Guest View: Is Ferentz Legacy Fading?

[Cory]

No way Kirk turns the offense over to Brian when he doesn't have a lot of talent to be successful. He will wait until the talent level is high again so Brian can be set up for the future. One thing you have to give KF credit for is planning ahead. Greg Davis is Lee Harvey. He will be around for at least one more year.

8 more years, 8 more years, 8 more years..............chomp, chomp, snort, snort.

 

[hawkod]

I disagree with you Jon, I do think Davis should be replaced. The offense, James Vandenberg especially, has no confidence at all; another year of the same system will do nothing to inspire next year's players. Besides that, the strategies employed in play calling fall short of what's expected from a junior high football IQ level: know the down and distance/gain 10 yards in 4 downs=keeping the football! I understand you can't always throw the football to the down marker when it's 3rd and 24 without risking an interception, BUT on 3rd and 12 or less there's no reason to throw to a receiver in 1st down territory unless you're running a screen pass. This is FUNDAMENTAL football--I thought that was our strength?!

I also agree with Mr. Leslie's observation of us always having to react to the defense. THIS GOES TWO WAYS, Coach! How about us calling plays that keep the defense off-balance so they have to react to us?! Seems like the majority of the time we call an audible we end up running the ball for a two yard gain--too much analysis!

1) New Coach with New Offense=New Energy and Renewed Confidence

2) Pass the ball to set up the run. I understand the need to run the ball over 50% of the time, but the defense needs to be afraid of the big play. Throw the ball at least 40 yards upfield at least once every quarter: scares the defense, gets the fans on their feet, and hey, we might even complete a few of them!

3) Make the other team react to us.

4) Design plays that expect to gain more that 4 yards.

ARRRGGGHHH!!!!

 

[hawkeyebob62]

As a hypothetical lets assume Kirk feels this way too. What do you do? The obvious end-game is to get Brian into the OC position. It seems premature to put him in that position, but Davis has been so ineffective that risking another season with him as OC could be detrimental to KF's tenure at Iowa.

The choices I see are;

1. Let Davis go and throw Brian into the fire.
2. Keep Davis for another year (or two) until you feel Brian is ready. (and risk your own job)
3. Let Davis go and bring in another OC for a year or two to mentor Brian. (But what decent OC would sign-up for that gig?)

If you're Kirk, what do you?

tuba, I guess my question is, "What indication(s) do we have that Brian Ferentz is 'qualified' to be OC. Does he even WANT to be OC?"

If there were indication(s) that he is of the OC mindset, I haven't seen/heard them.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

What if the problem isn't Greg Davis? What if the problem is the previous staff's (and carryovers on this one, to a degree) increasing failure to spot and successfully recruit the talent required to compete in a changing BoneG? Or, what if Davis' scheme requires a different kind of athlete and Iowa recruiting is only beginning to catch up with that adjustment? Do you still toss him after one bad year?

Valid points, but, if KF/staff KNEW this, shouldn't they have gotten some JUCO players, or done some other shuffling with either recruiting or position switches? I just don't know...

 

[1977Hawkeye]

While Fry had also built up good will from the rose bowls and good years, had he been "asked to retire" after those 3 seasons, he would not have been allowed to run the program into the ground and leave the cupboards completely bare for the next coahc (Kirk) like he did. A team with the lineman, Tim Dwight, Tavian Banks, etc underperformed consistently because of, you guessed it, bad QB play. Until we change the way we play offense, I see no reason any good Wr's or QB's would want to come to Iowa.

Good point. It reminds me of when Lickliter was our basketball coach, and the widely agreed upon notion that talented athletes did not want to play in that kind of system, and that the next coach should play an uptempo style (Fran) in order to attract better recruits.

I still remember our football game against Penn State in 2011 where the announcers pretty much stated, more or less, that Iowa & PSU were about the only two teams left in the country to play the old "3 yards and a cloud of dust" style of football. That can't help with recruiting skill position players on offense if what you're doing is considered to be a thing of the past.

 

[Section136]

No way Kirk turns the offense over to Brian when he doesn't have a lot of talent to be successful. He will wait until the talent level is high again so Brian can be set up for the future. One thing you have to give KF credit for is planning ahead.

If you honestly believe this, then you are an idiot.

Do you really think Kirk's number one objective right now is to set up Brian's future?

 

[Bigtenchamp]

Can someone name me a coach that's left New England and been successful? I honestly can't think of one off hand. I suppose you can say O'Brien, but I don't know that 10 games is enough of a body of work to make that claim yet.....

Maybe not from NE - though there has been many who became head coaches (Crennell, McDaniels)

However going back a bit farther there have been a ton of guy under The Hoody who have became successful coaches (Saban, Ferentz... watch the 1995 Cleveland Browns thing on NFL Network)

 

[MisterLucky]

Not sure where all this negative vibe for BF is coming from, do you really thing he wouldn't be better then what we are seeing from Davis? It's a known fact that BF is not his fathers clone. KF stated just as much as he commented that now BF finally gets a chance to see what the suggestions he sent to him in past years will pan out now first hand. BF was part of a successful coaching staff that included Coach O' Brien that just this year resurrected the Penn St program and made a 2nd string QB in McGloin into the leading passer in the B1G. You just don't work on a staff like New England and not be prepared to coach and the rumor was that BF was in consideration to get the OC job at New England. I know, I know rumors are rumors but we all know where there's smoke there's got to be a little fire. I'd be okay with this transition heck it can't be any worse then what we see on the field now. Further more after seeing how Penn St. manhandled the Hawks I say give him the keys. I'd rather see KF go down with family then with an old haggard Davis.

I would think that if Brian had any serious differences with the way the offense is being run now, he would surely have his father's ear and would be voicing his alternate opinion.