Ferentz is PO'd

[sergeanthulka]

Why even pass the ball at all, against the wind, with 11:00 left in the 4th quarter, with a ten point lead and you're driving...IN THEIR TERRITORY?! You have both A-Rob and Coker. Keep it on the ground...burn the clock...score. Is it really that difficult??

That's what p!sses me off. Either the staff called an absolutely dumb-@ss play, or, RS changed it IMO.

Run-the-damm-ball in that situation.

I've taken the staff to task for a lot over the last 2 weeks, but refuse to take them to task for this.

Throwing was a brilliant call there...RS simply made the wrong read.

AND

Had we not sustained the illegal procedure penalty on the play before it - bringing up 2nd & 11 instead of 2nd & 6...we likely WOULD have kept it on the ground.

Penalties were the absolute killer for us Saturday.

 

[IH8IAST8]

The INT is on Stanzi.

What about DJK doing his part? I agree with placing the blame on Stanzi but DJK has NEVER helped out his quarterback when he throws bad balls. In other words, take the offensive pass interference penalty so you don't turn over the ball.

I guess that would be asking DJK to put a shoulder pad on another player, something in contrast to McNutt, he seems unwilling to do. If he doesn't learn to block & be physical with DB's he ain't going to last a year in the NFL.

 

[SDK46]

Do you realize if KOK were replaced we would be seeing the exact same offense from the next coordinator? This is Kirk's system and it is not going to change.

Maybe, maybe not.

I'd say, with the addition of Soup, our passing game has changed, and 100% for the better.

Changed how? Using the pass as more of a primary target versus a 3rd down play. Hitting every available WR and TE in the fold. Recruiting players who excel at the position rather than just to fill in a roster slot at that position.

I'm sure I'm missing some.

Point is...in this one aspect, there has been a positive change with a great hire. Thank you RRod!

 

[SouthSideHawk]

Just for the record I've wanted a change at OC since 2001 and I've never been a fan of the bend-and-might-break defense.

So you all might think I'm a tool but I ain't fickle.

Still, I wouldn't trade Ferentz for anyone else.

I'm curious. Who would you want for a new OC?

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

To the topic...
For Iowa to permanently climb out of the top 25 doldrums, some clearly identifiable weaknesses like recruiting and pass defense need to be corrected.
Now, I love Ferentz to death. He's been a godsend for Iowa football. He's well respected among other coaches. His programs are usually clean and academically sound but...

so is Paterno's.

I would rather have a team that is consistantly top notch. An offense that is as potent as Oregon's (maybe as potent as Stanford's would be closer to reality) and/or a defense that is as potent as Nebraska's wouldn't be bad.

Wait, let me see if I understand this correctly. A). Iowa football is clearly in the doldrums, with four top 10 national finishes recently. B). You consider having a program or a coach that resembles the winningest coach in college football history a bad thing. C). You consider Iowa's defense and the players Ferentz brings in a weakness of the program. D). All you're asking for is the Iowa offense to resemble Oregon's, which is perhaps the most explosive and innovative of any offense of the past few decades. And oh yeah, E). You want a top notch defense.

While this is a good starting point, your standards are a bit low.

Why try to emulate Oregon's offense? Sh*t, using the 1991 Buffalo Bills offense in SuperTechmo bowl, I consistently put up 8 touchdowns in 8 possessions. And I did this while attending the 9th grade and living under my parent's roof and following their rules.

Ken O'Keefe has nothing else to do but design plays...he doesn't have the time constraints I did when I executed that robust offense while also attending the 9th grade and taking out the trash and cleaning the kitty litter.

I don't know how much longer we can tolerate mediocrity from this staff.

 

[hawkfan340]

Wait, let me see if I understand this correctly. A). Iowa football is clearly in the doldrums, with four top 10 national finishes recently. B). You consider having a program or a coach that resembles the winningest coach in college football history a bad thing. C). You consider Iowa's defense and the players Ferentz brings in a weakness of the program. D). All you're asking for is the Iowa offense to resemble Oregon's, which is perhaps the most explosive and innovative of any offense of the past few decades. And oh yeah, E). You want a top notch defense.

While this is a good starting point, your standards are a bit low.

Why try to emulate Oregon's offense? Sh*t, using the 1991 Buffalo Bills offense in SuperTechmo bowl, I consistently put up 8 touchdowns in 8 possessions. And I did this while attending the 9th grade and living under my parent's roof and following their rules.

Ken O'Keefe has nothing else to do but design plays...he doesn't have the time constraints I did when I executed that robust offense while also attending the 9th grade and taking out the trash and cleaning the kitty litter.

I don't know how much longer we can tolerate mediocrity from this staff.

Two words: Bo Jackson.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

Hawkfan, Bo Jackson was so good in that game, I didn't think it was realistic for Iowa to design their offense after the '91 Raiders. I wanted to keep this conversation productive, hence my suggestion of the '91 Bills offense. Definitely a good offense, but not unrealistic to think Iowa could do the same thing next year with a tweak here or there.

