Throughout the summer and until Saturday, I was predicting that the losing coach of this week’s Iowa-ISU game would be fired at the end of the season. This past week, I haven’t been so sure. Iowa State looked good (i.e. didn’t lose) against UNI, and Iowa scored the same amount of points but also had its fans applauding a fake field goal that failed to get a first down. I’m 1-for-1 on sports predictions so far this year, and I’ll keep that record intact by not officially making a prediction on coaching.
This is a make-or-break game for Paul Rhoads’ record, as he is 3-3 against Iowa. Gene Chizik and Dan McCarney finished with even records against Iowa (1-1 and 6-6, respectively), so in the 20 years since McCarney was hired the series is dead even. Two of Iowa’s three most recent coaches are .500 or worse against Iowa State.*
I will say that this year, as is often the case, if the team’s schedules were flipped, ISU would be talking bowl potential and Kirk Ferentz would be coaching for his job. Not all of us are so lucky as to get Illinois AND Purdue AND Indiana AND avoid our conference’s top two teams.
From an ISU fan’s perspective, perhaps the best thing that could happen to Iowa this year (aside from losing out) is for the Hawkeyes to go 8-4 with the four losses coming in the four trophy games. It would infuriate those who want Ferentz gone, but the “old guard” would remember the 20 years B.F. (Before Fry) when Iowa only won a third of its games and say that firing a coach after an eight-win season borders on lunacy (or Nebraska fandom, but really, who can tell the difference?).