Ferentz Era Over

I'm late to this discussion but for me, winning the Orange Bowl in 2009 was the end of the "Feel good" part of the Ferentz era. The 2010's have been a petty big disappointment in my book.

2010 was a major meltdown. Remember Jon's prediction of an undefeated season that year? WOOOPS. It's been pretty much status quo football since then. Even 2015, as much fun as 12-0 was, they basically did a good job against a very manageable schedule, and then got exposed once it started playing better competition in the B10 title game. The Rose Bowl was an embarrassment.

Iowa hasn't been legit since at least '09. 2002-04 were Kirk's glory years. Such a long time ago.

I think unless you have the rosiest of rose colored glasses on, we all know what we're going to get with Iowa football these days. Go 7-5 or 8-4, and lose a bowl game in a futile effort against a superior SEC opponent. Or if it's like last year, slide to a Pinstripe Bowl type of game, and then we have a chance.

At least Kirk figured out how to beat Iowa State, it would seem. We'll see how long that lasts - ISU appears primed to pass us. They are ranked ahead of us this week. Two teams going in opposite directions.
 
I'll repeat that Ferentz has gotten more mileage and more money out of three seasons than any coach in history. He's also gotten way too much good will from winning big games that don't matter like Michigan and Ohio State.

I'll also say I'm not calling for Ferentz to be fired by any stretch at this point but between the continued meh performance (not being able to win when it actually matters) and the basketball team that Barta really should be replaced.

Finally, let's not forget that Iowa is a public university. There should be absolute HELL RAISED if Brian is simply promoted to HC without an open search.
 
NoBeer said:
Just as a matter of course, when people talk about 8 or 9 win seasons it is generally a regular season total they are counting. So, best we can do is 9.
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While, I understand what you are saying FWIW, I picked 9 wins to start the year and I was speaking about regular season, but I'm now curious to see if they can win 9 or 10 games. Iowa has only eclipsed 9 wins in a season like 14 times in school history and only reached double digits 8 times. I am interested in those win totals because they don't happen often...that's where my focus has shifted since winning anything of significance is completely shot.
 
InGoodCo said:
While, I understand what you are saying FWIW, I picked 9 wins to start the year and I was speaking about regular season, but I'm now curious to see if they can win 9 or 10 games. Iowa has only eclipsed 9 wins in a season like 14 times in school history and only reached double digits 8 times. I am interested in those win totals because they don't happen often...that's where my focus has shifted since winning anything of significance is completely shot.
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Finishing this season with this schedule with a high win count is a "moral victory" at this point. Its like Nebraska counting the OSU game as a win because they hung with them.
 
NoBeer said:
I'll repeat that Ferentz has gotten more mileage and more money out of three seasons than any coach in history. He's also gotten way too much good will from winning big games that don't matter like Michigan and Ohio State.

I'll also say I'm not calling for Ferentz to be fired by any stretch at this point but between the continued meh performance (not being able to win when it actually matters) and the basketball team that Barta really should be replaced.

Finally, let's not forget that Iowa is a public university. There should be absolute HELL RAISED if Brian is simply promoted to HC without an open search.
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Agreed. After 2009, Barta went ballistic and gave KF a 10 year extension. I didn't mind as much at that point, just coming of a BCS Bowl win and all, and the 2000's were largely successful, and Iowa still had shown some ability to win in good bowl games. But 2010-14 were all really uninspiring, and people were starting to talk about KF being on the hot seat and all.. Then "Kirk 2.0" emerges and pulls a rabbit out of his hat in 2015. Barta goes ballistic once again and hands out a fresh 10 year extension. One good year erased the previous five.

Yeah, our AD is an idiot.
 
NoBeer said:
Finally, let's not forget that Iowa is a public university. There should be absolute HELL RAISED if Brian is simply promoted to HC without an open search.
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The worst thing that can happen is for Barta to choose the next football coach in an open search. He's already got our basketball program vastly underperforming.
 
hwk23 said:
The worst thing that can happen is for Barta to choose the next football coach in an open search. He's already got our basketball program vastly underperforming.
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I already said Barta should be fired.
 
1977Hawkeye said:
Agreed. After 2009, Barta went ballistic and gave KF a 10 year extension. I didn't mind as much at that point, just coming of a BCS Bowl win and all, and the 2000's were largely successful, and Iowa still had shown some ability to win in good bowl games. But 2010-14 were all really uninspiring, and people were starting to talk about KF being on the hot seat and all.. Then "Kirk 2.0" emerges and pulls a rabbit out of his hat in 2015. Barta goes ballistic once again and hands out a fresh 10 year extension. One good year erased the previous five.

Yeah, our AD is an idiot.
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...AND Kirk wasn't going anywhere any way. That second huge extension was completely unnecessary.
 
