After a long Football season I'm going to try to wrap up the season and move on to the Basketball Season. We know a few things by now everybody on the staff should be returning even though a lot of Hawkeye fans wanted Greg Davis to be fired. It was a rough season and I needed to take some time to reflect on this season. There were a lot of moments in this season that made you scratch your head. We had some good moments this season but not very many. As in a lot of seasons of Iowa Football that I have seen a lot of our games came right down to the wire and just didn't go our way.
The season started off good by beating Northern Illinois in a very close game in Chicago 18 to 17 I still remember the excitement I had when Bullock scored the Game winning TD. We then played Iowa State at home and I'll tell you what that whole game it just felt like we were going to pull it out honestly we were on Keenan Davis foot being out of bounds from winning that game. We than were able to beat UNI in another tough game. The Central Michigan game was the one of the big turning points in our season we had that game won but a lot of confusion on the onside kick and boom you lose 32 to 31 one of the moments that had you scratching your head. We responded from this with the best stretch of football we played all year beating Minnesota at home, than going on the road to upset MSU which I can still remember how excited I was when Castillo intercepted that pass in the 2nd OT. At this point in the season you really thought this team could be something special but over the last 6 games of the year the breaks just didn't seem to go our way.
The turning point of the season turned out to be the game vs Penn State where they did everything they wanted too and just dominated us. After Penn State I was still of the mindset that this team could turn things around but that just didn't happen. At Northwestern our defense just didn't get the job done in the first half and the one play that really killed us was the blocked punt. 3 of the next 4 games really told the story of the whole season having chance to win @ Indiana we started great going up 14 to 0 but when we needed a play we just couldn't get the job done. We than played at home vs Purdue and it really looked like we were going to get back on track but once again we couldn't come up with the 1st down on 4th and 4 than inexplicably gave up 4 plays to set up a game winning field goal for Purdue. Michigan was a blowout lost where it really didn't look like were were ready for that game. We ended the season playing Nebraska who we played very well and probably should of won that game but once again we just couldn't make that play to help us win the game. When you look back at this Iowa Football Season it was a year like any year where we played a lot of close games losing 8 games with 5 of them being by one possession or less. This was a year where we just couldn't make the play in a close game to win games and that is the difference between winning a close game and losing it. In all honesty this was not a terrible football team but what it was is a team that was so close to winning close games but never made that play to win the game.
Looking ahead to next year there is a lot of work the Iowa Football team needs to do to prepare for a very difficult schedule next season. There is a lot of talent coming back next season though and that is great news for Iowa fans. This will be one of the most interesting springs in a long time for the Iowa Football team because for one we will have a new starting Quarterback and a 3 way battle between Rudock, Sokol, and Beathard. I'll be really interested see which one of these QB's really steps up there game and wins this spot. At running back we have a lot of talent coming back which includes Weiseman, Bullock, Garmon, and Barkley Hill along with Malloy. We should have a lot of depth at running back but we have gone down this road before. The receiving core returns a few guys in Martin Manley, Cotton, Shumpert, Hillyer, Tevaun Smith, plus a number guys who didn't see the field this season like Greg Maybin,and Cameron Wilson we also have a couple of nice recruits coming in that project on offense. We have 3 nice Wide receivers that will be coming in this class Derrick Willies, Andre Harris and Derrick Mitchell Jr. all should help the talent of this receiving core. We will also still have some nice tight ends to help out the receivers early on in the season. The most exciting part about the offense looking to next season is on the line where we will be returning almost everybody. A lot of our younger offensive lineman got some very valuable experience last season even though they may not have been ready to play we return Scherrf, Donnal, Blythe, Jordan Walsh, Van Sloten plus a number of guys who haven't gotten a chance like RS Fr Ryan Ward and Mitch Keppy who should help the Oline out a lot.
Defensively this should be a very experienced unit in the back 7 of this defense for the most part. We return all 3 of our starting linebackers who should only get better. The secondary returns a lot of talent also with Jordan Lomax coming back from a Shoulder injury, B.J. Lowery will be back plus a number of different guys that should contribute to a solid defense like Sean Draper a True Freshmen who played this season and Kevin Buford as well. We also return Nico Law, Tanner Miller, plus get Ruben Lile back who was having a great spring we also add 4 star Safety Delano Hill plus a number of nice recruits in this class. I for one am really excited to see what this defensive line is going to look like this spring because there are going to be a lot of spots open. Darian Cooper will be returning and should continue to get better plus Trinca Pasat, and Carl Davis will be back too. We also have Alvis coming back he should be more healthy than last season, Riley McMinn looks like a guy who could make some things happen as well as Drew Ott who got a little bit of playing time last season, Marcus Spears is another guy that could make some noise plus I'm very excited to see our redshirt Freshmen Faith Ekakite, Jaleel Johnson and Daumantas Venckus Cuccaria. Mike Hardy is another guy who hasn't gotten a shot yet but has some potential.
So there you have it I have gone through my season wrap up blog and previewed a little bit on why we should be excited for next season. This is my last football post till Spring Football but now I will be posting about our up and coming basketball team who should generate a lot of excitement to help the fans forget about this rough Football Season. As always thanks for reading
Go Hawks.
