Tuesdays with Torbee

Dear Iowa fans, I have two words for you: Embrace the punt.

The only joy sparked inside Kinnick Stadium for three hours beginning around 11 a.m. Saturday (although it felt more like something between six hours and a stint in purgatory) was an oblong ball blasting off the right foot of Australian wunderkind Tory Taylor.

Not since the glory days of Reggie Roby has the Iowa fan base been blessed to see the usually boring-but-necessary punting position not only provide jaw-dropping highlights, but be a critical weapon for Iowa victory.

Without Tory Taylor’s assortment of booming bombs, spinning sideway helicopter out-of-bound kicks and perfectly placed pooches downed inside the five-yard line, Iowa in all likelihood loses last Saturday. Taylor’s transcendent talent led directly to the two safeties that provided the scoring differential in Iowa’s ugly, offensively offensive win over South Dakota State.

Of course, the defense was also elite. Despite the rain of boos cascading down every time the impotent offense failed to take advantage of stellar field position, it never felt like the ultimate outcome was ever in doubt. Iowa’s defense and punting were so dominant it was clear the Jackrabbits wouldn’t score unless via pick-six or other disaster.

I will have more to say about the, well I guess you can call it “offense,” later in the column. Nevertheless, for now, I implore you, gentle Iowa fan, to lean into what is great. The Hawkeyes have a generational talent at punter and a shutdown defense with an assassin’s attitude.

Keep in mind, the 1939 Nile Kinnick-headed Hawkeyes put up the best record in the Big 10 despite scoring 13 points or less in 5 of its 8 contests. To close the season, Iowa squeaked past Purdue 4-0 behind two safeties and no other scores in West Lafayette, a 7-6 white knuckler against Notre Dame, a 13-9 thriller against the Gophers and a bit of a letdown 7-7 tie in Evanston against Northwestern.

And that is considered one of the all-time great Iowa teams.

I think I might start wearing a straw hat, suspenders and tie to Iowa games, so my attire matches Kirk Ferentz football style. Part of me wonders if Ferentz takes some sick satisfaction in testing how long he can keep winning despite a fierce refusal to field a competent offense. Maybe you get bored after 20-plus years coaching the same team, so you start inventing new obstacles?

I can already hear the critics howling. How can I defend the abject failure to fix an already ailing offense? Where is the outrage at not replacing a quarterback with a passer rating that would

put you on academic probation if it were a grade point average? How, in 2022, can you advocate for a defense-first approach to winning college football games?

Well, I can’t and I don’t.

What I am suggesting, however, is that for sheer psychological protection, fans might try focusing on what Iowa does well while hoping it can eventually crawl its way to respectability on the other side of the ball. And what Iowa does well, it actually does at an elite level. Despite the dearth of points, I think that is worth celebrating.

Do not embrace the suck; embrace the punt!

As for the offense, last week in this space I wrote, “Iowa doesn’t need a stellar offense to win, but it has to be efficient and complementary if the Hawkeyes are going to repeat as division champions.”

Clearly, as of early September, the offense is neither and appears to have regressed. The only good news is there is little room at this point for it to get anything but better. The truly crazy thing to think about is if Iowa had an offense even as basically competent as Northwestern’s paired with this defense and punting attack, Iowa would absolutely be a Big 10 title contender.

Call me crazy and a Kool-Aid drinker, but I think that could still happen. It will require much work by the offensive coaches and getting some playmakers back and healthy, but I refuse to believe last Saturday’s effort is the best Iowa can muster.

The coming contest against Iowa State should shed light on whether last week’s offensive disaster was an outlier or a harbinger of horrors to come. No one is expecting the Hawkeyes to have a high-flying offense, but one that can put up a touchdown or two after being gifted ideal field position over and over and over again shouldn’t be too much to ask for.

Consider us asking.

Follow me on Twitter @ToryBrecht