Iowa Football: What To Make Of Up-And-Down Season

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:00 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jeremy Karll/FanSided via Dear Old Gold

Iowa had a lot of ups-and-downs in 2016, so what does that mean?

Expectations were uncanny for Iowa football heading into the 2016 season. After running the table in the regular season and earning a Rose Bowl berth in 2015, everyone focused on the Iowa Hawkeyes instead of the Wisconsin Badgers for the first time in a while.

Hindered by major injuries to the offensive line, secondary and receiving core, Iowa didn’t live up to expectations in 2016. The Hawkeyes went 8-4 in the regular season and ended the season being embarrassed 30-3 in the Outback Bowl by the Florida Gators.

It’s safe to say that the “fake ID” Iowa carried around last year was taken away. Iowa will be put to the back burner heading into next season, with the talk of the division being Wisconsin, Northwestern and new Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck.

The switch of focus might partly be due to key losses of C.J. Beathard, Desmond King, Jaleel Johnson, George Kittle and more, but it’s more of a sign of how Iowa played in 2016.

They had their great moments. Iowa took down 9-0 and third ranked Michigan Wolverines at home 14-13. It sparked a three game winning streak which concluded with a dominating 40-10 win over ranked Nebraska.

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At the same time, Iowa was in the national eye for the wrong reasons. They became the sixth straight FBS opponent to fall to North Dakota State, as the Bison came to Iowa City and won 23-21 on a walk-off field goal. Iowa also lost on homecoming to Northwestern and reached rock bottom a week before beating Michigan when Penn State embarrassed them in primetime 41-14 on Big Ten Network.

Despite it all, Iowa still made a respectable bowl game and finished the regular season ranked by the Associated Press. Sure, they looked flat and didn’t put up a fight against Florida, but that sums up their season.

Iowa faced adversity and couldn’t handle it. Iowa had injuries, but so did other teams, such as the Florida Gators, but the Hawkeyes couldn’t cope. Iowa had a chance to show that last season wasn’t a fluke, but they didn’t.

Of course, 2016 doesn’t take away from 2015. It’s a different team, but to a lot of people, 2016 is just another way of laughing at a non-traditional powerhouse being good at football for a year and almost making the College Football Playoff.

Through the ups-and-downs, the word to describe this season is disappointing.

No, the whole season wasn’t disappointing. Beating Michigan is one of the best moments of Iowa football under Kirk Ferentz, and demolishing Nebraska on senior day couldn’t have been better, as Iowa actually looked like they knew what they were doing on offense.

Even losses to Penn State and Florida are more embarrassing than disappointing.

Rather it was disappointing that a veteran team couldn’t bounce back after losing to North Dakota State. Instead, they only scored 14 points against Rutgers and Minnesota, while losing to Northwestern on homecoming in between. It snowballed mentally for Iowa and they couldn’t get out of their funk until the end of the regular season.

It’s disappointing that Iowa, who is never the favorite in the Big Ten, had a legitimate chance of making a return to the Rose Bowl but simply did not perform well enough to do so. The Hawkeyes were inconsistent on offense, to say the least, and even had their collapses on offense in two losses — giving up 38 and 41 points to Northwestern and Penn State, respectively.

It’s disappointing that Iowa’s offense continued to struggle all year. Losing Matt VandeBerg to a broken foot wasn’t easy, but the Hawkeyes still had C.J. Beathard and a dynamic running back duo in LeShun Daniels Jr and Akrum Wadley.

This was supposed to be Iowa’s season, and it wasn’t. The Hawkeyes were supposed to win the Big Ten West considering their easy schedule and Wisconsin’s behemoth of a schedule.

Don’t get me wrong, 8-5 isn’t a terrible season.

Only 31 of 64 Power Five schools won eight games this season — 48.4 percent. Iowa also finished second in the Big Ten West, just a win over Wisconsin away from returning to the Big Ten Championship Game.

Although, it wasn’t the storybook season everyone envisioned. There is no taking away from the many great moments Iowa football had this season, but, in the end, the expectations for this team were to go back to the Rose Bowl and win at least 10 games.

Neither happened.

It doesn’t take away from a senior group that went 35-18 with a Rose Bowl berth in their four years, along with multiple players likely to be drafted in the upcoming NFL Draft. That said, their legacy will still be making a magical run in 2015 but being unable to follow it up in 2016.