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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/jimbobbypaul on 2023-08-02 19:59:47.
Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
Ah, Iowa. The epitome of consistent, good football. Not many teams, none in fact, can say they’ve had just 2 head coaches in the last 40 years (Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz). Hayden Fry was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame after going 143-89-6 with Iowa from 1979-98, and Kirk Ferentz should be on his way with a 186-115 record from 1999-present. Fry’s 1983 staff was an Avengers-level assembly of coaches with Fry, Bob Stoops, Barry Alvarez, Bill Snyder, Kirk Ferentz, and Dan McCarney. I haven’t lived in a world where Kirk Ferentz isn’t the head coach at Iowa, so it’ll be a sad day when he retires. Or gets kicked out because he won’t demote his son.
Best Seasons and Highlights
1. 2009: 8. Iowa: 11-2 (37.191) 2. 2002: 8. Iowa: 11-2 (35.426) 3. 2015: 10. Iowa: 12-2 (33.604) 4. 2003: 10. Iowa: 10-3 (32.346) 5. 2004: 8. Iowa: 10-2 (32.260) 6. 1985: 12. Iowa: 10-2 (31.366) 7. 1991: 13. Iowa: 10-1-1 (30.263) 8. 2019: 18. Iowa: 10-3 (25.346) 9. 1983: 13. Iowa: 9-3 (24.219) 10. 1987: 15. Iowa: 10-3 (23.682) 11. 1996: 17. Iowa: 9-3 (20.765) 12. 2008: 20. Iowa: 9-4 (20.219) 13. 1986: 20. Iowa: 9-3 (18.073) 14. 2020: 21. Iowa: 6-2 (17.900) 15. 2017: 22. Iowa: 8-5 (17.457) 16. 1984: 20. Iowa: 8-4-1 (17.095) 17. 2010: 24. Iowa: 8-5 (16.423) 18. 2018: 24. Iowa: 9-4 (16.423) 19. 2021: 30. Iowa: 10-4 (15.773) 20. 1990: 24. Iowa: 8-4 (15.541) 21. 2016: 32. Iowa: 8-5 (12.485) 22. 2013: 30. Iowa: 8-5 (11.605) 23. 1995: 31. Iowa: 8-4 (9.466) 24. 2022: 40. Iowa: 8-5 (6.564) 25. 1988: 34. Iowa: 6-4-3 (5.766) 26. 2005: 30. Iowa: 7-5 (5.396) 27. 1997: 34. Iowa: 7-5 (3.729) 28. 2001: 43. Iowa: 7-5 (2.185) 29. 2011: 47. Iowa: 7-6 (-0.101) 30. 1994: 49. Iowa: 5-5-1 (-5.511) 31. 2007: 59. Iowa: 6-6 (-6.476) 32. 2014: 63. Iowa: 7-6 (-7.191) 33. 2006: 66. Iowa: 6-7 (-11.976) 34. 1992: 62. Iowa: 5-7 (-13.963) 35. 1989: 66. Iowa: 5-6 (-15.319) 36. 1993: 66. Iowa: 6-6 (-17.544) 37. 2012: 80. Iowa: 4-8 (-19.949) 38. 2000: 85. Iowa: 3-9 (-27.675) 39. 1998: 80. Iowa: 3-8 (-30.440) 40. 1999: 105. Iowa: 1-10 (-47.337) Overall Score: 32072 (23rd)
- 304-183-6 record
- 4 conference titles
- 15-15-1 bowl record
- 21 consensus All-Americans
- 138 NFL players drafted
You’ve got to hand it to Iowa. They might never be truly great, but damn do they always seem to be good. Not only do they have 19 Top 25 finishes in both the AP Poll and my rankings, but their 26th best season (2005) had a #30 final ranking for me. Combine that with just 4 seasons of less than 5 wins, and Iowa fans, I dare say you might be spoiled. Fry won 2 conference titles (1985 and 1990) and Ferentz did as well (2002 and 2004), with Ferentz also winning the Big Ten West twice (2015 and 2021). A 4-1 record in their last 5 bowl games gives them a nice even .500 win percentage. Consensus All-Americans include the legendary QB Chuck Long (1985) who finished 2nd in Heisman voting, LB Larry Station (1984, 1985) who is one of two 2-time consensus AAs in school history, KR Tim Dwight (1997) who was one of the most electrifying players in college football, RB Shonn Greene (2008) who won the Doak Walker Award, OL Brandon Scherff (2014) who won the Outland Trophy, LB Josey Jewell (2017) who won the Ronnie Lott Trophy, DT Daviyon Nixon (2020) who was the Big Ten Defensive POTY, C Tyler Linderbaum (2021) who was one of the best centers of the 21st century, and the 6’5 LB Jack Campbell (2022) who won Big Ten Defensive POTY. The top Hawkeyes in the NFL have been OG Marshal Yanda, TE George Kittle, LB Chad Greenway, DB Bob Sanders, DB Merton Hanks, OG Brandon Scherff, OT Riley Reiff, OT Bryan Bulaga, S Micah Hyde, TE Dallas Clark, DT Mike Daniels, TE TJ Hockenson, and OT Tristan Wirfs.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 1999 (1-10 overall, 0-8 Big Ten)
Kirk Ferentz was the coach and the offense averaged 14.7 points a game…wait what year is it? 1999 was Ferentz’s first at Iowa, taking over for the seemingly irreplacable Hayden Fry. This was a young and inexperienced team, and it showed by only beating Northern Illinois. The season opened with a 7-42 loss at home to #5 Nebraska, followed by a 10-17 loss to Iowa State, then they got their 24-0 win over NIU. The rest of their games alternated from close loss to the worst beatdown you’ve ever seen, losing 3-49 to Michigan State, 11-41 to Ohio State, and 3-41 to Wisconsin, but also losing just 21-23 to Northwestern, 31-38 to Indiana, and 21-25 to #17 Minnesota. QB Scott Mullen only threw for 1415 yards with 5 TD 7 INT, but did have 4 rushing TD. Sophomore RB Ladell Betts was the most talented player on the team, getting 1052 yards from scrimmage. Betts would go on to rush for 3686 yards in college (2nd in Hawkeye history) and 3326 yards in the NFL. The former walk-on WR Kevin Kasper was also pretty good, catching 60 passes and eventually leaving as Iowa’s all-time leader with 157 catches. Kasper was just 6’0 199 lbs, but was a FREAK athlete, setting an NFL Combine record in the 20 yard shuttle with a 3.73, also running a 4.42 40 yard dash, a 6.56 three-cone drill, and 43.5” vertical.
