I feel like Ferentz is past his prime as a coach. For whatever reason, he hasn't adapted at all to college football in the late 2000's/early 2010's.
It seems like, ever since spread type offenses and a heavy emphasis on speed, took over college football, Iowa hasn't been that great (aside from 2009)
First, I think this is a good post because it's not emotion-driven like so many other nutjob posts. And when I first read it, I thought it was a good critique.
But....
Iowa's problem hasn't been on the defensive side of the ball. Even in the average seasons, Iowa's defense has been consistently in the top 3-4 scoring defenses in the Big Ten. It's true that Iowa's defensive scheme has difficulty with spread offenses -- mostly with those that have good QBs (ie. patient and accurate -- which isn't an everyday combination in a college football QB [see Iowa 2012 for an example]).
Where I think you're right is about speed - and I think it's that Iowa doesn't have a stable of skill position players and more specifically at the WR position. The RB position has had bodies that have been able to fill-in and it's usually the bigger backs that have had success as next-man-in at that position. Iowa doesn't have speed at the receiver position to put stress on the defense. Duh. Nothing original here.
All we have to do is look at the list of Hawks in the NFL.
Skill position players?
They can be counted on one hand while it would take an entire huddle of hands to list the TE, OL, LB, and DB.
So I think you're 1/2 right. It's not that Ferentz hasn't kept up with the times with being able to combat spread offenses, it's not that Ferentz hasn't kept up with the times in changing to a spread-type offense scheme, it's that he hasn't produced NFL quality skill position players on even an inconsistent basis.
And
that I really don't understand.
A pro-style offense works if there is the right personnel.
Either Iowa must not have the right personnel to execute it effectively or the coaches are not effectively teaching to execute it effectively or are not gameplanning to the best personnel that can execute any plan effectively.
In the end, it always comes down to the coaches:
recruiting the players (student-athlete) they want/need for their scheme,
if the players they wanted/have demonstrate they are unable to effectively execute the coach's scheme then can a coach or is a coach willing to change the scheme to one the players can execute effectively.
