Exactly, what the he!! were his expectations. It should be to win the Big 10 and return to a BCS Bowl with what we had returning.
expectations unrealistic??
- Thread starter HawkI101
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Exactly, what the he!! were his expectations. It should be to win the Big 10 and return to a BCS Bowl with what we had returning.
So is losing 3 straight to Northwestern, nearly blowing it against a poor Indiana team, throwing away the first half against Arizona and blowing 4th quarter leads against Wisconsin and Ohio St. the rule too? We should expect better.
agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!
DBAHawkFan
Well-Known Member
This team has talent. This team is poorly coached.
It's as simple as that. The team is good enough to hang with anyone. The team and coaches this year have not proven they have what it takes to win the tough games.
Things will never change, even if KOK were to retire, same with Norm, no matter who's brought in to fill their roles, Iowa will still run the same schemes, and have trouble with clock management.
Kirk is afraid to take chances, and when he does take a chance, he does so in a odd situation to almost prove "this is why we don't take chances". Such as it seems like we only blitz when teams get in the red zone, leaving easy holes for TDs. Or calling a WR end around pass against Texas. Why would you call that play?
This team had a real good chance to go 12-0, but not with the schemes we're used to. Lack of adjustments, poor special teams, and clock management blew the season.
We shouldn't have to expect Iowa to play a perfect game to win 37-6 every week. But they should be good enough to win 30-17 against most teams.
I'll continue to root for the Hawks, but I am getting real fed up with the same old crap every year.
It's as simple as that. The team is good enough to hang with anyone. The team and coaches this year have not proven they have what it takes to win the tough games.
Things will never change, even if KOK were to retire, same with Norm, no matter who's brought in to fill their roles, Iowa will still run the same schemes, and have trouble with clock management.
Kirk is afraid to take chances, and when he does take a chance, he does so in a odd situation to almost prove "this is why we don't take chances". Such as it seems like we only blitz when teams get in the red zone, leaving easy holes for TDs. Or calling a WR end around pass against Texas. Why would you call that play?
This team had a real good chance to go 12-0, but not with the schemes we're used to. Lack of adjustments, poor special teams, and clock management blew the season.
We shouldn't have to expect Iowa to play a perfect game to win 37-6 every week. But they should be good enough to win 30-17 against most teams.
I'll continue to root for the Hawks, but I am getting real fed up with the same old crap every year.
sdjones
Banned
KF is 7-23 in games decided by 5pts or less. So blowing close games against TOSU and Wisconsin shouldn't be a surprise. Also look at KF vs NW and IU, not pretty. Sure the D-line was supposed to be one of the best in the country, too bad everything behind them was a total unknown. Expecting to compete for a B10 title once or twice a decade is realistic, every year is not. Iowa isnt TOSU. Don't be myopic.
I think the point is we shouldn't be satisfied with these results especially given the returning talent level on this team. And no, everything behind the d-line was not an unknown. We returned both safeties, a corner and one linebacker from last year.
SpecialKHawk
Well-Known Member
I think the expectations were totally unrealistic. How could an excellent team lose 4-5 pro players and think the next 'men' in would simply replace them; talent, skill, production and experience?
That said there was enough talent in place to win between 9 and 10 games this season.
Coming into the season we had two primary areas of concern; linebackers and o-line.
Both of these areas have bit us hard this season.
The o-line had exceeded my expectations for the first 2/3 of the season. Since MSU, we have been playing an under-sized, back up center at right guard and this in IMO has created a vast number of our offensive issues. It's not the player's fault. His size limitations combined with the size limitations at center are creating a number of leverage and penetration issues which lead to inconsistent play and timing issues due to hurries/pressure/negative yardage plays. The pocket is being collapsed far too often in the passing game and in the running game we are not getting the push and seal needed to consistently run the football. This is losing games but it's suttle to the average fan because most follow the ball not the blocks.
Check the stats against NW before and after our game. You'll see huge success and victories by PSU and IL(today) against NW when we struggled moving the ball on the ground. See Indiana's recent games. Again same story.
O-Line's win games - plain and simple. We have big bodies on the bench who should have been given a shot at the right guard position; Boeffeli, Van Sloten, Orne to name a few.
Start controlling the line of scrimmage again and watch our offensive production get back to where it was and should have been.
The linebackers are more understandable; youth and injuries.
