New coach Ray Nagel, a former UCLA star, had two terms as a UCLA assistant and was a player-coach for the professional Chicago Cardinals. He served as an assistant coach under Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma and then was named as the nation's youngest head coach at Utah in 1958. He only had a 42-39-1 record through 1965 but they had gone 8-2 in '64 and he was seen as innovative and bright. On December 11, 1965, Nagel was named as the head coach at Iowa and he brought in a completely new staff that included future Forty-Niner and Carolina Panther head man George Seifert. Calling '66 "The Year Of The Challenge", Nagel introduced a new uniform design, keeping the Green Bay gold helmet, reintroducing the black one-inch center stripe, and flanking it with white one-half-inch stripes. Simpler than the ’65 helmet that Burns utilized, the white flanking stripes definitely added a touch of class and excitement to the traditional Iowa helmet appearance. Nagel’s new offense featured the Wing-T with split end formation and he won his opener over Arizona with soph QB Ed Podolak having a big day. Nagel then unfortunately, watched the team struggle to a 2-8 record and a run of nineteen consecutive quarters without scoring a TD. Podolak finished second to Bob Griese of Purdue in Big Ten total offense, FB Silas McKinnie rushed for 516 yards which led the squad for the second straight season, and Al Bream proved to be a clutch receiver. Unfortunately, there were many injuries and the defense was inconsistent with Michigan State tagging them for 607 total yards in a 56-7 Hawkeye loss. Hoping for better results in 1967, progress was in part stymied with QB Ed Podolak injured vs. Minnesota at the season's half-way point. Mike Cilek stepped in but the team was limited in its available weapons. Again, All Big Ten HB McKinnie led the team in rushing for the third consecutive year with 588 yards and then left for a successful few seasons in the CFL. He shuffled between the Cards and Falcons in '72 and then went into coaching and administration and is currently the Pro Personnel scout for the Detroit Lions. Kicker Bob Anderson repeated as  a primary weapon and end Bream was the Big Ten's top receiver with 55 receptions for 703 yards. The 1-8-1 record could be laid at the feet of the defense with a per-game yield of four TD's and over 400 yards.

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