Breaking Down Iowa's Receiving Corps.

MelroseHawkins

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
Every year it seems like Iowa has problems finding a formidable receiving game. Is it the talent? QB not making the best or quick enough reads? Is it the coaches being too conservative and not letting the QB take chances to make a play? Is it the coaches not taking a chance on young talent until they get blocking down to a coaches standard.

Every year I review the roster and seems that I see just a slew of WR's on it. I often wonder, how the hell can they not find a handful of play makers from these guys. Other teams do. You see Iowa State consistently find players to contribute. Hell, UNI can find a consistent passing game. Why does Iowa struggle?

This year there are 14 WR's on the roster. 7 are upperclassmen being sophmore, junior or seniors. There are 2 redshirt freshman. There are 5 true freshman.

You would think they'd be able to find a few that could compliment Iowa's running game and TE game for a nice balance, even if they find a couple true freshman as a diamond in the rough. If they have the skill and can stretch the field and make plays, throw them out there.
 
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you need only look to David Bell's comment about Iowa and his recruitment by Iowa. Mr. Bell has publicly stated that Iowa has to prove to him that they know how to and will utilize WR's and the passing game. It was at that point I crossed his name off the list of potential WR commits. The sad truth is that kirk himself has held this program from reaching even higher highs but regarding the passing game as non essential and a necessary evil....sometimes. we've had 19 years of proof.
 
Kirk believes that an offense starts with the offensive line and getting the running game going with the TEs having preeminence over receivers. Receivers are ancillary in his scheme. Receiver recruits know this and choose not to come here for the most part. So, ours tend to be less athletic than other teams. It doesn't get any more complicated than that.
 
There is a new sheriff in town at the OC. Brian Ferentz is going to change this perception. He knows to compete at a top 10 level, you have to be able to throw the ball effectively and get big plays. Last year, his offense was impacted by having youth on the offensive line and an inability to protect the QB. You can't throw down the field if your QB is running for his life. I think you have to give him a chance to show he is going to be unpredictable and give the WRs opportunities to make plays.

If we don't have significant injuries on the OL and Stanley gets time to throw, he's proven he can be accurate...and he can throw it downfield. The other positive is that these young guys have had another year to get stronger...and hopefully faster too. Smith and Smith-Marsette are poised to have productive years.
 
SteveGarvey1 said:
Kirk believes that an offense starts with the offensive line and getting the running game going with the TEs having preeminence over receivers. Receivers are ancillary in his scheme. Receiver recruits know this and choose not to come here for the most part. So, ours tend to be less athletic than other teams. It doesn't get any more complicated than that.
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yep. we're our own worst enemy.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
There is a new sheriff in town at the OC. Brian Ferentz is going to change this perception. He knows to compete at a top 10 level, you have to be able to throw the ball effectively and get big plays. Last year, his offense was impacted by having youth on the offensive line and an inability to protect the QB. You can't throw down the field if your QB is running for his life. I think you have to give him a chance to show he is going to be unpredictable and give the WRs opportunities to make plays.

If we don't have significant injuries on the OL and Stanley gets time to throw, he's proven he can be accurate...and he can throw it downfield. The other positive is that these young guys have had another year to get stronger...and hopefully faster too. Smith and Smith-Marsette are poised to have productive years.
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WOTC, i think you're being a bit too gracious to brian for last season. I am praying that you are right. I really want to believe it. we'll know after this season and then we'll also know what brian will be like when he becomes HC after this season or next. I have a feeling kf hangs it up after he passes hayden in his 20th season. afterall, he has to let brian have a chance to pass him in the 20 years brian will be HC.

Pass pro has been a problem at Iowa for at least as long as brian was brought on. Even brandon scherff struggled, at times, with pass pro and why he's playing G in the NFL. We don't have tackle body types playing tackle. that's systemic.

as far as what brian's philosophy is, i hope you're right. but his desire this offseason to publicly say he wasn't going to say controversial things tells me he's fallen into line. we'll see. remember last offseason he threw shade at ISU, MN and kNU? how many of those games did we win? all of them. so, throwing shade didn't have an impact on the game but it damn sure endeared him to the fans. he's backing off that. so....
 
I agree the pass protection hasn't been great since 2015...and even then it was Beathard's mobility that was the difference...he simply extended plays. Let's see if we can stay healthy and see how this goes. This is the first time we have really had two offensive tackles that are true offensive tackles. These guys are both over 320 right now.

Against the top competition last year, outside of the OSU game, we couldn't protect the passer. Wisconsin attacked us repeatedly with smaller LB types that we simply couldn't put a body on. It was a problem all year. I'm hoping that is addressed and if these guys can get through camp and a few games...I'm hoping it begins to mesh into a solid group. There are 10 guys competing for spots and they are no longer freshmen.

I think Brian showed in the OSU game how we can play. Throwing on first down, formation roulette to get mismatches with Fant and Hockenson. It can be done. The issue there though was that OSU was arrogant and refused to believe they had to send LBs to get pressure. Our line is used to blocking big tackles and DEs...it's speed and agility that kills them.

I honestly believe we have weapons on the outside...they just needed some seasoning and they needed another year to mature. I think Brian is looking for more balance ala an Alabama where they can beat teams just throwing the ball, but want to be a physical running team also. Georgia comes to mind also. I honestly think that is where Brian thinks they need to be...balanced...and utilize the passing game to set up the running game more than in the past.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
yep. we're our own worst enemy.
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Much as he's been successful, Kirk can be his own worst enemy. No better example than his offensive soft spot...wide receiver.

