Every September Hawks Have a Bad Game

[jameskalina]

Last year it was UNI and Iowa escaped by the narrowest of margins.

This year it was Arizona but the great escape did not happen.

Ok so the bad game is out of the way. Time for the Hawks to get better and better as that is also the past trend of this football program. Get the bad game behind us and move forward to bigger and better things.

 

[Hawkfromnorwalk]

We just locked KF up for 10 years. I love the guy but when do we get to the point like tOSU when we don't **** away a win in September?

 

[jameskalina]

I don't have an answer to your question. Maybe next year. Maybe never.

 

[hawkfan2679]

We just locked KF up for 10 years. I love the guy but when do we get to the point like tOSU when we don't **** away a win in September?

This. And what is it that the staff does so differently once those first 3-4 weeks are over that "flips the switch" to beast mode for this team? It's like they need the cold nip in the air (no innuendo intended ) to turn it on...

 

[Hawkfromnorwalk]

I don't want to sound like a negative nelly here but I just can't get past this. I was at the Hawk Huddle on Saturday and Barta talked for a few and he talked up how he locked Kirk up for 10 more years and then talked about how everybody disrespects us. I love the way Kirk coaches and how he recruits, but at what point do we start to question Kirk's inability to put a winning product on the field right out of the gate. Since he started we have seen it one season, last year. And that's only because we blocked two field goals against UNI. Ohio State doesn't have this issue. They win in September for the most part, and when they lose, it's because they schedule tough for example USC and Texas. I'm tired of using the September swoon excuse. I want Kirk to be our coach until 2020 but I want him to get past this early season trip up ****. We should have won in the desert. Would tOSU have lost in our position? I doubt it. It's time for Kirk to figure out how to get this team ready from the moment they step into fall camp, instead of four to five weeks into the season.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

I don't understand some of the complaints that folks are having.

Iowa narrowly lost a game against a pretty darn good team AWAY from home. Furthermore, Iowa pretty much spotted the team an early 21 points ... and yet still managed to tie the game up in the 4th quarter.

Pretty much ANY other team that does that ends up losing by a MUCH LARGER margin than we did.

Folks can say what they want, but from the first two game, our special teams should have struck folks as a SIGNIFICANT concern.

Furthermore, entering the season, it was readily apparent that the inexperience of our OL could potentially be in a state where it could cost us a game or two.

Finally, with Wegher's LOA and Coker's pre-season injury, we already knew that our depth at RB had gotten pretty thin. Now that Hampton has gotten injured (again) ... some of our original fears have been realized.

I'm sorry to pee on the parade of some folks, but we ARE still a developmental program. Being developmental means that we rely HEAVILY upon developing players in order to supplement and/or strengthen our depth. However, developing players takes time. Consequently, we're not always the sharpest team early in the year. However, as the coaches idenfity and fix problems ... the squad almost invariably improves as the season progresses.

 

[BALDIES7980]

I don't understand some of the complaints that folks are having.

Iowa narrowly lost a game against a pretty darn good team AWAY from home. Furthermore, Iowa pretty much spotted the team an early 21 points ... and yet still managed to tie the game up in the 4th quarter.

Pretty much ANY other team that does that ends up losing by a MUCH LARGER margin than we did.

Folks can say what they want, but from the first two game, our special teams should have struck folks as a SIGNIFICANT concern.

Furthermore, entering the season, it was readily apparent that the inexperience of our OL could potentially be in a state where it could cost us a game or two.

Finally, with Wegher's LOA and Coker's pre-season injury, we already knew that our depth at RB had gotten pretty thin. Now that Hampton has gotten injured (again) ... some of our original fears have been realized.

I'm sorry to pee on the parade of some folks, but we ARE still a developmental program. Being developmental means that we rely HEAVILY upon developing players in order to supplement and/or strengthen our depth. However, developing players takes time. Consequently, we're not always the sharpest team early in the year. However, as the coaches idenfity and fix problems ... the squad almost invariably improves as the season progresses.

Agreed Homer, but I'd like to add that I think KF puts his kids in a tougher situation with his cookie cutter approach to how they play. You can't always play safe you have to take chances sometimes and you can't always take them when teh opponent knows your back is against the wall. Unpredicability is an asset.
Also, experience is the best teacher and you have to have enough faith and trust in "lesser" players to bring them along faster.

 

[Hawkfromnorwalk]

I don't understand some of the complaints that folks are having.

Iowa narrowly lost a game against a pretty darn good team AWAY from home. Furthermore, Iowa pretty much spotted the team an early 21 points ... and yet still managed to tie the game up in the 4th quarter.

Pretty much ANY other team that does that ends up losing by a MUCH LARGER margin than we did.

Folks can say what they want, but from the first two game, our special teams should have struck folks as a SIGNIFICANT concern.

Furthermore, entering the season, it was readily apparent that the inexperience of our OL could potentially be in a state where it could cost us a game or two.

Finally, with Wegher's LOA and Coker's pre-season injury, we already knew that our depth at RB had gotten pretty thin. Now that Hampton has gotten injured (again) ... some of our original fears have been realized.

I'm sorry to pee on the parade of some folks, but we ARE still a developmental program. Being developmental means that we rely HEAVILY upon developing players in order to supplement and/or strengthen our depth. However, developing players takes time. Consequently, we're not always the sharpest team early in the year. However, as the coaches idenfity and fix problems ... the squad almost invariably improves as the season progresses.

