The Victors

None of the three games were played in Ann Arbor. At no point in any of the games was Iowa within a single-digit margin in the second half. Their only two TDs came when they were down 20-0 and then 27-7 at Kinnick. And this is the alleged giant-killing program.

I thought of this because Bill Connelly has a piece today about the teams that have never won national titles and which one is the most likely to become a first-time champion (spoiler alert: Oregon is #1 on the list) and this is his writeup on Iowa:

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That Iowa -- another program with a few historic title claims but no top poll finishes -- has the best average SP+ rating of any team here over the last 10 years, but only the fifth-best peak, tells a pretty clear story. Kirk Ferentz's Hawkeyes have generated a level of consistency that few programs ever see, winning between eight and 10 games in 11 of the past 13 seasons and claiming a top-15 defense, per SP+, for 11 straight years. When the breaks go their way in close games, they win 10; when they don't, it's more like eight. Keep that up, and they'll reach the CFP pretty soon.

They'll still have to win three or four games when they get there, however, and they've lost their past seven games against top-10 teams by an average of 33-7. Raw upside is Iowa's biggest issue; this is a high-floor, lower-ceiling program, and we'll see if it can figure out a way to bridge that gap. If Indiana can, the Hawkeyes can, right?

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The notion that they are some sort of massive threat to good teams is basically built on the 2016 Michigan game and the 2017 Ohio State game. Mostly, when they play good teams, they get whipped.