That said there was enough talent in place to win between 9 and 10 games this season.
Coming into the season we had two primary areas of concern; linebackers and o-line.
Both of these areas have bit us hard this season.
The o-line had exceeded my expectations for the first 2/3 of the season. Since MSU, we have been playing an under-sized, back up center at right guard and this in IMO has created a vast number of our offensive issues. It's not the player's fault. His size limitations combined with the size limitations at center are creating a number of leverage and penetration issues which lead to inconsistent play and timing issues due to hurries/pressure/negative yardage plays. The pocket is being collapsed far too often in the passing game and in the running game we are not getting the push and seal needed to consistently run the football. This is losing games but it's suttle to the average fan because most follow the ball not the blocks.
Check the stats against NW before and after our game. You'll see huge success and victories by PSU and IL(today) against NW when we struggled moving the ball on the ground. See Indiana's recent games. Again same story.
O-Line's win games - plain and simple. We have big bodies on the bench who should have been given a shot at the right guard position; Boeffeli, Van Sloten, Orne to name a few.
Start controlling the line of scrimmage again and watch our offensive production get back to where it was and should have been.
The linebackers are more understandable; youth and injuries.
Ummm no. We returned 4 of the 7 back starters from last year. In fact, we returned more players from a BCS bowl winning team than most of the teams in the top 25.
hawkfan340
Well-Known Member
Agreed. We lost Gettis and Neilsen around the same time and this coincided with the season kinda going in the toilet. I don't think this is a random coincidence. I can't knock the the guys we have stepping in for their effort, but there's a pretty big dropoff in the level of talent. Sucks, but thems the breaks.
sdjones
Banned
And that got Iowa a 7-4 record and a place out of the top 25. Thanks for playing.
hawkfan340
Well-Known Member
Uh, 4 of 7's not a very good percentage of returners. And it's especially bad when the 3 you lost were all drafted into the NFL. And it's exceptionally bad when 2 of those 3 play a position where you lost several guys to injuries.
From last year's LB corp to this year's corp we've lost the following players:
Angerer, Edds, Hunter (for a game), Neilsen, Tarp, & Davis. These were our top six(!) linebackers from last year and we've had to play a least a game without them. I don't care who you are, you can't lose that many players without a big dropoff.
gohawks71
Well-Known Member
Well said. So Jon, if 12 and 0 was unrealistic, then what was realistic and why? Keep in mind there were sports writers that don't follow Iowa like you do and some of them even picked Iowa to compete for a NC.
You make no sense. We are 7-4 and out of the top 25 because of poor coaching and execution not because of lack of talent. You said that Iowa should realistically only expect 1-2 Big Ten titles a decade. Sure, in years we aren't returning a ton of talent as we did this year. There is no excuse for losing 4 games the way we have this year. If your expectations are that low you must be a Cubs fan.
Saginawbay
Well-Known Member
This is correct expectations and I wish Iowa would embrace being a champion you can't always give me we don't have talent. Nebby does more with less than we do.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
He's admitted to being wrong several times in the past few weeks. That's not been good enough for some people. He's not going give any more blood, because he's already admitted that he was wrong. What more could we really want from him?
Thanks, tm. I haven't seen where he's admitted to being wrong, but I sometimes stay away from the board after losses like we've had, so it would have been easy for me to miss.
I was talking more about the phrasing, where admitting he's wrong is equal to "giving any more blood". To me, that's the definition of thin-skinned, and if those 2 things really are equal in his mind, then it's probably time to stop making predictions.
I also find some holes in the logic where he predicts 12-0 and the fans also expect big things, then when it doesn't happen, the main culprit when it comes to assigning blame are the people who had "unrealistic expectations." That seems to be a pretty big copout from putting any of the team's problems on the coaching staff.
HawkPrdatr40
Well-Known Member
7-4 after 11 games with this team. That is UGLY!!!
First let me say, I want no other coach than KF at Iowa.
Now with that said KF can act like Stonewall Jackson and say all the things he wants, but he knows the above is TRUE. He will also look back when this season is over and find that this offense should have been unleashed.
This season is a tremedous disappointment.
First let me say, I want no other coach than KF at Iowa.
Now with that said KF can act like Stonewall Jackson and say all the things he wants, but he knows the above is TRUE. He will also look back when this season is over and find that this offense should have been unleashed.
This season is a tremedous disappointment.
