Change the Narrative on Stanley

[HawkeyeWalker]

I’m not trying to complain about the refs I’m just curious to why is it still grounding if the defender hits the QBs arm? That obviously affects the throw. Never understood

It was the wrong call, and blatantly wrong. I wondered why the coaches didn't freak out in it. Even Stanley immediately tapped his arm.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

For some reason everyone always wants to talk about the bad plays with Stanley, but I thought he played pretty darn well.

-Ripped that throw into ISM on the third and long. Not many college QBs can make that throw.

-Used his feet to extend drives on a few occasions. Seems he has a better feel this year when to tuck it and run where in the past he would have taken a sack. This was one of the area I said he needed to develop this year. So far pretty good.

-Brandon Smith should have caught that ball for a touchdown. Not an easy catch but a catch a WR, especially a “possession” receiver should make for his QB.

Stanley has been damn solid, with moments of brilliance. I think he's making quicker decisions as well. Yes, he's missed long on a few and yes yes been fortunate on some tipped balls(although a few of them hit hands, could've been caught). Dude ain't perfect but he's pretty good so far. That was at least an above average defense, with 2 weeks to prep, at home.

Smith should have caught the td, but he's playing very well, and he's getting open. He's a good one, and might end up great.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

I'm more worried about the fact that our coaching staff can't manage end of half and game situation any better than they do after being in the business for 40 years than I am Stanley missing a deep ball now and again. It's early in the season...let's see if he settles down on the long ball a bit. He's rushed a few of those long balls and the result is a 10 yard overthrow. He either feels pressure or just gets excited. The good news is that yesterday...he stood in under pressure in several throws and threw strikes.

My god...how do you not manage the clock any better than that if you are a veteran coach. Does no one on the headset's say, "we need to take a timeout now". If everyone on the headsets is a "yes" man...then we have a problem. That's two weeks in a row that they have screwed the pooch on the end of half clock and left timeouts on the board.

The late screen/short play to Weiting was to the short side of the field. Anything that has a chance to end up out of bounds...shouldn't be called. Come on...he had no where to go. Just run the damn ball if you want to be conservative...but if you are going to strap on a pair of balls...work on the play design a bit better. I would have rather seen us come out 5 wide and find a short throw that Stanley completes 80% of...those are there.

The clock management, and 3rd and short playcalling was really bad. I'm an overall KF guy but holy crap the clock management has cost as much as 8 points in the last 2 games, and if not for a rock solid fg kicker, maybe 14+ points and 1 win. Its indefensible.

Still on the fence with Brian as a playcaller. Really like what he does at times, but sometimes too conservative(predictable) and other times too "cute" when predictable would be just fine. A few of the 3rd and short plays were head scratchers. Overall, the offense seems better and less predictable though, with significant more vertical plays.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

Give me Stanley over Beathard which I know will be an unpopular opinion.

He might not be as mobile, he might not throw as good of a deep ball but I will give credit to Stanley about making some big throws in big situations.

OT last year vs ISU, the 3rd down conversion to TJ, last night on 3rd and long.

I'm not quite there but I get what you're saying. I think I still take healthy CJ, but it could be a damn close call depending on how Stanley looks in a few big games this year.

 

[DDThompson]

Nate’s narrative detractors aren’t completely wrong. He does miss wide open downfield receivers by yards consistently. NFL QBs not named Rex Grossman don’t.

But he is also not the Grossman INT throwing machine or head case either.

 

[vork22]

Nate came through big when he had to. The qb runs in the 4th and the 3rd and 22 laser were key. No matter how bad he was playing he kept his head straight and put us in a position to win.

On the other hand our coaches appeared to be trying to lose and it amazes me how many posters defend them. The time management is becoming a joke and the play calling on third downs has been horrible all year specifically 3rd and short. Why can’t Brian go for the homerun on 2nd and short instead of third? Had we lost last night the media would’ve been roasting Ferentz. Well the National media that is.

 

[Innovate]

30 rows up in the stands you can see those things easily. It's the same reason the OC and DC often sit in the press box, you can see so much more. At ground level, with 10 guys in front of you that are averaging 300 lbs and just as tall as you are you are not going to see it the same way. Maybe someone could give statistics on the winning percentage or yards gained with the OC in the press box vs on the field.

 

[WinOneThisCentury]

Question for Rob. Does any of the media ever question KF on the end of half / end of game clock management, or time out usage? Or that blunder late on 3rd down to go out of bounds and stop the clock? If he puts that on Weiting I have a problem...there was no where to go. Short side of the field...really?

Unlike many...I'm a big Brian Ferentz fan...and like what he's doing. This team is going to get a lot better offensively. They are still getting used to game situations, but it's clear they can get 5-6 yards in a variety of different ways. We have guys that can get open too with moves and quickness. That's different. Ragaini is living up to the spring and fall camp hype. Dude has tremendous quickness out of his breaks. What a find he is...and he's keeping Oliver Martin on the bench more than I thought he would.

