Before the season, I firmly believed the Iowa football team had an opportunity to do something special this season. Yes, their schedule was tough with road visits to Ann Arbor and Madison and a home contest against a top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lion squad, but, it wasn’t impossible.
Moreover, the talent that Kirk Ferentz had assembled for this year could rival almost any of the previous seasons. The Hawks had a third-year starting quarterback who had flirted with first-round consideration for a moment, two top-tier tackles, a top-5 player in the class of 2020, one of the best wide receiver groups in program history, and a potential All-Big Ten Safety.