Are fan expectations from offensive coordinator Greg Davis too low?

AreWeThereYet

AreWeThereYet

Well-Known Member
There hasn’t been much enthusiasm for offensive coordinator Greg Davis since he joined the program two years ago. Complaints coming from Texas fans about Davis’s playing style plus a dismal first year at Iowa seem to have set expectations very low. Any possibility we are selling Davis short. Maybe he was much more a part of Texas success than Texas fans appreciate.

When Greg Davis came into the program in 2012, the immediate results where nothing short of a disastrous flop. Many, including myself, wondered whether Davis was a “fit” for the program and whether his style of play could work without the marquee players he had available at Texas. Some questioned his competence, attributing Texas’s success to their Marquee players despite Davis. I’ve never really bought into this, but the question of whether Davis really fits into this program is still valid.

Turn the page to last season. With all the limitations Iowa had on offense, they made a decent turn around, beating the teams they should have, but not performing particularly well against superior competition. To my admittedly uneducated eye, it appeared that Davis spent much of last year adapting himself to Iowa’s system, although he did bring in a favorite assistant Bobby Kennedy to coach wide receivers.

So next year will be Davis’s third at Iowa. That is often when a good offensive coordinator will start having results. Will Iowa’s offense take a big step forward, a little step forward, or will it just be another year of basic uninspired “Ferentz” ball.
 
AreWeThereYet said:
There hasn’t been much enthusiasm for offensive coordinator Greg Davis since he joined the program two years ago. Complaints coming from Texas fans about Davis’s playing style plus a dismal first year at Iowa seem to have set expectations very low. Any possibility we are selling Davis short. Maybe he was much more a part of Texas success than Texas fans appreciate.

When Greg Davis came into the program in 2012, the immediate results where nothing short of a disastrous flop. Many, including myself, wondered whether Davis was a “fit” for the program and whether his style of play could work without the marquee players he had available at Texas. Some questioned his competence, attributing Texas’s success to their Marquee players despite Davis. I’ve never really bought into this, but the question of whether Davis really fits into this program is still valid.

Turn the page to last season. With all the limitations Iowa had on offense, they made a decent turn around, beating the teams they should have, but not performing particularly well against superior competition. To my admittedly uneducated eye, it appeared that Davis spent much of last year adapting himself to Iowa’s system, although he did bring in a favorite assistant Bobby Kennedy to coach wide receivers.

So next year will be Davis’s third at Iowa. That is often when a good offensive coordinator will start having results. Will Iowa’s offense take a big step forward, a little step forward, or will it just be another year of basic uninspired “Ferentz” ball.
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You raise the question of the ages. While I can appreciate that he wanted "his" guy with Kennedy, Soup DID make improvements to WR fundamentals, notably, downfield blocking.

I think he has no choice BUT to adapt to what KF wants, but it's also his job to develop a system that will work with what he has in terms of talent pool.

It's easy to say he "only" succeeded at Texas because of marquee players when you consider who his QBs were. But I also think we saw, with Mack Brown's eventual "retirement', that GD may have fallen victim to the Official Sacrificial Lamb situation.

The basic situation at Iowa is this: we are a program that thrives on upperclass talent in our best years. Those players seem to excel the longer they have played, and though we have definitely had seniors who only had measurable success their senior season, the more PT they have had early on seems to correlate directly to senior success.

GD is, in a sense, lucky that he will have QBS the next two to three years who will have a good level of experience. Same with RB.

Where we seem to need the most "improvement" is at WR. If that happens, I think GD will have more success.
 
It amazed me how many in our fan base took the word of some stupid Texas fans about the quality of Davis. Well look how things turned out. Mack Brown hired a new razzed dazzle OC and they flopped. Now the legendary Brown has been forced out.

Davis shows up to handle a depleted roster and zero speed or talent at the skill positions. He states right away that we need more speed and play makers. Then takes the full blame for a dumpster fire that resulted. Now things look a little more promising.

Many of our fans only value someone when it looks like that person is wanted by another team and might leave. Then it is panic city.

Bottom line is it is always about wins and losses. When you win no one cares if your offense is vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Lose and the dogs come calling to pick everything apart.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
You raise the question of the ages. While I can appreciate that he wanted "his" guy with Kennedy, Soup DID make improvements to WR fundamentals, notably, downfield blocking.

I think he has no choice BUT to adapt to what KF wants, but it's also his job to develop a system that will work with what he has in terms of talent pool.

It's easy to say he "only" succeeded at Texas because of marquee players when you consider who his QBs were. But I also think we saw, with Mack Brown's eventual "retirement', that GD may have fallen victim to the Official Sacrificial Lamb situation.

The basic situation at Iowa is this: we are a program that thrives on upperclass talent in our best years. Those players seem to excel the longer they have played, and though we have definitely had seniors who only had measurable success their senior season, the more PT they have had early on seems to correlate directly to senior success.

GD is, in a sense, lucky that he will have QBS the next two to three years who will have a good level of experience. Same with RB.

Where we seem to need the most "improvement" is at WR. If that happens, I think GD will have more success.
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GD is lucky he will have experienced QB's the next couple of years? Isn't is partially responsible for that experience and their development? Guess I don't get why he's lucky. For his scheme to work Iowa needed better athletes especially on the outside which may be finally happening.
 
