Growing Pains - The Youngness of Iowa

MelroseHawkins

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
Boy, I was reviewing Iowa's roster and seemed to constantly come across either a freshman or redshirt freshman. I was curious as to how many F & RSF Iowa had in its roster. I counted all the F & RSF and came up to a total of 58. So, over half the current roster is made up of freshman. There may be some growing pains but after this year, Iowa may be set up with some nice veteran classes after these guys are in the program & develop a bit. I was surprised with how many freshman make up the roster.

We need to put this into perspective.

http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/iowa-m-footbl-mtt.html
 
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That is the hardest part of being a developmental program, waiting for the up swing. Our attrition issue has really hurt us in this regard.

I would say that some of our attrition is based on younger guys coming in and displacing 2nd year freshman and 3rd year sophs. That can be a sign that recruiting has been better than the recruiting sites have shown the last 3 years. But it also points out the difficulties we have bringing wide receivers. We have had to pull scholarships from other areas far too often the last 3 years trying to bring in wide recievers, many of which are not ever going to see the field on offense.
 
I'd bet that isnt as uncommon as one would think. I think walk ons account for a lot of that. Its normal for a walk on to be around his freshman year but then decide they are done playing football early in their college careers. I havent scanned the roster to be sure but id be surprised if we have close to that many SO and JRs in 1 or 2 years
 
BleednGumsMrphy said:
I'd bet that isnt as uncommon as one would think. I think walk ons account for a lot of that. Its normal for a walk on to be around his freshman year but then decide they are done playing football early in their college careers. I havent scanned the roster to be sure but id be surprised if we have close to that many SO and JRs in 1 or 2 years
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Good point about the walk-ons and attrition of them. How many "preferred walk-on" statuses does Iowa usually grant each class?
 
just do the math.

FR and RSFR account for roughly 2 out of 5 classes, or 40%. Ok, not every true freshman redshirts, maybe 5 out of 20 do not redshirt or they leave. this is what I would expect on roster

TRUE FR -25
RSFR - 20
TRSO - 5
RSSO - 15
TRJR - 4
RSJR - 9
TRSR - 2
RSSR- 12
 
guffus said:
just do the math.

FR and RSFR account for roughly 2 out of 5 classes, or 40%. Ok, not every true freshman redshirts, maybe 5 out of 20 do not redshirt or they leave. this is what I would expect on roster

TRUE FR -25
RSFR - 20
TRSO - 5
RSSO - 15
TRJR - 4
RSJR - 9
TRSR - 2
RSSR- 12
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You can give out a max of 25 scholarships in any given year, but have only 85 total scholarship players on the roster total at any given time. So it gets a little tricky calculating these numbers. (yours total 92)

If we truly have 58 scholarships between Freshmen and RSFreshman.... that's some pretty bad attrition. Only 27 scholarship players who've seen the field or were eligible to see the field last year?

Ouch.
 
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Ok, so what was the excuse two years ago, three years ago, four years ago? Religion, politics, and Iowa Football Alex for $300. Que Jeapardy music please.......... What is a common area for people rationalizing and excusing bad behavior or negative results.

I guess that interview with KF really touched a nerve with me. Been very supportive and patient with the coach but I am tired of hearing excuses all the time. This is the year for KF to put up or get out.
 
hawkfan1319 said:
That's football
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That is also not planning ahead very well, as in getting some sophs some playing time so they dont get bored and leave the program.

There must have been a high graduation rate last year. along with attrition, on the two deeps to be this raw and green.

Then again when you have or had 4 punters and 5 or 6 fullbacks lets just play early 1900's wall of granite football. Oh wait we already are.

I had to say it, I am not all that down on the players. The first time CJ goes over the top to scheel or smith or another WR I am going to get excited.

First big run of the year the same feeling, as with ints, big tackles and defensive stops.
 
BigD said:
Ok, so what was the excuse two years ago, three years ago, four years ago? Religion, politics, and Iowa Football Alex for $300. Que Jeapardy music please.......... What is a common area for people rationalizing and excusing bad behavior or negative results.

I guess that interview with KF really touched a nerve with me. Been very supportive and patient with the coach but I am tired of hearing excuses all the time. This is the year for KF to put up or get out.
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I'm not making excuses but merely pointing out how surprised I was with how many freshman are on the current roster. That's it.
 
58 does seem like a high number so they can't all be on scholarship. with a limit of 25 schollys per class and 85 total limit. that means at least 8 of them are not on scholly right now probably a lot more. So does that mean if one of them wants to earn a scholly later, does somebody else need to leave?
 
MelroseHawkins said:
I'm not making excuses but merely pointing out how surprised I was with how many freshman are on the current roster. That's it.
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Your last line of "let's put it in perspective" made it sound like you were saying youth was a reason we have struggled. Which doesn't really make sense since the year you are talking about hasn't even been played yet. Interesting post though.
 
PCHawk said:
Your last line of "let's put it in perspective" made it sound like you were saying youth was a reason we have struggled. Which doesn't really make sense since the year you are talking about hasn't even been played yet. Interesting post though.
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Yea, probably should have omitted that. I was just reviewing the roster & it stuck out at me and I was like wow so thought I would count them. I then decided to post it for comments. I suppose other teams have a lot but over half the roster???

I thought there would be a better distribution of upper class and something like a 70-30% ratio.
 
uihawk82 said:
That is also not planning ahead very well, as in getting some sophs some playing time so they dont get bored and leave the program.

There must have been a high graduation rate last year. along with attrition, on the two deeps to be this raw and green.

Then again when you have or had 4 punters and 5 or 6 fullbacks lets just play early 1900's wall of granite football. Oh wait we already are.

I had to say it, I am not all that down on the players. The first time CJ goes over the top to scheel or smith or another WR I am going to get excited.

First big run of the year the same feeling, as with ints, big tackles and defensive stops.
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Snort: That's football.
 
32 of the 48 players listed on the new 2 deep roster are JR/SRs. We don't need or want excuses.
2/3 of the 2 deep roster is upperclassmen and we have the easiest schedule in all of the Power 5 conferences. I'd argue that this is the year for a run.
 
Hawknick wanted me to say: Those 58 players are the greatest selection of recruits ever assembled by KF. How exciting it be for KF to go out with the back to back BCS Championship, Can't wait. :)
 
Youth is an excuse. Attrition is a reason. When you rely on development and depth, and have attrition...you use youth as a excuse.

No more excuses.
 
HawkeyeWalker said:
Youth is an excuse. Attrition is a reason. When you rely on development and depth, and have attrition...you use youth as a excuse.

No more excuses.
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"youth" in this case isn't an excuse, it's a ridiculous misrepresentation of the facts. I challenge anyone to call the 2 deep roster "young".
2 deep breakdown:
19 SRs
13 JRs
9 SOs
7 FR
 
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