Former NW QB Shares why Cats are Besting the Hawks

[HomerChampless]

Ok, fine, Dean. I accept your philosophy. It's not what you posted with the picture of the guy getting it in the twerk, however.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

I wouldn't call 3 yard passes an attack.

Iowa has played already this year?

 

[HomerChampless]

This is exactly right. Kurt and company were slow to react to the offense being run in college football the past 10 years. Why does everyone think we were able to hang with the Wisconsin's and the Michigan's for so long? The majority of offenses 10 years ago was more of a pro-style offense (like we had been running) and now the majority of offenses being run is the spread option. Until we go to a different style of defense to stop that style I'm afraid history is going to repeat itself.

Right on, Champs. KF is doing what he thinks will get the win... Conservative offense and defense against the pro-style offense, with very little effective passing or one-on-one defense. That worked well at most, 6 years ago, but not now. Even now, PSU, MSU, and Wisconsin have spread and passing offenses. I mean, even Tressel at tOSU ran the spread.

 

[HomerChampless]

Nothing shocking here. We consistently have better talent than NW so there must be some reason they beat us and I don't think it's execution. It's strategy and game planning. Northwestern knows how to beat us and it's not a fluke. Not everything is execution, that's only one part of the game.

KF thinks it's execution...

 

[okeefe4prez]

Your skin and your bit you insist on playing here are thin. People who play up a bit are tiresome.

Fitz and his boys have one bowl win and no titles.
You want to compare with ferentz at same point we should see two titles and two bcs as well as multiple bowl wins. You can try and rationalize how you want but he has accomplished less in same time window.

By way walker left twice the talent that ferentz inherited. Once again good coach but not elite and he still has nothing to show for his iowa boner.

Good try on fulmer cup. That was almost pertinent to argument. Bit fail there.

Nothing to show? The dude is the winningest coach at his alma mater. He was offered the Michigan job. He has basically earned a lifetime appointment to a $2+ million per year job. You must have accomplished a helluva lot by 38 years of age if you think that is "nothing to show."

Ferentz had a great run. About a decade ago. When the fingerprints of guys like Bielema and Joe Philbin were on the team. And when the Big Ten was "line up and punch 'em in the mouth." Those days are past. Ferentz put together a monster run in 2008-2009 and we got a lot of bounces to make up for a lot of crap from the years prior to that run. But even in the midst of that monster run, the guy freaking lost to Fitz TWICE. AT HOME BOTH TIMES.

You can talk all you want about the relative talent on both squads when the respective coaches came in, but the fact remains that Ferentz can do some things Fitz can't. Ferentz can sign a guy like Faith Ekakitie who wants to go to NU but has too low of a GPA or ACT score to get in (but who is welcome at Iowa). Ferentz can go to a juco and pick up a guy like Brad Banks, Nathan Chandler or Marshal Yanda and plug a hole immediately with a junior rather than an underclassman (NU does not allow Juco players in unless they could have qualified as freshmen). Ferentz can park a guy like Shonn Greene at Kirkwood for a year until he can regain his eligibility (at NU, if you're gone academically, you're gone). NU actually has an academic brand that is about 1000x more valuable to them than a football team and they go to great lengths to protect it.

You can create your own little narrative about how awesome Ferentz is, and I will readily admit that he is a solid coach (albeit not a near $4 mm per year man), but when you look at the totality of the circumstances, Fitz is about 5x the coach of Ferentz.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

It's tough to argue their approach given how excellent the defense has been most of the Parker years. For this one game, do u change who you are? I suspec t Kirk wouldn't do it.[/B] Or rather, did not.

Suspect? It's way beyond a suspicion to a well-known law of nature -- which is exactly what Bacher / NwU is commenting on!

This whole notion of, "What! You can't revise your scheme / 'who you are' from week to week ... " is such cowardly bunk. Really?! It's frickin' football, not reinventing the wheel! Hayden used to flip/flop and overhaul things all the time to attack his opponents weaknesses -- both physically and mentally. Then again, he was a mad-man compared to the Corporal.

Iowa must have the dumbest 85 football players in the conference, that are so inept in their fundamental understanding of the game and so one dimensional in their basic positional / athletic skill sets that you could never challenge them with the notion of a slight overhaul or revised strategy, let alone expect them to execute it with any level of competence in 7 days! Good grief! (Shaking my head in disgust.)

The only thing more shockingly pathetic is the level of complacent acceptance by the fan base for the offensive (figuratively and literally) failures and general stagnation of the Iowa football program, particularly since 2006. I'm not sure if it's loyalty to a good guy that allows everyone to minimize / deny the ANNUAL inexcusable, completely avoidable loss(es) that is (are) directly related to some coaching decision or just a case of drooling rubes suffering from some level of "beaten puppy syndrome (after all, KF took Iowa to it's only BCS games and even won one of them).

