Hayden's playbook the early years.

K

kameltoez102

Well-Known Member
While I was too young to really understand the game and see those early teams play I enjoy watching the old games on Youtube. I was just watching the Michigan game from 1981 and they had some really cool formations and creative ways to distribute the ball around to their play-makers. How did we ever get so Vanilla and lose some of those concepts and schemes?

Do our coaches even watch other teams or old games and see how creative they are? It seems the most creative we get is a Jet sweep or a flea flicker. I am hoping with a more dynamic QB things will change
 


That wasn't Hayden's playbook, that was Bill Snyder's playbook. And he will go down as one of the most innovative offense minds in all of football history.
 


Was Bill Snyder coaching offense for Hayden in early 1960's when Hayden was head coach at SMU and then at North Texas?

The answer is no and Hayden Fry was passing the ball 50+ times a game in the early 60s when he had Jerry Levias. Hayden has always had a fancy playbook and Snyder just added to it when he joined Fry in the mid 1970's.
 


sound familiar?:

"We went to the Rose Bowl with a good ball-security offense, an outstanding defense and Reggie Roby," McCarney said.

http://data.desmoinesregister.com/hall-of-fame/single.php?id=364
 


I remember hearing all the hype after Hayden was hired. The common quote was Iowa would be "filling the air over Kinnick Stadium with footballs". Yet his first season Phil Suess had 159 of a total 248 team pass attempts compared to Dennis Moseley's 270 rushing attempts; as a team Iowa had 526 rushing attempts. I wouldn't call a 2 to 1 ratio of plays from scrimmage being rushes "filling the air with footballs". But Hayden definitely accomplished the attitude change.
 


Knight78 said:
I remember hearing all the hype after Hayden was hired. The common quote was Iowa would be "filling the air over Kinnick Stadium with footballs". Yet his first season Phil Suess had 159 of a total 248 team pass attempts compared to Dennis Moseley's 270 rushing attempts; as a team Iowa had 526 rushing attempts. I wouldn't call a 2 to 1 ratio of plays from scrimmage being rushes "filling the air with footballs". But Hayden definitely accomplished the attitude change.
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no doubt about it - he did pass more than the big ten was 'used to' but people have a 'revisionist history' about fry - he was a run first offensive coach - and he had a ton of good rbs in his history.
 


uihawk82 said:
Was Bill Snyder coaching offense for Hayden in early 1960's when Hayden was head coach at SMU and then at North Texas?

The answer is no and Hayden Fry was passing the ball 50+ times a game in the early 60s when he had Jerry Levias. Hayden has always had a fancy playbook and Snyder just added to it when he joined Fry in the mid 1970's.
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He was with Hayden at North Texas. Came with him to Iowa. Every QB who played under him would tell you whose offense it was that they were running....it was Snyder's. At it's no secret why, after he left, Iowa wasn't nearly as successful as they were when he was there.
 


imported_ankle23 said:
no doubt about it - he did pass more than the big ten was 'used to' but people have a 'revisionist history' about fry - he was a run first offensive coach - and he had a ton of good rbs in his history.
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I don't think he was a sling it and forget it but looking at how he got the ball to playmakers was innovative and is something we could for sure use rather than just simple hand offs and screen passes. One thing I see is potential at some of the play makers on the team. Whether they can handle to ball heavily throughout the games is something I do not think they are ready for but getting touches to other guys is key to see what they can do for confidence and experience.

While Canzeri did an excellent job against ISU for him to take the amount of touches was not good and to get Parker (supposed playmaker) the ball one time on a jet sweep that had not been set-up all day was just odd. We talk about Wadley and his ability but also his fumble issues, I ask how many touches did he get against the Clowns? If he is a legitimate playmaker or someone we hope can contribute why can't he be worked into the rotation to at least give hime a shot to make something happen or to ultimately fail and we can move on. We have these high hopes it seems every year of young players that either never touch the ball and get frustrated or simply don't get a chance in these early games to get experience and then lack the coaches trust during Big10 play.

The first game it seemed we had a little more variety in plays and maybe that had something to do with the Clown's scheme but we have all week to prepare plays and give different looks. I think the "exotics" and variety need to come in places other than field goal formations.
 


