'Ferentz Never Goes for It'

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
I am wondering if 2008 Michigan State wasn't going through his mind?

Kirk has an air tight memory...and he plays things out over and over and over.

Remember 2008?

Iowa at Michigan State...early 4th quarter down three, in field goal range, 4th and 2...Iowa goes for it, Ricky Stanzi's pass falls incomplete

Late 4th quarter, Iowa at the MSU 21 yard line down three...4th and 1...Iowa goes for it, fullback runs the wrong way, Shonn Greene is stopped for a loss, and that is the ballgame....

You can't say he doens't go for it in situations like that...you can always debate the should he or shouldnt he in hindsight, but I am guessing he remembered that game and it was running through his thoughts...now, he had a much better defense in 2008, and I wanted to see him go for it this weekend on 4th and 1 given the circumstances of this game that had played out.

But, he has gone for it before in tight spots.
 
JonDMiller said:
I am wondering if 2008 Michigan State wasn't going through his mind?

Kirk has an air tight memory...and he plays things out over and over and over.

Remember 2008?

Iowa at Michigan State...early 4th quarter down three, in field goal range, 4th and 2...Iowa goes for it, Ricky Stanzi's pass falls incomplete

Late 4th quarter, Iowa at the MSU 21 yard line down three...4th and 1...Iowa goes for it, fullback runs the wrong way, Shonn Greene is stopped for a loss, and that is the ballgame....

You can't say he doens't go for it in situations like that...you can always debate the should he or shouldnt he in hindsight, but I am guessing he remembered that game and it was running through his thoughts...now, he had a much better defense in 2008, and I wanted to see him go for it this weekend on 4th and 1 given the circumstances of this game that had played out.

But, he has gone for it before in tight spots.
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That is the part that bothers me. He said in the paper he had confidence our D could get a stop. Not sure what game he was watching I guess.
 
Remember 2009? Iowa at Ohio State, when we also politely declined the chance to win a Big Ten title in regular and chose to lose the game in OT?

The vast majority of the time, he dies NOT go for it. Citing ONE example where he did does not change the fact that his conservative nature for the offense - an offense that will have to win us games this year when he obviously never trusts them to do so - lost us the game.
 
EddyP said:
That is the part that bothers me. He said in the paper he had confidence our D could get a stop. Not sure what game he was watching I guess.
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for-reals-bro1.jpg
 
JonDMiller said:
I am wondering if 2008 Michigan State wasn't going through his mind?

Kirk has an air tight memory...and he plays things out over and over and over.

Remember 2008?

Iowa at Michigan State...early 4th quarter down three, in field goal range, 4th and 2...Iowa goes for it, Ricky Stanzi's pass falls incomplete

Late 4th quarter, Iowa at the MSU 21 yard line down three...4th and 1...Iowa goes for it, fullback runs the wrong way, Shonn Greene is stopped for a loss, and that is the ballgame....

You can't say he doens't go for it in situations like that...you can always debate the should he or shouldnt he in hindsight, but I am guessing he remembered that game and it was running through his thoughts...now, he had a much better defense in 2008, and I wanted to see him go for it this weekend on 4th and 1 given the circumstances of this game that had played out.

But, he has gone for it before in tight spots.
Click to expand...

I agreed with his calls at that time, and I still think he played it right. Sucks that FB went the wrong way. In my mind, we played the odds and got burnt.
 
to me that is a flawed way of thinking. Ferentz shouldn't be making decisions based on a game that was played with different players 3 years ago.
 
JonDMiller said:
I am wondering if 2008 Michigan State wasn't going through his mind?

Kirk has an air tight memory...and he plays things out over and over and over.

Remember 2008?

Iowa at Michigan State...early 4th quarter down three, in field goal range, 4th and 2...Iowa goes for it, Ricky Stanzi's pass falls incomplete

Late 4th quarter, Iowa at the MSU 21 yard line down three...4th and 1...Iowa goes for it, fullback runs the wrong way, Shonn Greene is stopped for a loss, and that is the ballgame....

You can't say he doens't go for it in situations like that...you can always debate the should he or shouldnt he in hindsight, but I am guessing he remembered that game and it was running through his thoughts...now, he had a much better defense in 2008, and I wanted to see him go for it this weekend on 4th and 1 given the circumstances of this game that had played out.