 

[IAHawkFan]

Wait, let me see if I understand this correctly. A). Iowa football is clearly in the doldrums, with four top 10 national finishes recently. B). You consider having a program or a coach that resembles the winningest coach in college football history a bad thing. C). You consider Iowa's defense and the players Ferentz brings in a weakness of the program. D). All you're asking for is the Iowa offense to resemble Oregon's, which is perhaps the most explosive and innovative of any offense of the past few decades. And oh yeah, E). You want a top notch defense.

While this is a good starting point, your standards are a bit low.

Why try to emulate Oregon's offense? Sh*t, using the 1991 Buffalo Bills offense in SuperTechmo bowl, I consistently put up 8 touchdowns in 8 possessions. And I did this while attending the 9th grade and living under my parent's roof and following their rules.

Ken O'Keefe has nothing else to do but design plays...he doesn't have the time constraints I did when I executed that robust offense while also attending the 9th grade and taking out the trash and cleaning the kitty litter.

I don't know how much longer we can tolerate mediocrity from this staff.

Now, this is a bit unfair. The Bills are... well, at least, were a Pro team. And SuperTechmo Bowl is old now. It doesn't count...


The "fair" comparison in NCAA '10. I average over 70 points/game (in 8 min quarters, no less). My offense is unstoppable - and I am using the Iowa players and playbook. Obviously, KOK simply does not understand the sheer power in running the dive play over and over, with an occasional play-action pass mixed in. Maybe he should spend his summers playing more NCAA...

Now, to be fair, on defense, I give up more points than I would really like. The other team pretty much always scores, and most of the time, they get around 14-21 points. I suppose that it is because I am always trying to force the turnover, which I don't get as often as I would like...

 

[gohawks71]

I feel that KF was PO'd at the fans and media for questioning him and his staff because they were calling out a lot of things that him and his staff are actually the guilty party of and need to correct.

I noticed two things the last few weeks. KF responses to questioning has gotten more defensive and the team has gotten a lot more laid back but not in a good way. They seemed to have lost the fire under the butts or something. Maybe it is just me but they are way to calm and don’t seem to get hyped up. I noticed in the NW game that every time a NW person got tackled, a bunch of NW players ran over to help him up. But when one of the Iowa guys got tackled, he was on his own and no one ran over to help him out except for a few times. They didn’t seem to be pumped at all being out there.

I just don’t get what is going on. Something has rattled the cohesiveness of this team and its intensity but I just can’t put my finger on it.

 

[ChosenChildren]

Keep it up. Keep criticizing Ferentz. Keep it up, all of you Monday Morning Quartebacks.

You will drive him right to Penn State, where he will be the next coach. Paterno is retiring and the Penn State fans want Ferentz.

Man, some people never learn.

You'll be picking up the pieces when he leaves. It won't be pretty and you will have only yourselves to blame.

This type of thing drove Lute Olson to Arizona. Remember how that turned out?

 

[cabse5]

This probably should be in another thread but since you've called me out, here I go, SwirlingL. I'm responding to Iowa's 3 loses this year, all, in the end, on the pass defense.

How could Iowa have prevented those losses?
Not with Parker's pass defense as we know it.
Not this year, the years we were fortunate to have Edds and Angerer, or previous years when we were fortunate to have Greenway and Hodge. We can't just chalk it up to bad or inexperienced linebackers. There has to be a defensive change when Iowa plays a spread or one on one offense. Maybe you don't realize this but 7 of 11 possible Big Ten opponents of Iowa (including Nebraska) have spread or one on one offenses. Looks like hard times for Iowa's defense if it doesn't change.

Didn't Iowa play Castillo at nickelback for a few snaps against NW? Well, there's a start. How about beefing up a "taller" safety into a linebacker? Hopefully the player can maintain their speed.

I maintain Iowa is stuck in the top 25 doldrums because their defense is great against run-first offenses like Michigan State, Penn State, Nebraska, and Stanford, etc, and their defense is average at best against spread or one on one offenses like Northern Iowa, Western Michigan, Arkansas State, or Ohio State, etc.

You say Iowa was (voted?) a top ten program 4 of the last 10 years?
It's a good thing Iowa didn't play many spread or one on offenses. Iowa was fortunate they played Ga Tech in the Orange Bowl. You want consistancy in Iowa's defense? Get Iowa to come up with a defense that is somewhat effective against an offense like NW's or Ohio State's - we'll probably play those guys regularly. We'd probably never stop a high powered offense like Oregon's or Okie State's but we'd have a chance against NW.

To be effective against the Ohio States and the NWs, the defense will need to use some pass coverage to prevent the pass catch- dare I say it -man coverage. You need athletes for that. Nebraska has athletes on defense. Iowa can also recruit athletes as long as the coaching staff disgards their lame excuses and implements a system that uses their talents.

