I remember the first time I saw an Aerosmith video. It was some time in 1989 and I was in the basement of my childhood home in Marion, Iowa. We had just recently gotten cable, unleashing a whole new world
of content on my pre-adolescent brain. Aerosmith was not the first band I encountered on MTV (that was Living Colour, the song was “Glamour Boys”, and can I just say: Vernon Reid is the most underrated/underappreciated guitarist of my lifetime), but the video for “Love in an Elevator” was certainly one of the more salacious pieces of content I had witnessed to that point in my life. I didn’t grow to become a fan of Aerosmith, even if I – like many 13 year old boys in America – thoroughly enjoyed their videos off of the album Get a Grip. I even spent my hard earned lawn mowing money on that album, only to find that “Crazy” and “Cryin’” were two of the lesser tracks (“Eat the Rich” ftw!).
Like every other band, Aerosmith at some point stopped being interesting and, instead, became the embodiment of one of their most well-known tracks, “Same Old Song and Dance” (off the 1974 album Get Your Wings). Now, the lyrics of that song don’t really apply, in literally any way, to Iowa football, but the chorus sure as hell does, especially in the wake of another loss that could have, maybe should have, been a win. 2025 Iowa Hawkeye football: Same old story, same old song and dance, my friend.
Ain’t gonna change it, can’t rearrange it
If only we could return to the heady days of early August 2025, when Iowa football was being graded as a dark horse to make the CFP. The specter of a Phil Parker defense paired with an offense that could actually score points had many pundits salivating at the idea of Iowa coming from left field to make a run in the B18. We had a new QB with a serious pedigree (even if it was developed in the FCS), we had a WR room that (if you squint) almost looked like a P4 group of players, a RB room with depth and a whole lot of promise, and a defense that had the potential to at least equal last year’s not-quite-elite, but incredibly solid, unit.
Well, it’s September 30th and almost all of that optimism has been wiped away by the reality of games being played on the field. What we’ve seen through 5 weeks of football, even if it looks a little different as it’s occurring, is the same old story, the same old song and dance. Yeah, sure, Tim Lester’s offense doesn’t look exactly like the one we’ve watched every fall since 1998, but the results are roughly similar to what we’ve seen the last 7 years.
Mark Gronowski likely played his best game as a Hawkeye against Indiana (19/25 – with at least 3 drops in there, for 144 yards, and 1 (rushing) TD, and 1 INT), but is 144 yards passing an accomplishment? The completion % is a massive leap up from what we’ve seen since, well, Nate Stanley, but 0 passing TDs against 1 pick -note that Iowa hasn’t thrown for a TD for two weeks and have only thrown 4 Tds all season – might as well be a Deacon Hill stat (not that I’m comparing Gron to Deacon, because I’m not). Add on to all of that that his day ended with an injury that led Lester to refer to his status for the Wisconsin game as “cloudy”, and it’s all starting to feel very, very, familiar.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Tim Lester, and I like what I see in his offense, but the outcomes aren’t hitting yet. In terms of total offense (measured in yards per play), we’re actually much, much, worse right now than we were at the end of last season (116th v. 82nd). This is with a whole offseason in the books for every player to get better acquainted with his system, a capable QB, a veteran OLine, and a group of receivers that, if not exactly a P4 room, were better than what we’ve had in the past.
The defense probably played it’s best game on Saturday as well, making Heisman hopeful Fernando Mendoza look pretty pedestrian. They held Indiana to 337 total yards (250 yards under their season average entering the game). Indiana was averaging more than 300 yards on the ground coming in, this defense held them to half of that (when you put back all the yards that they lost on that ridiculous safety). They forced Mendoza’s first INT of the season with unrelenting pressure and put him on the ground twice. They held the Hoosiers to 6 of 15 on 3rd downs, which is ~20% lower than their average coming into Saturday’s game. They did their job, and what happened? Once again, the offense couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
Nope, even with all the attempts to change and rearrange, when it really matters, it’s just more of the same. Players unable to execute when it matters and decisions from the coaching staff that leave many fans scratching their heads (or with their head in their hands), wondering what could have been.
You could look, but you ain’t gonna find it around
At this point it feels like this a large portion of this fanbase has been looking for something, anything, that indicates that there will be change, and that change will lead to improvement, and improvement will lead to something more than 8-4 and a meaningless exhibition in a, preferably, warm climate in late December/early January for nearly a decade. Sure, Iowa has played in (or at least showed up to) important games in the last 5 years, but the outcomes of those games were never in doubt. I mean, we’ve made our way to the B18 championship games twice in the last 4 years, and managed a combined total of 3 points.
We keep looking for change to come from within this staff, we get excited for new coordinators, new players, new analysts, and the opportunities that change brings, only to end up back where we started, in the middle looking up. We watch perennial doormats like Indiana (yes, I am aware that they have access to more donors with much deeper pockets than Iowa does) become a playoff team in a single season and we think “could that happen to us”? But we also see perennial powers like Wisconsin try to force change and end up in a situation much worse than they likely could have imagined. This season was supposed to be different, this was supposed to be the year where Iowa proved that you can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks. Iowa fans are a paradox, we all want change and at the same time, we all want things to stay the same. We want new-Kirk, not someone new. And when Iowa loses another game that it should have won and people start saying we need to move on, that’s when we hear it. “Good luck getting anyone better to come to Iowa”, or “Kirk is the winningest coach in B18 history, how can you overlook all the good and just focus on the bad?” Well, I’m just going to say it, personally, I’m really getting tired of the bad outweighing the good on the field.
Can’t stand the pain when it’s all the same to you
Listen, I’m not calling for Kirk’s job right now, but I think we can all admit that we’re rapidly approaching a point where the lack of a clear plan for what comes after is gonna be a problem. Many of us lived through the pain that was the end of the Fry era (and the beginning of the Ferentz era) and more than anything else, I don’t want to have to live through another 1 win season.
On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that I’m ready to spend the next 4.5 seasons watching this team tread water as Kirk pads his B18 total wins. I’m not calling for Beth Goetz to do anything drastic, but it’s time to start having real, honest, conversations about what the future of this football program looks like. We have to start looking to the future, because if we don’t do it now, we’re all in for a lot of pain in the near term and I, for one, would prefer to watch Iowa grow, instead of shrivel.
Now, I don’t know exactly what that means to be honest. Does it mean that Seth Wallace needs to leave and get some experience as a HC so he can come back and take over in 2028? Does it mean that Goetz needs to start trying to find the next diamond in the rough at the G5 level? Does it mean that we need to start looking at replacing the entire staff or trying to figure out how to replace Kirk and not lose Phil? These are all questions that will be asked, and need to be asked, in the coming months. We all love Kirk Ferentz, and if we don’t love KF we at least appreciate what he has done for this program over the last 27 years, but we have to figure out how to let him go (or possibly force him out of the door) or I fear that the we could be looking at a repeat of Fry’s last few seasons.
As always, GO HAWKS!!!
