Howe: Time for Change

Iowa is 110th in D-1 3rd down conversion percentage not including today’s game (.339), so after today we’re slightly worse than that.
 
Winning triumps over style.

But this team just isn't fun to watch at all. They let lesser teams stay close, get demolished by really good teams and just hope the other team screws up more than them.
 
Line of the year..

The choice spoke to Kirk Ferentz's faith in his defense and lack of it in his son's offense.

Brian Ferentz should have been shown the door when Chris Doyle was shown it. We all know it yet we all knew it would not happen with dad in charge. Karma is a bitch!

10 wins aside, this is a horrible offense to watch and the players are better than the offensive philosophy KF and BF use.
 
We all make jokes about him but Kirk is highly intelligent. There is no way he doesn’t want the offense to be drastically better. So why does nothing change?

I agree nepotism is part of it but Kirk has never let his OC alone, the offense is mostly Kirk’s vision.
 
Iowa is 110th in D-1 3rd down conversion percentage not including today’s game (.339), so after today we’re slightly worse than that.
Yo? What BRAND of Teflon does the H/c use? Anyway players gave it hell. Go Hawks and waay cool fans.. Best
 
We all make jokes about him but Kirk is highly intelligent. There is no way he doesn’t want the offense to be drastically better. So why does nothing change?

I agree nepotism is part of it but Kirk has never let his OC alone, the offense is mostly Kirk’s visio
Don’t forget cronyism. Bringing KOK back at a ridiculous salary after nearly every Iowa QB under him at Iowa got worse as time went on was never questioned. There was no formal hiring/search process. Same with Greg Davis. Same with Brian. Kirk, like our government today, has far too much power. At this point Kirk cares more about his friends and family than the Iowa football program and it couldn’t be more obvious. NO ONE keeps their job in the private sector with Brian’s performance. Instead of hitting the unemployment line, Bri will get a bonus larger than 95% of Iowan’s yearly salary.
 
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I also felt like KF might be holding back BF. But BF's answer about the team's offensive identity earlier this week made me wonder if that's the case. Maybe they are of the same mind when it comes to offensive football.
 
You would think we would at least be better at developing and maintaining depth within the O Line. There is no reason with this staff and the history of Iowa and their O linemen that our O line should ever be bad. That is a huge and problematic issue for Iowa.
 
I also felt like KF might be holding back BF. But BF's answer about the team's offensive identity earlier this week made me wonder if that's the case. Maybe they are of the same mind when it comes to offensive football.
I think you’re right about KF holding Brian back. I’m wondering if after being held back by dad that now they are of the same mind. This is what I would guess but it’s nothing more than how I perceive things to have gone.
 
I was a proponent of hiring Brian as OC because I thought it might loosen up the old man.


I think many people felt this way, at some point in time. It didn't happen obviously. I'm past, way past, the point of hoping year after year it will happen.
 
I also felt like KF might be holding back BF. But BF's answer about the team's offensive identity earlier this week made me wonder if that's the case. Maybe they are of the same mind when it comes to offensive football.
He wants to run the McDaniels offense from his time in New England. That means short passes, and situational running. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to make it work, and Iowa hasn't been a great running team for a long time. He needs, first and foremost, to eliminate every horizontal route short of the marker in short yardage situations. That alone increases first downs substantially.
 
You would think we would at least be better at developing and maintaining depth within the O Line. There is no reason with this staff and the history of Iowa and their O linemen that our O line should ever be bad. That is a huge and problematic issue for Iowa.

To my eye that is the whole damned problem. We can rarely block a 3-4. We no longer have depth or a solid 5 across and haven't had that since 2015 (when Brian was the line coach and did a GREAT job). There's always at least one turnstile on the line, often two or three. Guys get good, as we saw with Wirfs, but it is unbearable to watch when we have freshmen playing tackle, even freaking Wirfs who is an elite tackle.

I'll still defend Brian Ferentz. You watch the games and guys are open all over the place, but the damned line is so bad that the QBs are more worried about who is gonna whiff their block than they are about who is breaking open. I even think Petras and Padilla are both solid QBs, but when you routinely have the tailback getting dumped 4 yards deep and you have no confidence that you will get a clean pocket even for one read let alone three it is pretty damned hard to run an offense.
 
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