But, he has gone for it before in tight spots.
Click to expand...

I was more upset with his decision to kneel on it with 1:17 remaining and 2 timeouts. Also, we ran the ball continuously on 1st and 2nd down in the 2nd quarter against 8-9 in the box and single man coverage. The 2nd quarter did Iowa in.
 
smoot27 said:
I was more upset with his decision to kneel on it with 1:17 remaining and 2 timeouts. Also, we ran the ball continuously on 1st and 2nd down in the 2nd quarter against 8-9 in the box and single man coverage. The 2nd quarter did Iowa in.
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Indeed. A few McNutters would have ended that crap fast, or would have resulted in multiple scores.
 
smoot27 said:
I was more upset with his decision to kneel on it with 1:17 remaining and 2 timeouts. Also, we ran the ball continuously on 1st and 2nd down in the 2nd quarter against 8-9 in the box and single man coverage. The 2nd quarter did Iowa in.
Click to expand...

This is a figment of your imagination. He didn't do that at all. He kneeled on it 2nd and 13 from inside his own 20 with less than a min to go.
 
I honestly think this thread sums it up. As a fan base we realized that we were playing for the win against Michigan State and although we weren't happy with the outcome we don't cling to it because we were playing to win and that was the driving factor. Against OSU and on Saturday, I think that's why we have a harder time accepting things and are more likely to bring up the OSU game than we are the MSU game.
 
Everyone knew he was going to let that 1:17 run off the clock.
What if:
You have big play Marv who has caught out route passes, shrugged a tackler and gone to the house. You have 2 timeouts. You can go to the middle of the field. Pass interfernce can help you out. Of course there is the risk of throwing a pick, fumble, etc. You don't have that in OT? You can tell JVB to throw it away and THEN take the knee. But to run Coker on a dive play on first down was 99.9% vintage Kirk Ferentz. This is why Iowa will never vye for a NC with capt at the helm. Too conservative, too vanilla. Squeak by teams we should destroy, squeak by tough teams, Very very seldom bury anyone. Very ho hum.
 
Kicking the FG in the 3rd over time was just giving the game away...hell I would rather have had ISU play conservatively and tried to kick a FG, that was ONLY way Iowa's D had any chance of stopping them.....
 
DuffMan said:
This is a figment of your imagination. He didn't do that at all. He kneeled on it 2nd and 13 from inside his own 20 with less than a min to go.
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Pardon me, I didn't realize we had individuals on here ignorant enough to require the exact play-by-play rather than the intent of the play calling.

He ran the ball on first down, concluding any idea that we were actually playing for the win or in the 2-minute offense. I suppose Coker could have broke one off for a 30-40 yard gain, so what was I thinking.
 
silvanthalas said:
The vast majority of the time, he dies NOT go for it. Citing ONE example where he did does not change the fact that his conservative nature for the offense - an offense that will have to win us games this year when he obviously never trusts them to do so - lost us the game.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%. And even though it didn't work out, I STILL agree with KF's decision to go for it on 4th and short, down 3 on the road @MSU in 2008. Just because it didn't work doesn't mean it was a bad decision (the way I see it). I would want him to make the same call again.

You will never find a philosophy that GUARANTEES you success 100% of the time, and it almost sounds like KF is playing it even more conservatively NOW because it didn't work out @MSU in '08. What if, instead, you miss the FG? It gets blocked, or you kick the FG and you end up losing by a point or two, then later you wish you'd gone for the TD?

You can play what-if all day long, no matter which choice you make, if you make a call that doesn't work. There are so many different possible scenarios in a game that you just have to go with your gut.

In my mind, always playing it safe and playing not to lose will often get you beat in close games.
 
Marcus Coker gained 1 or more yards in 31 of his 35 attempts.

Furthermore - He gained 1 or more yards in his final 14 attempts.

He averaged 4 yards per carry. It was the 3rd overtime. ISU's defensive line was tired.

It doesn't matter what has happened in the past.... You go for it.

Maybe people need to change their statements to "Ferentz goes for it at the wrong times and doesn't go for it when he should."

You go for it in Ames in that situation.
 
I can take a loss that comes because we tried and failed. It's much harder to swallow not trying to do anything with a minute seventeen at the end of a half. Or laying down and playing dead at the end of the second half. Or not going for it on 4th and one when our D has done nothing the entire day.
 
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