Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Kirk's bowl game history | Eleven teams that Iowa's never beaten | Top three bowl games in Kirk's tenure

Episode Date: December 27, 2018

We are only focusing on football today with the upcoming bowl game. First, we will are talking about Kirk's bowl game history and what Iowa record he could pass with a win against Mississippi State before discussing the eleven teams that Iowa is winless against in their history. To wrap up today's episode, we are giving you are rankings for the top three bowl wins in Kirk's tenure. There may be some controversy at the top, so let us know your thoughts.Twitter: @lockedoniowaHost: @wade_andrewGmail: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes, the latest addition to the Locked On Sports Network's growing lineup of college podcasts. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor over at DearOldGold.com, where you can find analysis pieces on all things black and yellow, and I hope you had a fantastic holiday season. We are back, like I said last week, we're going to be giving you content throughout this week, even though I'm currently in Europe exploring the other side of the world with my wife right now. So I was able to pre-record some of this stuff for you. I hope you enjoy the content we're going to be giving you. I think it's pretty darn good. And today we have an episode that's basically all about Kirk and the football team. So if you love football, this is the episode for you.

On today's episode, for segment number one, we're going to be talking about Kirk's bowl game history. You know, how well he's done, what that means to the program, that kind of thing. On segment two, we're going to be talking about the ten teams that Iowa has never beaten. Alright, so kind of in the theme of them never playing Mississippi State, I wanted to touch on a few of the teams they've never actually beaten. Because it's pretty interesting stuff when you look at a few teams that don't exist anymore, a few teams that you wouldn't realize they've never beaten. So interesting stuff I want to touch on there.

And then we're going to wrap it up by giving you our three top bowl games in Kirk's history, all right? So who do you think is, or what bowl game do you think would go down as number one in the history of Kirk's bowl games? Find out on segment three. Before we jump in though, make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast at. And if you have a smart speaker at home or a cell phone or whatever it may be, you can

just tell Siri, Google, or Alexa to play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. How easy is that? All you have to do is say, Siri, Google, or Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. How easy is that? All you have to do is say, Siri, Google, or Alexa, play podcast Locked on Hawkeyes. And that'll bring you the most recent edition of this fantastic podcast. It'll be an easy way to never miss us again. So let's jump right into it. Going through Kirk's bowl game history. I wouldn't say it's, you know, it's not superb.

It's not Nick Saban's by game history. I wouldn't say it's, you know, it's not superb. It's not Nick Saban's by any means, but so far throughout his tenure at the Hawkeyes, he has been to 15 bowls and he has a seven and eight record. All right. So the career wins of seven is 31st for bowl wins. And that's actually tied with Hayden Fry. So this is a really big game for him. If he wins this, he actually passes Hayden Fry, obviously the other legendary coach in Iowa football history for the most bowl wins by an Iowa Hawkeye football coach. Also, his bowl games of 15 is 21st in all of NCAA in terms of bowl appearances. So pretty awesome stuff there. Obviously, would like to see a little bit more wins, but I think in some cases, it's a simple matter of Iowa overachieving in some cases.

I think that's kind of what you get with the Iowa football team. You know, you're not loaded with those five-star recruits like we talked about on, you know, December 20 or Christmas Eve's podcast. You know, we're not loaded with all those five stars. So when you build up a program the way Iowa does, sometimes you run into teams who just,

they have it going and they're just a little bit more athletic than you. And I think that that kind of speaks volumes to how, how Iowa lost the Rose Bowl to Stanford. I mean, Iowa had a very good team that season, but Stanford had Christian McCaffrey and that guy just could not be touched. I mean, that's, there's a reason why he was a top 10 draft pick as a running back. He was insane, but looking through, you know, kind of the, the bull win. So seven and eight record his career win loss percentage in bulls is 46 or 467.467 sorry which is 51st all time so not not ideal and his career losses of eight is actually tied for 19th i'm gonna take a look at this quick see you know

where he'd be at if he gets number nine he He'll actually, if Iowa does lose, which I don't think they're going to, if he does lose, he will jump up to tied for 12th with none other than Hayden Fry. So interesting note there. The highest number is 14 by Lavelle Edwards at Brigham Young. And you have Tom Osborne at Nebraska, Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech, Bear Bryant at his plethora of schools, and Joe Paterno at Penn State at number three. So it's pretty interesting to see. Obviously, losses don't necessarily give you the full picture.

