Is A&M the new Iowa?
Photo: Matthew O'Haren, USA TODAY Sports
As an Aggie fan going into the 2020 season, my hope sprang eternal, as it does every fall. Every year since 2011, I’ve looked at our roster, our preseason hype, and thought “we have the talent in the room to make noise, win a conference championship, and make a run at a New Year’s Six bowl.” And every year since 2011, minus the magical 2012 season with Johnny Football, my ego has been beaten to a pulp worse than the copier in Office Space.
“Damn it feels good to be a gangster.” - Nick Saban, after obliterating Slim Slocum’s hopes and dreams every single f*#@ year
After our most recent torture at the hands of Alabama, I took a quick look in the mirror as an Aggie fan. Not a long one, because sometimes looking Battered Aggie Syndrome square in the face for too long can be too much for one to bear. Almost like looking at a dementor. But a question arose in my mind when I stared deep into my hollow eyes after another sound beating from my Da--- ahem, the Tide.
Are we the new Iowa?
In the early 2000s, a time where my football fandom ascended rapidly to stratospheric levels, there was always one team that I loved to hate. Their preseason hype never matched how they played on the field - they were overhyped year after year. And no, that team was not the Texas Longhorns.
It was Iowa. The Hawkeyes were perennially ranked in the top 25. Every preseason, we would hear about how Iowa had the horses to make a run this year in the Big Ten and possibly beyond. The Hawkeyes would be ranked somewhere between top 10 to top 20. And most years, the Hawkeye’s would fly into a window and find themselves ranked lower than they started out or on the outside of the top 25 looking in.
“No seriously man, you gotta stop that. I can’t take it anymore - they did NOT rank Iowa in the top 10 again lmao” - Slim Slocum, circa early-2000s
So I decided to take a look and compare, which was a mistake, but you should know the truth. It is arguable that over the same 13-year span (2005-2017), the oft-overrated Iowa Hawkeyes have a near-identical track record as our Aggies. And it’s arguable they are a better football program.
Here’s the tale of the tape, with a sample from 2005-2017:
The Bad:
Preseason Ranked to Unranked
Iowa: 4
A&M: 4
Finished with worse ranking than they began with
Iowa: 5
Texas A&M 5
Longest streak of wire-to-wire unranked seasons
Iowa: 4
A&M: 2
Seasons not ranked at any time
Iowa: 4
A&M: 3
Steepest ranking drop from preseason to final
Iowa: #9 to unranked (2010)
A&M: #8 to unranked (2011)
The Good:
Improved their ranking in a 13-year span
Iowa: 4
A&M: 3
Largest Ranking Climb
Iowa: #22 to #7 (2009)
A&M: Unranked to #5 (2012)
Best Season
Iowa: Near CFP Appearance; Played for Big Ten title (2015)
A&M: Johnny Football Heisman Trophy Season (2012)
Biggest Win
Iowa: Orange Bowl (2009)
A&M: Alabama (2012)
From the tale of the tape, we’re neck and neck. Iowa had a string of 4-straight unranked seasons, but they have also been on the cusp of a College Football Playoff birth. A&M has not sniffed that since joining the SEC. This also does not take into account the absolute implosions of the 2014-2016 teams. Iowa has had no similar whip-saw like seasons, where A&M had three in a row, capped off by a loss seared into my mind, the 2017 “California Collapse” against UCLA that sealed Sumlin’s fate.
So here’s the hard pill to swallow: Texas A&M is not the new Iowa - we are Iowa. And maybe a hair worse than freaking Iowa.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
But brothers, sisters, 2%ers, sorority girls, and Corps nerds: I have a message for you. It is not all doom and gloom. We do NOT have to be the Iowa of this decade. We can be a powerhouse of this decade. Just like the Sherrill teams of the 80s, and my fictional Dad R.C. Slocum’s teams in the 90s. I know it may not seem like it after last weekend. But the Jimbo vision can still take hold.
I believe in Jimbo. I believe in the long-term vision he has for this program. I believe in the recruiting foundation he’s built. We have some studs in the locker room. I am excited to watch these kids grow up and become stars. And I hope to the football gods that when Jimbo leaves A&M, we will at least be a better football program than the dadgum Iowa Hawkeyes. That instead of 13 years of mediocre Iowa-style football, we will instead be joining the College Football Elite.
One can keep dreaming, right?