IowaFan81 said:
GD is lucky he will have experienced QB's the next couple of years? Isn't is partially responsible for that experience and their development? Guess I don't get why he's lucky. For his scheme to work Iowa needed better athletes especially on the outside which may be finally happening.
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What I meant by that is that he isn't in his first year, where, with JVB, we were trying to implement a new system, or at least new wrinkles. GD won't be working with inexperienced QBs for at least two years. That's never a bad thing.
 
It's rather obvious after spring ball, that getting something of a respectable passing game outside the tight ends is the number one priority right now. Iowa needs to make opposing defenses pay for putting 8 or 9 guys in the box. As soft as the schedule is next year, Iowa can probably get by fixing what isn't working and leaving alone what doesn't need immediate attention.
 
I believe the results have been nothing short of amazing. In his first year at the helm, he beat an BCS Team and won at Michigan State. Two really amazing feats.

In year two he took his offense from a ranking of 116 to the 85th best offense in College Football. Incredible improvement.

This year, with all the weapons he is developing...I believe we crack the top 50. He has Iowa's offense so multiple, we are goign to be an absolute nightmare to defend. All in the span of two years. Simply incredible.
 
I'll be with him as long as I can. Having said that, I've always thought he deserved three years. I wanted KoK gone in the worst way. Without going into boring details, we are better off than we were. He might not be perfect, but in my opinion he is so much better than we had from a recruiting perspective alone. Look KOK did fine. Even really good. It was just time for a change. And it wasn't just KoK. And it wasn't just offensive schemes either.
 
AreWeThereYet said:
...So next year will be Davis’s third at Iowa. That is often when a good offensive coordinator will start having results. Will Iowa’s offense take a big step forward, a little step forward, or will it just be another year of basic uninspired “Ferentzâ€￾ ball.
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If the Hawks take a "little step forward" on both sides of the ball then they will be a 10 win team. They loose one they shouldn't and they split the two home games at the end of the season. Do they go to the B1G championship game? Depends on the division as a whole.
 
I try not to have expectations for the offense...it's better that way, as my spirit won't get crushed from medium hopes
 
He did set the bar low with the 2012 season.
Expectations will be little higher this year with a returning QB.
 
Golfer said:
I'll be with him as long as I can. Having said that, I've always thought he deserved three years. I wanted KoK gone in the worst way. Without going into boring details, we are better off than we were. He might not be perfect, but in my opinion he is so much better than we had from a recruiting perspective alone. Look KOK did fine. Even really good. It was just time for a change. And it wasn't just KoK. And it wasn't just offensive schemes either.
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Just the upgrade in talent at the WR position over the last 2 recruiting classes has been impressive. I think we had some good years in WR talent at the beginning of the KF/KOK era, but it severely lagged over the last 10 years. Sure we had DJK, and McNutt became the best WR we have had in this time, but he was recruited as a QB.
 
Maybe we should ask the question as to being more cautiously optimistic.....Are fans more cautiously optimistic? We are recruiting play makers, the wide receiver corps/TE corps should be very good, but I still have my own reservations when it comes to our offense.....we need to get back to smash-mouth, kickem' in the n*ts kind of football
 
All kidding aside, the offense is going to be much better in 2014. They did well last year against weak or middle of the road defenses, but struggled against top tier defenses (MSU, Wisconsin, and LSU). I think they will be more prepared to attack those defenses with speed on the outside.

A couple of things to think about...the team gave up a league best 13 sacks in 2014. With essentially 4 starters back (Donnal moving to tackle), there is no reason to think protection for Rudock won't be similar or better. I think it will.

Second, with the maturation of Smith, Powell, Hillyer, and Vandeberg...you have guys that are threats to stretch the defense and make safeties play more honest in the running game. Add in Willies and you have serious speed possibly at all the wideouts and they can be on the field at the same time...Smith, Powell, and Willies. If Rudock shows he can throw a consistent deep ball that burns defenses...our running game just got better.

I think our offense is poised to break out. More experienced QB, more experienced WR, more experienced OL, and more experienced RB...and more speed at the skill positions. I know we will go four wide and I think we also run out of that position more than we did last year...advantage Iowa.
 
HawksMN said:
I wouldn't get the hopes sky high. Our returning QB's were pretty pedestrian last season.
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You realize we're talking about expectations being higher than they were when we had absolutely no idea what the starter could do, right?
 
if our QB can through the deep ball we will be very good this year as long as the OL stays healthy. If he cant I don't see how we are much better than last year
 
My thing last year was how many times did they run the same play twice or three times in a row? It only worked againts ISU. It wasnt fooling anyone.
 
Based on last season, I like the direction the offense is headed. I think Davis is now getting his type of players for the offense he wants to run. He said right out of the gate this team needed to recruit more speed at the receiver position and I think we are seeing that. I like the pace of the offense. I like the quick-hit passes. I like that we are no longer so darn predictable. I would like to see us take a few more shots downfield to keep the dbacks honest. Other than that I think Davis has been a nice addition to the staff.
 
HawksMN said:
I wouldn't get the hopes sky high. Our returning QB's were pretty pedestrian last season.
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what specifically did you have a problem with considering Jake was a first time starter? I would say that Jake played well and exceeded expectations.
 
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