RON MALY HAS BEEN WATCHING THE PARADE GO BY FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS ONE OF HIS WEBSITES.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

I'm Distancing Myself From Last Night

By RON MALY

Getting back to whether last night's Iowa-Michigan State football game was big.


Big enough, that is, to lead off--or even be on--Iowa's all-time highlight reel.

Big enough to be classified alongside the Rose Bowl victories by the Hawkeyes' 1956 and 1958 teams that were coached by Forest Evashevski. 

Big enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the 45-21 shellacking Kirk Ferentz's 2002 Iowa squad put on Minnesota to clinch a tie for the Big Ten championship. 

Big enough to equal or surpass the nail-biters Nile Kinnick and his 1939 Ironmen had with Notre Dame [a 7-6 victory] and Minnesota [a 13-9 victory]. 

Big enough to match two or three Iowa-Iowa State games from past seasons.

You can think about the Hawkeyes' 16-13 loss to Michigan State all you want.

Me?  I'm planning to forget the game as quickly as I can.

If it's going to wind up on somebody's highlight reel, it will be Michigan State's, not Iowa's. 

As far as I'm concerned,  Iowa can burn the game film or the videotape, whatever it is they use these days to chronicle football happenings.

I want to think about pleasant things.

Like how Iowa won its first 12 games this season.

Like how Kirk Ferentz, in 2015, proved that he hasn't forgotten how to coach.

Like the Hawkeyes' upcoming Jan. 1 Rose Bowl game against Stanford.

In retrospect, last night was pure misery.

Someone once said moral victories are for losers.

I agree.

I'm pretending last night did not happen.

It was not a game for the ages.

Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you differently.