saying Damian Sims is the most underused Hawkeye player in Iowa history. Our boys actually battled back, with JC firing three TD passes to Trey Stross, Tom Busch, and Brandon Myers. But missed extra points (such an inconsistent kicking game this season) and the inability of our defense to make the key stops when we needed them hurt us, as we were down 25-19. We were actually driving with a chance at the end, incredible considering our lack of energy and the fact that we just showed up expecting WMU to bend over; of course, we couldn't be so lucky, fitting for this ultimately depressing season. JC threw behind a wide-open Stross, who bobbled the ball and was intercepted. This essentially ended the game as WMU drove down the field with ease and kicked the game-winning field goal. The Iowa football team has a lot of problems, on and off the field (especially), and this loss only brings it more to light. At 6-6, Iowa probably won't make a bowl game because so many Big Ten teams are eligible. Things could fall into place and we might make a lower-tier bowl as long as it's not during finals week, but it only hide our problems a little longer and would only really show how ridiculous it is to have so many bowl games. Some would say the seniors deserve it, that we need the extra practice, but a lot of things need to be looked at and evaluated, at least in my opinion. The inconsistency and lack of progress all year was disturbing. The young excuse can't work much longer, eventually we have to show more consistent improvement. I thought we were doing that with those last three games, but this loss could be a good thing because it takes that temporary mask off the team that everything was ok; it's not and the Iowa staff needs to see that and bring this program back to where it needs to be. Our seniors will be missed, especially Young and Sims, but almost everyone is coming back next year and if at least some improvements aren't made, than it is time for some people to go.