spudhawk
Well-Known Member
Some of you will see some of the reasons I list here as excuses. Some of you won't. Some of you will see me unfairly criticizing coaches and some of you won't think I am going far enough. A lot of things happened this season that led the Hawkeyes to this point and not all of it was the fault of the team.
Something that is always out of the staff's control is injuries. Iowa lost these key players this season to injuries for varying length- Jewel Hampton, Jeff Tarpinian, Tyler Nielsen, Adam Gettis, Nolan MacMillan, Shaun Prater, Adam Robinson, Marcus Coker, Jeremiha Hunter, and Daniel Murray.
To me the biggest injuries of the season were Nielsen and Tarp. There play was scrutinized while they were healthy but there production was outstanding and Iowa held a potent Arizona team to 20 points in unfavorable conditions. The linebacker play has been unsteady this season. Hunter has not been his normal self since he suffered a knee injury and has not shown his normal physicality or closing speed since injuring it. Obviously I think that Morris and DiBona have bright futures but I don't think that they were playing at the level of Nielsen or Tarp.
Losing Hampton was also a big blow and not having Coker for the early part of the season was like thousand paper cuts. He could have gotten early playing experience in the blowout games like EIU and ISU. That would have certainly eased the loss of Hampton and eased the load on Robinson all season.
Murray was an enigma throughout his Iowa career. I personally didn't trust him. I am not sure how I feel about how the Iowa staff has handled Mossbrucker. I think they have screwed with his head and wouldn't be surprised if he transferred. Meyer certainly has the potential to handle the role for the next three seasons.
Now on to the staff. Under Ferentz Iowa has struggled when they have entered a season with high expectations. That may be an understatement. This was certainly his most veteran and talented team in his 12 seasons. Iowa will probably send a record number of players on to be drafted from this team. In 20 years people will wonder how a team this talented will have sent so many players on to the NFL and had such a paltry 7-5 in the regular season and 4-4 in the Big Ten. Iowa's coaching staff had its own issues to deal with losing Norm Parker mid- season, however they have been dealing with that issue since the ISU game. That is no longer an excuse to me. This defensive staff has been basically intact for 4 seasons. Coach K (can't think how to spell his name right now will edit it in later) was a grad assistant before taking over. The last in game adjustments I really noticed was in versus Arizona. Iowa's blitzes are terrible in design and do not fool a veteran QB, which Iowa's schedule was littered with this season. Accounting for player development Iowa should have had an even more talented defense this season than last. For this defense to struggle this season the way it has, especially in the fourth quarter is on the coaches. They have consistently struggled to put their players in winning positions. They have rarely tried something that a common opponent had success with. PSU consistently contained Prior by blitzing an OLB extremely wide and coming at him from behindand looping the DE and DT on that side. I never once saw anything like this from Iowa. Minnesota was having success running the ball to the short side over and over in the first half, send Hunter from the weak side. Adjust, do something other than expect your guys to play better.
Offensively more of the same. Iowa does what it does regardless of what the defense struggles to defend. Iowa attacks the teams best corner even if the opposing corner couldn't cover his A** with two hands. Iowa's gameplans in the first 8 weeks were well conceived and very well executed. Even when the doors fell off against Arizona Iowa managed to adjust on the fly and claw back into the game leading at one point in that game. In the 9th game and onwards something happened. Either the staff didn't trust Coker enough or the loss of Gettis and MacMillan coupled with the injury to Robinson was just too much for the offense to overcome. KOK was very inconsistent with what he seemed to be trying to establish. Iowa has forgotten about the screen game which this o-line has excelled at all season. If they are available to the press conference I beg someone to ask him a specific play called that was designed or put in the plan based off the previous week's film study. Again Iowa does what it does because that is what they do. That is a great way to build a team. When you have the pieces put in to place you can do more with them. It was nice to see the slant return this week however.
Finally I could care less if Kirk is emotionless on the sideline. Players at this level should motivate themselves. Leadership at this level generally comes from the players. Obviously the loss of Angerer and Edds was more than just their athletic gifts. They were never adequately replaced for their heart.
