Does Ferentz Reward Underperforming Coaches?

[HomerChampless]

When I look at and listen to Phil Parker, a "yes man" is not the first thing I think of. He's carved out a pretty good career for himself at Iowa, can't fault him for staying here. I have no desire to see him leave as Iowa's DC.

Meh. Phil followed Norm as DC and I see no difference between the philosophy of the two. Norm had some pass rushers on some of his squads, though.

So Phil copies the philosophy of Norm. Where did Norm get his philosophy while a DC at Iowa? I say Phil is a yes man.

 

[homes]

Meh. Phil followed Norm as DC and I see no difference between the philosophy of the two. Norm had some pass rushers on some of his squads, though.

So Phil copies the philosophy of Norm. Where did Norm get his philosophy while a DC at Iowa? I say Phil is a yes man.

Well, in this case, being a Yes Man, as you've described it, isn't a bad thing. AKA, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. At least that's how I see it. Maybe you don't like Iowa's defensive philosophy, though.

 

[peerok]

I remember plenty of fans being pissed when KF hired Reese Morgan. They said things like "Why hire a high school coach when he could have gone out and hired someone with experience at the college level?" Others said KF was to lazy to look outside of Iowa City for a coach. Well it turned out maybe just maybe KF knew what he was doing after all.

 

[BVHawk95]

Well, in this case, being a Yes Man, as you've described it, isn't a bad thing. AKA, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. At least that's how I see it. Maybe you don't like Iowa's defensive philosophy, though.

You're absolutely correct, and I'll add that Phil HAS tweaked Iowa's defense in his time here. We used to run almost exclusively Cover 2 as a base, when now we run a hybrid 2/4 look. Phil has also experimented with blitzes and rush packages much more than Norm ever did. To say he is piggybacking off of Norm not only discredit's Phil's ability, but discredits Norm as a teacher of his assistant coaches.

 

[HAman]

It sounds like Knight 78 really likes Ferentz's hire for Iowa's 10th coach...although he seems unable to justify it with words. Is it his success at other levels that you like? His experience? Or his recruiting ability?

Here's a news flash, when any head coach of any sport has been at a school for 20 years, and each year he fields a team of about 100 scholarship and walkon players with a large percentage aspiring to play in the NFL, coach at some level, or be involved in sports in some capacity, you are going to have 10 or more kids on every 100 man team who ends up going into coaching as a grad assistant and beyond. Take 10 former players per year over 20 years, and guess what, you're going to have quite a few former players on coaching staffs.

Same goes for coaching staffs. If you have 9-10 coaches, plus a bunch of grad assistants every year for 20 years...you're probably going to have guys who were on your staff wind up at other schools. Brilliant observation.

Somehow, other long tenured guys like Bob Stoops, Gary Patterson, Mike Gundy, Dabo Swinny, Nick Saban, etc. have coaching FORESTS compared with Kirk's Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. The question remains...why is it that way? Is it because Iowa's assistants are so darn good that they remain assistants forever (or leave the team to run a fast food restaurant)? Or is it because no other schools come calling? The law of averages is if someone is in demand, another school is going to offer him more money and a promotion. If someone is a "yes man," and provides no innovation or huge recruiting advantages, no one comes calling and they remain where they're at.

IowaLawWasRight, let me help you with the math here. You seem a little lost, or you are overselling your point. You claim 10 percent go onto coaching. Then your claim 100 players X 10% gives you 10 players X 20 years. Doing the math yields 200 players. Wrong. We recruit 25 players every year, and at least 8 of them drop out of football every year. That gives you 17 players X 10% = 1.7 players X 20 years gives you 34 players, not 200!

 

[HawksMN]

Im pretty negative toward Kirk but wow! It seems like this message board is nothing but negativity

When the two major sports at the school are mediocre or less, folks gonna gripe

 

[Kennyfromminne]

When the two major sports at the school are mediocre or less, folks gonna gripe

I get it

 

[DDThompson]

Then the hire before this latest gem...an offensive coordinator from a dakota school? If you're paying your son nearly a million dollars a year to be the offensive coordinator, isn't it a little shady and disingenuous to bring in an offensive coordinator with zero recruiting ties other than the snow white dakotas solely to tutor your son at 1/4 Brian's salary? That would be akin to making $4,000,000 per year and still having your son qualify for subsidized welfare housing, living next door to single moms and crack babies for free. Woops, that happened too.

“Jealousy is a weak emotion.”
Jay-z

“Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

 

[HomerChampless]

I remember plenty of fans being pissed when KF hired Reese Morgan. They said things like "Why hire a high school coach when he could have gone out and hired someone with experience at the college level?" Others said KF was to lazy to look outside of Iowa City for a coach. Well it turned out maybe just maybe KF knew what he was doing after all.

. Does hiring the son change your perspective of KF's coaching evaluation abilities? How about sticking with KOK and Davis for as long as he did?

 

[HomerChampless]

You're absolutely correct, and I'll add that Phil HAS tweaked Iowa's defense in his time here. We used to run almost exclusively Cover 2 as a base, when now we run a hybrid 2/4 look. Phil has also experimented with blitzes and rush packages much more than Norm ever did. To say he is piggybacking off of Norm not only discredit's Phil's ability, but discredits Norm as a teacher of his assistant coaches.

I believe the verb you used to describe the difference between Norm's and Phil's defense philosophy was tweaked.

 

[peerok]

. Does hiring the son change your perspective of KF's coaching evaluation abilities? How about sticking with KOK and Davis for as long as he did?

