coaching philosophy

[cabse5]

If the coaching staff truly believes that better execution will correct all of Iowa's woes, they'd really better start "putting their noses to the grindstone" and recruit better talent.

They'd also better start recruiting some "high-star" players. If there's one thing high school recruiting analysts have traditionally gotten right, it's good players with exceptional speed. Iowa's coaches better start recruiting some "high-star" players if they want to stop the spread or have playmakers at wide receiver.

The coaches should then use that talent so those speedsters aren't scared away. Less zone defenses and conservative pass plays.

This is a catch 22 for Ferentz: he wants better execution, but he can't recruit the necessary talent for better execution.

Then again, if systems were tweaked....

 

[CAARHawk]

Actually I think Iowa has the core players to compete athletically. Of course there will be some weak spots with player turnover and injuries. This year we saw that at linebacker, corner, guard, and RB.

Think of this: What if Amari would have been playing corner instead of Hyde? What if Iowa didn't have to shuffle the linebacking Corp and play true freshmen and guys out of position? What if a certain back didn't complely screw ipnhis life, or another screw up his knee, or another screw up his shoulder blade? What if an undersized backup center didn't have to play guard because Iowa lost two starters at that spot, or even better, what if Iowa had an all-American senior starting on the line?

When you look at Iowa's success at getting guys into the league in the last decade you have to understand that they are getting some athletes. I think the biggest problem is that they don't seem to know how to scheme to limit their weaknesses.

 

[cabse5]

Amari is a safety in the pros. He doesn't have cornerback speed or skills.

There's your difference. Iowa has cornerbacks with safety speed and skills.
Iowa's linebacker coverage of receivers is traditionally atrocious. They usually need to go back to "pass defense kintergarten".

 

[CRHawk2002]

Linebacker coverage of receivers is traditionally atrocious? I think you're way off base here. The OLB in their D is traditionally a great cover LB. Look at Edds, Greenway, Humpal, and now Nielsen. And Amari doesnt have corner speed or skills? He was a first team all big ten corner, and considered for all american teams. Is it possible his talent just schemes better at saftety for Detroit? He would be a great cover 2 corner in the NFL. And Iowa traditionally puts DB's in the NFL, at both corner and safety.

And before you comment on Iowa's lack of ability to recruit talent, and their lack of speed/athleticism, and their lack of execution. Or bash the current system in place. Keep in mind it is the same system that took us to an Orange Bowl victory last year.

 

[racerhawk]

Amari is a safety in the pros. He doesn't have cornerback speed or skills.

There's your difference. Iowa has cornerbacks with safety speed and skills.
Iowa's linebacker coverage of receivers is traditionally atrocious. They usually need to go back to "pass defense kintergarten".

Not if you listen to opposing coaches through the years.

You're completely wrong on this...most years. This year, I think you're correct because we have inexperienced LBs and some injuries.

Every defensive style has weaknesses. It is true that this style puts pressure on the LBs to do a lot.

Over the years, I think you'd be hard pressed to say that Iowa's defense isn't very salty...one of the saltiest in the B10 (some years THE strongest unit in the big ten).

I rewatched the NW debacle last night. The defense was absolutely wasted at the end of the game. The offense lost that game for us by not picking up first downs. I think NW ran 50 plays in the second half. Iowa can't score 17 on NW? Look to the offense with your ire.

 

[hawkfan2679]

I rewatched the NW debacle last night. The defense was absolutely wasted at the end of the game. The offense lost that game for us by not picking up first downs. I think NW ran 50 plays in the second half. Iowa can't score 17 on NW? Look to the offense with your ire.

If we suspended Adam Robinson for a quarter for "academic indigestion," can we suspend Ken O'Keefe for the Minnesota for "offensive indigestion?"

[stolen shamelessly from another board]

 

[CAARHawk]

Not if you listen to opposing coaches through the years.

You're completely wrong on this...most years. This year, I think you're correct because we have inexperienced LBs and some injuries.

Every defensive style has weaknesses. It is true that this style puts pressure on the LBs to do a lot.

Over the years, I think you'd be hard pressed to say that Iowa's defense isn't very salty...one of the saltiest in the B10 (some years THE strongest unit in the big ten).