If you think this is pie in the sky, maybe you're satisfied with a top 25 program - or a top 10 program that gets beaten by NW and almost beaten by Indiana every year.

I'm not satisfied with that. I'ts not like Iowa won't pay a coach that will help us get top 10 results. It's not like Iowa won't pay for training and/or stadium upgrades that will help us get top ten results.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

I'm willing to listen to any of your arguments as long as you agree that this coaching staff HAS produced top 10 results. If you can't agree to that, you lose me pretty quick.

 

[Bigtenchamp]

Keep it up. Keep criticizing Ferentz. Keep it up, all of you Monday Morning Quartebacks.

You will drive him right to Penn State, where he will be the next coach. Paterno is retiring and the Penn State fans want Ferentz.

Man, some people never learn.

You'll be picking up the pieces when he leaves. It won't be pretty and you will have only yourselves to blame.

This type of thing drove Lute Olson to Arizona. Remember how that turned out?

This really doesn't change anything I think. I have tons of respect for Ferentz as a HC and an offensive line guru, but he isn't beyond reproach - he isn't untouchable.

 

[ChosenChildren]

You are 100% correct. This is a free board and a free country. No one is beyond reproach, but if you point out the negatives, I'm free to point out the positives and the reality of this man's leverage nationally, based on his record.

Ferentz, because of his record, has choices too, and one choice will be to take the Penn State job.

He wins during the regular season. He wins Big Ten titles (2). He wins bowl championships (5). He runs a clean program. He has one of the highest graduation rates in the country.

Why criticize playcalling? I still don't get it. Enlighten me.

 

[83Hawk]

You are 100% correct. This is a free board and a free country. No one is beyond reproach, but if you point out the negatives, I'm free to point out the positives and the reality of this man's leverage nationally, based on his record.

Ferentz, because of his record, has choices too, and one choice will be to take the Penn State job.

He wins during the regular season. He wins Big Ten titles (2). He wins bowl championships (5). He runs a clean program. He has one of the highest graduation rates in the country.

Why criticize playcalling? I still don't get it. Enlighten me.

Please don't use the term "bowl championship".....it sounds just like Dan McCarney and Iowa State.

 

[ColoradoHAWKEYE]

To the topic...
For Iowa to permanently climb out of the top 25 doldrums, some clearly identifiable weaknesses like recruiting and pass defense need to be corrected.
Now, I love Ferentz to death. He's been a godsend for Iowa football. He's well respected among other coaches. His programs are usually clean and academically sound but...

so is Paterno's.

I would rather have a team that is consistantly top notch. An offense that is as potent as Oregon's (maybe as potent as Stanford's would be closer to reality) and/or a defense that is as potent as Nebraska's wouldn't be bad.

What are you talking about? have you been under a rock for the past 10 years? Oregon has done what besides the past 2 years, 3 tops? And they certainly are not beyond fault. Stanford? Please enlighten me how they've been consistent or even relevant. outside of this year. I can't even believe you would be envious of a fairly unproven Neb Defense. talk about inconsistencies. Ask them how they are doing with Texas this past decade.

We ARE relevant year in and year out; even yet this year. We played some bad games and were out of the hunt this year, but we'll be back in the mix again next year or the next, but we won't disappear like many of those wannabe programs who rise and fizzle. I think it's safe to say we have many of the things they would like (outside of their flash in the pan status).

 

[BallHawkin]

Here is the bottom line about the "Bend don't Break" defensive scheme....you can not win games with this style of defense if your offense is not putting points on the board or sustaining drives because as we have seen that all the bending we do always lets other teams have a chance to win games in the end...which they generally do if we are with in one score....I'm just saying

 

[Iowafarmgirl]

So to sum up this thread, we love Kirk Ferentz, we just don't like the offense, the defense, and he needs to change if we are going to be any good.

The fact that some people here can not only say things like this, but say them completely unironically, is absolutely puzzling. I think the reason that it is pretty much the same 30 to 40 guys repeating the same point is because the vast majority of lurkers, like myself, are so stupified by the idiotic things bouncing around this echo chamber, that it isn't worth our energy to respond to it.

/Yes, I am aware of the irony of my response.

 

[Sirhouseman]

Take it out on the Buckeyes!!!! I know I'd feel better about things after a W over tOSU.

This.

 

[Hawkfromnorwalk]

Keep it up. Keep criticizing Ferentz. Keep it up, all of you Monday Morning Quartebacks.

You will drive him right to Penn State, where he will be the next coach. Paterno is retiring and the Penn State fans want Ferentz.

Man, some people never learn.

You'll be picking up the pieces when he leaves. It won't be pretty and you will have only yourselves to blame.

This type of thing drove Lute Olson to Arizona. Remember how that turned out?

He's going to get this anywhere he goes and doesn't win. PSU, NFL, whatever. I would hope by now after coaching here 12 seasons that he's somewhat used to it.