Closed scrimmage offense struggles

I'm telling you. This is all Brian Ferentz.
He's had a few years under his belt. It all fits. He's got a few years under his belt. He's now the QB coach.
And wants to show he's different from his pops. He's positioning for the head coaching role.

So, he's come up with this plan. He's got a 3rd year starter who has demonstrated the ability to throw the ball in high school. But, needed a few years of confidence and improvement, just like Stanzi. Young Ferentz knows something clicked over the offseason. And Petras is throwing with the panache and confidence of a Heisman contender AND has a more robust and bigger offensive line than last year, which is something Brian certainly has some understanding of.

So, he's convinced pops that they should do some trickery. But deep MI6 trickery. Not a patented and seemingly random KF WTF?!?!? fake field goal. We're talking full on "Jacques has a long moustache" trickery. He's scripted out this 'closed scrimmage'. Something out of the ordinary for a Kirk Ferentz coached team. So, he sets this thing up, knowing full well that word of it will send out whiffs of desperation, like the fake hot dog smell MLB stadiums send out in puffs from electronic devices inconspicuously hidden around the stadium.

The script was written and most of the performers dropped an Oscar worthy performance. Just the right amount of first downs you would expect from an offense that went backwards from last year. But enough to be believable. Every squirrel gets his acorn.

The defense, however, turned out to be so damn good that even while playing with one Lego glued to inside of their right cleat, they generated a little more buzz than Brian expected. I fully expect comments from Phil Parker today announcing a few potential season ending injuries or maybe some other misdirection about how some of the 1st stringer's starting jobs are in jeopardy. Just to play it down.

At the end of this pending glorious and delirium filled season, Kirk will announce his retirement. The University will announce Brian as his successor. And he will reign triumphantly for another 30 or so years, at which point the grandson of my favorite Hawkeye, Jon Filloon will take over as the next great multi-decade Hawkeye coach.

A boy can dream, can't he?

FTR: There are three truths in here and one thing I believe to be true.
 
Egads, you folks must have never worked in the journalistic realm. Anonymous sources, 'background', and 'deep background' are a daily part of any reporter's life if they're worth a damn. I hadn't heard anything about the closed scrimmage from any other so-called 'legit' reporter -- or on this board, for that matter -- so was glad to receive the info. It doesn't sound to me as tho Brada has any axe to grind, and he repeatedly downplayed the main story by reiterating it was just one practice & not necessarily representative of camp. He gave enough factual details to demonstrate to me his source was legit -- probably one of the student managers or someone who actually charts each play.
If you doubt the accuracy of his source, then go out and find another source to dispute it...otherwise there's no reason to not believe it.
 
I'm telling you. This is all Brian Ferentz.
He's had a few years under his belt. It all fits. He's got a few years under his belt. He's now the QB coach.
And wants to show he's different from his pops. He's positioning for the head coaching role.

So, he's come up with this plan. He's got a 3rd year starter who has demonstrated the ability to throw the ball in high school. But, needed a few years of confidence and improvement, just like Stanzi. Young Ferentz knows something clicked over the offseason. And Petras is throwing with the panache and confidence of a Heisman contender AND has a more robust and bigger offensive line than last year, which is something Brian certainly has some understanding of.

So, he's convinced pops that they should do some trickery. But deep MI6 trickery. Not a patented and seemingly random KF WTF?!?!? fake field goal. We're talking full on "Jacques has a long moustache" trickery. He's scripted out this 'closed scrimmage'. Something out of the ordinary for a Kirk Ferentz coached team. So, he sets this thing up, knowing full well that word of it will send out whiffs of desperation, like the fake hot dog smell MLB stadiums send out in puffs from electronic devices inconspicuously hidden around the stadium.

The script was written and most of the performers dropped an Oscar worthy performance. Just the right amount of first downs you would expect from an offense that went backwards from last year. But enough to be believable. Every squirrel gets his acorn.

The defense, however, turned out to be so damn good that even while playing with one Lego glued to inside of their right cleat, they generated a little more buzz than Brian expected. I fully expect comments from Phil Parker today announcing a few potential season ending injuries or maybe some other misdirection about how some of the 1st stringer's starting jobs are in jeopardy. Just to play it down.

At the end of this pending glorious and delirium filled season, Kirk will announce his retirement. The University will announce Brian as his successor. And he will reign triumphantly for another 30 or so years, at which point the grandson of my favorite Hawkeye, Jon Filloon will take over as the next great multi-decade Hawkeye coach.

A boy can dream, can't he?

FTR: There are three truths in here and one thing I believe to be true.

Good read here!
 
