Better not look past NIU

[83Hawk]

Just Friday I was thinking about how nice would it be to go into a season with the optimism that the Wisconsin fans have. They are expected to win the west and possibly the conference title and make it to the playoff. When was the last time we had reason to have those types of expectations. All we get is excuses this position is weak or that player is hurt, Having followed the program back about seven years before Fry got here it kinda feels like me that we are in a rut and we can’t get out of it. Having suffered the pre Hayden Fry days and then the Hayden Fry era it almost feels like we are stuck some where between those two eras.

Things aren’t as bad as it was before Hayden got here but yet I don’t sense the enthusiasm and excitement going into the season like there used to be. Why would there be? Our offense seems to be as plain vanilla as it possibly could be and just seems lacking creativity. It appears that the fan base has accepted mediocrity and demand nothing more. I am hoping that with a year under his belt that Brian can bring something new to the offense. This year will prove if this football program is advancing forward or is forever stuck in a ditch until Barta and his gang are gone.

Good post.

The Hawks have probably the best group of TE’s in college football. Absolutely no excuse for not throwing out 2-3 TE sets routinely. Fant is a matchup problem for opposing defenses. This is a huge advantage for the Hawks that needs to be exploited often.

 

[BaileyTurner]

Just reading through some of these replies...I don't find a team that can go 8-4 'average' or 'mediocre' that seems rather silly to me. How many teams annually win 8 games a season? I feel like this has whole thing has gotten blown out of proportion, the suspensions, etc. I also think we can fully draw a conclusion on Brian after his 3rd year unless this year is an absolute train wreck (which I doubt). So that being said Iowa won't look past N. Illinois for one second like KF said yesterday he's focusing on Iowa, as he should be. It doesn't matter who Iowa is playing they have to 'get right' with themselves first because that's what's most important especially in the non-conference where they mostly play teams that are inferior to Iowa at the point of attack.

 

[tksirius]

Just reading through some of these replies...I don't find a team that can go 8-4 'average' or 'mediocre' that seems rather silly to me. How many teams annually win 8 games a season? I feel like this has whole thing has gotten blown out of proportion, the suspensions, etc. I also think we can fully draw a conclusion on Brian after his 3rd year unless this year is an absolute train wreck (which I doubt). So that being said Iowa won't look past N. Illinois for one second like KF said yesterday he's focusing on Iowa, as he should be. It doesn't matter who Iowa is playing they have to 'get right' with themselves first because that's what's most important especially in the non-conference where they mostly play teams that are inferior to Iowa at the point of attack.

What do you consider a train wreck? Is a Total Offense ranking of 116th a train wreck?

 

[ModebaSan]

Things aren’t as bad as it was before Hayden got here but yet I don’t sense theenthusiasm and excitement going into theseason like there used to be. Why wouldthere be? Our offense seems to be as plain vanilla as it possibly could be and just seems lacking creativity. It appears that the fan base has accepted mediocrity and demand nothing more. I am hoping that with a year under his belt that Brian can bringsomething new to the offense. This year willprove if this football program is advancingforward or is forever stuck in a ditch untilBarta and his gang are gone.

Who would you bring in to replace Barta and his gang? If BF winds up as our next coach, I can see the benefits of having continuity. At least he has tried some different schemes. Bring in someone who doesn’t understand our culture and you will be in for another Todd Lickliter type of football coach wherein it might be years before we even get back to our average winning ways.

 

[BaileyTurner]

What do you consider a train wreck? Is a Total Offense ranking of 116th a train wreck?

The offense last year had some really nice moments and some pretty tough ones too, a first year OC, new starting QB, with uncertainty at WR can happen to any college football team (look around). I think they have found the answers to some of these questions at QB, WR/TE, and you would have to expect BF to show some growth. If Iowa retains the stars on the offense going into next year thats when I expect the BF offense to 'arrive'.

Train Wreck: If the offense doesn't score enough points to win the game, meaning when a defense holds a team to 17 points you better win the game. Examples: @MSU, @NW, @Wisc (but that was train wreck all together), vs PUR (that game was just weird).

They were just very inconsistent last year (which was expected for reasons above) and they still won 8 games. BF's offense did score over 40 points in 4 games.. when was the last time that happened at Iowa? Year one IMO was a success. It was different, and you simply can't deny that. I'm excited to see the tweaks to offense -- give him a shot.

 

[cincyhawk]

The offense last year had some really nice moments and some pretty tough ones too, a first year OC, new starting QB, with uncertainty at WR can happen to any college football team (look around). I think they have found the answers to some of these questions at QB, WR/TE, and you would have to expect BF to show some growth. If Iowa retains the stars on the offense going into next year thats when I expect the BF offense to 'arrive'.

Train Wreck: If the offense doesn't score enough points to win the game, meaning when a defense holds a team to 17 points you better win the game. Examples: @MSU, @NW, @Wisc (but that was train wreck all together), vs PUR (that game was just weird).

