It had been 17 years since Iowa had posted a winning record, the longest such drought in the nation. Bump Elliott sought to end it with the hiring of John Hayden Fry from North Texas. Elliott publicly stated that Fry would be the last football coach he would ever hire. Elliott believed that after the failures of Lauterbur and Commings, a failure by Fry to turn Iowa's program around would cause the fans to ask for more than just the job of the head coach this time around.