Opinion: Dare we compare Hawkeyes to 1985 team?

IOWA CITY — If it seems Iowa’s 2010 football preseason began late Jan. 6, that’s because it did.

The Hawkeyes’ authoritative victory over Georgia Tech in that evening’s Orange Bowl combined with a large number of returning standout players for a perfect storm of hype.

Iowa is No. 9 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25, its highest such starting point since 1985. That season concluded with a Big Ten title and Rose Bowl berth.

Don’t think we can’t learn a lot about what the ’10 Hawkeyes are made of Saturday when they meet a reputable FCS team in Eastern Illinois. We can, and we will.

If the Hawkeyes really are a Top 10 team, they will systematically pick apart the Panthers Saturday. Anyone who sounds warnings involving last year’s great escape over Northern Iowa is either an Iowa coach or a serial worrywart.

UNI had a veteran quarterback, a ton of familiarity with Iowa and all the motivation in the world.

EIU is starting a quarterback who has never taken a Division I snap. The program has never left footprints behind in previous visits to teams from BCS conferences.

That’s not to say the Panthers can’t compete today. If Iowa lets them, that is. But a legitimate Top 10 team doesn’t allow that, wouldn’t allow that.

Let’s again look at that 1985 season. This isn’t to go all nostalgic on you at a time everyone wants to look ahead, but rather to use it as a point of reference for the present. The ’85 Hawkeyes were fourth in the preseason AP poll.

So what did they do in their first game? They beat Drake (then a I-AA program), 58-0. The Hawkeyes started slowly in the first half, as any team might do, but scored 37 points in the third quarter. The Bulldogs finished with minus-36 yards rushing.

The Hawkeyes followed with a 48-20 cruise over Northern Illinois and a 57-3 annihilation of Iowa State in Ames.

A few days later, Iowa began a five-week run at No. 1 in the AP poll. Rarefied air doesn’t begin to describe what that felt like in these parts.

None of the 2010 Hawkeye players was alive when that happened. But their head coach was the 30-year-old offensive line coach of that ’85 club.

“You know, that team, they had a good group of leaders,” Kirk Ferentz said this week. “(Their) senior leadership base was tremendous.”

Three of those seniors were among the first 22 players picked in the following year’s NFL draft, including Heisman Trophy runner-up Chuck Long.

Long was a proven entity entering that season. No one has played quarterback better at Iowa. Ricky Stanzi doesn’t need to be Long-good this year, but needs to be very good. Otherwise, that No. 9 deal will be rearview mirror stuff as the Hawkeyes’ schedule toughens.

I think Stanzi will fill the bill and more. Former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer talked on ESPN Radio this week about New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. The gist of what Dilfer said was that Sanchez may not have glorious individual statistics, but has that certain something that’s more important. Dilfer called it an aura, a presence.

That seems to be how Stanzi’s coaches and teammates regard him. Ferentz speaks very confidently when he talks about his quarterback. Hawkeye players never sound anything but 100 percent sold on Stanzi.

So many teams across the nation and the Big Ten wish they could say the same about their quarterback. It meant a lot in 1985, and it means a lot today.

Mike Hlas is a columnist for the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

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