Tuesdays with Torbee

The saddest Saturday for any college football fan is the first one in which your favorite team loses.

Irrational exuberance and overinflated expectations fill fans across the country with hubris as August turns to September, and Iowa fans are no exception.

When that first loss of the season comes to a big rival, the angst and anger only increase. Sure, the Hawkeyes’ three-point loss as a road underdog is nothing to be ashamed of—and even many Iowa fans said out loud they expected Iowa State to win—but the dispiriting continuation of a half-decade of subpar quarterback play is troubling.

The hoped-for functional passing game—at least a consistent one where the quarterback is decisive and receivers don’t drop balls—is absent, and hopes for a turnaround look bleak. For at least the fourth season in a row, Iowa will have to find unique ways to win that don’t ride on a quarterback’s arm.

How someone who passed for 10,000-plus yards in a career can’t break 100 in either of his first two games is borderline unbelievable, but it points to a systemic failure. Despite a second-year, well-regarded offensive coordinator, and despite grabbing one of the most sought-after transfer quarterbacks in the portal, Kirk Ferentz’s passing game is a national joke.

The most maddening thing of all is that for relatively long stretches of the second half, the Tim Lester/Mark Gronowski offense showed sparks. The mesh run-pass-option game, some decent play-action passes, and the typically bruising running game flashed as the Hawkeyes rallied to tie the game 13-13. At one point, the announcers even called out Iowa for showing creativity on the offensive side of the ball!

But much like in last year’s Cy-Hawk game, it was the Cyclones who remained cool-headed and consistent when the fourth quarter rolled around and winning time came. And again, despite holding Iowa State in check for much of the game, the Iowa defense could not get off the field before conceding a game-winning long field goal. Close, not good enough.

As dispiriting as it is to have to readjust expectations in week two, that’s what Iowa fans must do. While any imagined path to the College Football Playoff seems wildly unlikely, it is still mathematically possible. There is an entire Big Ten season to play, and this current Iowa iteration still has everything to play for.

In my season preview column, I said my stretch goal for Iowa in 2025 was proving it had closed the gap between itself and blue bloods like conference powers Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon. That is one of the expectations this game has me readjusting. Right now, Iowa is solidly in the middle class of the Big Ten. After this (literal and metaphorical) low-point loss, the goal now should be to scratch and claw its way back to the upper middle class (fringe conference contenders) and avoid slipping back to the lower middle class (Pinstripe Bowl-type team).

Iowa fans better hope the Cyclones truly are a Top 15-type team and a Big 12 contender. Both teams looked relatively evenly matched after Iowa’s shaky first start, and there were opportunities for Iowa to steal that game away from ISU. Unfortunately, inconsistent quarterback play and the failure to make key plays late kept those chances remote.

The Hawkeyes once again look like a group that can drag you into a street fight. Now, they have to prove they can win that fight late. So far, they are 0-1 in those close, late-game situations.

Given that the quarterback position looks weak once again, I would like to see the running-back-by-committee shelved. As the Kaleb Johnson show proved last season, you can still win a lot of games and score plenty of points riding a workhorse back. I’m not saying any of the current stable are KJ-level talents, but each has potential, and I’d like to see the coaching staff pick one they think can take 20–30 carries a game and let them work.

Outside of the sputtering air game, the other disturbing aspect of Iowa’s first game is an absence of any “star” power. I feel like the talent on this roster is good—in some cases, very good. There is a lack of dynamic playmakers, though, on both sides of the ball.

The running backs all look good, but not Kaleb-great. The new linebackers are doing a nice job, but not making all the plays like Jay Higgins. Kaden Wetjen is literally one of the best kick and punt returners in the country, but he still lacks the jaw-dropping highlights of a Cooper DeJean.

Look at any of Iowa’s 10-win-or-more seasons and there are a few guys who just have that hard-to-quantify “it” factor. I don’t see that—at least not yet—on this 2025 iteration of Iowa.

This Saturday’s UMass game should be a breather before Iowa plays another scrappy, surprise program that sees itself ranked after years of ineptitude. Will the Hawkeyes be able to bring Indiana and its fans back down to earth—a quest they failed at against the Cyclones?

That remains to be seen, but the odds look worse now than they did before last Saturday in Ames.

Follow me on BlueSky @torybrecht.bsky.social, Substack Notes, and look for the revamped 12 Saturdays podcast on all platforms.