 

[dirtwrap]

To me, take all of the numbers away, the thing that we have to be really excited about Stanley is that he looked very much like he was in control of the offense, of the team and the gameplan all the way until the very end. He is going to miss some throws, all QB's do. But he consistently had us in the right play and did not force anything nor did he ever lose his composure, and on top of that made some elite throws in the fourth quarter when it mattered most. Above all, we are going to need his leadership in spades this season and especially at Wisconsin, at Nebraska and I will say Michigan even though their home crowd is vastly overrated.

 

[uihawk82]

On the long throws by Nate it seems he could throw the ball a little more to the side of the route the receiver is running and let the receiver make a slight change to get to it. Yes if your receiver has a step I have heard the coaching says to overthrow vs under throw. I have noticed that when Nate has an angle with his throw to the direction of the deep route his distance is better (see many of his deep throws to Fant) whereas when the route is more in line with Nates throw and vision he has distance problems and maybe due to depth perception.

 

[teachercoach]

Composed and winning. Football usually serves you what you deserve. NS is getting his - hope he sets every recored he possibly can.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

Need a lil' help here. I didn't catch all of the game live, watching selective replay. At what point was the questionable PI call on Stanley followed by a great throw? I'll hang up and listen

 

[DBAHawkFan]

Stanley can make that 3rd 22 throw and it’s extremely impressive and low percentage completion...but then he misses much “easier”
Passes

If he could hit more of the easy stuff we wouldn’t need to come down to a fluke punt recovery

It’s like having Jake R back. Staff knew he couldn’t hit the deep passes so we had to do the check down stuff

Nate has the arm to throw it anywhere, but it’s been obvious for a long time he can’t hit those passes

It’ll hurt us against better teams

 

[Hawk90]

Sorry not a hater, yes his stats are good, but he is not a gamer. He is not Beatherd, Tate, Stanzi, guys with attitude that just know how to win. Stanley is McCann with some talent.

 

[pythagoras]

It’s like having Jake R back.

LMFAO shut up

 

[hawkfan2679]

Updated numbers on Stanley after week 3 that continue to chip away at the old narrative that no longer applies ...

Lots of stats and things...

Would be interested at what those numbers looked like on a YTD basis for the 2 prior years. I don't really recall what kinds of starts Stanley has gotten off to in prior years (other than the ISU game a couple years ago) but it might be a more relevant comparison, simply because we really haven't played the meat of our schedule yet.

 

[CP87]

Nate came through big when he had to. The qb runs in the 4th and the 3rd and 22 laser were key. No matter how bad he was playing he kept his head straight and put us in a position to win.

On the other hand our coaches appeared to be trying to lose and it amazes me how many posters defend them. The time management is becoming a joke and the play calling on third downs has been horrible all year specifically 3rd and short. Why can’t Brian go for the homerun on 2nd and short instead of third? Had we lost last night the media would’ve been roasting Ferentz. Well the National media that is.

Scott Dochterman has been pounding the drum on the Hawks 3rd and short performance since the offseason. It is not just a "this year" thing, they have been far and away the worst 3rd and short team in the conference or awhile. Specifically, they are just awful when they go heavy (22 or 23), only converting about half the time, and averaging a little over 1 yard per rush. The next worse team in the conference in recent years is Rutgers, and they average around 3.5 yds/rush in those situations.

Hopefully they give up whatever prideful notion they have of how that situation should be approached, and they start trotting out their regular offense and get some bodies out of the box.

 

[CP87]

Question for Rob. Does any of the media ever question KF on the end of half / end of game clock management, or time out usage? Or that blunder late on 3rd down to go out of bounds and stop the clock? If he puts that on Weiting I have a problem...there was no where to go. Short side of the field...really?

Unlike many...I'm a big Brian Ferentz fan...and like what he's doing. This team is going to get a lot better offensively. They are still getting used to game situations, but it's clear they can get 5-6 yards in a variety of different ways. We have guys that can get open too with moves and quickness. That's different. Ragaini is living up to the spring and fall camp hype. Dude has tremendous quickness out of his breaks. What a find he is...and he's keeping Oliver Martin on the bench more than I thought he would.

He got questions on it last week, and he mentioned they messed up. "Tried to get too cute" was how he put it, trying to make sure there was no time left on the clock. So they get asked about it.

 

[tweeterhawk]

Nate is a good QB, not great. He’s serviceable. There are at least 30 other QBs playing D1 ball just as good if not better.

 

[HuckFinn]

Nate came through big when he had to. The qb runs in the 4th and the 3rd and 22 laser were key. No matter how bad he was playing he kept his head straight and put us in a position to win.

On the other hand our coaches appeared to be trying to lose and it amazes me how many posters defend them. The time management is becoming a joke and the play calling on third downs has been horrible all year specifically 3rd and short. Why can’t Brian go for the homerun on 2nd and short instead of third? Had we lost last night the media would’ve been roasting Ferentz. Well the National media that is.

Just so you will know, Iowa was 60% on third down conversions in the first half. Not sure of final stats, but recall that Dolph and Eddie were complimentary.