SpiderRico said:
He was with Hayden at North Texas. Came with him to Iowa. Every QB who played under him would tell you whose offense it was that they were running....it was Snyder's. At it's no secret why, after he left, Iowa wasn't nearly as successful as they were when he was there.
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no doubt about it. and every qb/player will tell you about the offense post-snyder.

snyder was a swim-team coach when fry hired him....pretty amazing.
 


kameltoez102 said:
While I was too young to really understand the game and see those early teams play I enjoy watching the old games on Youtube. I was just watching the Michigan game from 1981 and they had some really cool formations and creative ways to distribute the ball around to their play-makers. How did we ever get so Vanilla and lose some of those concepts and schemes?

Do our coaches even watch other teams or old games and see how creative they are? It seems the most creative we get is a Jet sweep or a flea flicker. I am hoping with a more dynamic QB things will change
Click to expand...

You mean the Michigan game we won 9-7? On 3 FGs? THAT wild, crazy, innovative offense?
 


With the speed of today's game I know that back pedal QB drop from center wouldn't work. You could eat a ham sandwich by time the QB set his feet and threw the ball.
 


SpiderRico said:
He was with Hayden at North Texas. Came with him to Iowa. Every QB who played under him would tell you whose offense it was that they were running....it was Snyder's. At it's no secret why, after he left, Iowa wasn't nearly as successful as they were when he was there.
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Not a big Don Patterson guy I see.
 




hawkeyebob62 said:
You mean the Michigan game we won 9-7? On 3 FGs? THAT wild, crazy, innovative offense?
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The same year '81 in Madison, the Hawks didn't throw a single pass in the second half. Iowa lined up in the old single-wing formation on every play. Bohannon either ran left or right. The Hawks had all of two first downs in the second half.

Talk about unimaginative football. Run two minutes off the clock, have Roby punt the ball & play defense. Of course that defense was the best I've every seen in the B1G. Ten of the eleven starters were Commings recruits!
 
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ColumbusHawk said:
The same year '81 in Madison, the Hawks didn't throw a single pass in the second half. Iowa lined up in the old single-wing formation on every play. Bohannon either ran left or right. The Hawks had all of two first downs in the second half.

Talk about unimaginative football. Run two minutes off the clock, have Roby punt the ball & play defense. Of course that defense is the best I've every seen in the B1G. Eleven of the twelve starters were Commings recruits!
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Tippett was a Commings recruit? I know Brad Webb wasn't.
 


hawkeyebob62 said:
Tippett was a Commings recruit? I know Brad Webb wasn't.
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Yes! Mark Bortz was the only Hayden recruit on the defense. Brad Webb was a Commings recruit. Webb's first year at Iowa was '78, a year before Hayden came to Iowa City. Webb was a walk-on in '78 & lettered.

A great article on Webb's & Tippett's friendship!

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/01/sports/teammates-at-iowa-from-worlds-apart.html

http://archive.hawkcentral.com/2011/11/21/mccarney-reminisces-the-hawkeyes-1981-defense/
 
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I enjoy watching those old games and many of those old plays seemed to work well. Also, it seems many times the receivers were able to get open by being in the correct space. What I noticed when watching the old games were the size of the shoulder pads. Just gigantic pads. They have really slimmed down over the years. Not sure what year they actually started to get smaller.

s568872814488652156_p8259_i1_w553.jpeg
 
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ColumbusHawk said:
Yes! Mark Bortz was the only Hayden recruit on the defense. Brad Webb was a Commings recruit. Webb's first year at Iowa was '78, a year before Hayden came to Iowa City. Webb was a walk-on in '78 & lettered.

A great article on Webb's & Tippett's friendship!

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/01/sports/teammates-at-iowa-from-worlds-apart.html

http://archive.hawkcentral.com/2011/11/21/mccarney-reminisces-the-hawkeyes-1981-defense/
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Webb was a stud at Benet Academy, although our HS team beat them in Illinois state quarterfinals. He was a RB/LB in HS. His family owned half of a rather large auto dealership in suburbia.

A real nice guy, and turned into a great component of that team.
 


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