You missed my point. I never said I thought all of KF' hires were great. I think he's made some very good hires and some not so good hires. My point with Reese Morgan was that you can't judge a hire immediately, like some posters are doing with the latest hire. Its a lot like recruiting, you really don't know if you made a smart choice offering some kid untill a few years later.

 

[BVHawk95]

I believe the verb you used to describe the difference between Norm's and Phil's defense philosophy was tweaked.

I was agreeing with homes' post of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", while adding my own points.

Your exact wording was you see "no difference" in the philosophies of Phil and Norm, which is false.

 

[HobbieHawk]

I remember plenty of fans being pissed when KF hired Reese Morgan. They said things like "Why hire a high school coach when he could have gone out and hired someone with experience at the college level?" Others said KF was to lazy to look outside of Iowa City for a coach. Well it turned out maybe just maybe KF knew what he was doing after all.

in 2002, with Special Teams under Reese Morgan, Iowa scored every possible way in the rulebook

 

[HomerChampless]

You missed my point. I never said I thought all of KF' hires were great. I think he's made some very good hires and some not so good hires. My point with Reese Morgan was that you can't judge a hire immediately, like some posters are doing with the latest hire. Its a lot like recruiting, you really don't know if you made a smart choice offering some kid untill a few years later.

So, Iowa is not only a developmental school for players but is one for coaches, too? One could easily argue KF was developed as a coach at Iowa.

One also has to look at the path the development takes for player or coach. It's the same type of path. The same offensive and defensive philosophy. Whose philosophy do you think that is?

 

[HomerChampless]

I was agreeing with homes' post of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", while adding my own points.

Your exact wording was you see "no difference" in the philosophies of Phil and Norm, which is false.

You've mixed up the meaning of philosophy and, for example, mechanics.
Norm and Phil had the same defensive philosophy. Make the opponents' offenses go the length of the field to score - counter-punch their offense. Shorten the game by purposely having Iowa's defense on the field for stretches at a time.
Play zone defense.


Norm didn't have as sophisticated a pass defense as Phil because Norm relied on the pass rush more to pass defend and because opponents' pass offenses weren't as sophisticated as now, nor as prevalent.

Whether by necessity or by design, Phil has "tweaked", among other things, Iowa's pass defense because: (1) pass offenses (even in the B1G West) are more sophisticated and (2) Phil can't seem to find effective pass rushers (maybe because of quick passes or changing pass blocking techniques). To belabor the point, Phil has had to react to, among other things in current college football offense, the changes of the passing game and spread option game. Phil's and Norm's philosophies are the same.

I've made this point on may occasions and will do so again: Wisconsin has a better defense than Iowa because Iowa has a, for the most part, reacting defense and Wisconsin has an attacking defense. Their defense is why Wisconsin is successful year in and out.

 

[earlkoppelman]

I think any objective fan who has followed Iowa football over the past decade has scratched their head at some of Ferentz's coaching decisions over the years. From hiring his son over 100 other candidates as Iowa's OL coach in 2012, to promoting his son and raising his salary from $200,000 to $700,000 over the course of 5 years of below average OL coaching, to moving our best regarded coaching position assistant, Reece Morgan, from coaching the OL to coaching the DL to make way for Brian, to bringing back Ken O'Keefe, who was all but fired for having poor offenses, and was fired by his NFL team. Then there's LeVar Woods, who has struggled mightily in both coaching and recruiting, but because Ferentz likes him, he simply shuffles him around to different positions every few years to keep him on the payroll (i.e. he's the guy responsible for Iowa's 28 yard punting average and let it bounce and roll to the 3 yardline punt return game as special teams coach). THERE IS A REASON THAT AFTER 20 YEARS, THERE'S STILL NO FERENTZ COACHING TREE AT IOWA. He brings in "yes men," rather than sharp, ambitious future head coaches.

This year, we get to add an extra coach on our staff. How do we utilize the position? Not by bringing in a flashy recruiter or a top notch assistant from another school. Instead, we bring in a guy from a RBs coach from "Samford," an obscure FCS team who ranked 114th out of 123 FCS schools in rushing. lol

I get the optics of it. Bringing in a young, black coach, who can relate to the players and help in recruiting. That seems like a smart move. But this guy specifically has never landed a single D1 recruit, has zero ties to Iowa or the Midwest for recruiting or loyalty, and Iowa is now the 5th school he's coached at in the past 6 years. Apparently he's touted as a guy who might make recruiting in-roads in Georgia? Come on...that was Seth Wallace's claim to fame 5 years ago, and we've landed a grand total of 1 Georgia recruit since he's been on the coaching staff, Trey Creamer, despite offering tons of GA kids in that time span. It ain't happening.

Why not bring in a MAC coach from Michigan or Ohio who can develop a real pipeline, an up and comer from a BCS school, or a Florida/Texas high school football hall of famer. This hire is the latest in a series of head scratchers under Kirk's leadership.

http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...ck-foster-georgia-recruiting-ties/1057232001/

Do you know how stupid it sounds to say LeVar Woods is struggling at coaching and recruiting when he’s been coaching the positions that have looked the best the last several years and is the center of the offense and defense units to have success. And has had the most improved talent. The LB and TE units have just sucked the last few years, haven’t they.

And that moving him to special teams just might mean that Ferentz trusts him to get that unit to respectability again. Oh, and I wonder if he played on special teams in the NFL where he learned no thing.

And that you don’t have to play a position to be a successful coach at that position and, in fact, can be a really good coach at the position(s) that your position as a player was opposing?

Does that include himself???