They were just very inconsistent last year (which was expected for reasons above) and they still won 8 games. BF's offense did score over 40 points in 4 games.. when was the last time that happened at Iowa? Year one IMO was a success. It was different, and you simply can't deny that. I'm excited to see the tweaks to offense -- give him a shot.

No, it wasn't a success. Let's not be insane Iowa State fan. By every statistical ranking we were horrible on offense. Other than OSU, we beat precisely no one of significance. We play only two good teams this year, really. PSU and WISC. We should win every other game on paper. We won't, but that's why they play.

If our offense can be top 40, and our defense remains on par, we probably would average 9 wins a year. It hasn't been. It works against poor teams and one game a year the entire offense is on the same page and it works like it was drawn up. It is just inconsistent.

Our line is usually really good. Our skill players are usually not that great. But they are average D1 talent at RB and QB. They should perform at average level. Since they aren't, except for once in a blue moon, and the coaches keep pointing to execution, that means that they are either not getting it, or are physically incapable of consistently executing what is demanded of them by the system. It's happened for years, so my guess is that the scheme is too dependent on an average level of ability that Iowa just can't recruit.

They'd be better served to running EXACTLY Wisconsin's offense, imho. The stretch zone is too hard to execute consistently, and doesn't fit with any of the passing plays so it's easy to read play action. My two cents.

 

[tmess1989]

I could see a 1-2 start. Sad we have to have these threads.

One year I want to not worry about OOC games, well the OOC games Iowa schedules.

Wisconsin is week 4 so 1-3 is a real possibility if they lose two OOC games. Not trying to be a pessimist but we don't have an easy first 4 games. Personally I see a loss to either NIU or ISU but not both.

 

[HuckFinn]

Even Tommy from Des Moines is more relevant than you.

I find it relevant that whenever you cannot successfully dispute someone's views, you play the ol' distraction game and personally insult others. TK and DT both dogs in the same pack. Bye.

 

[BaileyTurner]

No, it wasn't a success. Let's not be insane Iowa State fan. By every statistical ranking we were horrible on offense. Other than OSU, we beat precisely no one of significance. We play only two good teams this year, really. PSU and WISC. We should win every other game on paper. We won't, but that's why they play.

If our offense can be top 40, and our defense remains on par, we probably would average 9 wins a year. It hasn't been. It works against poor teams and one game a year the entire offense is on the same page and it works like it was drawn up. It is just inconsistent.

Our line is usually really good. Our skill players are usually not that great. But they are average D1 talent at RB and QB. They should perform at average level. Since they aren't, except for once in a blue moon, and the coaches keep pointing to execution, that means that they are either not getting it, or are physically incapable of consistently executing what is demanded of them by the system. It's happened for years, so my guess is that the scheme is too dependent on an average level of ability that Iowa just can't recruit.

They'd be better served to running EXACTLY Wisconsin's offense, imho. The stretch zone is too hard to execute consistently, and doesn't fit with any of the passing plays so it's easy to read play action. My two cents.

I'm not 100% sure where you pull my Iowa State ties from? Actually pretty confused lmao. Ahh it might be because I don't hide behind some weird account name 'Cincyhawk'..who is that? I and I'm sure others feel this way.. all that matters is W's and L's. Im curious as to what your definition of significance is. I like to think the 13 teams Iowa plays a year have significance because people sure find ways to talk about it so it must mean something. Even N. Illinois!!

When you also say "our defense on par" I think a lot of fans take that for granted as well.. they aren't a stick in the mud. The Iowa defense is salty every year and it's a daunting task scoring for opposing offenses. The offense doesn't even have to be top 40.. it can be 60 and Iowa will win at least 9 games with decent special teams.

Agreed, line is solid, skill players iffy but we didn't use a TE for the entire GD era. Fiedorowicz is a freak, so was Duzey. Going to disagree on the RBs front... hold the injury problem and Iowa usually has top tier backfield, we will find out how good Toren Young is this year. THE RECRUITING THING: Good news for you Cincy, Iowa has been doing some of their best work on the recruiting trail as of late in the KF era. I think BF is starting to move towards the Wisconsin way on offense, Fumagali killed us in '16 exploiting LBs on TEs. It's pretty clear we're going to use them everyone is ranting and raving about them all over the country. All I'm saying is hold the jury on BF.

I disagree with the PA notion, because I have seen it work too many times and it's thing of beauty when it does (CJB to Smith vs MSU '15). My two cents.

 

[tksirius]

I find it relevant that whenever you cannot successfully dispute someone's views, you play the ol' distraction game and personally insult others. TK and DT both dogs in the same pack. Bye.

See ya later, Hawknick.