Just because you're tied for the most losses doesn't mean you're a bad coach. It just means you've been so good at what you're doing that you've had enough time to lose because everyone's going to have a few losses in their day. Even Nick Saban is actually tied for 12th with 9. So, interesting stuff there. I'm actually going to take a look and see what Nick Saban is overall. Just for comparison's sake, he has 13 wins. So, he is 4th.

And obviously, it's been a little easy for him the last few years with Alabama winning pretty much every single year. So, interesting stuff there. One of the things I think with his bowl history is he started out kind of strong, and he's kind of struggled the last few years. He's only had one bowl win since 2010. That includes losses in the Insight Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Tax Slayer Bowl,

the Rose Bowl, and the Outback Bowl again. Then some of those losses have just been bad. I mean, it felt like Iowa wasn't prepared. They weren't ready for the games. I think we've talked about this before, but Kirk's kind of learning from that. He's starting to develop better processes, and that's what it takes. It takes development and understanding where you're kind of soft at or weak at, and that's why they're not bringing down the football team until just a few days before the game.

Maybe give them a little bit more prep time in Iowa City. See how that will impact the team as they prepare for Mississippi State in the Outback Bowl for 2019. That'll do it for segment number one. Interesting kind of taking a look back at Kirk's history as a football coach and his bowl game history. Obviously, prefer to get him win number eight this year. Make that winning percentage 500. I think Iowa has a really good chance this year. They're playing a Mississippi State team that really matches up pretty well against them.

They both have very good defenses. They have quarterbacks with high expectations, and their offense is a struggle. But I think Mississippi State's offense is really the weak point. They're a lot weaker than Iowa's, and Nick Fitzgerald is not nearly as talented as Nate Stanley is at quarterback, although he is a little bit more dynamic of a runner, but we'll touch on that on a few more episodes later on. I believe you'll be getting an episode on December 28th that will be touching on the matchups that are really important to that game, and that's one of them that we'll be talking about. All right, so before we head into segment

number two, where we're going to be talking about the 10 teams Iowa has never beaten I want to make sure I give you this important message because as a listener I care about you I want you to know some awesome things that we're doing because if you're like me you hate to miss your favorite team play regardless of who they are playing and that's where Sling TV comes in

Now I never have to miss a football or a basketball game again and the best part is I no longer have to miss a football or a basketball game again. And the best part is I no longer have to pay for a bunch of channels I don't even watch with a typical cable package. For just $30 a month, you get access to ESPN, Big Ten Network, and more without the hassle of a long-term contract. What's even more exciting is that we have a fantastic offer for you. Locked On listeners can get a free 7-day trial by going to sling.com slash locked on. That's S-L-I-N-G dot com slash locked on.

Never miss a game again with Sling TV. Alright, before we touch on the 10 teams that Iowa has never beaten, I wanted to give you a quick heads up that on segment three, we're going to be giving you the top three Bulls in Kirk's history. So on segment one, we talked a lot about his Bull history. And on segment three, we're going to be diving deeper into his three best wins as head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. deeper into his three best wins as head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

So jumping into the 10 teams that the Hawks have never beaten, I wanted to quickly, let me do this real quick and then count this out for you. So we have, sorry, that's actually 11 teams. So we have Utah, Texas A&M, Stanford, George Washington, Centenary, Oklahoma, Iowa Pre-Flight, Colorado, North Carolina State, Great Lakes Navy, and Miami, Florida. 11 teams, sorry, that Iowa Hawkeyes have never beaten in their entire history. And if some of those kind of make sense, they've only played them once, so not really a fair assessment of the situation. But some of those teams are never actually going to get an opportunity to beat. And it's pretty crazy when you look at Iowa as a whole, they have 618

wins to 530 losses and 34 ties. 80 different teams have made up that 618 wins, while only 54 teams account for the 530 losses. So obviously a big discrepancy between the teams that Iowa is winless against versus the teams that Iowa has never lost to. Out of that 54 teams Iowa has had at least one loss to, 11 have never been on the receiving end of an Iowa win. So let's talk through those teams. It's kind of interesting. I want to focus on the ones who I've honestly never heard of, and that's Centenary LA. And when I say LA, I mean Louisiana, all right? So this is a Division III school. Apparently they played Division I football back in the day. The program ceased to exist in 1941, and they beat the Hawks 1912 and 1930.

