Does Kirk Ferentz suffer the same problem as Stan Van Gundy

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smoot27

Well-Known Member
I'm referring to Shaq calling Stan Master Panic. This is partially in jest but somewhat serious at the same time. Ferentz like Van Gundy is a solid coach, but when faced with a crucial situation on the field in a high pressure situation, he has difficulty making the right decision timely.

For example:
* 2005 - the Drew Tate to Holloway pass although historic should have never happened if Kirk would have used his timeouts correctly. We lucked out bigtime that we were so dysfunctional it threw off LSU's defense.
* This season at Arizona - putting Stanzi under center in a 2 minute drill. Why wouldn't you use shotgun in these scenarios?
* This season against Wisconsin - again a poor decision utilizing timeouts.

Since the beginning of Ferentz's tenure, Iowa seems to run the most dysfunctional 2-minute drill I've ever seen out of a college program. There is no sense of urgency and the playcalling and utilization of timeouts leave many fans bewildered. I was partially joking because Kirk is a pretty even keel guy, but sometimes his decisions in these situations raise questions.
 
I think that there is no denying the fact that when time was tight and quick decisions were required the coaching staff didn't always seem to deal with those situations as well as some might.
 
Cyclones17 said:
What about Michigan State last year?
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Yeah I have no idea how they pulled that off. We looked like an absolute train wreck every time we try to run the two minutre offense. It reallys looks like they never practiced. They never seem to have any plan on how to attack the defense. Usually teams get at least one or two first downs before they're stopped at the end of the drill but we almost always end up in a 4th and 20 with Stanzi trying to hitting McNutt. This team had possibly the worst two minute offense I've ever seen, and they had so many games where they had a chance to score at the end and never got close.
 
Cyclones17 said:
What about Michigan State last year?
Click to expand...


The point is, I'm not indicating that he is incapable of winning games in these situations, but to deny that he doesn't have a long track record of making poor calls in these situations is ignoring reality.
 
IIRC, Shaq called Van Gundy the Master of Panic because he was always panicking. It wasn't because he struggled in high-pressure situations, it was because he could turn a routine 5-point deficit in the 4th quarter into DEFCON 4 in about 2 seconds flat. If anybody is the Master of Panic in college it's either Stoops or Pelini. I watched the Arizona/Oregon game at my parents' house and they said they would never let me or my brother play for a coach like Stoops because they'd be afraid what he'd do if we made a mistake or something.

KF does have a history of struggles in close games, but I think a lot of the close wins are easily forgotten. We didn't have time management issues last year pretty much in any game at all. The only time we messed up was in being too conservative to go for the win against OSU in regulation. The mistakes just stand out a LOT more because they lead to losses instead of Ws.
 
MidnightBlueSix said:
KF does have a history of struggles in close games, but I think a lot of the close wins are easily forgotten. We didn't have time management issues last year pretty much in any game at all. The only time we messed up was in being too conservative to go for the win against OSU in regulation. The mistakes just stand out a LOT more because they lead to losses instead of Ws.
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Again, there have been far more close losses than close wins throughout his career. The mistakes stand out because they are in far greater quantity. Last year was an anomoly as far as winning close games. Shaq's exact quote was "when it gets time for them to go to the postseason and do certain things, he will let them down because of his panic." I think it is more accurate to compare Ferentz's ability to fold in tough situations to Shaq's definition than it is Pellini or Stoops. Those guys are just nuts and scream and jump around whether it's close or a blowout.
 
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