Getting embarrassed by Iowa's defense is something about 10 college offenses experienced last year. And, this time of year the defense is almost always ahead of the offense. A lot more timing and moving pieces on offense to come together. I am not concerned if our Top 5 defense is whooping our pedestrian offense. I just hope the offense is getting better and will get a relief valve when going up against lesser defenses.

That's what I am hoping.

Could you image a regular season game that counted having Iowa's offense play Iowa's defense.

I'd be that Iowa vs Wisconsin match-up a couple years ago all over again.
 
Its a setup.
Prepare everyone for the worst offense in football during the preseason, then any improvement looks like a miracle.
 
Egads, you folks must have never worked in the journalistic realm. Anonymous sources, 'background', and 'deep background' are a daily part of any reporter's life if they're worth a damn. I hadn't heard anything about the closed scrimmage from any other so-called 'legit' reporter -- or on this board, for that matter -- so was glad to receive the info. It doesn't sound to me as tho Brada has any axe to grind, and he repeatedly downplayed the main story by reiterating it was just one practice & not necessarily representative of camp. He gave enough factual details to demonstrate to me his source was legit -- probably one of the student managers or someone who actually charts each play.
If you doubt the accuracy of his source, then go out and find another source to dispute it...otherwise there's no reason to not believe it.
If it were Rob or Liestikow or Hlas or Bohnenkamp etc. I'd believe it.

This guy is literally some rando off the street in Ames who has no resume or credentials other than some goofy podcast he's trying to hawk. If there were even a smidge of credibility to what he's saying, Iowa media wuld be all over it.

People blindly buying into bullshit (which is unfortunately what you're doing) perpetuate the garbage we get fed because it gives them clicks and exposure.

As far as "factual details," please give me a single iota of fact from that guy's podcast (I watched all of it). Remember, fact is something that's provable. What "facts" can you or he prove?
 
That's the thing. There are a lot of those guys out there, even just Iowa fans. Hell, maybe I should start a podcast. Most of them are just hacks trying to sell their YouTube. It's funny watching them act like they are serious reputable sports media. He's actually tolerable, but just barely. He's grown on me. But, there are some really bad ones out there.

There's an idea. A HawkeyeNation podcast where Fryowa hosts it and has on various members. Talk about ratings.

it takes that guy minutes to say what could be said in seconds. He's no more informed than the guy on the barstool next to you. And yet, there are wors ones believe it or not. I sampled every Iowa podcast out there on Google Podcast ap. Some horrible ones.

These guys with their webcam and prominently placed microhone so they look like somebody special. Get over yourself. If your mic is on a boom you can easily keep it out of the camera and have better sound.
 
Wooof! I realize the source and its one practice, but the stats and results don't lie. Two first downs all day by the #1 QB?? All the INT's. Not moving the ball with any effectiveness. This is all alarming, especially this late in camp. This is a damn week before the season starts.

Boy, I hope this is a top #5 defense they are going against. That may be the glimmer of hope here.

On a side not, anybody else have a hankering to buy some pine pollen powder?
LOL. Brada’s a hack looking for YouTube views.

“My sources…”

Lolsies.

Wouldn’t be surprised if our defense isn’t in the top three in the country. Maybe number one.

That would be great and give hope to a repeat run in the division.

Even though we did lose an All American from the offensive line I do expect improvements over all from the offensive line in general. Gotta give Brian a benefit of a doubt there as that is his specialty. Too bad we have been dinged on our receiving corp, other wise I think we could be a bit more hopeful.

As far as FryIowa’s comments are concerned he could be totally right about this person just wanting clicks on his website. I’ve only watched a few of his podcast, and don’t know how creditable he is as a podcaster.

He did get an interview with one of our bigs on the basketball team so there’s that to consider. If you YouTube much you will come to realize that it seems like anyone with a computer and camera seems to have a podcast.
 
If it were Rob or Liestikow or Hlas or Bohnenkamp etc. I'd believe it.

This guy is literally some rando off the street in Ames who has no resume or credentials other than some goofy podcast he's trying to hawk. If there were even a smidge of credibility to what he's saying, Iowa media wuld be all over it.

People blindly buying into bullshit (which is unfortunately what you're doing) perpetuate the garbage we get fed because it gives them clicks and exposure.

As far as "factual details," please give me a single iota of fact from that guy's podcast (I watched all of it). Remember, fact is something that's provable. What "facts" can you or he prove?
"If it were Rob or Liestikow or Hlas or Bohnenkamp etc. I'd believe it. If there were even a smidge of credibility to what he's saying, Iowa media wuld be all over it."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Liestekow and Howe wouldn't write anything that could even potentially be seen as a negative (on the football field), for fear of being blacklisted and cut off from access. For the most part, they've become feature writers about individual players, staters of the obvious, and little else. I welcome somebody with anonymous sources within the team and department who's willing to spill. Iowa's sports reporters are notorious homers.
 
