Be careful what you wish for, Hawkeye fans

My uncle from Palm Springs was back in IC last night and my parents and I took him to Carlos O’Kelly’s for dinner. In the parking lot I noticed a massive van painted black and gold and decorated with Iowa’s famous Tiger Hawk. Shit, I thought. It’s Hawk Talk night.

Sure enough, Gary Dolphin had started the weekly radio show broadcast from the restaurant’s main room. Kirk Ferentz was not there yet, but the room was packed with, presumably, very diehard Hawkeye football fans and admirers of Ferentz. We were seated in the neighboring room but could watch the show on a nearby TV.

Given the occasion, the conversation at our table obviously revolved around Hawkeye football. My uncle apparently wants nothing more than NFL-esque perfection and total domination. It is unrealistic, if you ask me — we’re talking about 20, 21, and 22 year-old kids — but I assume his sentiments are shared with many Hawkeye football fans, especially those on the fair weather bandwagon. He was among the many who watched the Iowa State game in disgust. “They were abysmal,” he said. “Even the announcers said it.” (Which I cannot vouch for because I was listening on the radio. Though, Dolphin and his boozy analysis sidekick, Ed Podolak, also voiced their dismay at certain calls.) I was upset, too. But, I told him, the Hawkeyes held the lead into the last couple minutes of regulation, and they did score 41 points. Not too shabby. If they truly played abysmally, the Cyclones would have romped. Yes, the defense was very porous, but it was — and let’s admit this openly, Hawkeye fans — overmatched by the bigger, nimbler, and smarter ISU offense. Many Hawk fans disregard the Cyclones as an inferior team and an automatic notch in the Iowa win column, and when reality clashes with that assumption they start pulling out their hair. Which is what many, including my uncle, did this week.

Once again, people are questioning Kirk and Company. As they do when this happens, they say it is time for something new. “Ferentz will never take us to the next level, so it is time to give him and his gutless cronies the boot.” CRG sports writer Marc Morehouse posted this question addressed to Brian Bennett, one of ESPN’s Big Ten bloggers:

BossHawk (Iowa): It’s beginning to appear that Kirk Ferentz’s philosophy isn’t working any longer for Iowa. We may be looking at our worst season since Ferentz’s first year. If things don’t change, Iowa is going to get jumped by NW (already are), Minnesota, MSU and Michigan on a yearly basis and Iowa will be sitting at last place every year in their division. That’s an expensive $4 million dollar price to pay for last place. Looking at the lack of talent and aged coaching staff, in the next few years who should Iowa look at as the next coach? We need someone who takes risks and isn’t so damn predictable! Thanks Brian.

Brian Bennett’s response was:

Brian Bennett: If you want my honest answer, you should be happy to have Kirk Ferentz. This is Iowa football. It’s not Alabama or Texas or even Ohio State. He’s an excellent coach who’s well respected by just about everybody. Be careful what you wish for.

It is good advice and an ominous warning, which I agree with.

Yes, I am guilty of complaining about Ferentz’s philosophy and those of his head coordinators, and wondering if it is time to bring fresh blood into the program. But I need to be careful what I wish for. The situation parallels that of another longtime Hawkeye coach who was forced out because people got tired of his style.

After 13 seasons as coach of the Iowa men’s basketball team, Tom Davis was effectively fired in 1999 when his contract was not renewed. “Sure, the team consistently wins 20 games a season and goes to the NCAA tournament,” fans said. “But he’ll never take the team to the next level.” Iowa’s AD at the time, Bob Bowlsby, heeded those sentiments and decided the program needed to go in a different direction. (And, boy, did it ever go in a different direction.) Fast forward 13 years and Iowa men’s basketball fans are dying to go back to the tourney. Hell, they think fondly of the Dr. Tom years now. Since his departure, the team has been to the Big Dance only three times — the last in 2006.

Ferentz does not have to worry about his contract expiring until 2020, and Iowa would be on the hook for about $4 million a year if he were let go before then. But that will not stop people from bitching. “The university is paying him four million a year for failure,” they say. Failure? Having endured the lean years of the late-nineties, I do not consider three straight bowl victories a failure. Whether or not the university is getting its money’s worth is another question (it is to an extent), but I doubt the fans calling for Kirk’s head this week attended the first home game in 2000 when the Hawkeyes lost to Western Michigan before barely 50,000. Or how about later that year when the Hawkeyes upset Northwestern for their third (and last) win of the season? Hawkeye football fans are enjoying the most successful period in the program’s history, which is why they have become so spoiled. It’s not that the team has not been successful. It’s the fact it is not meeting fan expectation.

You want a new coach? Someone hip to the times and in love with the high-flying offensives of the modern era? Who will take chances and be ultra aggressive? Okay, but be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.