If it's truly "so-hard" to consistently recruit high-level talent to Iowa -- the #1 apology for the (ahem) - "lulls" under KF --then, "changing who you are" (you know, the inherently less talented and athletic) is EXACTLY what you should be doing each week, depending on your opponent's strengths and weaknesses!!

 

[okeefe4prez]

Standford also has vastly more resources than NW. But besides that, I would argue that Harbaugh is a better coach than either KF or Fitz by a wide margin. (I have been surprised that Shaw has been able to keep things going, and I think they will fade sometime soon. Maybe he'll prove me wrong.)

Even though NW would like to lock down Chicago, they really have no greater ownership of it than Iowa or several other B1G teams. We recruit similar geographies to my knowledge.

Honestly, the number of B1G-caliber recruits in Chicagoland who can get into NU is slim. Aside from the North Shore and a few wealthier suburbs out west, NU has a really tough time finding local kids who can qualify. NU has to recruit nationally and they are fighting like hell with Stanford and Vandy for a very limited pool of recruits with suitable test scores and GPAs. Notre Dame claims they maintain academic standards, but I'm not so sure of that. That head to head recruiting is why Fitz has recently played Vandy (though Vandy backed out of the remainder of the contract after NU wasn't the cupcake they signed up for) and why he has signed up games against Cal, Stanford and Notre Dame. Dude really, really, really wants to pitch NU nationally to that very select group of recruits he can actually land. Stanford does have a huge facilities advantage over NU, along with history, but more importantly, they are in California and can find a fair number of recruits in their backyard.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Suspect? It's way beyond a suspicion to a well-known law of nature -- which is exactly what Bacher / NwU is commenting on!

This whole notion of, "What! You can't revise your scheme / 'who you are' from week to week ... " is such cowardly bunk. Really?! It's frickin' football, not reinventing the wheel! Hayden used to flip/flop and overhaul things all the time to attack his opponents weaknesses -- both physically and mentally. Then again, he was a mad-man compared to the Corporal.

Iowa must have the dumbest 85 football players in the conference, that are so inept in their fundamental understanding of the game and so one dimensional in their basic positional / athletic skill sets that you could never challenge them with the notion of a slight overhaul or revised strategy, let alone expect them to execute it with any level of competence in 7 days! Good grief! (Shaking my head in disgust.)

The only thing more shockingly pathetic is the level of complacent acceptance by the fan base for the offensive (figuratively and literally) failures and general stagnation of the Iowa football program, particularly since 2006. I'm not sure if it's loyalty to a good guy that allows everyone to minimize / deny the ANNUAL inexcusable, completely avoidable loss(es) that is (are) directly related to some coaching decision or just a case of drooling rubes suffering from some level of "beaten puppy syndrome (after all, KF took Iowa to it's only BCS games and even won one of them).

If it's truly "so-hard" to consistently recruit high-level talent to Iowa -- the #1 apology for the (ahem) - "lulls" under KF --then, "changing who you are" (you know, the inherently less talented and athletic) is EXACTLY what you should be doing each week, depending on your opponent's strengths and weaknesses!!

To be fair, there are only 5 days of prep for Nebraska.

 

[PCHawk]

No fellas. OOTH actually said he thought Ferentz was TRYING to lose the Nebraska game last year because he didn't want to "look stupid" by winning or something to that effect. Don't ask me to explain it, but it was said. After it was said it was then argued about for probably 6 pages of worthless nonsense. Basically it consisted of OOTH trying to explain himself.... which eventually led to him claiming that what he really meant by saying he thought KF was trying to lose is "KF wasn't playing to win" which is what people are saying here (and is much more justifiable).

I'm one of those you KF haters throw into the kool-aid drinking category, and I won't argue with anything that's been said here. It's been common knowledge for quite some time that NW consistently gives Iowa's defense fits because they are one of the few teams that are willing to do exactly what Bacher said, take what the defense gives them. It's not rocket science, and none of this news should be groundbreaking. Iowa's defense thus far in the KF era has always been willing to give up short passes underneath the coverage. Fortunately for Iowa, most teams aren't patient enough to keep doing it. Northwestern has been because that's the way their offense is built.

I know for a fact KF is stubborn as hell, but I do believe he's finally started to make changes. Certainly on the offensive side of the ball, but we'll see about the defensive side. Thank god we get to find out in just a few days because this offseason needs to end pronto.

Now that I think about it I remember people saying Kirk would rather lose than change quarterbacks and be considered wrong.
Irregardless it shouldn't be brought up every time someone questions Kirk bince that's not what people mean.

Did I do it right?

