Worst Hawkeye Losses During the Ferentz Era

Losing is never easy for Iowa Hawkeye fans. Losing badly is even worse, and can be enough to send fans into a downward spiral of depression and gloom.  We take our college football seriously in the Midwest.

Despite the obvious pain and torment involved, Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette recently set out to determine what the worst losses of the Kirk Ferentz era were.  Although reading some of the game descriptions was like pouring salt on a gaping wound, the mini-series on the Hlog Blog was a reminder for Hawk fans not to let their expectations for the 2010 season get the better of them.

As Hlas explains, "what would good games be if they didn’t have bad games to help them stand out? And what would a picture of how far the Iowa program has come under Ferentz be without knowing that it was a process with bumps? Incomplete, that’s what."

In the series, Hlas lists the Iowa losses in chronological order and manages to list almost every painful memory a Hawkeye fan has had over the last ten years.  In Ferentz's first year as head coach, Iowa went 1-11 and suffered a few brutal losses.  Hlas has three of those games on his list.  

In order for non-Hawkeye fans to fully quantify the pain and anguish of the losses a little better, I have taken the list and ranked them in order from most painful to least painful.

1. 2004: Arizona State 44, Iowa 7 - Tempe, AZ
2. 2007: Western Michigan 28, Iowa 19 - Iowa City, IA
3. 1999: Michigan State 49, Iowa 3 - East Lansing, MI
4. 1999: Nebraska 42, Iowa 7 - Iowa City, IA
5. 1999: Wisconsin 41, Iowa 3 - Madison, WI
6. 2002: Iowa 48, Utah State 7 - Iowa City, IA
7. 2000: Illinois 31, Iowa 0 - Champaign, IL
8. 2007: Purdue 31, Iowa 6 - West Lafayette, IN

No. 1 and No. 2 are exceptionally excruciating to relive.  The losses in 1999 are excusable, as it was Ferent's first year and the team was under a massive reconstruction, but the 2004 loss to Arizona and the 2007 loss to Western Michigan were absolute heart-breakers to watch.

The 2004 trip to Arizona still gives me nightmares.

Read the Hlas mini-series: Part One, Part Two, Part Three

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