I rewatched the NW debacle last night. The defense was absolutely wasted at the end of the game. The offense lost that game for us by not picking up first downs. I think NW ran 50 plays in the second half. Iowa can't score 17 on NW? Look to the offense with your ire.

Agreed.

At the beginning of the season, I was very vocal about my interest about who would start at Right Guard when we heard Gettis was hurt and Hundertmark had left the team. I said at the time that if MacMillan got in there, it would be hard for Gettis to get his spot back. Well Mac got in and the team rolled. They put Gettis in during the last offensive drive against UA and he got rolled. However, he played better later in the season.

Well, both guys got hurt and we put in a back up center who has been getting destroyed, which has killed a lot of drives the last three weeks. The problem is that the coaches don't seem to want to accept that they need to work away from that spot, which means rolling the pocket or using much more shot gun. They just keep thinking it will work out and it doesn't.

 

[cabse5]

This is like butting my head against a wall.

This has been posted by others - do you guys ignore anything that doesn't agree with your ideology? Against NW, if the D had ocassionally stopped their O, NW wouldn't have run over 50 plays in the second half. On top of that, our O would have had the ball more.

Figure it out, just once.

 

[DesMoinesHawki]

If the coaching staff truly believes that better execution will correct all of Iowa's woes, they'd really better start "putting their noses to the grindstone" and recruit better talent.

They'd also better start recruiting some "high-star" players. If there's one thing high school recruiting analysts have traditionally gotten right, it's good players with exceptional speed. Iowa's coaches better start recruiting some "high-star" players if they want to stop the spread or have playmakers at wide receiver.

The coaches should then use that talent so those speedsters aren't scared away. Less zone defenses and conservative pass plays.

This is a catch 22 for Ferentz: he wants better execution, but he can't recruit the necessary talent for better execution.

Then again, if systems were tweaked....

I beg to differ on your opinion Iowa needs to recruit some "high-star" players to stop the spread, etc. Iowa is never going to be an Ohio State or Texas, etc. Teams whose name alone has recruits landing in their backyard. But, Iowa does do a nice job of pulling in good players.

I am curious ... last year, when Iowa went to the Orange Bowl and dismantled an "athletic" Georgia Tech team, did you have these same concerns? It is not just about bringing in a roster filled with elite athletes. If it was, then how do you explain the type of season Texas is having? Or, why Miami of Florida has fallen from the Top 25, and Florida State is not too far behind. How does Wisky beat Miami last year in its bowl game? My guess is Wisky, like Iowa, does a nice job of bringing in talent and developing that talent -- one of Kirk's strengths since he took the Iowa job.

I don't think the problem was with our defense. In fact, our defense is still (I believe) within the top 15 in the country. Not bad considering the teams we played this season. We were "this close" to beating a very good Wisky team. We had a chance to beat a strong Ohio State team. Now, if Iowa had been blown out in any of its games this year, maybe we could start analyzing the talent on the roster. But that is not the case.

I would have to say that right now, the past couple of classes and the upcoming class, have afforded Iowa its deepest talent pool to date. We have more depth that in previous seasons and while we aren't necessarily a team that simply reloads each season, we are getting closer. We lose an awful lot of talent this season but I really like the looks of what we have waiting in the wings.

Do I think we have the right talent and level of recruits in place? Absolutely. Do I think we could look more to change things up so we aren't so predictable on offense? Yes.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Until we throw out our defensive playbook and convert to Greg Robinson's unstoppable 3-3-5 defense, we will continue to lose winnable games. Now sure, that 3-3-5 didn't look so good against PSU, Illinois, Wisconsin or Indiana, but I think it will get Iowa over the Northwestern hump.

Greg Robinson for DC.

 

[VintageHawkeye]

This is like butting my head against a wall.

This has been posted by others - do you guys ignore anything that doesn't agree with your ideology? Against NW, if the D had ocassionally stopped their O, NW wouldn't have run over 50 plays in the second half. On top of that, our O would have had the ball more.

Figure it out, just once.

If our O had been more creative and productive and sustained a few more (scoring) drives, our D and their O would not have been on the field to run over 50 plays in 2H. And our D wouldn't have been exhausted at the end, when we needed them the most.
That you can't comprehend that the O/KOK are primarily to blame for our failures lately makes me want to butt your...err, my...head against a wall.

