B1G has an Iowa Problem

[Tfunkhawkeye]

I wouldn't call it regime change with respect to the the coaching staff. The administration and some of the athletic department? Yes, throw them out. A couple of the Board of Regents (both political ideologies)? Throw them out also.

I'm not a KF hater, but I'm concerned. I think it is time to look for an exit strategy and perpetuation plan that allows some type of smooth transition.

Look, I thought Hayden stayed too long also. I didn't hate Hayden, and I don't hate Kirk Ferentz. I do think one stayed too long, and it is starting to look like so is the other.

Lots of people on here have had to either discipline or terminate an employee. I personally have never found it an easy thing to do. Easier to post about it on a message board certainly.

DITTO
The proper realization and execution of this will be what keeps us from becoming Minny.
Its not easy. Head is sand just ensures the 98-01 hole again.

 

[74Hunter]

Liked the article, and would agree Big Ten is stuck, in the mud, look how long it took both basketball tourney, and how long it took football to get a championship game. The assistants and recruiting are the key, and the Big Ten does not do well in either category.

I don't see the recruiting getting much better unless better recruits are geographically located closer to the B1G schools or we start paying them as much as the $EC pays them.

 

[cincyhawk]

I don't see the recruiting getting much better unless better recruits are geographically located closer to the B1G schools or we start paying them as much as the $EC pays them.

That's not really what the SEC schools do.

What they do is offer more scholarships than what they have available to give in any given recruiting year. Once a player commits, they show up in camp and compete for a spot. If someone shows promise, they look at the players they already have on scholarship and take it away from the worst performers already on scholarship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oversigning

It's cutthroat, but it is legal, so it is a way to ensure that you always have most of the talent even with the 85 player scholarship rule.

 

[LASBUR]

I understand that point of view. I just think they felt they had a chance to win most games. Remember they were in pretty much all of them. I thought they were going to beat Neb. last game of the year. If he knew he was going to lose he might have done it different. Don't think he wanted a 4 win season

I agree, JVB was the best option at QB in 2012 but my primary point was why not use the latter half of the season to build experience for next year? Did KF actually think that JVB could turn it around in each of their last 6 games like he did in the 2011 Pitt game? Additionally, where would we have been had JVB gotten hurt like Stanzi did in 2009? Was anyone prepared to step in? No, even though JVB played a tremendous game against O$U that year, who was prepared to take over for JVB in 2012 if he was unable to play?

The extremely ironic thing is that KF has said it himself - game experience matters, so if he believes that, why wouldn't he give his players the opportunity to gain that experience whenever possible?

 

[DJL]

2012 Was completely different. JVB was our best option. We had a lot of problems of which JVB was the least. WRs had no idea what to do. Im told the WR coach didn't even know the offense. This year we seem to have a option. We don't know if Beathard is better but I would love to see him get a chance.

You are right, but when you aren't going to make a bowl game, and you are getting pounded into the ground, there is no reason not to get someone who will be with the program a few more years some snaps. But KF I guess still had hope that it would all miraculously come together and they could still win out to make a bowl game. Just like he thinks the offense will suddenly turn around this year. I don't see it happening, but I want to be wrong.

All I know is that CJB came in the game, and provided a spark. The body language was different on the team. He threw the ball down field, and should have had a TD. If Powell doesn't ever so slightly bobble the ball, it would have been the best drive of the year, and he only threw 3 passes. Since that time, other than playing against Ball State's prevent defense (horrible coaching decision by them,) we have done very little on offense. Even some of the scoring drives seem to be a painful struggle. I'm ready for a leader to come in and give this team some swagger and a spark. I like Jake, but he just looks lost. If he can come out with some confidence and give us spark, fine, but I don't see it happening.

 

[cincyhawk]

That's not really what the SEC schools do.

What they do is offer more scholarships than what they have available to give in any given recruiting year. Once a player commits, they show up in camp and compete for a spot. If someone shows promise, they look at the players they already have on scholarship and take it away from the worst performers already on scholarship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oversigning

It's cutthroat, but it is legal, so it is a way to ensure that you always have most of the talent even with the 85 player scholarship rule.

The biggest thing I learned about while living in Ohio, is that some high school programs that are known for producing D1 athletes will scout players in pee-wee and junior high. If they think a kid has talent, but needs an extra year to develop physically before entering high school, the coaches will encourage the child to flunk on purpose and thus be held back another year so that they can hit the weight room or hit a growth spurt before entering high school. This is done so that the high school teams have fully developed talent. It reminds me of the Dominican baseball development academies. It's done in high-profile basketball programs as well.

With the connections college coaches now have to the top high school football factories, you have to wonder how deep the legal but unethical hole goes.

 

[LASBUR]

DJL I cant argue with anything you said. Granted we have not been at practice where playing time is earned. But our offense has been so terrible I would love to see Beathard have the Pitt game to see what he can do

You are right, but when you aren't going to make a bowl game, and you are getting pounded into the ground, there is no reason not to get someone who will be with the program a few more years some snaps. But KF I guess still had hope that it would all miraculously come together and they could still win out to make a bowl game. Just like he thinks the offense will suddenly turn around this year. I don't see it happening, but I want to be wrong.

All I know is that CJB came in the game, and provided a spark. The body language was different on the team. He threw the ball down field, and should have had a TD. If Powell doesn't ever so slightly bobble the ball, it would have been the best drive of the year, and he only threw 3 passes. Since that time, other than playing against Ball State's prevent defense (horrible coaching decision by them,) we have done very little on offense. Even some of the scoring drives seem to be a painful struggle. I'm ready for a leader to come in and give this team some swagger and a spark. I like Jake, but he just looks lost. If he can come out with some confidence and give us spark, fine, but I don't see it happening.