5. 2004 (10-2 overall, 7-1 Big Ten)
A rag-tag group of overachievers that started slow, but ended up winning the Big Ten. The Angry Iowa RB Hating God, or AIRBHG for short, is a deity whose sole purpose is to wreak mayhem in the Iowa RB room. 2004 might’ve been the most concrete proof of the AIRBHG’s existence, as 6 different Iowa RBs suffered injuries throughout the year, and the leading rusher by season’s end had just 227 yards and 0 TD. QB Drew Tate took over in his first season as a starter, leading Iowa to a 2-0 start, but quickly fell to 2-2 with a 7-44 blowout loss to Arizona State and 17-30 to #18 Michigan. But they showed life thanks to their defense, among the best in the Big Ten—a 38-16 win over Michigan State improved them to 3-2, and a 33-7 complete domination of #25 Ohio State was Iowa’s first win over the Buckeyes in 9 tries. Iowa outgained the Bucks 448-177 to improve to 4-2 and #25. This was also the year of the Sickos classic, Iowa 6-4 Penn State, where it was 10-6 in first downs for Iowa and 168-147 in yardage. All QBs in the game combined for 0 TD 5 INT. Still lagging behind unbeaten Michigan and Wisconsin atop the conference, Iowa got close win after close win, improving to 8-2 for #17 Iowa vs #9 Wisconsin. Michigan had lost to Ohio State earlier the same day, so this game was now for a share of the Big Ten title. Iowa’s defense completely shut down Wisconsin, winning 30-7 and holding the Badgers to just 186 yards. Sharing the Big Ten title but losing on the tiebreaker to Michigan, Iowa headed to the Capital One Bowl, where down 24-25 to #12 LSU with just seconds left, Drew Tate fired a 56 yard TD pass to Warren Holloway, winning 30-25 as the clock hit 0.
That was Holloway’s first TD catch on the season, finishing with 29 catches 283 yards 1 TD. Drew Tate had a great first year of 20 TD 14 INT, and was referred to as a “magician” during his Iowa career. DE Matt Roth and LB Chad Greenway were 2nd Team All-Americans, both going on to start multiple years in the NFL. Between the Penn State Sickos game, last second TD against LSU, blowout wins over Ohio State and Wisconsin, and winning the Big Ten title, so many things happened in 2004.
4. 2003 (10-3 overall, 5-3 Big Ten)
Plenty of key players departed from the 8-0 Big Ten 2002 team, but the cupboard was not bare. OL Robert Gallery would emerge as one of the best linemen in the country, RB Fred Russell had another 1000 yard rushing season, and the defense became one of the best units in the country. The 6’7 250 lb QB Nathan Chandler was steady, throwing 2 TD 0 INT against eventual 13-1 Miami (OH) in the opener, and 3 TD 1 INT against #16 Arizona State in week 4. Iowa opened up 4-0, going from unranked to #13, but quickly started dropping games thanks to a brutal schedule. Losses to Michigan State, #8 Ohio State and #16 Purdue had them fall to 7-3, but a comeback from down 14 points to #9 Michigan to win 30-27 was one of the finest victories of the Ferentz era. In Iowa’s final home game, against #18 Minnesota, S Bob Sanders forced 3 fumbles in a 40-22 victory, holding the Maroney/Barber/Abdul-Khaliq backfield to just 116 yards on 39 carries. Down 7-21 to Wisconsin in the final regular season game, K Nate Kaeding hit a 50 yard FG and Iowa scored 20 straight points to win 27-21. The #13 Hawkeyes then swooped in to eat the #17 reptile Florida Gators, winning 37-17.
Iowa achieved back-to-back double-digit win seasons for the first time in school history. The defense gave up just 16.2 PPG, 7th best in the country, also giving up just 19.0 PPG against the 6 Top 25 teams they played. The 2nd overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, OL Robert Gallery, was a consensus All-American and won the Outland Award. K Nate Kaeding joined him there, hitting 20 of 21 FGs, finishing his career as Iowa’s all-time leading scorer. S Bob Sanders was a 2nd Team All-American, earning 1st Team All-Big Ten for the 3rd straight year. Sanders, from his freshman year to the NFL combine, improved his 40 time from 4.6 to 4.4 seconds and vertical from 30” to 42”. He went on to play just 2 full seasons in the NFL, but made 2 All-Pro teams and won NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2007, so he was a major “what could’ve been” sto…
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