 

[okeefe4prez]

If our O had been more creative and productive and sustained a few more (scoring) drives, our D and their O would not have been on the field to run over 50 plays in 2H. And our D wouldn't have been exhausted at the end, when we needed them the most.
That you can't comprehend that the O/KOK are primarily to blame for our failures lately makes me want to butt your...err, my...head against a wall.

Nice try pal, but this season is my nightmare O'Keefe season because of the weapons we have. If the guy grinds out long drives and we play as a TEAM, we are successful, but when he pulls out the big guns, you see these quick scoring drives like against Indiana (3 plays and a TD) or NU (4 plays and a TD) or after that OSU pick (2 or 3 plays and a TD) and then the D is right back on the field with no rest and in a position to fold. I'll take the ol' plain vanilla Ken O'Keefe over this newfound quickstrike O'Keefe any day of the week.

 

[cabse5]

Nope, I've never said all the problems have been created by the defense. In fact, I've mentioned more than once that Iowa needs more playmakers at receiver. Yes, this Iowa receiver group has had more "tools" than previous, but they still leave a lot to be desired and the playcalling, at times, leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm responding to threads started by "defense homies" with titles like: don't blame the defense, etc.

To really fix the problem, Iowa needs to fix the two minute offense and two minute defense. Fix the pass defense and get some playmakers at wide receiver. I'm sounding like a broken record.

 

[SeattleHawkeye]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't think there needs to be any coaching changes or philosophical overhauls - just slight schematic changes / tweaks to gameplan differently for some teams. If we got just slightly more aggressive / attacking on both O and D, I think there would be even more success...and on O part of that would be getting your most talented players w/ the ball in their hands in space. I'm of the belief that you can't really tell how athletically gifted some of IA's skill players are b/c the KOK / Ferentz offense is very controlled, precise and regimented - think maybe the anti-Oregon / Auburn. Sure we run reverses once or twice a game, but it's not as if Stanzi sees a CB playing off DJK, audibles, then takes the snap and fires it out to DJK and we can see if he can make something happen.

I also think the talent pool is deeper at IA than I can ever recall, at least during the Ferentz tenure (this could also be b/c it's easier to follow recruiting, so it may not be as deep as perceived). Part of the reason frosh are playing more is due to injuries, and part is b/c they come in more talented and college ready than before. There are also some guys RS'ing this year and last that many of us are fairly excited about, as they were rated as fairly high recruits and seem to have some serious physical tools. I think IA's recruiting is very solid, and the staff is stellar at ID'ing players that fit their schemes...something Bobby Bowden commented on as being part of the reason FSU hasn't been successful, and maybe part of the reason Weis was dismissed from ND. You can recruit all the 4-5* you want, but if they don't have the tools to fit your schemes, I wouldn't think that's an intelligent decision.

Also, this year's D has definitely not been a failure, nor even a weakness, and people thinking in that manner are just wrong. The fact is the D just hasn't been able to make stops when they most needed to, for a variety of reasons, including the O not helping out by scoring more and occupying some clock at key times.

And no, the Koeppel at RG experience hasn't been overly successful - not a disaster, but I certainly wouldn't call it a success, either. I'd have liked to see Boffelli, Orne or Casey Mac get some snaps, but I'll trust the coaches on this one, as they see the players daily.

 

[seepig]

I agree Seattle with almost everything you stated. And again it gets back to coaching because they are the ones that need to game plan to put their players in the best position to make plays. By have an anti-2 minute offense you are not putting the kids in the best position to win. How about running up tempo so the D can't substitute....it sure works well against our front 4 especially when we are absolutely averse to blitzing anyone.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

This is like butting my head against a wall.

This has been posted by others - do you guys ignore anything that doesn't agree with your ideology? Against NW, if the D had ocassionally stopped their O, NW wouldn't have run over 50 plays in the second half. On top of that, our O would have had the ball more.

Figure it out, just once.

Conversely, if the offense can get more than 2 first downs in the 4th quarter, NW doesn't run that many plays because they don't have the ball.

See how easy that is?

***** about the defense all you want; that they were on the field for 11 minutes in the 4th quarter of that game is not entirely on them. It's a team game, and in the last three weeks neither unit has played up to it's capabilities at crunch time.