I will love these Seniors, I love all Hawkeyes. But my heart is broken today.
Patrick Webb
Something that is always out of the staff's control is injuries. Iowa lost these key players this season to injuries for varying length- Jewel Hampton, Jeff Tarpinian, Tyler Nielsen, Adam Gettis, Nolan MacMillan, Shaun Prater, Adam Robinson, Marcus Coker, Jeremiha Hunter, and Daniel Murray.
To me the biggest injuries of the season were Nielsen and Tarp. There play was scrutinized while they were healthy but there production was outstanding and Iowa held a potent Arizona team to 20 points in unfavorable conditions. The linebacker play has been unsteady this season. Hunter has not been his normal self since he suffered a knee injury and has not shown his normal physicality or closing speed since injuring it. Obviously I think that Morris and DiBona have bright futures but I don't think that they were playing at the level of Nielsen or Tarp.
Losing Hampton was also a big blow and not having Coker for the early part of the season was like thousand paper cuts. He could have gotten early playing experience in the blowout games like EIU and ISU. That would have certainly eased the loss of Hampton and eased the load on Robinson all season.
Murray was an enigma throughout his Iowa career. I personally didn't trust him. I am not sure how I feel about how the Iowa staff has handled Mossbrucker. I think they have screwed with his head and wouldn't be surprised if he transferred. Meyer certainly has the potential to handle the role for the next three seasons.
Now on to the staff. Under Ferentz Iowa has struggled when they have entered a season with high expectations. That may be an understatement. This was certainly his most veteran and talented team in his 12 seasons. Iowa will probably send a record number of players on to be drafted from this team. In 20 years people will wonder how a team this talented will have sent so many players on to the NFL and had such a paltry 7-5 in the regular season and 4-4 in the Big Ten. Iowa's coaching staff had its own issues to deal with losing Norm Parker mid- season, however they have been dealing with that issue since the ISU game. That is no longer an excuse to me. This defensive staff has been basically intact for 4 seasons. Coach K (can't think how to spell his name right now will edit it in later) was a grad assistant before taking over. The last in game adjustments I really noticed was in versus Arizona. Iowa's blitzes are terrible in design and do not fool a veteran QB, which Iowa's schedule was littered with this season. Accounting for player development Iowa should have had an even more talented defense this season than last. For this defense to struggle this season the way it has, especially in the fourth quarter is on the coaches. They have consistently struggled to put their players in winning positions. They have rarely tried something that a common opponent had success with. PSU consistently contained Prior by blitzing an OLB extremely wide and coming at him from behindand looping the DE and DT on that side. I never once saw anything like this from Iowa. Minnesota was having success running the ball to the short side over and over in the first half, send Hunter from the weak side. Adjust, do something other than expect your guys to play better.
Offensively more of the same. Iowa does what it does regardless of what the defense struggles to defend. Iowa attacks the teams best corner even if the opposing corner couldn't cover his A** with two hands. Iowa's gameplans in the first 8 weeks were well conceived and very well executed. Even when the doors fell off against Arizona Iowa managed to adjust on the fly and claw back into the game leading at one point in that game. In the 9th game and onwards something happened. Either the staff didn't trust Coker enough or the loss of Gettis and MacMillan coupled with the injury to Robinson was just too much for the offense to overcome. KOK was very inconsistent with what he seemed to be trying to establish. Iowa has forgotten about the screen game which this o-line has excelled at all season. If they are available to the press conference I beg someone to ask him a specific play called that was designed or put in the plan based off the previous week's film study. Again Iowa does what it does because that is what they do. That is a great way to build a team. When you have the pieces put in to place you can do more with them. It was nice to see the slant return this week however.
Finally I could care less if Kirk is emotionless on the sideline. Players at this level should motivate themselves. Leadership at this level generally comes from the players. Obviously the loss of Angerer and Edds was more than just their athletic gifts. They were never adequately replaced for their heart.
I will love these Seniors, I love all Hawkeyes. But my heart is broken today.
Patrick Webb
