other schools have the same type of scenarios, but are able to hit the ground running in September. There is an excuse every September. I don't expect to be great every September, but for goodness sakes can we blow out UNI and get a win over Iowa every now and then? Can we look like a team that is locked, loaded, ready to go?
SUCKTEMBER: Matt Campbell Teams not ready to start the season.
- Thread starter Gunnerclone
- Start date
Yes, there are people that want Manning gone, and he's going to be a scapegoat when the defense has been so good consistently, and ST have largely fallen on Campbell directly. I don't want to move on from any of the coaches, Manning included. Really other than Heacock this staff is very young and is still learning.
It's not winning the UNI game by 6 that's the problem, it's more of a sign of the problem that leads to 1-11 against P5 teams in Sept.
I do think there are major tradeoffs in how you practice in fall camp, in early weeks, how many guys you rotate in early games to build depth, etc. So definitely there are opposing forces between playing better in Sept. and Oct./Nov.
The problem is starting with 1-3 losses every September not only puts the teams back against the wall in terms of winning the conference, making a good bowl, etc., it also knocks the team out of the national spotlight for a few weeks. It's always been OK because they have found a way to go on great runs in October, but this season there's really no room for error with OU, OSU and UT on the schedule considering the goals the team had.
I think we have all pretty much said we are happy as drunk monkeys that Campbell is our coach, it has been absolutely awesome. But, it is a fact we are not good in September. Just because this is a topic on this message board, does not mean we are not happy with things overall.
That's impressive. And I wouldn't want to trade CMC for anyone. He's a perfect fit for ISU.
But would Matt Campbell look at that and say "That's the best Matt Campbell I can be?" He would say, "no."
So I have to think eventually Sucktember will be a bad memory for us all.
I thought you were rightfully banned Gunner, damn sad to see your back.
This is probably more true than any of us are willing to admit.
2016 we weren’t good
2017 was against a decent Texas team who physically dominated us.
2018 against Kyler Murray and OU
2019 on road against a Baylor team that went 11-3.
2020 against a 6-4 TCU team, but we did win.
2021 Baylor?? Might end up finishing pretty high.
Overall we have had some tough openers. Some of it can maybe be chalked up to September, but some of it has been facing tough games in openers.
The September thing is frustrating because if we can not correct it, we probably will never reach a 10 win season and we also have become an automatic win for Iowa. Hopefully the staff can figure it out. I kinda think Kirk Ferentz has improved in that area over the years as he’s had the same issue.
There's some truth to it but there's also some truth to how crisp ISU is in their pacing of play after some generally ugly football in September.
The specials teams gaffes aren't just because of the competition; that's a preparation issue and it's not like UNI would be within a score each week of other B12 teams.
This is dumb. If this was true or relevant we wouldn't need to be here at all...
Also, we should have shut up and enjoyed the last basketball season because obv Prohm knows better.
At some point the complete inability to win games in September means something is wrong and yes coaches should notice but fans are not going to stop talking... ever.
Worse than UNI and non P5? This seems unlikely. I suppose you can offer that Iowa is better than anyone in our league but I'll let others that hate Iowa more have that one!
Yeah, I've gotta say that this is my take, too. We WILL struggle next year because our talent level is going to drop. Sorry but our ceiling is not the CFP; it's much lower, I fear. We will all look back on a run of 8 to 10-win seasons fondly, I assure you.
I'm sure the coaches have made changes to getting off to a better start but they haven't found the key. With a bunch of 3-star recruits, we're not going to be Alabama. Sorry.
okay, but again, there are dozens of programs that are heavily 3 star laden and they can put together a good September once in 6 seasons. Don't have to be Bama to pull that off
Interesting and makes some sense but I didn't feel like ISU's offense was 'off' in 2019 when they got up a bit on Iowa and had several chances to seal it but had fumbles, punt return team running into one another etc. And vs. UNI that year they looked like they were sleep walking the whole time.
Same for the weird game vs. Baylor this season...wouldn't that be a style/look they prepped for?
The injuries being issues makes sense, but the lack of urgency and fundamentals for a month comes from something else.
In the end we all want September to be much better and equal out to more wins. My only real complaint in September over the last several years is that the team just looks completely (and I mean completely) different than they do in October and November. The mistakes, issues, problems, whatever you want to call them are magnified because they look like they haven't ever practiced or played the game of football at times.
Always going to be rust to kick off, but the night and day difference from September to October is just weird. Even if we lost a game or two in September, but at least looked decent in doing so it would be different. But the way we looked against UNI and Iowa this year (and years past against Iowa) is what I hope turns around. It's just super disjointed, bland, error-prone football.
Always going to be rust to kick off, but the night and day difference from September to October is just weird. Even if we lost a game or two in September, but at least looked decent in doing so it would be different. But the way we looked against UNI and Iowa this year (and years past against Iowa) is what I hope turns around. It's just super disjointed, bland, error-prone football.
