Ferentz on the run game

[BigD]

Kirk’s a good man and a good coach. He however is smoking crack to even be talking about winning a Rose Bowl or nation title. The last fifteen years indicates that winning a conference title is extremely unlikely. The recruiting and coaching are not good enough.

Good, maybe very good but just not great. I would love to be proven wrong and eat my words. Not likely to happen.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Kirk’s a good man and a good coach. He however is smoking crack to even be talking about winning a Rose Bowl or nation title. The last fifteen years indicates that winning a conference title is extremely unlikely. The recruiting and coaching are not good enough.

Good, maybe very good but just not great. I would love to be proven wrong and eat my words. Not likely to happen.

For the record, i'm predicting USC wins tonight.

I hope I am wrong. But we are going to have to force some turnovers like they did against Mississippi State. And we haven't forced many this year.

 

[clownkilla]

Kirk’s a good man and a good coach. He however is smoking crack to even be talking about winning a Rose Bowl or nation title. The last fifteen years indicates that winning a conference title is extremely unlikely. The recruiting and coaching are not good enough.

Good, maybe very good but just not great. I would love to be proven wrong and eat my words. Not likely to happen.

Three plays this season get executed differently and we would have been battling Ohio State for a spot in the playoffs.

2015 Big10 championship game was thee toughest game I have ever seen. Both teams left it all on the field...not surprising that the defeat crushed the Hawks souls man!

I don't think anyone is "smoking crack"... I'm damn proud to be a Hawkeye these days and I think we'll show our grit and class again tonight.

 

[HawkGold]

• Qa

Three plays this season get executed differently and we would have been battling Ohio State for a spot in the playoffs.

2015 Big10 championship game was thee toughest game I have ever seen. Both teams left it all on the field...not surprising that the defeat crushed the Hawks souls man!

I don't think anyone is "smoking crack"... I'm damn proud to be a Hawkeye these days and I think we'll show our grit and class again tonight.

Agree w most. Iowa took no risks on the last drive. It almost worked. Almost. They left taking a shot on the table. Therein is the KF weak spot.

But it was a great game. It wouldnt be much of a thought if it werent for other times. Few of us were not surprised on the last drive. We d seen the storyline before. His comment about winners and losers does not surprise us.

I fully expect KF to make a final run. Maybe loosen things up. Maybe even against USC.

 

[uihawk82]

Dude. Quit bringing up the 15 playoff. They were exposed as a complete and total fraud against stanford when they finally played someone out of conference. They were not a top 4 team. Give me a break

Hey Dude you are really stupid in how you read my post. If you dont believe going 12-0 in the regular season is not great then quit watching the hawks. Hey Dude, if you dont think getting into the playoffs brings more pub to the program you are nuts on how some more recruits might have come to Iowa. You are always just a lame troll with nothing close to being a hawk fan.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

When thinking about the zone block scheme, I guess it could be relatively easy to defend. All a D coordinator would have to do/scheme is to have his team watch the flow of the entire line and scheme to have the D or certain players fill the hole. Watching the entire line move in motion kind of give the play away I guess.

The play that really works is a counter run in the opposite direction, but that is a limited number of plays. 90% will be to where the line is blocking to. You can't get stuffed 90% of the time and only have success 10% of the time and have a successful running game.

So you just have to have the defense flow with the zone movement of the line, I guess.

 

[uihawk82]

Kirk’s a good man and a good coach. He however is smoking crack to even be talking about winning a Rose Bowl or nation title. The last fifteen years indicates that winning a conference title is extremely unlikely. The recruiting and coaching are not good enough.

Good, maybe very good but just not great. I would love to be proven wrong and eat my words. Not likely to happen.

Kirk winning a natty title is a tough stretch when you have to beat two teams like Clemson and Bama/LSU/Georgia to do it. Kirk winning a Big 10 Title and winning a Rose or Sugar or NY 6 game are a lot more probable if they open up the offense 20%. My gawd when they opened up the offense running Young before the fumble at Wisky and then with a lot of passing against Wisky they blew down the field for 2 quick TDs. the end of the Nebby game just opening up the passing game for the equivalent of 3 20+ chunk catches in a row is what the hawks can do.

Too much ultra conservative offense against the likes of some Big teams just doesnt cut it and the hawks lose 3 to 4 games a year.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

For the record, i'm predicting USC wins tonight.

I hope I am wrong. But we are going to have to force some turnovers like they did against Mississippi State. And we haven't forced many this year.

Devil advocate here. Why do we have to force turnovers? Can't Iowa win with going on long sustained drives and getting pts, hopefully touchdowns, and hold USC to some 3 and outs.

I've never understood the cliche statement of "having to force turnovers". Turnovers are a bonus. A team should not have to be designed or made to have to force turnovers to win. If that is the case, ya got problems with your team. Again, turnovers are a nice bonus, but I don't think a team should have to rely on them to succeed.

I think that statement is just a nice cliche statement the talking heads on TV like to say to sound like they know what they are talking about.

 

[4thngoal]

Kirk winning a natty title is a tough stretch when you have to beat two teams like Clemson and Bama/LSU/Georgia to do it. Kirk winning a Big 10 Title and winning a Rose or Sugar or NY 6 game are a lot more probable if they open up the offense 20%. My gawd when they opened up the offense running Young before the fumble at Wisky and then with a lot of passing against Wisky they blew down the field for 2 quick TDs. the end of the Nebby game just opening up the passing game for the equivalent of 3 20+ chunk catches in a row is what the hawks can do.