 

[STILLBUSTER]

There is no doubt. IMO the biggest failure of the KF era is how he's treated/MIS-managed the offense

FIFY

Seriously, if he could have self-assessed this about 6 years ago, he might have been able to get out of the way of his own myopic, nostalgic, risk-aversive dogma and avoided one of the top-3 attributes of his legacy -- underachievement relative to his talent.

KF has no clue about offensive skill and strategy. He played LB and understands the OL -- not exactly great credentials on how to best utilize your play-makers in space. No fault, except that he never allowed himself to relinquish control of what he knew very little about and trust someone with more expertise. Too bad cuz there's probably a 8 - 10 losses over the years that he won't get back and will tarnish his legacy with "Great guy; average coach".

 

[ShadasRevenge]

Suspect? It's way beyond a suspicion to a well-known law of nature -- which is exactly what Bacher / NwU is commenting on!

This whole notion of, "What! You can't revise your scheme / 'who you are' from week to week ... " is such cowardly bunk. Really?! It's frickin' football, not reinventing the wheel! Hayden used to flip/flop and overhaul things all the time to attack his opponents weaknesses -- both physically and mentally. Then again, he was a mad-man compared to the Corporal.

Iowa must have the dumbest 85 football players in the conference, that are so inept in their fundamental understanding of the game and so one dimensional in their basic positional / athletic skill sets that you could never challenge them with the notion of a slight overhaul or revised strategy, let alone expect them to execute it with any level of competence in 7 days! Good grief! (Shaking my head in disgust.)

The only thing more shockingly pathetic is the level of complacent acceptance by the fan base for the offensive (figuratively and literally) failures and general stagnation of the Iowa football program, particularly since 2006. I'm not sure if it's loyalty to a good guy that allows everyone to minimize / deny the ANNUAL inexcusable, completely avoidable loss(es) that is (are) directly related to some coaching decision or just a case of drooling rubes suffering from some level of "beaten puppy syndrome (after all, KF took Iowa to it's only BCS games and even won one of them).

If it's truly "so-hard" to consistently recruit high-level talent to Iowa -- the #1 apology for the (ahem) - "lulls" under KF --then, "changing who you are" (you know, the inherently less talented and athletic) is EXACTLY what you should be doing each week, depending on your opponent's strengths and weaknesses!!

You should submit your resume.

 

[STILLBUSTER]

To be fair, there are only 5 days of prep for Nebraska.

Well, then that's totally acceptable. Every coach knows it takes at least 6 days to figure out how to rush straight into a wall of Black Shirts and / or complete a 1 yard pass and convert it into a first down on 3rd and 5+. Even the fightin' Fitz's and his crack-team of NwU physicists couldn't produce this degree of strategical revolution with any sort of success in only 5 days. Might as well be practicing alchemy. Not to mention, we're just little ol' Iowa.

That's why I can't wait till they scrap the black-Friday match-up with Nebby, in lieu of the traditional Saturday game. All sorts of light bulbs going on during that extra day of prep and those disadvantaged, hard-nosed, 3* Hawks will be plowing through the mighty ol' 4 and 5* Big Red, with Captain Kirk driving the tractor.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

Well, then that's totally acceptable. Every coach knows it takes at least 6 days to figure out how to rush straight into a wall of Black Shirts and / or complete a 1 yard pass and convert it into a first down on 3rd and 5+. Even the fightin' Fitz's and his crack-team of NwU physicists couldn't produce this degree of strategical revolution with any sort of success in only 5 days. Might as well be practicing alchemy. Not to mention, we're just little ol' Iowa.

That's why I can't wait till they scrap the black-Friday match-up with Nebby, in lieu of the traditional Saturday game. All sorts of light bulbs going on during that extra day of prep and those disadvantaged, hard-nosed, 3* Hawks will be plowing through the mighty ol' 4 and 5* Big Red, with Captain Kirk driving the tractor.

Yes, because losing that game on that day would be beneficial to the program.

 

[seepig]

Former Northwestern QB CJ Bacher shares his thoughts on why the Wildcats have had success against Iowa, and that a stuffed monkey is part of the reason Pat Fitzgerald hates Iowa….included in today’s Hawkeye Mashup

Mashup: Some Hawks Cut, Some Hawks Remain in NFL « Hawkeye NationHawkeye Nation

Well for those of us that have been SAYING THIS FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS.....VINDICATION!!!!!!

 

[seepig]

Big 10 coordinators have been quoted this same thing the past 3 seasons....if the competitors are calling you out on being transparent...you've got coaching issues. Kurt maybe you should read the Hawkeye Nation Forum boards for some basic coaching 101 advice.

 

[JHHawk]

Here are the point totals in all losses to NU since 1999.

