Pedley's Ponderings

The winter crud hit our family hard over the holidays. If one person wasn’t sick, it was the other. Christmas gatherings were postponed and others skipped, but I’m hopeful there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Our Christmas Eve celebration with my family was postponed due to my mom’s illness. She wasn’t sick with any known bug other than it being “viral,” which was true for my daughter as well. Her nose was a faucet and she was running a fever every night for several days, but the lab proved it wasn’t influenza, COVID or strep.

Last-minute giftwrapping proved rather dangerous on Christmas Eve. With the kids’ gifts from Santa wrapped and under the tree, I retreated back to the basement to finish stuff I got for Kaity. Suddenly, I heard the distinct pitter-patter of a little girl’s feet slapping the floor above me and sprinted upstairs. There stood Cece, staring wide-eyed at the tree.

“Santa came!” she said in fever-induced delirium.

I ushered her into our bedroom, where she again announced Santa’s visit to her mother. The poor girl was burning up with a high fever. We gave her medicine and an ice pack to cool her off, and she quickly fell back asleep.

I’m not sure she even remembers waking up, but I’m glad she didn’t see “Santa” that night. There’s only one fat man that delivers presents in our household and he doesn’t have a white beard.

Cece eventually got better after she took antibiotics. Unfortunately, whatever she had was passed onto me. For the better part of a week I’ve been hacking up crud day after day, but I think it’s starting to subside. It’s incredible how much mucus the human body can expel and I’ll leave it at that.

Oliver’s turn came Sunday. Our postponed Christmas was held at our house, which went off without a hitch. However, Oliver was off all day complaining about stomach pain and no appetite. It culminated in how you might it expect such symptoms to culminate, but fortunately it was a “one and done” situation. He stayed home Monday and seems to be fine now.

I’m sick of being sick and hopeful we’re all on the other side of it. As other parents with young kids can attest, fighting the war against wintertime illness is typically a losing battle.

• A season of shrugs

My Hawkeyes officially ended the 2024 campaign Dec. 30 with a loss to Missouri in the Music City Bowl. They blew a 10-point lead in the second half to end the season 8-5.

I can’t say I expected much more from the Black and Gold this fall. Our offense was better statistically than the horror shows of the past three years, but those numbers were inflated by a heroic effort from running back Kaleb Johnson. He broke the program’s single-season touchdown record while tallying 1,537 yards.

Though I wasn’t disappointed in our offense per se, I was with Iowa’s defense. The secondary logged a subpar effort this season and was one of the main reasons we lost to Iowa State and Michigan State. The Hawkeyes’ D is usually something you can set your watch to, so seeing leaks in the hull was concerning.

I’m not particularly hopeful for a better showing next fall. Our schedule features three teams who made the College Football Playoff this season as well other tough matchups. Finishing 8-5 might take a miracle.

• Regular bowls still better

And on the subject of bowl games, there’s been much ado this year about the expanded College Football Playoff, which moved from four teams to 12 in 2024. I’m still scratching my head as to why – all but one of the games thus far has been a dud.

Many college football fans think adding more teams to the playoff makes it better. While the expanded setup may make late-season games more interesting because of playoff implications, increasing the number of teams has done nothing to actually make the games more competitive.

College football is an arms race. Schools with more money and resources typically trounce those of lesser stature, which is proved after year. It’s a sport of David vs. Goliath and David rarely wins – Indiana was never going to beat Notre Dame in this lifetime or the next.

Accordingly, folks who thought the CFP would resemble March Madness were off their rockers. Going by betting odds, not one underdog has prevailed during the playoff thus far. The closest we’ve come is Notre Dame beating Georgia – the Irish were underdogs the week of the game, but by kickoff, the betting odds had switched over to the Gold and Green.

While less flashy than the playoff, the regular bowl slate featured much better games from an entertainment standpoint. Everyone says bowls don’t matter nowadays, but I’d rather watch them any day of the week. Sure, star players are sitting out, most times I haven’t heard of the games’ corporate sponsors, and defense is usually optional, but it’s cheap fun for a random Wednesday night in December.

What can I say? I’m a connoisseur of crummy football. Years of watching the Hawkeyes try to play offense will do that to a man.

Nick Pedley is the news editor and ad manager of The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News.