Too much ultra conservative offense against the likes of some Big teams just doesnt cut it and the hawks lose 3 to 4 games a year.

Plus probably OSU and Michigan/PSU.

So what if in 15 we got blown out in the playoffs. OSU has gotten blown out as well and they seem to be doing fine.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Devil advocate here. Why do we have to force turnovers? Can't Iowa win with going on long sustained drives and getting pts, hopefully touchdowns, and hold USC to some 3 and outs.

I've never understood the cliche statement of "having to force turnovers". Turnovers are a bonus. A team should not have to be designed or made to have to force turnovers to win. If that is the case, ya got problems with your team. Again, turnovers are a nice bonus, but I don't think a team should have to rely on them to succeed.

I think that statement is just a nice cliche statement the talking heads on TV like to say to sound like they know what they are talking about.

Kirk has always been a big hidden yardage guy. Short fields, kick and punt returns (well used to be for punt returns). There are many games over the years where we don't win if we don't turn people over. Nebraska 2015 was a good example. Wisconsin that same year. Penn State 2008 and 09. Many other examples. Mississippi State on new years day.

 

[BigD]

For the record, i'm predicting USC wins tonight.

I hope I am wrong. But we are going to have to force some turnovers like they did against Mississippi State. And we haven't forced many this year.

I am hoping for a win. A win would put a cherry on top of this season and make it a good year for the football program and maybe give us a good push moving ahead into the next year.

Lose and it’s just another blah season.

 

[BigD]

Three plays this season get executed differently and we would have been battling Ohio State for a spot in the playoffs.

2015 Big10 championship game was thee toughest game I have ever seen. Both teams left it all on the field...not surprising that the defeat crushed the Hawks souls man!

I don't think anyone is "smoking crack"... I'm damn proud to be a Hawkeye these days and I think we'll show our grit and class again tonight.

That works both ways you know. A couple of plays here or there and we have three more losses. Not to poke fun at Kirk but “that’s football”

 

[clownkilla]

That works both ways you know. A couple of plays here or there and we have three more losses. Not to poke fun at Kirk but “that’s football”

That is football, and is exactly my point. A player not executing has very little to do with a coach smoking crack because he feels like his team could win.

 

[trj]

Kirk’s a good man and a good coach. He however is smoking crack to even be talking about winning a Rose Bowl or nation title. The last fifteen years indicates that winning a conference title is extremely unlikely. The recruiting and coaching are not good enough.

Good, maybe very good but just not great. I would love to be proven wrong and eat my words. Not likely to happen.

I think winning a Rose Bowl is realistic. Winning a national title is not. Averaging 24 points a game and being 98th or so in total offense will not cut it and KF knows that. He will make adjustments, but there won't be any sense of urgency about them.

 

[HawkeyeTech]

So as that game good enough for the haters (both of the Ferentz and Stanley variety)? Yeah, I know, it'll be all "Why weren't they doing that all year?"

Though I'm kinda wondering the same thing. Anyway, Great win over a big name program!

 

[patmyne]

Dude. Quit bringing up the 15 playoff. They were exposed as a complete and total fraud against stanford when they finally played someone out of conference. They were not a top 4 team. Give me a break

Ppl that think Iowa showed up for that game are the real fraud. Imagine a team that is that close to playing for something that probably will never happen in our lives. The rose bowl, like every other bowl sans the playoffs, is a glorified scrimmage. I'm 44. I know what that game used to mean. It ain't the same...

 

[deanvogs]

Georgia's running game was having problems until Jim Chaney came in as offensive coordinator in 2015. He started working in quite a bit of split zone blocking on the inside with a good deal of success. He also ran some RPO out of the pistol formation.

Here is a write up on Jim Chaney's Split Zone blocking schemes. https://www.rockytoptalk.com/2019/1...-chaney-offense-scheme-playbook-jeremy-pruitt

Thanks for linking the article, that was great.

I really think the Ferentz’s are going to tinker with the blocking schemes this year. With the blocking rules being what they are, I think they understand they can’t ignore it any longer. We get flagged too many times for things are coaches are coaching the line to do, and the inconsistent calls frustrates the coaches as we all know from Kirks repeated comments on the subject. Plus the numbers Rushing just aren’t where the coaches want, and have been that way for 3 - 4 years now. Loved the article on split zone blocking, as that backside defender crashing has caused Zone blocking schemes issues for a long time. This is such a simple concept that then keeps many of the zone blocking principles in place. I mean I don’t see the scraping the zone scheme, so I wonder if something like this can be implemented more into Iowa’s offense.

 

[ibahawkeye]

I hope at some point we incorporate the QB more in the run game. Even if you can get 5 productive runs a game, it would be a threat to make the D honor it.

I don’t anticipate Petras being the guy we take that leap with though.

 

[CP87]

Good stuff on run-game scheming in here:

https://www.theringer.com/nfl-playo...shanahan-san-francisco-49ers-coach-super-bowl

 

[AreWeThereYet]

I updated the offensive and defensive FEI numbers to reflect the bowl game. Iowa improved it's OFEI ranking to 60th from 70th. The DFEI rank went down to 7th from 6th. FEI statistics are per drive so they filter out some of the difference in pacing and play style.

Unfortunately, the S&P+ breakdown is now controlled by ESPN Sports and they haven't updated the publicly available database for this year. I don't know if they intend to either.