BHGP DJK story

If he had not been involved with the drug house, regardless of his part, he would have had a much better chance getting invited to the combine. The NFL does not care about a player's past if they are a star or future star; a borderline NFL player with a history? Who needs the headache.
 
dee27 said:
No offense, but you have no idea what you are talking about. This is a quote from Joe Defranco, probably the most respected strength and conditioning coach (and a good friend of Chris Doyle) in the US.

"I can talk forever on this subject, but I'll give you three of my favorites. First, three years ago I had the good fortune of training University of Iowa wide receiver, Kevin Kasper, for the NFL Combine. Kevin is still the most well-rounded athlete I’ve ever trained. He's strong, fast, flexible, and shredded!
One of the evaluation tests for our athletes was to analyze their squat form on a wobble board. This is a great test to determine muscular imbalances, flexibility issues, and weaknesses. Most athletes suck at this test. Kevin stood on the wobble board, squatted *** to the ground without the slightest movement of the board, stood up, and then did a back flip off the board and landed perfectly on his feet! It was amazing. He then went on to break three all-time Combine records and gets drafted by the Denver Broncos."

After dozens of his pupils are drafted and play in the NFL he is asked about the biggest freak of an athlete he ever worked with and the first guy he mentions is Kevin Kasper.
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Kasper was also big buddies with Romanowski when with the broncos.

do the math.
 
Ten pages of occasionally heated debate over a guy who officially hasn't been a Hawkeye for eight months and hadn't played a down since last November. Amazing.

Time to move forward.
 
You don't get 10 pages of conversation on a guy nobody cares about. Like it or not, enough hawk fans, myself included, will always consider djk a hawkeye and a damn good one on that.
 
RocknRollface said:
Come to your own conclusions and believe what ever you want, but seriously, don't kid yourself, the reason he was not even invited to a camp had nothing to do with not being talented enough. Guys with half his talent get invited to camps.
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This is main point I am trying to get at.
 
tweeterhawk said:
Ten pages of occasionally heated debate over a guy who officially hasn't been a Hawkeye for eight months and hadn't played a down since last November. Amazing.

Time to move forward.
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People talk about Stanzi, Greenway, Green, et al.

Why can't they talk about DJK? Because he was kicked off the team before his last game? Iowa fans should just forget about the 170+ receptions or 2700+ yard he produced on the field for the team they love - helping Iowa win over 30 games in his 4 years?

I think it's just fine to talk about one of the greatest, if not the greatest WR, to play at Iowa. I see no problems with it at all.
 
Also, why is DJK's production faulted because he got a lot of snaps and played all four years? Shouldn't that HELP his case? Must have been a pretty damn good football player to get playing time all four years at Iowa, huh?
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
Inaccurate. Here are DJK's number of starts per year ....

'07 - 8 starts
'08 - 10 starts
'09 - 7 starts
'10 - 10 starts

That tells me that he was a 4-year starter.

Furthermore, for a 4-year starter his production was disappointing compared to what it could have or should have been.

Also, I know for a FACT that he didn't put in the work he should have to prepare for the seasons. As a result ... his lack of production was glaringly obvious.

Any guy who really did put in the work would have done a better job of high-pointing the ball ... or actively going after the ball with his hands ... or any number of other VERY BASIC techniques that highly productive WRs take the time to get down.

You're mistaking the very basic fact that OBVIOUSLY DJK didn't lack the talent. The ISSUE here, as several folks have already pointed out ... there are TONS of "DJKs" out there. Tons of guys who are loaded to the brim with talent and potential. The ISSUE is that potential means JACK .... it's the sweat equity that folks put in that matters. It's the sweat equity that guy put in that transforms a 750 yard season into a 1000+ yard season.

Talent that doesn't work SIMPLY WON'T achieve ELITE status. And NFL folks know that!

Even questionable guys ... a lot of them still work. A lot of them have talent that is FAR MORE undeniable. And, even then, they're risks. JaMarcus Russell was an uber-talented guys who was lazy ... and just look what happened to his NFL career.
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This could not have been said any better…..He had enuff talent, but not so much it over came the baggage and the lack of the intangible stuff.

