1 Let the Nico hype be turned to 11 2 That said, he’s still got a ways to go. He’s got really happy feet in the pocket. Glad we got some film on stuff he can improve on. 3 Iowas defense is fine. They don’t miss tackles and on every time Nico got hit behind the line our receivers were well covered. 4 Sampson had a really good game too. 5 I cannot begin to explain what it was like seeing Iowas offense in person. I’ve never seen one anywhere being as bad as what I watched today. 6 My frustration with banks is summarized by the 4th and 14 with the backup qb. Every person in the stadium knew what he was going to do if anything went wrong. So what does banks do? Drops 7 into coverage and has the LBs turn their backs to qb. Just u believably fruatrating. 7 I do love that we show up to compete in bowl games and we’re going to win with who is on the field. Setting an expectation of winning and next man up is big in a culture. 8 The Cheez It nachos were amazing. I will be making these at home. 9 Iowa fans were extremely nice. Every one of them. Several congratulated us over. 10 Fun long weekend in Orlando for the family before reality smacks us in the face Wednesday Bonus - after seeing how the top tier teams from the B1G have fared in bowl season…….maybe Michigan should have been the team left out of the playoffs?
I posted somewhere that this was Tennessee's only ranked win this year. But another way of looking at it, Heupel now has two bowl wins over Top 20 opponents, which is more than Kiffin, Dooley, Jones, and Pruitt combined.
The Iowa Hawkeye fan experience must be a maddening journey. Granted, look how neighboring state Nebraska has fared ever since they pulled the rug out from under themselves with how they used conference realignment to successfully close up their old school Texas/OK/Florida recruiting pipelines. Maybe in actuality they are overachievers. And going 8-4/9-3 in the Big 10 most years using Ferentz ball is truly the best that they can do. Just not a lot of football talent to be found in that particular region of America.
I had to go back and look. I might have sworn either KY or SC was ranked at the time at least. KY would have been if they hadn't run into UGA beforehand.
They need to rework the offense but Iowa is always respectful in a state that has no talent. they’re top notch in their training and player development especially in on the OL and DL. defensively they’re simple stupid and boring as hell and play cover three and quarters variation keeping everything in front of them and just make you drive the field against them.
Given what they are and where they are, this is a good season for them. For all of the flack Firentz catches, I don't see anyone going there and making them a perennial powerhouse.
While I take this win with a grain of salt, I am pleased by the effort today minus the stretches where we couldn't finish drives mostly due to subpar pass protection. I cannot wait to see what this Nico led offense looks like with Cade and a legit SEC LT coming back to anchor the line to go along with this studly WR room we should have. I also think Dylan Sampson is fully ready to be RB1 and should easily rip off 1000+ next fall assuming he stays healthy.
20 wins in two years from the shit storm we’ve been the last 10 years plus is a nice turn around too. there’s still some questions but it’s at least fun to watch again
Which highlights my point. Many of our opponents were ranked at one time in the season, but they have to play defending champs and Heisman winners and Bama.
Yea that's just a tough job. The Iowa fans pinning for his retirement probably will find out he will be a lot harder to replace then some of them think. He does, however, deserve all the crap he's getting for nepotism-ing the offensive side of the ball there as he allowed his son to be the most infamously mediocre OC in all of college football. Should have ditched his kid seasons ago
Was more thinking from a purely rushing standpoint, but you are correct. He absolutely must get better at slowing down pass rushers when we need him to. Fortunately that's incredibly correctable and should be ironed out this offseason
Bed of cheez its covered by Mac and cheese, little bit of nacho cheese and topped with bacon. Highly recommend.
Iowa was far and away the most favorable bowl matchup we could have drawn. Nice to see us take advantage of it and control them from start to finish. Only penalties, turnovers, and boneheaded breakdowns could have kept it close, but we didn’t have any self-inflicted wounds today.
