Eyes talks a lot about "toxicity" and how it is harmful to the program. Laughable to begin with but also inaccurate. Literally everyone on here wants to see the Hawks win every game they play. I personally believe the best way for them to accomplish that is to be effective in all three elements of the game. Throughout most of KF's tenure, they have been good to great in two of those elements. There were years early in his tenure when the offense was actually dynamic and effective. That was 20 years ago. Things really hit the crapper after GDGD replaced KoK and bottomed out with Biff.
I have renewed hope after two years of Lester. I am not sure the overall talent is there to win a CFP game but hopefully more success will attract better talent. Last year was fun and I hope to see more progress this year
*** bag: Don't waste your time thumping your chest about all those "great" moments like beating SD 7-3 on a FG and two safeties. I don't care. Being able to compete against quality teams is the only thing I care about.
1. Yes, a negative community can be felt by the team. Same as a positive community. Coaches tell us all the time that community support makes a difference.
How much of a difference positivity/negativity can/do make is certainly up for debate. But that doesn't change that fact that community support gives the team its best chance for success. And that fans have a choice whether to contribute positivity or negativity to the community's environment. Or they can choose to say nothing at all.
Why fans don't choose to act in a way that will give the Hawks their best chance of winning is something I'll never understand.
2. How much greater offensive "production" would translate to more winning is also debatable.
Certainly the correlation isn't nearly as strong as fans believe it to be.
Nor is it a given that Iowa will be able to significantly improve its offense without coming at the expense of other areas of the program.
3. Bottom line is, Iowa's program has been nothing but praiseworthy.
It's not about thumping the chest over a SD St. victory. (Although I'm proud of each and every win the program can get).
My point has always been that fans were wrong to have taken their complaints to a level of toxicity in the last season ('23) of what was KF's winningest stretch at Iowa. There is simply no justifying that behavior from fans.
4. Their level of negativity mostly came from the fact that the offense wasn't entertaining enough for them. And that is no justification, at all. It's simply wrong priorities that led to wrong behavior.
The team's priority is to win games. And that is all they should be judged on.
For the team members, '23, and the division title it brought was experienced as one of the most special seasons in Iowa history.
For fans to have somehow made that the most toxic season in Iowa history, is incredibly sad, and again, completely inexcusable.
5. You are proving my points for me, with your language in this post.
-"Things really hit the crapper and bottomed out." How? When was the last time Iowa didn't at least have a pretty good football team? Maybe you're just talking about the offense. But why? Why aren't you praising the program's successes?
-You continue by saying you have "renewed hope". Again, you must be talking about the offense for some reason, because I don't see where hope for the program would have ever wavered.
-"Last year was fun and I hope to see more progress this year." Again, you must strictly be talking about the offense. Because the 9-4 season did not amount to "progress" for the program. And I don't see how it could have been any more "fun" than the more successful '23 season.
-Not only have you minimized a win (over SD St.), but you also minimize the way in which Iowa scored its 7 points. You clearly infer that 2 safeties and a FG wasn't as good as a TD would have been, in your eyes.
-And you say, "being able to compete" against quality teams is all you care about. So evidently this is another way in which winning isn't the priority for you.
All of this points to you simply having the wrong priorities. You don’t value what the team values. And if that has led to you contributing negativity to the Hawkeye community, you have been wrong to do so