This is one of the biggest myths perpetuated on Hawkeye message boards and the fact that you had to go back a decade for an example proves that point.
Do the coaches get it wrong sometimes? Sure they do. They are human. However, look at the significant number of true freshmen they have played over the past few years. KF has said on many occasions that they don't regret pulling redshirts because they are playing to win now, not 4 years from now. If someone can help them, even on special teams, they will use them, regardless of their age.
Also, in football and pretty much everywhere in life, experience does matter. I am 44 and am much better in my career than when I was 24. That has come through all of the different situations I have experienced over the years. Most players are much better as 4th or 5th year seniors than they were as true freshmen.
It is fair to criticize in other areas but this is not a fair criticism of KF and staff.
Go Hawks!
I'm not at practice so I have no idea what goes on. I get the some players play better in practice and show more intensity, attention, etc. I don't want anyone fired. All any of us can do is have a discussion based on what we've seen as fans this year and the past 13 seasons.
So my questions based on the above are this: What the heck goes on in August for the team to break camp with Sleeper the #1 safety and Bernstine the #2? How could that possibly be? What went on during the Iowa State game that allowed Nielsen to play outside linebacker the entire game despite not being able to run and barely being able to get back to the huddle between plays because he was so injured? That went on for 2 more quarters against Pitt before someone finally got the bright idea, "hey, maybe Tyler is a little too injured to be effective out there."
Will there be meaningful competition at the QB, LG, C and linebacker spots this off season? I love Morris, I hope he keeps getting better and turns out to be the best option at linebacker. But the 3 very best linebackers we have might end up being Alston, Kirksey and Hitchens next year given the types of offenses we play against. I'm not saying at all Morris shouldn't start; my point is that he will start without his PT being in jeopardy by an emerging player.
At center, Ferentz is simply too small and gets blown up way too often by the better d-lines Iowa plays. Same for Tobin who is a walk-on. If these are the best guys we have at those spots than fine, but again, see the example of Sleeper being ahead of Bernstine to start the season. Will these two be challenged?
Then we have the runningback position. I don't want to make this about McCall b/c I don't care if he comes back or not, but he is the runningback position this year was completely botched. Clearly Canzeri and even White were more than competent enough to come in and give Coker some rest and change the pace of the offense. People have defended the handling of the runningback position this year with the "need to earn Kirk's trust" argument. Someone needs to explain to me what that means b/c it apparently doesn't apply to any other position in terms of playing time. This year between Miller and Prater (not sure who was to blame) the two of them blew about 4-5 coverage that led DIRECTLY to the opponent scoring a touchdown, yet neither of them came out. Davis dropped a lot of passes this year that killed drives, but he never lost any PT. Vandenburg played poorly at times, but never came out. I'm not trying to call out players here, but just trying to have an honest discussion. This year more than ever I can recall there were blown assignments and some really, really bad fundamental play from just about every position, yet apparently only the runningback position requires some level of extra trust to get a meaningful snap.
I think Ferentz was a little spoiled in the past b/c the "under the radar guys" that were the team's leaders and best players during the good runs also happened to be the team's best, most talented players (e.g. Angerer, Sanders, Consodine, Clark, Gallery, Greenway, Steen, Yanda, Hinkel, etc.). But that's not always the case and Iowa enjoyed a particularly good set of runs with developing under the radar guys. But unless the really talented player is a lazy piece of s$&t and is not working hard, he needs to play over the over-achiever walk-on who really, really, really works hard.
This turned into a rant. Sorry.