It’s all on him…..

Chad
 
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Imlivingthedream said:
Kasper was also big buddies with Romanowski when with the broncos.

do the math.
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Interesting quote from a 2002 article. See the link. I love the reference to "creams and lasers." I'm sure he's just referencing flax seed oil.

Ripple Effect Pumps Kasper

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Kasper, who has been a health/supplement nut since taking up wrestling in seventh grade, credits Romanowski for teaching him even more about nutrition and workouts.


He took the same six or seven dozen daily supplements as Romanowski, toted them around in the same plastic suitcase, and even climbed into a hyperbaric chamber to speed his recovery. When Romanowski turned to various creams and lasers to rid himself of painful lactic acid in his legs, so did Kasper.


"For Bill to kind of take me under his wing . . . it was just exceptional," Kasper said. "I loved learning from him. He taught me a great deal about nutrition and workouts. I'm sad that he's gone, but, hopefully I'll make a new name for myself."
[/FONT]
 
homerHAWKeye777 said:
You're mistaking the very basic fact that OBVIOUSLY DJK didn't lack the talent. The ISSUE here, as several folks have already pointed out ... there are TONS of "DJKs" out there. Tons of guys who are loaded to the brim with talent and potential. The ISSUE is that potential means JACK .... it's the sweat equity that folks put in that matters. It's the sweat equity that guy put in that transforms a 750 yard season into a 1000+ yard season.

Talent that doesn't work SIMPLY WON'T achieve ELITE status. And NFL folks know that!

Even questionable guys ... a lot of them still work. A lot of them have talent that is FAR MORE undeniable. And, even then, they're risks. JaMarcus Russell was an uber-talented guys who was lazy ... and just look what happened to his NFL career.
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Not trying to be a smart-***, but if there are tons of DJKs out there, I'd like to see examples. Examples of guys that put up his numbers in a college career that weren't drafted, invited to camp, signed as a FA, or signed to a CFL contract. If there are tons of them, then there should be an easy list to pick at least 10 of them out.

The point is, he had the talent, at minimum, to be brought in as a FA signing. The clubs are out NOTHING to do this, they see what he can do, if they don't like what they see. Bam. Cut. Done. No one did this (that we know of, maybe someone tried and DJK turned them down or he failed another drug test or something... we don't know). The point is there is a reason DJK isn't in the league, and it isn't because he lacked talent.

I'm not saying Ferentz is the reason, far from it. I'm just saying there has to be a reason DJK didn't get a whiff of the NFL, his talent notwithstanding.
 
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storminspank said:
Not trying to be a smart-***, but if there are tons of DJKs out there, I'd like to see examples. Examples of guys that put up his numbers in a college career that weren't drafted, invited to camp, signed as a FA, or signed to a CFL contract. If there are tons of them, then there should be an easy list to pick at least 10 of them out.

The point is, he had the talent, at minimum, to be brought in as a FA signing. The clubs are out NOTHING to do this, they see what he can do, if they don't like what they see. Bam. Cut. Done. No one did this (that we know of, maybe someone tried and DJK turned them down or he failed another drug test or something... we don't know). The point is there is a reason DJK isn't in the league, and it's because he lacked talent.

I'm not saying Ferentz is the reason, far from it. I'm just saying there has to be a reason DJK didn't get a whiff of the NFL, his talent notwithstanding.
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I think this is actually similar to what homer said. he said DJK had the talent just no work ethic, or he could have been much better.
 
DJK was a 4 year starter in spite of the undisputed differences between him and Coach Ferentz.

Fact: Ferentz would not start a player with poor work ethic for 4 years.

Fact: Ferentz would not start someone who was not a team player for 4 years.

Fact: Ferentz would not start a freshman or sophomore with maturity problems.

Fact: Ferentz made the decision to start DJK for 4 years. If you have a problem with DJK then you ultimately have a problem with Coach and his decisions.
 
BlckNGldHwk said:
DJK was a 4 year starter in spite of the undisputed differences between him and Coach Ferentz.

Fact: Ferentz would not start a player with poor work ethic for 4 years.

Fact: Ferentz would not start someone who was not a team player for 4 years.