InGoodCo said:
While, I understand what you are saying FWIW, I picked 9 wins to start the year and I was speaking about regular season, but I'm now curious to see if they can win 9 or 10 games. Iowa has only eclipsed 9 wins in a season like 14 times in school history and only reached double digits 8 times. I am interested in those win totals because they don't happen often...that's where my focus has shifted since winning anything of significance is completely shot.
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Fair enough.

Regarding the bold part above, Kirk is responsible for 5 of those 8 double digit win totals (2002-04, 2009, 2015), and is our all-time winningest coach, so I feel he's earned the right to go out on his own terms.

That said, he has only won 9 or more regular season games twice since '04. 2009 and 2015. You can never write anything off, but I don't understand why people keep predicting Iowa to do something that doesn't happen much anymore. If it happens, then that's great, but Iowa has pretty much been a 7-5/8-4 program for nearly the past 15 years.

That makes it a pretty easy 7-5/8-4 prediction for me each preseason. Odds are, that's what we'll get.
 
WinOneThisCentury said:
Wah, wah, wah. You had a defense with three new LBs, and playing two freshman corners. At some point, didn't you expect the defense to struggle? I knew it was going to happen...and we were going to have to outscore teams. We almost did.

It's so interesting to see these types of posts. I think we have a very good team. A team that is young, a team with talent, and a team with what appears to be promising players waiting their turn. All positive.

Not one team has physically dominated us...and until yesterday, not one team has truly exploited our defense. The loss against Wisconsin was self inflicted (two costly turnovers and poor red zone execution)...the loss at Penn State was due to the poor play at QB...plain and simple. If Stanley plays average we beat Penn State by two TDs.

Yesterday was the first time a team made the plays themselves to beat us. That being said there were some very, very questionable calls in that game...that went Purdue's way.

Tough losses all...but with the vast majority of this team back, and other non starters getting plenty of time...how can you not be upbeat?
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I like your optimism but the bolded has been said so many times around here. At some point it gets beyond old. Iowa is always a program that has young talent/promising players. Hell they got a few guys that have the ability to go pro early on an annual basis. It just doesn't translate to the field very much. If it did they wouldn't struggle so much in a weak division.

Hopefully they can string together some wins here and maybe get ranked again.
 
NoBeer said:
Finishing this season with this schedule with a high win count is a "moral victory" at this point. Its like Nebraska counting the OSU game as a win because they hung with them.
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High win count is all that's left, you're not breaking any news here since I said winning anything of significance is shot in my last message. It's going to feel hollow irregardless. I would prefer Iowa finish the season with 3 wins rather than not.
 
I am sure this has been mentioned by more than a few people. But as a fan I am not sold on Brian becoming the new head coach when Kirk leaves. Overall I think Brian has been a good influence on Kirk. But I just don't think he is head coach material at this point.
 
HawkeyeDenis said:
I am sure this has been mentioned by more than a few people. But as a fan I am not sold on Brian becoming the new head coach when Kirk leaves. Overall I think Brian has been a good influence on Kirk. But I just don't think he is head coach material at this point.
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You're not sold on it being good or you're not sold that that's what's going to happen? Because its totally what is going to happen.
 
NoBeer said:
I'd rather see Dan Gable to AD. Kirk would be a Barta clone with no accountability and no demand for excellence.
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Exactly what I thought when I read his post.

Why would anybody want the "let's just keep doing the same thing and hope it works" mentality spread to the rest of the department?

"that's football" becomes "that's sports"??
 
NoBeer said:
Excuses excuses excuses. So when we're mediocre again next year it will be because Fant (and maybe Hock) left early and we graduated XYZ linemen.
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What's wrong with you people? You should be pissed at your coaching staff when a team comes in unprepared, or their game plan either offensively or defensively sucks...and they get torched for it. Wisconsin and Penn State were games we should have won, but the players failed to execute...or made key errors that cost us the game. You can't put Wisconsin on the coaching staff. Three critical errors killed us against Wisconsin. The two punt return turnovers, and Stanley throwing a 100 MPH fastball on the crossing pattern that was intercepted to essentially end the game. How is that the coaches fault? Answer that. How is that a coaching issue? Players didn't execute. Stanley had a chance to create a legacy and he failed.

Penn State...Stanley was awful...he had wide receivers open all over. He was terrible. The coaches can't play the game. My god, if Stanley is just average we win by two touchdowns AT Penn State. You can't blame the coaching on that loss either. The defense gave up a few big plays...but for the most part...Stanley gave them one of their touchdowns.

Purdue...our defense didn't play well. We doubled Moore and left Moss on an Island and they made the plays. I can just hear you morons bitching if we had played Moore in more one on one situations. "He's the leading receiver in the league and we let him torch us...our coaches suck." Phil decided to take Moore away as much as he could. He never got anything down the field. There was a reason for that. I think it was a poor game plan....I would have figured out a way to blitz the crap out of Blough. I'll give you that...it was a poor defensive game plan. Most of you say Phil Parker is responsible all the success...chew on that for awhile. Phil swung and missed. You should have no issues with our offensive game plan.
 
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