Couple sobering thoughts

Kirk is 30-26 in the Big Ten. At our current pace, he will have a losing Big Ten record within 2 years. Hopefully that will wake up some of the people who have their heads buried in the sand.
 
So please tell me what we are supposed to do about it. I'm sick of these posts. Instead of ******** why don't you tell me what we are supposed to do. Boycott games? Stop donating? Kidnap Steven Ferentz and force Kirk to leave if he wants to see him again? Kirk is locked into a contract for 8 more years, and unless some big ******* booster decides to pony up some cash, Kirk isn't going anywhere. Iowa football isn't a democracy, and we don't get to vote for a coach every four years. Stop ******** and get behind the team and hope they pull out of this mess.

Thanks for the realistic reply. I am sick and tired of listening to these type of posts. We are Iowa fans, and of course we are behind our team. But that doesn't mean that we can't be critical of the team that we love. We all want Iowa to pull out of this mess that they are in but that doesn't mean that we have to accept everything that is going on without a negative thought. If people want to say what they feel in thoughful and repectful way then they should be able to without having posters reply with garbage like "get behind the team" or "your not a real fan".
 
In my experience living almost 60 years, you either get better or you get worse. Nothing stays the same.

Iowa FB will either get better or it will get worse. I think the Iowa coaches can coach, so it comes down to recruiting and then keeping those players and helping them get better.

I think Iowa gets better but it will take two or three seasons. Patience will be hard for a very spoiled, impatient Iowa fan base living in the electronic "I want it and I want it right now" generation.

Your right, that's the problem with Iowa fans...the young people.
 
What do we do to turn it around? I suggest step one would be to admit something is seriously wrong in the FB program and stop with all the excuses about "we are just Iowa" and shouldn't expect too much.

Step two would be to get rid of the idea that upper classmen must play before younger players. The best example of this I can thinkof was McCann over Banks a few years ago. Who on here thinks that was a wise decision?

Step three is if your an assistant coach and you don't produce your gone. No more tenure.

Step four. Stop with the BS that "Iowa isn't sexy." Get off your arse and go recruit...Hard. If the head coach can't have confidence in the program how can you expect recruits to have any?

Just my opinion.
 
What do we do to turn it around? I suggest step one would be to admit something is seriously wrong in the FB program and stop with all the excuses about "we are just Iowa" and shouldn't expect too much.

Step two would be to get rid of the idea that upper classmen must play before younger players. The best example of this I can thinkof was McCann over Banks a few years ago. Who on here thinks that was a wise decision?

Step three is if your an assistant coach and you don't produce your gone. No more tenure.

Step four. Stop with the BS that "Iowa isn't sexy." Get off your arse and go recruit...Hard. If the head coach can't have confidence in the program how can you expect recruits to have any?

Just my opinion.

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!
 
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!

Ok. Fair criticism. Lets update it. How about JC over Stanzi? How obvious did that have to be before a change was made? How long will JV be allowed to lose on the road before something new is attempted? I suggest regardless of results JV will start all next year and we win 6 games.
 
Since 2004, we have finished 7-5 or worse in 5 of 7 seasons.

If you take away Div 1AA and MAC teams, Iowa is 11-11 over the past two seasons, including the bowl games.

There is no doubt that the program is stagnant and in desperate need of a shot in the arm.

So what you are saying is for 4mil we get a coach who is no more than an average coach...awesome!
 
So what you are saying is for 4mil we get a coach who is no more than an average coach...awesome!

The salary argument is moronic.

Unless you would not be complaining about 7-5 with a coach making 1.5MM a year, than you need to STFU about the salary.

If we were paying someone 1.5MM and going 7-5, you'd be ******** about how you need to pay someone more to get better results.

Salary is irrelevant.
 
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.
 
I know we'll owe him money, the point is that coaches are fired all the time, and their contracts are bought out all the time. It is highly unusual for a coach to have less than 4 years on their contract because of the potentially negative impact it would have on recruiting.

This is ridiculous. Iowa owes Ferentz $32 million, not $6 or $10 million. People don't get fired with that amount of time and money left on a deal.

Name the last coach that is paid basically top 5 college football money to be fired? $32 million is a significant impact to the athletic department budget and we don't have donors that throw around that kind of money.

Kirk is at Iowa the next 4 years if he wants to be, Barta made a bad move with this long-term deal.
 
This is ridiculous. Iowa owes Ferentz $32 million, not $6 or $10 million. People don't get fired with that amount of time and money left on a deal.

Name the last coach that is paid basically top 5 college football money to be fired? $32 million is a significant impact to the athletic department budget and we don't have donors that throw around that kind of money.

Kirk is at Iowa the next 4 years if he wants to be, Barta made a bad move with this long-term deal.

I think that's the real story here.. But since the contract has been signed, nothing can be done about it. Barta does seem to love handing out very long contracts.. 7 years to Lick, and KF is extended through 2020.

All I've got to say is that with contracts like that, you'd better be DARN sure that your coach is the right guy. In Lick's case... OOPS. Jury is still out on the next 8 years of KF's contract.

I'll say that at the time of that extension (2009, correct?) that it looked like a better decision to extended KF through 2020 than it does today. If KF gets it turned around, then great. No problem.

But can a coach really be at their best when they know they're going to be getting paid for the next 10 years no matter what? Where's the incentive? Having a coach extended out 5-6 years is one thing.. 10? That's awfully risky IMO.
 
The salary argument is moronic.

Unless you would not be complaining about 7-5 with a coach making 1.5MM a year, than you need to STFU about the salary.

If we were paying someone 1.5MM and going 7-5, you'd be ******** about how you need to pay someone more to get better results.

Salary is irrelevant.

Really? So when you buy a BMW it should perform like a Kia? Price = quality of product your expected to get, whether that be in goods or services (Kirk provides a service).

He would be complaining about a 7-5 season for a $1.5m coach, but that average coach would be getting an average salary then. A top ten paid coach should provide top 25 product (notice I didn't say top 10).
 
This is ridiculous. Iowa owes Ferentz $32 million, not $6 or $10 million. People don't get fired with that amount of time and money left on a deal.

Name the last coach that is paid basically top 5 college football money to be fired? $32 million is a significant impact to the athletic department budget and we don't have donors that throw around that kind of money.

Kirk is at Iowa the next 4 years if he wants to be, Barta made a bad move with this long-term deal.

Actually, no they don't.

He gets 75% of his base salary, which is basically 3.5MM. That means his buyout is 2.625MM a year. So if he were fired right now, he would be owed 21MM, not 32MM.

Furthermore, he isn't going to get fired right now, or even after this next year, and that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the fact that 1) the guy doesn't deserve to be fired right now and 2) he has taken the program up twice. But he very well could be after 2013, if things don't turn around. At that point, 6 years is 15.75MM and if you think that is some insurmountable number for a major university with a major football program to "muster up," you'd be wrong.
 

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