Central to his philosophy is "not making mistakes", as in make your opponent beat you don't beat yourself (make it easy for your opponent). I'd suggest being predictably unwilling to utilize the WR postion and pass aggressively is another way of making it easy for your opponent. Brian's euphemistic reference to that was "we're gonna use the whole field". No doubt it's a push/pull game with Dad to see how much of that he can get away with. You'd think we saw enough against tOSU last year to sell Kirk, it'll be interesting to see where the offense goes in 2018.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
Much as he's been successful, Kirk can be his own worst enemy. No better example than his offensive soft spot...wide receiver.

Central to his philosophy is "not making mistakes", as in make your opponent beat you don't beat yourself (make it easy for your opponent). I'd suggest being predictably unwilling to utilize the WR postion and pass aggressively is another way of making it easy for your opponent. Brian's euphemistic reference to that was "we're gonna use the whole field". No doubt it's a push/pull game with Dad to see how much of that he can get away with. You'd think we saw enough against tOSU last year to sell Kirk, it'll be interesting to see where the offense goes in 2018.
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i think that's an excellent point drummer. not utilizing the WR's in an effective manner that makes the opponent fear them is akin to making a mistake and gives the opponent the advantage. not using WR's effectively and often breaks kirks own philosophy.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Every year it seems like Iowa has problems finding a formidable receiving game. Is it the talent? QB not making the best or quick enough reads? Is it the coaches being too conservative and not letting the QB take chances to make a play? Is it the coaches not taking a chance on young talent until they get blocking down to a coaches standard.

Every year I review the roster and seems that I see just a slew of WR's on it. I often wonder, how the hell can they not find a handful of play makers from these guys. Other teams do. You see Iowa State consistently find players to contribute. Hell, UNI can find a consistent passing game. Why does Iowa struggle.

This year there are 14 WR's on the roster. 7 are upperclassmen being sophmore, junior or seniors. There are 2 redshirt freshman. There are 5 true freshman.

You would think they'd be able to find a few that could compliment Iowa's running game and TE game for a nice balance, even if they find a couple true freshman as a diamond in the rough. If they have the skill and can stretch the field and make plays, throw them out there.
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Iowa state seems to have gone to recruiting shooting guards to play WR for them now. Haven't they stocked up on 6'4 to 6'6 inch tall guys out there? They like to spread it out and will be able to have some mismatches to exploit enough to where they won't be terrible. Especially if they have a decent running game to go with it.

Iowa seems to like a mixture and we can get the little Easley type of slot guys that can play that role easy enough but there's a limit to their impact. We've even been able to get some decent speed guys like Tevaun Smith and now Smith-Marsette. But we always seem to underutilize them. But if a James Vandeberg is your #1 guy that's just not going to fly... And that's where I hope a corner will be turned with Brandon Smith. He's going to have that opportunity what he does with it we'll see...
 
One thing we can all agree on. The Greg Davis era was awful at producing any WR talent. T. Smith, MVB, that's about the only decent WR's Iowa has had since KMM left.

Although I consider KMM and McNutt to be from the KOK era, even though KMM got most of his catches during the Greg Davis era. Maybe that's a slam on Bobby Kennedy as the WR coach, but Kennendy was brought in at the request of G. Davis, so I look at that as a package deal.

I guess we will see if BF and Copeland can get any improvement out of the WR this year. If not, then the finger deserves to be pointed at the real man in charge, KF.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Iowa state seems to have gone to recruiting shooting guards to play WR for them now. Haven't they stocked up on 6'4 to 6'6 inch tall guys out there? They like to spread it out and will be able to have some mismatches to exploit enough to where they won't be terrible. Especially if they have a decent running game to go with it.

Iowa seems to like a mixture and we can get the little Easley type of slot guys that can play that role easy enough but there's a limit to their impact. We've even been able to get some decent speed guys like Tevaun Smith and now Smith-Marsette. But we always seem to underutilize them. But if a James Vandeberg is your #1 guy that's just not going to fly... And that's where I hope a corner will be turned with Brandon Smith. He's going to have that opportunity what he does with it we'll see...
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Yes on the Iowa State. They showed last year they would look for mismatches and Campbell was not afraid to let his QB's take a chance and throw over the top of them. Campbell coaches loose. Ferentz coaches tight.
 
ArvadaHawk said:
i think that's an excellent point drummer. not utilizing the WR's in an effective manner that makes the opponent fear them is akin to making a mistake and gives the opponent the advantage. not using WR's effectively and often breaks kirks own philosophy.
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Sometimes what is "perceived" as low risk, isn't necessarily low risk. (and vice versa) Or rather, it's dependent on how you define risk. Bo Schembechler hated passing, he once said "three things can happen and two of them are bad". You could say a similar thing about running. You can gain yards, have no gain, lose yards or fumble. Half of the outcomes are bad. Bo's perspective was based on bad math (or at least flawed assumptions). He ignored the higher expected payoff of a pass vs a run.
 
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Recruiting and attrition. We haven't had a wr group for years. When rebuilding, we had to start somewhere (not a knock on the upper class men) but face it when you are pulling in transfers (thank God we did) you know that for whatever reason, recruiting, attrition, ect, that the need for talent at the position exists.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
Sometimes what is "perceived" as low risk, isn't necessarily low risk. (and vice versa) Or rather, it's dependent on how you define risk. Bo Schembechler hated passing, he once said "three things can happen and two of them are bad". You could say a similar thing about running. You can gain yards, have no gain, lose yards or fumble. Half of the outcomes are bad. Bo's perspective was based on bad math (or at least flawed assumptions). He ignored the higher expected payoff of a pass vs a run.
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I am not saying the Bo didn't say that, but I am pretty sure Woody Hayes is given credit for being the first one to say that. ( three things can happen when you pass, and two of them are bad)
 
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