A happy Hawkeye Homecoming

Playoffs not in picture for Iowa, but there remains plenty to play for

My homecoming seat view, from the old “Section K” student section area.

I’m a sucker for nostalgia, particularly when it relates to Big 10 football, so I apologize in advance if this week’s column is a bit misty-eyed and sentimental.

I know as a serious college football fan the fact my favorite team is out of its conference title race and contention for the 12-team college football playoff means everything it does from now to bowl season should be meaningless.

But sorry, I’m not wired that way.

This past Homecoming thrashing of Northwestern on a sunny autumn afternoon in a brilliant and raucous Kinnick Stadium was as good as it gets as a college sports experience.

I went to the game with a high school friend of mine, whose season tickets happen to be the old “Section K” – where the student section was in the early 1990s when I matriculated from Iowa. We left Davenport relatively early Saturday morning, considering kick off wasn’t until 2:30. Seeing half the fields cleared and farmers still furiously harvesting what remains, sending clouds of fine grain dust into the crisp air against the background of trees exploding in vibrant red and gold leaves, added to the vibe.

Since we were so early, we had a chance to tailgate pretty thoroughly over near the intersection of Melrose and Golfview – a raucous corner where beer and shots flow freely and you are sure to see men in kilts, Hawkeye Elvis, former players and all manner of hardcore Hawks, especially on Homecoming weekend.

Fueled by bloody marys and beer, we enjoyed our walk to Kinnick through the teeming high donor lot where everyone was smiling, and the sweet smell of grilled meat filled the air.

The alumni band blasted “On Iowa!” The Golden Girl shimmered in the glowing afternoon sunlight. Caitlin Clark, Megan Gustafson and Lisa Bluder were in the house and received a rousing ovation.

And the team, after a shaky and uncertain start, channeled Iowa teams of yore and pummeled Northwestern like they were the Mildcats of yesteryear.

If you can’t enjoy that just because your NIL-funded guys dropped a couple games you wish they wouldn’t and are thus consigned to a “pointless” bowl game that is a stupid consolation prize, well I don’t think you’re much of a college football fan.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this sport is at its absolute best when regional rivals square off for nothing more than bragging rights. The zero-sum game of winning a national championship is, of course, the ultimate goal. However, I will never understand the mentality that the fanbases of 133 of the 134 Division 1 football programs should feel miserable about their season when (for 99 percent of them) they fail to reach that goal.

That’s why I remain enthused and excited about the Hawkeye’s next matchup. Like Iowa, the Wisconsin Badgers have had an up-and-down 2024 and are effectively out of the title race. They have beaten the bad teams on their schedule and struggled with the good-to-excellent programs. They are hoping the quarterback who started second-string will be able to resurrect their season and lead them to November wins.

Sound familiar?

This game is always personal to me, and we will have our usual large contingent of mixed Hawkeyes and Badgers on hand for the entire weekend. Bragging rights again, are at stake.

Will Brendan Sullivan’s wheels be the difference and add much-needed juice to an often balky and inconsistent Iowa offense? Can Rhys Dakin continue his torrid Tory Taylor impersonation and pin the Badgers deep, letting the north endzone denizens do their dirty work? Is the defense – shredded by Ohio State and Michigan State – “back” to its typical nasty, ball-hawking self after shutting out Northwestern?

We don’t know, and that’s what makes the sport compelling.

So go ahead and cry into your beer about what could have been if that freshman’s preposterous kick didn’t sneak over the goalpost for Iowa State or if Sullivan had started the MSU game and led Iowa to victory.

Meantime, I’ll have a brat in one hand, a Spotted Cow in the other and look forward to another fun fall day in one of the best college towns in America.

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