21- 23- played in inclement weather at NU....Hawks missed a 20 yd fg at the end when the wind turned a fg at a 90 degree angle ...weirdest thing I ever saw.
27-28- Iowa blows a 13 pt lead with 2 minutes to go...Drew Tate hurt at halftime
7-21
17-22- Shonn Greene concussed on dirty helmet to helmet hit, he fumbled, and was out for the game as Iowa turns it over 5 times and blows a huge lead
10-17- Ricky Stanzi gets facemasked by one NU player as Wootten lays on his legs,after ball was out...play cost Iowa the lead, their qb and a td....
17-21- Game played in a monsoon at NU...huge wind against Iowa in 1st qtr, then as soon as 2nd qtr started, monsoon rains hit....NW wins on last second td

In almost all of the losses the loss can be blamed on the offense. And there are nothing in those scores that show me that the NU offense has the Iowa D "figured out."

Some can say that Fitz is some kind of coaching genius but you do not coach up weird crap like the above. His players have had some dirty hits vs Iowa...including a fake late hit by Basanez. They grab Iowa receivers constantly, and figure they will get away with is sometimes...and they do. They late hit in the helmet and get away with it. Last season the genius blew 3 double digit leads in the 4th qtr vs Michigan, PSU and Nebby.....real genius. Fitz is an arse.

 

[tubahawk]

Big 10 coordinators have been quoted this same thing the past 3 seasons....if the competitors are calling you out on being transparent...you've got coaching issues. Kurt maybe you should read the Hawkeye Nation Forum boards for some basic coaching 101 advice.

The reality is KF doesn't care if other coaches see us as transparent. Right or wrong he is of the opinion that a well executed offensive play (even if known to the defense) still beats the defense.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Some can say that Fitz is some kind of coaching genius but you do not coach up weird crap like the above. His players have had some dirty hits vs Iowa...including a fake late hit by Basanez. They grab Iowa receivers constantly, and figure they will get away with is sometimes...and they do. They late hit in the helmet and get away with it. Last season the genius blew 3 double digit leads in the 4th qtr vs Michigan, PSU and Nebby.....real genius. Fitz is an arse.

I had to turn off the Iowa games against Michigan and Penn State late in the third quarter last year. Could you refresh my recollection about the size of lead Iowa had against them in the fourth quarter?

[video=youtube;LC71N_4-zX4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC71N_4-zX4[/video]

 

[hawkincal]

Northwestern's staff under Pat Fitzgerald has consistently had better game plans and in-game adjustments than Iowa's staff in the head-to-head matchups.

Under Fitzgerald, NW has played 56 conference games in his seven years as head coach.

In the 49 games against other conference opponents (besides Iowa), NW has given up at least 20 points in 39 of those 49 games (80%), and 30 or more points in 26 of those games (52%).

In the 7 games against Iowa, NW has given up 20 or more points just twice (29%), and 30 or more points just once (14%).

The only two games that Iowa has scored at least 20 against the Wildcats were in 2007 and 2011, the only two Iowa wins since Fitzgerald has been their coach.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Northwestern's staff under Pat Fitzgerald has consistently had better game plans and in-game adjustments than Iowa's staff in the head-to-head matchups.

Under Fitzgerald, NW has played 56 conference games in his seven years as head coach.

In the 49 games against other conference opponents (besides Iowa), NW has given up at least 20 points in 39 of those 49 games (80%), and 30 or more points in 26 of those games (52%).

In the 7 games against Iowa, NW has given up 20 or more points just twice (29%), and 30 or more points just once (14%).

The only two games that Iowa has scored at least 20 against the Wildcats were in 2007 and 2011, the only two Iowa wins since Fitzgerald has been their coach.

Cool story and a great way to try to pin the blame on O'Keefe. I've seen a fair number of NU games bince moving up by the school and I must say that one recurring theme whenever Iowa plays them that doesn't come up against many other Big Ten teams is that Iowa's defense is on the field for a LONG time whenever we play NU. NU tends to have a lot of three and outs or drives where they get one or two first downs and then punt. Their defense spends a lot of time on the field against most Big Ten teams. But against Iowa, it seems like they have one backbreaker drive nearly every quarter that is just one dink and dunk pass after another. Iowa will hold them to 3rd and 7 a few times and each time NU converts. It is like Chinese water torture watching that crap. Of course, the offense gets blamed for the lack of production, but the fact is, they ain't on the field a lot when we play NU because NU does such a masterful job of keeping Iowa's defense on the field. This is the aspect these statistical attempts at blaming the offense miss, but any fan with two eyes can readily see.

The offense didn't give up the huge drive to PersaStrong in 2010. The offense didn't give up 14 unanswered points in liek 5 minutes in 2005. Watching the Iowa defense nursing a precarious lead against Northwestern late in a game is gut wrenching.