 

[JHHawk]

The Forbes guy is from IOwa, and went to jNW is my understanding. I agree. Both with what he has written, and about why he is on some sort of media elitist mission.

I really believe that the response to the Forbes article the day before drove the decision to go back to back. They make their bones with hits, and the first article proved that if they write about Iowa football, they get more hits....so they go back to the trough with another Iowa article. Iowa fans are among the more active on-line.

I do not think he is a NW beat writer, tho....could be wrong.

 

[DJI9424]

I understand that point of view. I just think they felt they had a chance to win most games. Remember they were in pretty much all of them. I thought they were going to beat Neb. last game of the year. If he knew he was going to lose he might have done it different. Don't think he wanted a 4 win season

They were in each game in the same sense they are this year - their defense has been effective. But to watch JVB struggle as he did in 2012, it actually would have been merciful on KF's part to let someone else gain some experience at the end of last 6 games because the final outcome had effectively been decided.

Also, did KF do any kind of post-game/post-season analysis of what caused them to be so offensively unproductive in 2012? And why would you wait until the end of the season to look into the reasons for the lack of production? JVB clearly had talent, as evidenced by what he did the previous year, so what happened to put him into such a decline in production? That's when effective coaching was most necessary, yet did we see evidence of such from KF?

It's the same thing this year - KF's approach is just to get back to work, we need to execute better, that's football, ad nauseam. Well, that might be some of it but it's far from the full answer and I'm sure his coaching peers would tell him so (if he would listen). That's the rub, how long will he stick to something that is not working? I hope he learns something and does not squander the remainder of this season as he did in 2012.

 

[LASBUR]

9424 They were well aware of there problems in 2012. The biggest I think was coaching staff not on the same page. In retrospect KF probley should have turned it over in one year instead of takng two. But that would go against his personality. It was bad. He does a good job turning it around last year. Lost little on offense and now this. If we don't look lot better this week Something is wrong on the team I am guessing

 

[MoseSchrute]

Dude, a beat writer for Northwestern is calling for KFz head... in Forbes. What's it going to take, GQ calling for the coach to step down before you realize that the coaching staff has done a poor job? Maybe Conan O'Brien can chime in on it too.

It is so bad that lots of voices outside of the fanbase and beat writers are telling us that something is rotten in Iowa City. Time to be our not to be.

Hey, I was just asking for Golfer's opinion there. I've wanted Kirk gone for about 3 years now.

 

[cincyhawk]

Hey, I was just asking for Golfer's opinion there. I've wanted Kirk gone for about 3 years now.

The interwebs have a no sarcasm tag problem. My bad. Have an upvote for calling me out on my hostility.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

That's not really what the SEC schools do.

What they do is offer more scholarships than what they have available to give in any given recruiting year. Once a player commits, they show up in camp and compete for a spot. If someone shows promise, they look at the players they already have on scholarship and take it away from the worst performers already on scholarship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oversigning

It's cutthroat, but it is legal, so it is a way to ensure that you always have most of the talent even with the 85 player scholarship rule.

We need to align our entrance requirements to that of our competitors in order to take advantage of all of the untapped opportunity that is out there. That is corporate speak for we can't have higher entrance standards than the $EC, for sports.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

...and the best southern teams have taken some of the top recruits from Big Ten country. You can’t blame geography when one of the top recruits in your region says you aren’t trying hard enough.

Ross Pierschbacher

B.S KF was CONSTANTLY on the phone with Pierschbacher. You lose $EC recruiting battles for one reason, and it ain't "ethics".

 

[ArvadaHawk]

I respectfully disagree. We owe him a friendly departure based on things he has accomplished in the past. Notwithstanding the recent debacles, he has accomplished a lot. I'm not saying he shouldn't go. I'm saying the admin at Iowa needs to find a way to do this without negative consequences.

Again, I think Hayden stayed too long. I think he ran the program down at the end. I thought he needed to go, but in that case we couldn't just screw him over. I believe the same applies to KF.

Don't misunderstand any of this as my accepting what I'm seeing on the field right now. Although I agree about execution as much as that rubs others the wrong way, I absolutely disagree with the passing game, and I put most of the loss and lack of performance on the coaching staff this season.

Golfer, I agree we owe a "friendly departure" but that is because it would help lessen the impact on recruiting. I think KF should be presented with a couple of suitable options, but I don't think he should get to decide the "when." To me, KF has spent most all of the goodwill he built up between '02-'04. Since then, we've had three 8+ win regular seasons. We've had a full decade worth of patience with the man and he, stedfastly, refuses to bring his philosophies into the 21st century.

Look, we know recruiting at Iowa can be much better than what it has been. Iowa had a top 10 recruiting class in '05. Most of that class fizzled out due to injuries and transfers. However, reflecting deeper, I believe that KF didn't like having to deal with the ego's that come with the higher rated recruits. That is approximately, when Iowa became an unsexy developmental program. KF has managed and coached this program to exactly what it is, today.

 

[Golfer]

I don't know what the answer is. I have absolutely no control over the situation. I'm going to watch the game and hope for the best. It is very, very difficult being an Iowa football fan, and has been for some time. I disagree with some posters and certainly some administration and coaching positions, but I don't hate either because I disagree.

Having said this, I enjoy road games more than home games now, and it's been that way for the last several seasons. To me at least, going to the DC area allows me to do other things than just a football game.