Is This the Ferentz Era Low Point?

The first time in my 31 years of watching Iowa football I can't wait til the season ends.
 
HawkeyeShane said:
Thanks HawkU...the question now is, can the chart be turned upside down with everyone at the board meeting watching?
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Good question and I don't know. Again if Ferentz were a stock the general rule of thumb is to cut your losses as soon as possible instead of riding it into the ground. The problem is Barta went "long" - really long.
 
HawkU said:
Good question and I don't know. Again if Ferentz were a stock the general rule of thumb is to cut your losses as soon as possible instead of riding it into the ground. The problem is Barta went "long" - really long.
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Exactly...there's no way to dump it even if Barta wanted to.
 
sdschroe said:
Nice post Jon. A few thoughts:

1) The poor play this season mostly can be traced to the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes, which were an indirect result of poor 2006 and 2007 seasons. So it is concerning what kind of impact this season will have on recruiting in, say, 2014.

2) You could see this coming in 2010. In 2009, Iowa was great, and lost a handful of great players (Bulaga, Spivey, Angerer, Moeaki, Edds). But the 2010 Hawks still returned a ton of talent, including all their skill players, and numerous draft picks on defense. There was reason for high optimism. But the 2010 team pretty much had no contribution from the 2009 class except for Micah Hyde. There just wasn't any talent there. If the 2009 class was an average Ferentz class, that 2010 team wins 2 or 3 more games. Incidentally, I suspect that is why you predicted such a great record for 2010 - you assumed there would be solid contributions, on special teams if nothing else, from the 2009 class.

3) The talent level of the team Iowa is putting on the field is low. But we are being out-coached and out-schemed as well. For several years, it seemed like Iowa won more games than their talent level would suggest because we had better coaches. The last 3 years it seems like was are losing more games than our talent suggests we should, and it, right or wrong, it feels like coaching is a big part of that.
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Well said, this has become painfully obvious at this point. I really think KF tried very hard to address the scheme aspect this last offseason. I think what KF is finding out, is that trying to combine a power zone run game with a quick hitting west coast passing game just isn't working. It takes different types of players. If you want to run the power zone running game, we need bigger physical WR to block and be possession type receivers. If you want to be a quick hitting west coast timing passing game, you want quicker WR that can make a defender miss, and then make a big gain out of it.

I wonder what direction this goes next year. If we continue to try to combine a power zone run game, with the quick timing west coast passing game, my guess is we will continue to look terrible on the offensive side of the ball.
 
sdschroe said:
3) The talent level of the team Iowa is putting on the field is low. But we are being out-coached and out-schemed as well...
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Nice post. I read an article awhile back that the writer posed the hypothesis that Iowa was pretty vanilla because of the recruits Ferentz gets. (whether intentionally or if he feels that's all he can get is up for debate)

His theory was because Iowa has to spend so much time on development and fundamentals that there is not enough time left to tailor effective schemes against opponent's weaknesses.

I don't know how true it is but an interesting theory anyway.

Would like to see HawkeyeGameFilm's take on that.
 
Not yet. After Nebby hangs 40 on us @ Kinnick that will be the low point. The team will quit after the half. It will be unbearable to watch the slaughter fest. We will end the year tied or dead last in the Legends division pending if Minny can beat Mich St. We might also be the only team in the Legends to not go bowling.... Talk about epic failure!

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I am concerned that the Nebraska game will represent the low point of the Kirk Ferentz era. I believe this team is slightly better than the 1999 team but it is clearly the second worst team of this era. That being said, Iowa has never (in my memory) had Kinnick taken over by opposing fans like Iowa used to do to Minnesota at the Dome. That could be the case in two weeks. That coupled with a bad loss would, in my opinion, represent the lowest point of the Kirk Ferentz era.
 
I think it is definately the low point although I have a theory on why... I think this was a sacraficial season on Kirks part which could make him a genius. Hear me out. Through his years as a coach at Iowa he has learned that his teams play well as underdogs. Next year we shouldn't be favored to beat a high school team if we were to scrimmage them, and that was by the Captains design. He has been "outcoached" by coaches of Central Michigan as a tactic to keep his abilities hidden from NFL teams looking to poach him for his superior skills. I think he knows he has a national championship level QB (maybe two) flying under the radar and will be looking to have and offensive explosion with the assistance of the great Greg Davis. Why else haven't we seen another QB get minutes (so his secret doesn't get out)?! All you haters that are complaining about where the program is at just wait until next year and we beat Iowa State in the NC game.

Go Hawks!
Go Kirk Ferentz!
2014 National Championship Campaign!
 
Xerxes said:
I am concerned that the Nebraska game will represent the low point of the Kirk Ferentz era. I believe this team is slightly better than the 1999 team but it is clearly the second worst team of this era. That being said, Iowa has never (in my memory) had Kinnick taken over by opposing fans like Iowa used to do to Minnesota at the Dome. That could be the case in two weeks. That coupled with a bad loss would, in my opinion, represent the lowest point of the Kirk Ferentz era.
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Good post - that sea of red in Kinnick and the beatdown on the field after T-giving is going to be unbearable to watch. I would point out though that in Hayden's last year when the Badgers (Rose Bowl year) came to Kinnick they won 31-0 and there was an awful lot of red that day as well.
 
vegashawki said:
I think it is definately the low point although I have a theory on why... I think this was a sacraficial season on Kirks part which could make him a genius. Hear me out. Through his years as a coach at Iowa he has learned that his teams play well as underdogs. Next year we shouldn't be favored to beat a high school team if we were to scrimmage them, and that was by the Captains design. He has been "outcoached" by coaches of Central Michigan as a tactic to keep his abilities hidden from NFL teams looking to poach him for his superior skills. I think he knows he has a national championship level QB (maybe two) flying under the radar and will be looking to have and offensive explosion with the assistance of the great Greg Davis. Why else haven't we seen another QB get minutes (so his secret doesn't get out)?! All you haters that are complaining about where the program is at just wait until next year and we beat Iowa State in the NC game.

Go Hawks!
Go Kirk Ferentz!
2014 National Championship Campaign!
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Ultimate Extreme Hopism.......Wow....
 
trj said:
The first time in my 31 years of watching Iowa football I can't wait til the season ends.
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Even in the last years of Lauterbur and Commins, I don't remember being this dismal. Some of our drubbings back then actually had inspiring moments....
 
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I find the disclaimer that Jon used in his article, very important to the problem that we are facing.
It can be difficult to compare teams to past years, because of how much the game changes over the course of time. The game of college football is in the midst of a significant offensive transition, so to compare numbers from 2012 to 1999 doesn’t make a great deal of sense, though the numbers are still frightening for the current state of affairs.

​After 13+ years, college football offenses have changed but KF hasnt. I dont think you need to look much further.
 
yeah, a home beatdown by Nebby will be the low point, but the apathy will be so bad that the meltdown on here won't be all that bad.
 
Yes, this is the lowest point. When Kirk first started we saw progress each year. Our teams continued to get better. We saw progress. The differences now: We seem to regress as the year goes on instead of years past when we got better as the season progressed. This is year #3 of regression. Year #4 does not look to be much better. Sure, we will be a year older but the talent seems to be missing. How long will fans continue to be patient and sing the Cubs old adage of "wait 'til next year."
 
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