Another school, Iowa Pre-Flight. This one was really interesting doing some research on this. The Iowa Pre-Flight School was essentially part of the Navy. They were commissioned by the government to have a pre-flight school at the University of Iowa. So they actually had another Iowa football team, and that football team kicked the crap out of our actual football team. And they actually finished 6th and 2nd in two of their three seasons in the AP pool. And they went 26-5. I would venture to guess that that is actually the best record

in the history of college football, if you take a look at all the different records. Because they had a short time span, they were dominant during that time. A couple other interesting ones that I thought was interesting is Colorado. Considering Iowa's played Nebraska a few times,

Colorado, though, they never really played them a ton. They're 0-2 against them, and they got beat by them both from 1988 to 1992. A four-year span, they suffered two losses, and it's unfortunate. I think Iowa could definitely get a win from Colorado now. Colorado's a little bit of a weaker team, but they were a little bit better back in the 90s. Similar situation, Miami of Florida kicked the crap out of Iowa when Miami was real good.

Like, you know, those ESPN 30-for-30 Miami teams, that's the teams that Iowa got their butts kicked by, including when Iowa, I believe, was number one in the nation. including when Iowa, I believe, was number one in the nation. So during those four losses, Miami actually won three, or sorry, ranked top 25 three of those four times. So interesting stuff there. And then just a few other teams, a couple SEC teams now. Texas A&M, the Hawks lost them in 1931.

Oklahoma, a Big 12 team. You know, they haven't played them since 19, or, yeah, so they haven't played them in seven years. They lost them in the inside bowl. It'll be interesting to see. I would actually think this would be a really good rivalry simply because Bob Stoops has a lot of history between Oklahoma and Iowa. Lincoln Riley's kind of looked at maybe leaving

for another NFL job or lucrative job. Maybe going to the Browns to hang out with Baker again. Bob Stoops has an opportunity to potentially come back, and he has a lot of history between Iowa and Oklahoma, and I think that would be a really fun game. I think it would also give Iowa an opportunity to play some different style offenses they're not typically used to seeing.

I mean, we saw what happened to them when they played Purdue. They got lit up by the third-string wide receiver. I think it would be a good opportunity for them to prepare for those teams better when they get into, obviously, the bowl season. And then North Carolina State, this is another interesting one. They haven't lost to them since 1992. It was, you know, obviously a long time ago. I think North Carolina State, again, this would be a really good game for Iowa to play it against an ACC team, get an opportunity to see how that style of football is played. I do wish Iowa had a better non-conference schedule. It's really tough when you want to play a Cup Cape game for the first game. You want to play Iowa State for a second

game. It's tough to schedule a powerhouse team, a power five type team in that number three game. But otherwise, a lot of these teams, the next time Iowa's going to get to face them is if they get into a bowl game, which is the same case for Stanford, who Iowa's also 0-1 against after that beat down of the Rose Bowl. So just kind of interesting taking a look at that. Obviously, a few of these teams will never see play again, but a few of these teams Iowa has a chance at

defending their honor against them. You know, if they were to lose Mississippi State, which they will not, they would obviously fall on that list, but I firmly believe that Iowa's going to put the whipping down on Mississippi State and finish the year strong. Iowa's team is much better

than the 8-4 record that they have. Alright, just a reminder, after our sponsors, we're going to be talking about Kirk's top three bowl games and which ones we would say are the best three out of his 15 bowl games he's been in all right we are back I will say I'm really excited about talking about these bowl games especially because they listed a lot of great memories it was

tough to pick you know which were the best bowl games even especially because they listed a lot of great memories. It was tough to pick which were the best bowl games. Even though he has only seven wins, there's a few losses that you still want to talk about just because they were strong games or strong performances. But the three we had to obviously go with the three wins. So three of the seven wins we picked as the top three. I'd be curious to think, definitely tweet us out at LockdownIowa or tweet back at me at Wade underscore Andrew. Let me know what your thoughts are of our top three. I'd be curious to think, you know, definitely listen or definitely tweet us out at Lockdown Iowa or tweet back at me at Wade underscore Andrew. Let me know what your thoughts are of our top three. Let me know if you think there's other top threes that are what your top three would be in terms of bowl wins and Kirk's career. Would love to hear that and share that

on the show. But coming in at number three for me was the Outback Bowl in 2003. And here, there's a couple reasons for this. This is really Kirk's first big bowl win. He obviously won the Alamo Bowl in 2001, but in 2002 he lost the Orange Bowl to the USC Trojans in a pretty bad game. So it was a good rebound for them. The Hawks finished the season 9-3 and they took on the number 17 Florida Gators, which was essentially on their home turf considering it was in Tampa. Outside of the Gators, you know, kicking butt in the first few minutes, Chris Leak had a 70-yard touchdown pass. It was basically all Iowa from there.

