One of the beautiful things about watching Iowa football is you almost always know what you’re going to get. Until last season, they weren’t going to get you with trick plays, or risk it on fourth down, or leave their base defensive package often. They were going to beat you by playing fundamental football much better than you, and despite being overmatched athletically in many games, the Iowa football team wins and prevails because they work hard, play smart, and have an incredible will to do whatever it takes.
But all good things must come to an end, and the Iowa football team, despite being one of the few remaining teams running a traditional 4-3 defense as its most common defensive package, decided to make a change early last season that has already had quite an effect on the program.