Fact: Ferentz would not start a freshman or sophomore with maturity problems.

Fact: Ferentz made the decision to start DJK for 4 years. If you have a problem with DJK then you ultimately have a problem with Coach and his decisions.
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Nice try but clearly the coach DID have a problem with him....anything else.

Chad
 
Finally read the article...they did a great job on summarizing "the DJK experience" - I give them an A from that perspective - but the "KF is blackballing DJK" stuff was wild speculation on the author's part...very poorly supported.

Could KF possibly be actively blackballing DJK? Maybe...highly unlikely, IMO, but possible.

My personal guess is that KF's endorsement of a player goes a LONG way with most NFL GMs out there (which is a theory supported by the number of Iowa players - even guys you wouldn't consider standouts - that land on NFL rosters each & every year). On the other side of that coin, KF's silence on a given player goes a LONG way, too. My hunch is if KF has ever been asked about DJK, he probably tells them "no comment" or invites them to look at the film if they want to assess him. Is it KF's right to handle the situation that way? Certainly. Would you consider that "blackballing"? Dunno...personally I don't, but I think others would disagree with me.

The bottom line is, when you commit to playing Hawkeye football, you are signing an implicit contract for behavior, conduct, work ethic, etc that you must follow to reap the considerable benefits of being associated with the team. I would much rather invest my emotional energy into following a team run in such a way than to be rooting for a O$U, or Miami, or etc.

As far as DJK goes, I wish him the best. I will always remember him fondly. He seems like a smart young man with loads of personality (not to mention his on-field talents). He's had an upbringing that 98%+ of us posting on this board cannot even get within 15 miles of getting our brains around. The truth is, he was on thin ice for the majority of his 5 years here and then really screwed up at the wrong time doing the wrongest of things (in the eyes of the program). The fact that the charges were eventually dropped down to an extremely inconsequential charge does not change the negative PR, embarrassment, and distraction that he rained down on an already beleaguered program. This will sound harsh, but he seems to have a very headstrong personality and work ethic - he's just going to have to pin his ears back and work his way through it.
 
See here is why this thread is 10 pages long...............

People don’t listen. Namely the guys who are so Pro DJK they can’t have a rational thought. There is not one person in this thread who said DJK did not have talent. It clearly, let me say again, CLEARLY wasn’t enough talent to offset the other issues……

Somebody said there are two camps…..that’s not true, there appear to be at least 4……………..

The two aforementioned…………….Either you think he had enuff talent or you did not.

Or you think KF somehow is responsible (they don’t want to say it but they think it)

Or you think it’s pretty obvious the talent he had wasn’t enuff to offset his issues. Which in all honesty doesn’t seem debatable, does it…..?!

Chad
 
BlckNGldHwk said:
DJK was a 4 year starter in spite of the undisputed differences between him and Coach Ferentz.

Fact: Ferentz would not start a player with poor work ethic for 4 years.

Fact: Ferentz would not start someone who was not a team player for 4 years.

Fact: Ferentz would not start a freshman or sophomore with maturity problems.

Fact: Ferentz made the decision to start DJK for 4 years. If you have a problem with DJK then you ultimately have a problem with Coach and his decisions.
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You forget that Ferentz is also a TEACHER. Furthermore, he has to be careful to navigate the politics of his pupils. A coach cannot be successful if he loses his team ... no matter how good of a teacher/coach he is.

The fact of the matter is that DJK not only had talent ... a fact that his peers all knew ... but also he was also well liked by a decent percentage of his teammates too. DJK is a charismatic guy and he's also a popular guy .... there aren't too many teammates who wouldn't get "hooked in" by the allure of DJK's charm and popularity.

Had DJK been universally disliked by the team ... I'm quite certain that we actually would have seen far less of him.

Furthermore, as I said before, Ferentz and Co are teachers. Your most talented pupils are not always the ones who are most easy to handle. As teachers, Ferentz and Co did everything they could to give DJK a chance to prove himself ... and to encourage him to mature and maximize his ability.

When you consider the above facts AND the fact that the coaches likely didn't have any hard evidence of anything that would have been used to legitimately sit him .... the coaches opted for the route that was FAIR.
 
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