Did Iowa Use Up All Their Trick Plays?

MelroseHawkins

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
The two years prior to this year we've seen Iowa run a couple fancy trick plays, in particular, fake field goals that were successful. This year we have not seen one lick of a trick play. We've seen some different plays the last two weeks but not trick plays at all. Hell, we haven't even seen a Flea Flicker all year. Not one, what I would call, trick play.

I'm not harping on coaches or anything for not calling them, it just dawned on me and I found rather strange when thinking about it compared to the last two years.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
The two years prior to this year we've seen Iowa run a couple fancy trick plays, in particular, fake field goals that were successful. This year we have not seen one lick of a trick play. We've seen some different plays the last two weeks but not trick plays at all. Hell, we haven't even seen a Flea Flicker all year. Not one, what I would call, trick play.

I'm not harping on coaches or anything for not calling them, it just dawned on me and I found rather strange when thinking about it compared to the last two years.
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ISM's run, by Kirk Standards, was a pretty tricky play.

Our last attempt at trickery on a field goal unnessecerily turned momentum in last year's Nebraska game, and ended up nearly costing us the game. I'm sure Daddy didn't forget.

Besides, we had a pretty reliable field goal kicker. I think Kirk liked his chances better.

Side note. I never knew how much a trick play could stress a parent out until about six weeks ago. My oldest played defensive line. My youngest, in ninth grade, plays running back. When they called a halfback option pass that ball seemed to hang in the air formabout five minutes, and it seemed like the entire defensive backfield was camped under it. Our receiver made a heck of an adjustment to an underthrown ball and it did result in a touchdown. But it was stressful (for me).
 
Northside Hawk said:
ISM's run, by Kirk Standards, was a pretty tricky play.

Our last attempt at trickery on a field goal unnessecerily turned momentum in last year's Nebraska game, and ended up nearly costing us the game. I'm sure Daddy didn't forget.

Besides, we had a pretty reliable field goal kicker. I think Kirk liked his chances better.
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Oh shit, Recinos was reliable as well those two years. I think it was more game situation them calling the trick plays, not so much in not having confidence in Recinos. Hell, a couple of those field goals were chip shots.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Oh shit, Recinos was reliable as well those two years. I think it was more game situation them calling the trick plays, not so much in not having confidence in Recinos. Hell, a couple of those field goals were chip shots.
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Recinos was pretty good. We've been lucky there especially recently.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
The two years prior to this year we've seen Iowa run a couple fancy trick plays, in particular, fake field goals that were successful. This year we have not seen one lick of a trick play. We've seen some different plays the last two weeks but not trick plays at all. Hell, we haven't even seen a Flea Flicker all year. Not one, what I would call, trick play.

I'm not harping on coaches or anything for not calling them, it just dawned on me and I found rather strange when thinking about it compared to the last two years.
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First off Kirk doesnt like to trick play or do reverses or handoffs on his side of the 50. He is totally against giving up a short field on a blunder. So that usually cuts out 50% of the offensive snaps. And if he is in a close game he usually plays it pretty conservative with a pound and ground nothing fance.

Hell sometimes I think a pass longer than 30 yards, especially over the middle of the field, is considered a trick play by Kirk. :)
 
We still have at least one left...

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Sometimes in life you have to say what the F, why not.
Probably mostly when you don't want to.
Sometimes the best way to surprise others is to surprise yourself.
The art of war says "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
 
Seth53 said:
Hardly exotic or frequent. But OK.
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geesus krist. You don't think running a fake field goal is a trick play? Add into that what kind of fake field goals they ran. A fake field goal or fake punt is the proverbial trick play in football. Nobody said it had to be frequent. That is the whole point of this thread, the point that Iowa didn't run one all year. Just weird compared to the last two years.

But OK.
 
A very clever reverse pitch to Goodson in the Minnesota game was a beautiful play and certainly "exotic."

You don't want to run trick plays on field goals when you have a kicker of Duncan's caliber.

I guessing you'll see something in the bowl game. Kirk seems to "loosen up" a little in the post-season?
 
When LeVar was on the Hawkcentral podcast, he seemed to indicate that they had some trick plays ready, but they weren't getting the looks/formations from the opposition that they needed in order to feel comfortable executing. He seemed to indicate that other teams were now onto them since they'd been running fake field goals and punts the last 4 years or so.

I wouldn't be surprised if we break one out in the bowl game since it'll conceivably be an opponent that's not aware of our recent history and wouldn't have any tape from this year to see any of our fakes.
 
Since we had a run of special teams trick plays, our opponents are leaving their base defense on the field more often. So the opportunities are not there.

But the fact that we're forcing them to leave their base defense on the field more often has likely led to more success with our special teams, which have been very good in the last 3 years.
 
SpiderRico said:
When LeVar was on the Hawkcentral podcast, he seemed to indicate that they had some trick plays ready, but they weren't getting the looks/formations from the opposition that they needed in order to feel comfortable executing. He seemed to indicate that other teams were now onto them since they'd been running fake field goals and punts the last 4 years or so.

I wouldn't be surprised if we break one out in the bowl game since it'll conceivably be an opponent that's not aware of our recent history and wouldn't have any tape from this year to see any of our fakes.
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This right here. You start firing all your bullets often enough and you'll have them bounce back at you. I'm ok with not using them a boat load. I love being surprised by them as much as the opponent when they do pull one out. That's what makes them work. Not just the scheming of them so much as catching kids not looking for something off guard does.
 
ICHawk24 said:
Since we had a run of special teams trick plays, our opponents are leaving their base defense on the field more often. So the opportunities are not there.

But the fact that we're forcing them to leave their base defense on the field more often has likely led to more success with our special teams, which have been very good in the last 3 years.
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#3 in the nation in Football Outsiders Special Teams efficiency metric (#16 each of the last 2 years).
 
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