 

[Xerxes]

Just Friday I was thinking about how nice would it be to go into a season with the optimism that the Wisconsin fans have. They are expected to win the west and possibly the conference title and make it to the playoff. When was the last time we had reason to have those types of expectations. All we get is excuses this position is weak or that player is hurt, Having followed the program back about seven years before Fry got here it kinda feels like me that we are in a rut and we can’t get out of it. Having suffered the pre Hayden Fry days and then the Hayden Fry era it almost feels like we are stuck some where between those two eras.

Things aren’t as bad as it was before Hayden got here but yet I don’t sense the enthusiasm and excitement going into the season like there used to be. Why would there be? Our offense seems to be as plain vanilla as it possibly could be and just seems lacking creativity. It appears that the fan base has accepted mediocrity and demand nothing more. I am hoping that with a year under his belt that Brian can bring something new to the offense. This year will prove if this football program is advancing forward or is forever stuck in a ditch until Barta and his gang are gone.

Not only this but when Wisconsin is expected to be good, they often deliver and have great seasons. Iowa got a lot of preseason love in 2014 to win the West, they lost 4 B1G games and to ISU. Similar thing in 2016. Expectations were higher and they lost 5 games including their bowl blowout.

It gets a little old being the "chip on their shoulder" team. I want Iowa to be a program that has higher expectations and meets them. I'm not talking about winning the division every year but one top 25 finish since 2009 is not where this program should be and nobody should be okay with it.

 

[uihawk82]

Not only this but when Wisconsin is expected to be good, they often deliver and have great seasons. Iowa got a lot of preseason love in 2014 to win the West, they lost 4 B1G games and to ISU. Similar thing in 2016. Expectations were higher and they lost 5 games including their bowl blowout.

It gets a little old being the "chip on their shoulder" team. I want Iowa to be a program that has higher expectations and meets them. I'm not talking about winning the division every year but one top 25 finish since 2009 is not where this program should be and nobody should be okay with it.

Spot on!! This is why hawks fans have so much angst before a season, before games even against inferior opponents, etc etc. We all know there is this play up or play down to your competition with KFs teams and there is no room for a couple of dropped passes, fumbles, missed tackles, etc. Very little margin for error and that is tough to do when you have mostly 2 and 3 star players and some walkons who have waited their turn.

 

[GotTimDodge]

How does the idea that Iowa may start 1-3 sit with everyone?
Imagine that happening.

 

[mrolympia]

Iowa wasn't going to be favored by much to begin with, NIU is supposed to win the MAC aren't they? I expected the spread to be under 10 points before Iowa suspended four players.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

No, it wasn't a success. Let's not be insane Iowa State fan. By every statistical ranking we were horrible on offense. Other than OSU, we beat precisely no one of significance. We play only two good teams this year, really. PSU and WISC. We should win every other game on paper. We won't, but that's why they play.

If our offense can be top 40, and our defense remains on par, we probably would average 9 wins a year. It hasn't been. It works against poor teams and one game a year the entire offense is on the same page and it works like it was drawn up. It is just inconsistent.

Our line is usually really good. Our skill players are usually not that great. But they are average D1 talent at RB and QB. They should perform at average level. Since they aren't, except for once in a blue moon, and the coaches keep pointing to execution, that means that they are either not getting it, or are physically incapable of consistently executing what is demanded of them by the system. It's happened for years, so my guess is that the scheme is too dependent on an average level of ability that Iowa just can't recruit.

They'd be better served to running EXACTLY Wisconsin's offense, imho. The stretch zone is too hard to execute consistently, and doesn't fit with any of the passing plays so it's easy to read play action. My two cents.

If our offense was top 40, and our defense on par...we'd be a perennial 10 win team. But I get what you're saying. Heck, if the Hawks can be close to what they were on defense last year, be in the top 80 in offense, and have a better punting game, we should be a 9-10 win team this year.

 

[trj]

If our offense was top 40, and our defense on par...we'd be a perennial 10 win team. But I get what you're saying. Heck, if the Hawks can be close to what they were on defense last year, be in the top 80 in offense, and have a better punting game, we should be a 9-10 win team this year.

How many years now have we talked about if Iowa's offense being at least in the 80's? Without doing any research I guess the last time the Iowa offense was above 90 would be 2010.

 

[tksirius]

How many years now have we talked about if Iowa's offense being at least in the 80's? Without doing any research I guess the last time the Iowa offense was above 90 would be 2010.

I want to say that the offense was consistently in the 60s when KOK ran it. I could be wrong though.

 

[trj]

I want to say that the offense was consistently in the 60s when KOK ran it. I could be wrong though.

You could very well be right. 01 and 02 they were very good on offense. Even though KOK was super creative in 04 I think the offensive rank was in the 90's somewhere. That 05-06 stretch with Tate is probably what you are thinking about.

 

[HawkGold]

How does the idea that Iowa may start 1-3 sit with everyone?
Imagine that happening.

Refs or Urban Meyers fault.

 

[vork22]

It’s sad when we are longing for the days of an offense ranked in the 60s. I just hope that our high scool OC learns to not run the ball on 3rd and 9.