They dominated throughout that game. Fred Russell, if you remember him, the Iowa running back, carved up the Gator defense with 151 yards on 21 carries. And the Hawks kicked the crap out of ron zook yep that ron zook 37 to 17 for kirk's second bull victory of his career all right coming at number two and this one may be shocker just because it's arguably or it is kirk's biggest bull win in the history of his you know tenure in iowa but the orange bull in 2009 all right so like i said this is the biggest win for kirk in terms of bull right, so like I said, this is the biggest win for Kirk in terms of Bull notoriety, but I didn't think this is the biggest win.

It wasn't the most exciting game. They were playing Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech runs a triple option offense. Iowa is basically the perfect team to play against at Georgia Tech because of how well they stay at home. They stay within their assignments. They don't over-attack and be too aggressive in their pursuit. And that really bodes well for them when they

play teams like Georgia Tech or even Maryland this year where they stuffed Maryland entirely. So the Hawks, I think what frustrates me about this season though is that Iowa had such a good team and had Ricky Stanzi not gotten knocked out with an injury. We could be talking about this as a national title game

appearance for the Hawks. But either way, they had a really good win against Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Iowa won 24-14 in a game that was a lot bigger of a game. Sorry, a lot. Basically, the point total doesn't give the full breadth of the victory. Iowa was in firm control of that game throughout the entire time. The Yellow Jackets only had 143 yards on 41 attempts and just 12 yards in the passing game. So Iowa's defense was absolutely dominant in this game. A lot of really good players that class 2005 that we talked about with the five-star recruits. A lot of those guys had big games here. Tony

Moyocki, Dace Richardson. So fantastic stuff. And then then finally if you couldn't have guessed it by now the number one bowl game in kirk's career is the capital one bowl in 2004 and this is entirely for what happened in the last few seconds than what is now called the catch if you haven't seen the catch i don't i need to maybe reconsider your fandom for iowa but it's okay i don't you know if you don't see it that's fine just go to youtube and google the catch iowa lsu and you're going to see arguably one of the coolest plays in iowa football history um it was it was incredible okay so iowa was up for most of the game they had a 24 to 12 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter jamarcus russell yes the the Jamarcus Russell that infamously is now a first round, you

know, arguably the biggest first round draft bust in the history of the NFL. He actually rallied the LSU Tigers. So with 46 seconds left, he actually had them, they scored a go-ahead touchdown to make the game 25 to 24. Iowa got the ball with 46 seconds left. Drew Tate completed a short pass after a strong kick return and then with the ball at the 44 yard line

just a few seconds remaining, Drew Tate drops back Warren Holloway takes off coverage is broken the cornerback who had coverage on him let him go to the safeties the safety over the middle moved to the left and Warren Holloway broke entirely free Drew Tate launched a bomb to him.

He caught it running down the field. The crowd was going freaking wild and nuts. I'm getting chills thinking about it. Scores touchdown, game over, Hawkeyes win, 35-24, or sorry, 30-25. It was one of the coolest moments of my sports spectator career. I honestly never forget watching that take place.

It was truly incredible. If you haven't seen it, you need to go watch it now. Go to YouTube, check that out. It was fantastic to watch in live picture. And that'll do it. That's our top three, all right? So we have, like I said, we have the Outback Bowl in 2003. We have the Orange Bowl in 2009,

and we have the Capital One Bowl back in 2004. Awesome stuff from Kirk Ferentz. Would love to be able to add this upcoming bowl game to that list or have it sneak into one of those spots there. Let us know, though, what you think the top three bowl games in Kirk's career was. Would love to have you tweet that at us at LockedOnIowa or at me at Wade underscore Andrew. You can also email us at LockedOnHawkeyes at gmail.com and you can find us on Facebook at LockedOnHawkeyes. If you haven't already though, make sure you subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify,

or wherever you get your podcast at. And please leave us a review. You can also find us by just saying to Siri, Google, or Alexa, play podcast LockedOnHawkeyes. And you can get the most recent awesome episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. That'll do it for our December 27th episode. Thank you for joining us, Hawkeye Nation. We had a blast talking to you on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast.

And have a fantastic day.