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dchawk03

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I think it may be best to possibly try and transition to a more 3-4 defense rather than a 4-3. Possibly get faster players on the field to try and stop the spread. Which makes me surprised with the NFL moving more to a 3-4 to counter with faster schemes that such few college teams use this formation. I understand this means blitzing which is not currently in the Hawks vocabulary, but it needs to be.

Also regarding everyone constantly wanting to go to the "no huddle", that will never work as a permanent solution for Iowa. Their is a reason Iowa puts so many players into the NFL and we get the recruits we do. Clearly there are times for the spread when we're down 24-3 late in the game. However, Iowa is a pro-style offensive team and will remain as such. Get the line going, get coker going, get MCNUTT THE BALL, and let the play makers do their thing..

That is all
 
A) A lot of NFL teams are moving back to the 4-3 defense now. Even the 3-4 teams basically run a 4-3 with one of their outside linebackers lining up on the line of scrimmage.

B) Iowa doesn't have the DL to run a 3-4. Way too small to run a 3-4.
 
your second paragraph is along the same ideology the coaching staff has and i think most of hawkeye nation will agree with, assuming that approach IS WORKING. however, so far this season coker hasn't gotten things going and our rushing offense is 11th in the conference. at some point you have to realize things aren't working and do some things a little differently that can help with or base offense. gotta keep the defenses guessing
 
i think the 11th ranking is overblown. We are the only team to play two bcs foes and the circumstances of the pitt game basically forced us to abandon the pass. I would be willing to bet we don't finish any lower than 4th by the end of the season. Coker will improve, and the line will also play better as the season rolls along.

If we are going to address the defense the best way to fight a spread is with a nickel look. The secondary can tackle and we have a nice set of linebackers for zone coverage. Who is the pass rusher in a 34? The Hawks aren't built for that type of defense.
 
A move to the 3-4 during the season would be disastrous.

1. We dont have the DL personnel to run the 3-4.
2. We have very limited depth at the LB position.

Thats just two reasons we would be a horrible team to run the 3-4. Plus it would be a horrible move to make during a season. Thats alot of adjusting to do in not alot of time to do it.
 
iowaboy85 said:
A move to the 3-4 during the season would be disastrous.

1. We dont have the DL personnel to run the 3-4.
2. We have very limited depth at the LB position.

Thats just two reasons we would be a horrible team to run the 3-4. Plus it would be a horrible move to make during a season. Thats alot of adjusting to do in not alot of time to do it.
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I love point #2 here. We were scraping the bottom of our LB barrel to run a 4-3 last year. Granted, most years won't have that many injuries, but a 3-4 would require two more LBs on the two-deep.

Someone else also mentioned a nickel. I think we should try that a little more against spread teams. Castillo hopefully wouldn't have as much trouble covering in the slot since the safety help would be right behind him. This year, though, the counter to that argument is that Kirksey and Nielsen/Hitchens are all pretty decent in coverage for OLBs.
 
spudhawk said:
i think the 11th ranking is overblown. We are the only team to play two bcs foes and the circumstances of the pitt game basically forced us to abandon the pass. I would be willing to bet we don't finish any lower than 4th by the end of the season. Coker will improve, and the line will also play better as the season rolls along.

If we are going to address the defense the best way to fight a spread is with a nickel look. The secondary can tackle and we have a nice set of linebackers for zone coverage. Who is the pass rusher in a 34? The Hawks aren't built for that type of defense.
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As we get further along in the season, get the new starters in the secondary more acclimated to our base-D, and get Lowery back ... then I anticipate that we'll potentially see a greater willingness to flash our nickel looks.

I believe that we've been hesitant to do it earlier in the season because Castillo isn't a guy who would excel in press coverage.
 
I can't recall Iowa being in a 3-4, ever. I have seen nickel/dime packages before, NP has flirted with some zone blitzing on a occasion, corner blitz(s) that never get home, but that has been about it. Standard run blitz(s) that everyone has. After 12 years I do not see a whole lot changing.
 
I don't think anyone wants an Oregon style offense, but use it on occasion to throw the other team off guard/tire them out. The hurry up works for so many teams when they need to score, even the Hawkeyes, it wouldn't hurt to throw in one drive per half using the hurry up if things aren't going too well or if it's a very back and forth game. 2nd/3rd and short: Good, 3rd and long: Bad. Being unpredictable (unexpected hurry up) isn't a bad thing, there's no rule that you have to do it the whole game.
 
trj said:
I can't recall Iowa being in a 3-4, ever. I have seen nickel/dime packages before, NP has flirted with some zone blitzing on a occasion, corner blitz(s) that never get home, but that has been about it. Standard run blitz(s) that everyone has. After 12 years I do not see a whole lot changing.
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I can't remember who it was against or even what team we were playing (so please feel free to call shenannigan's on me here), but I recall Norm busted out the 3-4 for at least a game. It was against a spread/pass oriented team...wish I could remember, but I can't.
 
528646 said:
I can't remember who it was against or even what team we were playing (so please feel free to call shenannigan's on me here), but I recall Norm busted out the 3-4 for at least a game. It was against a spread/pass oriented team...wish I could remember, but I can't.
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I can't recall it at all, but I am not a Iowa football historian, I can barely remember what happen last week. You could very well be right.
 
528646 said:
I can't remember who it was against or even what team we were playing (so please feel free to call shenannigan's on me here), but I recall Norm busted out the 3-4 for at least a game. It was against a spread/pass oriented team...wish I could remember, but I can't.
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You're shenanigan-free. Not sure about our LB or DB personnel, but we flashed a 3-man line a significant amount at Indiana last year.
 
The spread is phasing out in the Big Ten. Michigan is going to a pro set. Minnesota is in a modified pistol/pro set. MSU,PSU,Wisc. and OSU are already pro set.

When D-Rob,Marquis Gray,Taylor Martinez leave the Legends their teams will be more pro set. Iowa will stick to the 4-3 which is the best for developing NFL d-linemen clearly,as Iowa leads the nation in NFL d-linemen. It is how we can sell recruits.

Obviously,we have gone to smaller quickers lbs as an answer to the spread crap this year. We are so short on lbs,we can hardly field 3 healthy ones,let alone 4.
 
Cover3 said:
You're shenanigan-free. Not sure about our LB or DB personnel, but we flashed a 3-man line a significant amount at Indiana last year.
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DE: Ballard/Clayborn........Daniels over center, pull Klug.

or

DE: Daniels/Clayborn........ Ballard over center, pull Klug.


I am not saying it did not happen, but that is such a radical change from the norm(no pun intended) I think I would have remembered something like that.
 
I'm not showing support for 34 d necessarily but wouldn't Carl Davis do okay at the center DT position?
 
I agree with this....may not be our "go to" defense but I see a place for this scheme. Remember we came out in 3-4 and ULM clearly didn't expect this and was called for delay of game. IMO we need to be able to stop the short 5-8 yd pass in the flat/over the middle. I think either a 3-4 on 1st down or a cover 2 would work here. We get burned on 1st down because we think run and they pass. 3-4 or cover 2.
 
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