And if you're OK with that fact and losing games in September is OK in your book, then all is well. I have read on here time and time again that some people are ready to move to the next level, the level that the Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, and others teams are on. We can get there, I have no doubt about it, but when can the coaches get us there? That is the question. Most Hawk fans fans on here want to believe we are elite. Elite teams don't lose like we just did at Arizona. Elite teams do not need a month long learning curve to get going, they are ready right out of the gate. Kirk is a fine coach, but he needs to figure out how to get past the September swoon.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

And if you're OK with that fact and losing games in September is OK in your book, then all is well. I have read on here time and time again that some people are ready to move to the next level, the level that the Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, and others teams are on. We can get there, I have no doubt about it, but when can the coaches get us there? That is the question. Most Hawk fans fans on here want to believe we are elite. Elite teams don't lose like we just did at Arizona. Elite teams do not need a month long learning curve to get going, they are ready right out of the gate. Kirk is a fine coach, but he needs to figure out how to get past the September swoon.

That may be the problem. Iowa is not yet an elite program. We're a darn good program. But we're nowhere near elite yet.

Fans are simply a tad bit too impatient. We're not yet far enough removed from the '06 and '07 debacles to truly be "elite."

That's not to say that we haven't been capable of being competitive with pretty much ANY other team in the nation. However, if you haven't noticed, with the ever increasing parity in college football ... any good team is capable of beating any other good team.

Anyhow, the big disappointment in my mind is that the poor early-season special teams play is really something that I don't think fans can really predict. It's irrititating as hell when, on paper, every other aspect of the team seems to be "money" ... and then, all of a sudden, crappy special teams play undermines our collective aspirations/dreams for the team.

Totally sucks ... but not necessarily anything that we could have predicted PRIOR to the season. Of course, from the first few games, some of our special teams woes were pretty glaring.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Also, I'd like to add that possibly one of the things that maybe contributed to our "weakness" on special teams was the fact that the coaching were seemingly trying to "protect" some of our starters from injury by no longer having them play on special teams.

 

[HawkfaninWA]

We just locked KF up for 10 years. I love the guy but when do we get to the point like tOSU when we don't **** away a win in September?

See last year.

 

[CAARHawk]

One thing that I notice is that the Hawks seem to make safe personnel decisions in September that often end up biting them in the arse. To some extent I think this has bit them on ST. It might end up beating them at RB here at some point too.

 

[floydvane]

Just my 2 cents but I think most of us fans look at thing different then Kirk does. Fans this year are looking at the big picture...ie NC game (this is what all the great team do, tOSU,Texas,OU,Bama and so on) but I think Kirk's first concern is winning the Big Ten, and he treats the first 3-4 games as a warm-up for that. Starting out at Iowa years ago was fine with that thinking but I feel we are past that point now. If we are going to take that step up the thinking has to be different.

 

[Jeebus]

Folks can say what they want, but from the first two game, our special teams should have struck folks as a SIGNIFICANT concern.

.

The above is what I find most troubling. Kick coverage is discipline and desire, not rocket science. Ferentz even joked about working on kickoff coverage last week!
I have a lot of respect for the coaching staff but to have not gotten this shored up in time for this game when they KNEW is was a problem is shocking to me. I just wonder if Norm's absence took time away from preparation on special teams.

 

[StPtHawk]

And if you're OK with that fact and losing games in September is OK in your book, then all is well. I have read on here time and time again that some people are ready to move to the next level, the level that the Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, and others teams are on. We can get there, I have no doubt about it, but when can the coaches get us there? That is the question. Most Hawk fans fans on here want to believe we are elite. Elite teams don't lose like we just did at Arizona. Elite teams do not need a month long learning curve to get going, they are ready right out of the gate. Kirk is a fine coach, but he needs to figure out how to get past the September swoon.

Even elite teams lose games. USC lost to horrible Washington and Stanford teams in past years. I understand that it is frustrating to lose early in the year, but I would rather lose to a top-tier PAC 10 team on the road in September than lose a conference game in October/November to a team in the cellar.

 

[IowaFanSince82]

I don't want to sound like a negative nelly here but I just can't get past this. I was at the Hawk Huddle on Saturday and Barta talked for a few and he talked up how he locked Kirk up for 10 more years and then talked about how everybody disrespects us. I love the way Kirk coaches and how he recruits, but at what point do we start to question Kirk's inability to put a winning product on the field right out of the gate. Since he started we have seen it one season, last year. And that's only because we blocked two field goals against UNI. Ohio State doesn't have this issue. They win in September for the most part, and when they lose, it's because they schedule tough for example USC and Texas. I'm tired of using the September swoon excuse. I want Kirk to be our coach until 2020 but I want him to get past this early season trip up ****. We should have won in the desert. Would tOSU have lost in our position? I doubt it. It's time for Kirk to figure out how to get this team ready from the moment they step into fall camp, instead of four to five weeks into the season.

Arizona isn't a good team? I mean we are talking about a team that could possibly finish in the top of the PAC 10. USC was from the same league when they beat OSU back to back years. And if I remember wasn't their game out Cali a blow-out?

Last year we really didn't have a tough non-conf opponent, we had Arizona at home and had to go to ISU. So the cards were in our favor and we beat a UNI team that was pretty good (until mid oct when they tanked.) That is why we were able to get off to a fast start. This year the roles were reversed we didn't play on the road before Sat night. The first road games are always tough (unless you play ISU.) If you look at seasons past we have never performed well on the road in our first game. Look back a few years ago to the Pitt game, we struggled there.

I don't know why everyone is putting so much stock into this loss. We still have a shot a great season and possibility of a NC apperance. We just need to take it one game at a time and hope for some game to go our way. All we can do is worry about is Iowa football and kicking the snot out of our next opponent.