Iowa Hawkeye Fans - Relax

The Iowa Hawkeyes are undefeated at 8-0. Iowa fans are understandably excited about this development since expectations had eight wins as more of a season-long ceiling as opposed to a way to start the season. As an Iowa fan, I am incredibly happy right now with my football team and will actually have positive thoughts during the rest of the regular season.

However, the big bad Internet is not as excited about the Iowa Hawkeyes. They think they are lucky, and they haven't played anybody, so they're not a legitimate national title contender. The leader of this charge is a podcast, The Solid Verbal, which I subscribe to and have listened to every episode for the last four or five years. They started the meme of "Talking to Your Kids About Iowa," something that has taken the world by storm since a couple writers from Tosh.0 got in on the action and made a video about it.

Iowa fans are NOT happy about this. How dare the internet besmirch the great name of Hawkeye Nation and our infallible leader, Kirk Ferentz (a leader who 90% of the fan base wanted fired coming into the season). Iowa fans do not find these videos funny, because their Hawkeyes ARE a good football team, and they have beaten legitimate competition. They will quote the victories over Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, and Northwestern, but come on guys. We can't really brag about beating Northwestern, right? They're Northwestern. And Pitt? Sorry, but Pitt is...they're not bad, they're just fine. I will say that Wisconsin is good, but only good, as Alabama blew them off the field in their opening game.

This culminated in an Iowa fan making a reply video talking about the SEC Myth. It was well done and entertaining, but the argument of, "The SEC isn't even that good," only gets you so far. Yeah, the SEC's greatness is blown up a little, but it is still the best football conference, and yes, that does count for something.

I have bad news for the keyboard warriors who are defending the Kinnick Castle: People are going to continue to shit on Iowa, and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

But I also have good news for those valiant knights of internet justice: You don't have to care. You could just stop caring. Or, if you're like me, you could even laugh at some of it, because it is pretty funny. Nothing the internet says takes away from Iowa's victories. And if Iowa keeps winning, they will be in the College Football Playoff. Think about that. Somehow, that's not a totally implausible scenario right now, and I would have said you were insane had you told me that before the season.

But let's just relax, Hawkeye fans. This is an awesome season, and you should be standing and cheering for your team instead of standing in front of a computer repeatedly stating, "I'm not mad, I just think it's funny" while stripping down naked in your rage.

This undefeated journey could end in any of the next five Saturdays (well, Friday for Nebraska), but it could also keep going. Use your energy to live it up instead of worrying that other college football fans aren't impressed with your college football team. Their thoughts shouldn't be that important to you, but what Iowa is doing on the field is pretty damn cool, and I'd hate for you to miss it.

Go Hawks!