hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
Actually, my assertion is that special teams experience, while important, isn't the same thing as game experience at their respective position.
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Actually, my assertion is that special teams experience, while important, isn't the same thing as game experience at their respective position.
cmhawks99
Well-Known Member
I didn't go back to the beginning because my memory isn't that good.
What I was getting at with my post was that I think there is a difference between playing freshman who play most of their snaps on special teams and actually having a freshman in the two deeps making a contribution.
I'll look up some of those other names and post my results.
I'd agree per se, but that's how you get those kids experience, so they'll be ready in the crunch and those kids were last year. That to me is what he was talking about a few years back. He now puts kids out there who can contribute period and the irony there….hop on any message board and you’ll find a whole new set of complainers…those who think we shouldn’t have burned a RS to play special teams and get game experience. They can’t win!
The thing that makes me shake my head and not at you, but at others is, do they actually watch these games or for that matter others?! We haven’t reinvented the wheel there in Iowa City. I watch copious amounts of football and KF & staff aren’t doing things a ton different than anyone else….what do people want, who do they want displaced so these frosh can play a “position�!?!
And do they not realize how many have actually played in pressure situations?!?
I’m going to go back and add RS’s and I’ll miss some I know, I’m already remebring kids I missed the first time…
2001….Barr, Cole, Sanders for sure…….
2002…..JJ, AA, and Solomon added important WR snaps as a High school QB?!
2003….I already see I forgot Scott Chandler who play’d WR/hybrid TE as a frosh and if memory serves Champ Davis was never better than he was as a frosh. Mike Jones started midyear and I’m not sure Townsend didn’t take some WR snaps and Young certainly would have……(I know I’m still missing people) In fact AJ Johnson might have before he got booted or left.
2004…Godfrey and Shada both played early and often as Frosh or RS Frosh, so did Damian Sims.
2005…Bain and Alex Kanellis were in the rotation and Moeaki played a ton as did Dace Richardson. Now that I think of it I believe Marcus Wilson contributed quite a bit either as a frosh or RS frosh because he was gone shortly after that.
2006….AJ Edds contributed heavily as a frosh I believe (I know he started the next year) Douglass was a stud, Cleveland was a major player next year as a RS-Frosh, so was DJK,
2007….Ballard was in the rotation by midyear and so was a RS-frosh Clayborn, right?! Coleman got a lot of snaps with the D, Moses was impressive in limited snaps (too bad he left he was very good for Tulane last year) Morrow logged game snaps, Reisner had to play.
2008…I forgot about Cato and he looked very good in important game snaps, Hampton of course, in this class but next year as RS-Frosh Robinson and Reiff were studs!
That’s enuff………the truth is most Iowa fans don’t remember ANY of that. Not to mention that every game snap (even on special teams or practice) that a young kid gets, moves him that much farther down the line for the next season. THAT is what KF was talking about in playing more frosh.
Chad
homerHAWKeye777
Well-Known Member
Sure ... it's not the same thing. However, you also want to put players in a position to succeed ... not fail. As an educator, I can tell you that helping your pupils to maintain a high level of confidence is pretty critical. When they're confident, they're more apt to learn better from their mistakes. When they're NOT confident ... they can hide in a shell, being petrified to make a mistake. And, of course, in so doing, they only make more and more aggregious of mistakes.
As a few key examples, just look at the play of Calloway and Christensen in '07. To Calloway's great credit, he was able to flush a good bit of the bad from the '07 season, learn from his mistakes, and end up doing well in '08. However, the fact of the matter is that we had pretty poor overall depth and experience on the OL in '07 ... and it showed.
I think that this is a big reason why the Iowa coaches TEND to err on the side of caution ... and consequently favor a player who can execute with better consistency. More often than not, such a player is the more experienced one.
Many fans LOVE to second guess how much playing time more talented younger players SHOULD GET. In so doing, they're never wrong ... because we never get to see how the alternate scenario would have played out. However, what those folks DO NOT tend to recognize is that the ODDS favor the decisions made by our coaches. As we saw when Stanzi unseated Christensen ... Stanzi still played "young" ... and it cost us games. Of course, we also got the good with the bad too. Similarly, Iowa was forced to play young guys at RB over the past few years ... and they've played young too ... and our rushing production has suffered as a direct consequence of that.
cmhawks99
Well-Known Member
Another million dollar statement right there.....but the average fan or dare I say "most" just don't or won''t get it.
Chad
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hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
Sorry Homer...my abbreviated response was going to be longer, but a silly work meeting pulled me away. My apologies...
Having said that, a big ol' +1 to the bolded parts above. In playing the role of devil's advocate (which I'm forced to do because as you stated, the scenarios haven't played themselves out so often), one would say that a disservice was done to the player/team because those players weren't given the opportunity BECAUSE the coaches err on the side of caution.
However, to address the last sentence in your post, I think that the rushing game could have been improved last year had Coker seen more action back there. But I also understand that we probably would have been putting Stanzi in a little more jeopardy vs. the blitz because Coker may not have been as well versed as ARob in pickup (OSU game, first TD pass by Stanzi comes to mind). Teaching pass protection to younger age groups, I understand how a young kid can get flustered, although my experiences as a coach and Reese Morgan's experiences as a coach are slightly different.
Personally, I certainly wouldn't have minded the staff giving ARob a blow a little more often, letting Coker get a few touches, and keep the passing attempts with Marcus in the game to the short/quick variety, in which pass protection often resembles run blocking (without the OL moving vertically, of course).
hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
I think anyone who watched Stanzi in early 2008 would have trouble refuting that statement.
cmhawks99
Well-Known Member
homerHAWKeye777
Well-Known Member
However, to address the last sentence in your post, I think that the rushing game could have been improved last year had Coker seen more action back there. But I also understand that we probably would have been putting Stanzi in a little more jeopardy vs. the blitz because Coker may not have been as well versed as ARob in pickup (OSU game, first TD pass by Stanzi comes to mind). Teaching pass protection to younger age groups, I understand how a young kid can get flustered, although my experiences as a coach and Reese Morgan's experiences as a coach are slightly different.
Personally, I certainly wouldn't have minded the staff giving ARob a blow a little more often, letting Coker get a few touches, and keep the passing attempts with Marcus in the game to the short/quick variety, in which pass protection often resembles run blocking (without the OL moving vertically, of course).
You do a terrific job of pointing out the trade-off between pass-pro and running production. As a fan ... I agree with you ... I would have like to see Coker run the ball more against tOSU too. However, on the flip side, I also understand where the coaches were coming from too. I wish that the coaches would have had a better impression of how Robinson was doing concussion-wise. I wonder if they would have given Coker more reps then ...
