I won’t sit here and justify a loss, and I won’t sit here and say the Cyclones football team has no flaws. But I will say that all the doom-mongering and panic is largely unwarranted. While the season is not shaping up as we all hoped, the college football landscape is much different today than it was just four weeks ago. Let’s look at the team’s shortcomings and re-evaluate the season with a better understanding of the entire field. 

Special teams. The seemingly forgotten unit of Cyclone football was likely the target of many screams this past Saturday. There were multiple blunders, including a missed field goal and, most painfully, a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. At the end of the day, if the special teams’ units do their job, the Cyclones win. 

This frustration is compounded by the fact that these issues are not new and have been impacting the outcomes of games for years. For some unknown reason, the team has refused to hire a dedicated special teams coach. I mean, shoot, even my high school team brought a kicking coach on board. If we want to compete at the level that we expected this year, we must clean up the important details of the game. 

After two losses, some fans have enthusiastically jumped on the doom-and-gloom bandwagon. Some have even told me to have mid-2000s level expectations going forward. While the first four weeks have gone much different than anticipated, the overall college football field is looking much different than anticipated. If I had told you before week one that Clemson would barely be hanging on to a ranking, Iowa would sit at No. 5 with an elite defense, and that Oklahoma had barely scrapped by Tulane, Nebraska and West Virginia, you would have called me crazy. Yet, that is the world we live in. 

The fact is, we lost to the No. 5 and No. 21 teams in the country by a combined 12 points. I predict that at the end of the season, those will be viewed as quality losses. While our playoff hopes are six feet under, the possibility of a successful season is very much alive. Our next four opponents have not shown that they are on the same level as either Baylor or Iowa, and I believe they are extremely beatable. Putting a solid amount of faith in the team, I can see us running the next four games to set up a potentially primetime matchup with a (possibly back) Texas. 

So, to those who want to bury this season as a dud just four weeks in, I say relax. Viewing this season in the same frame we had in the preseason will only lead to doom-mongering. This team still contains great potential and may see some all-time matchups in just a few week’s time.