View From the Couch

It will be a great day at the end of the season when ESPN’s Skip Bayless can eat his crow from his comments made about the Iowa Hawkeyes being a “fraud.”  The Hawkeyes, currently undefeated and ranked #4 in the BCS are perhaps the most underrated and underappreciated team in the top 5 of the BCS of all time.  The “experts” cite the Hawkeyes “heart-attack” wins as their reason for dismissing the Hawkeyes as a legitimate contender.  This is further exemplified by their low rankings in the AP (#8) and coaches (#6) polls.

The fact remains that the Hawkeyes ARE undefeated, no matter how they got there.  The Iowa defense leads the nation in interceptions and passes defended.  They are third in the Big Ten in points allowed.  Yes, they have had some close games, but those close games they’ve won and built character in doing so.  The team proves it never dies.  They have the toughest road conference schedule in the Big Ten, they’ve defeated a ranked Penn State in Happy Valley.  They came out of ranked Wisconsin with a big win.  They defeated a ranked Arizona team in Iowa City.  The big “knock” is a close victory over the University of Northern Iowa when the Hawkeyes needed to block back to back field goal attempts with no time left to secure the win.  Nevertheless, that was still a victory. 

Is anyone knocking the fact that Florida only plays non-conference cupcake games?  Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International?  Who there has skill?  LSU is the only ranked team they’ll play till the SEC Championship game.  And then they’ll take on Alabama, the other undefeated in the SEC and they’ve been challenged only slightly more than Florida.  Looking at Texas, they also schedule cupcakes in Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, and UTEP.    They barely escaped with a win vs. Okalahoma, and their only other win vs. a ranked opponent was Oklahoma State – albeit an impressive win.  Texas’s big challenge is this weekend against UCF who need just one more win to be bowl eligible and took it to Texas in their only meeting, despite a Texas rally in the 4^th Quarter allowing Texas to win by 3. 

The message is this, all the experts keep knocking the Hawks, yet they keep winning.  So I say keep knocking them.  Maybe playing the underdog gives the Hawkeyes the motivation needed to be national champions.  And then I’ll send Skip a crow so he can eat it.