"If it were Rob or Liestikow or Hlas or Bohnenkamp etc. I'd believe it. If there were even a smidge of credibility to what he's saying, Iowa media wuld be all over it."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Liestekow and Howe wouldn't write anything that could even potentially be seen as a negative (on the football field), for fear of being blacklisted and cut off from access. For the most part, they've become feature writers about individual players, staters of the obvious, and little else. I welcome somebody with anonymous sources within the team and department who's willing to spill. Iowa's sports reporters are notorious homers.
Respectfully, you are full of shit.
 
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Liestekow and Howe wouldn't write anything that could even potentially be seen as a negative (on the football field), for fear of being blacklisted and cut off from access.
Lol, this has been beat to death ad nauseum here and it’s not a thing. Rob has been plenty critical of the program before and his access hasn’t been “cut off.” So have all those guys I mentioned except for CL.
 
Ok, here’s a question for Rob along with any of those other guys to ask. “Your offense ranked 121 last year out of 131 teams. If we don’t see significant improvements this season on the offensive side of the ball are you as head coach prepared to make changes?” “Would they be made during the season or at the end of the season?”

Actually there are different changes he could make other than the obvious one. Play younger players, infuse a spread offense, no huddle offense, a wildcat formation run often without a huddle. It would just be a fair question “IF” things don’t improve.

Having said that I hope this point is mute and that the offense starts to click and start moving the ball more often.

You suppose one of these guys would have the gumption to ask that question? I am very skeptical that they would ask that question.

I seriously want to see the offense improve greatly. It makes the season so much enjoyable to watch.
 
Ok, here’s a question for Rob along with any of those other guys to ask. “Your offense ranked 121 last year out of 131 teams. If we don’t see significant improvements this season on the offensive side of the ball are you as head coach prepared to make changes?” “Would they be made during the season or at the end of the season?”

Actually there are different changes he could make other than the obvious one. Play younger players, infuse a spread offense, no huddle offense, a wildcat formation run often without a huddle. It would just be a fair question “IF” things don’t improve.

Having said that I hope this point is mute and that the offense starts to click and start moving the ball more often.

You suppose one of these guys would have the gumption to ask that question? I am very skeptical that they would ask that question.

I seriously want to see the offense improve greatly. It makes the season so much enjoyable to watch.
Oh gawd, here you go again. You will never quit! lol.
 
Oh gawd, here you go again. You will never quit! lol.

Well in defense of Grady, this would be the type of question that you will never hear the media ask. Which is Grady point.

I do think the offense will show improvement this year. How much I don’t know. Any improvement would greatly enhance the over all performance of the team. Give the defense the breaks they need to stay off the field so they are t gassed by the fourth quarter.. The defense will keep us in most games.
 
He didn’t witness the practice and neither did any other media. It’s made-up BS from his “sources.” There’s a reason no other media have reported on it, because they didn’t see it. His “stats" and report are as worthless as hen shit on a pump handle.
I laughed out loud when I read this! I must have led a very sheltered life as I have not heard this simile before.
 
Ok, here’s a question for Rob along with any of those other guys to ask. “Your offense ranked 121 last year out of 131 teams. If we don’t see significant improvements this season on the offensive side of the ball are you as head coach prepared to make changes?” “Would they be made during the season or at the end of the season?”

Actually there are different changes he could make other than the obvious one. Play younger players, infuse a spread offense, no huddle offense, a wildcat formation run often without a huddle. It would just be a fair question “IF” things don’t improve.

Having said that I hope this point is mute and that the offense starts to click and start moving the ball more often.

You suppose one of these guys would have the gumption to ask that question? I am very skeptical that they would ask that question.

I seriously want to see the offense improve greatly. It makes the season so much enjoyable to watch.
It's a fair question. Better to be asked at the end of the season - each of the last several years.

“Your offense ranked 121 out of 131 teams. Are you as head coach prepared to make changes?”

We know the answer. Did the media figures mentioned ask the question?
 
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Well in defense of Grady, this would be the type of question that you will never hear the media ask. Which is Grady point.

I do think the offense will show improvement this year. How much I don’t know. Any improvement would greatly enhance the over all performance of the team. Give the defense the breaks they need to stay off the field so they are t gassed by the fourth quarter.. The defense will keep us in most games.

Yea, they can't get much worse. Improvement will be made, but, how much will be the deciding factor. Going from 121 to 95 will not move the needle much, IMO. It will still show issues and deficiencies.
 

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