Heat Directed at JVB

It seems that only at Iowa are the back ups far and away from game ready. Only at Iowa are the back ups soo poorly prepared to take the field. Only at iowa is the team 1 injury away from oblivion.

Look, other guys can throw and hand the ball off. Other guys may not read defenses as well but I'll bet they can see the field better. Why do we assume that the QB must always always read and audible on every play. How about iowa just call a play and run it.
 
NCHawker said:
It seems that only at Iowa are the back ups far and away from game ready. Only at Iowa are the back ups soo poorly prepared to take the field. Only at iowa is the team 1 injury away from oblivion.

Look, other guys can throw and hand the ball off. Other guys may not read defenses as well but I'll bet they can see the field better. Why do we assume that the QB must always always read and audible on every play. How about iowa just call a play and run it.
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And thus, you get what you had vs NW in 2009. JVB had to take the field, with practically ZERO game experience, nor any kind of another suitable backup remotely prepared to play. So long undefeated season.

All we can do is speculate, but if there had been another QB even remotely prepared to take the field, then perhaps Iowa beats NW and goes to Columbus undefeated, and playing for a shot at an appearance in the national title game.
 
It seems like the excuses are already being built in for the 2013 season. I will go out limb and say Iowa will be 7-5 in 2014 because they will have to replace all 3 linebackers.:cool:
 
ColoradoHAWKEYE said:
JM you are correct, it is not JVB's fault...he is giving us his best given the play calling that is given to him. GD is not sufficiently using his skills to his best advantage nor building his confidence with some quick hit completions. Yes JVB has thrown erratic all season, but by the time in the game that he needs to be throwing well, his confidence seems shot. I think that KF is afraid of creating a controversy at the risk of taking away his confidence (and thus the team's confidence) in JVB as a leader. The other guys may appear immature to actually "lead" in practice and behind the scenes, but he needs/needed to get some reps to these backups for the just in case scenario that JVB does go down. Why wait until then, and if JVB is so much better than the others, why leave him so exposed in a blowout. I blame KF on this one first, and GD second.

It is starting to feel like a bad trend...like we don't want to put on the appearance that winning does matter. I'm not so sure what the answers are, but I'm thinking less of GD and his abilities to adapt to given talent. I'm thinking less in KF's abilities to experiment, if for nothing else than to prevent injury to your perceived #1.
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GD has done plenty to build Vandy's confidence, if by building confidence you mean looking for quick hitters. That's seemingly 90% of the passing plays in the book. Vandy's strong suit is in play-action, not quick hitters.
 
I would actually like to see Sokol get some action. He has had some college action and correct me of Im Wrong, but didnt he pick up the new offense better than JR? Either way it is horrible coaching not to use a horrible situation to get some game experience for your younger players. What did a garbage TD really do for JVB?
 
tm3308 said:
GD has done plenty to build Vandy's confidence, if by building confidence you mean looking for quick hitters. That's seemingly 90% of the passing plays in the book. Vandy's strong suit is in play-action, not quick hitters.
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by quick hitters, I refer to something "quick" as in over the middle, or yes, quick play action 10 yards down. What I don't think helps are the "2,3 and 4 yard" passes that are predetermined to the sideline, where the ball is in the air for 20-30 yards and telegraphed to one target.
 
trj said:
It seems like the excuses are already being built in for the 2013 season. I will go out limb and say Iowa will be 7-5 in 2014 because they will have to replace all 3 linebackers.:cool:
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Totally true. Our guys get so little time from the bench, it seems every year, we're breaking in at least a three or four guys who have zero experience and need six games to shake their green-ness. Games like last night (or, more preferably blowout wins) are perfect opportunities to get our bench guys some snaps. Also, you can rotate guys in for a series or two per game without significantly altering the result or 'benching' the starter​.
 
You must first have a run game. PSU loaded the box and blitzed, until the one time we threw over the middle, they just kept doing it. After that, we came back with a successful run. Completely opposite order of what we try to do. Of course their defense was also very good. Hard to play action when you can't run.
 
Also, JVB's most harmful attribute is his lack of accuracy. That's it. From all reports, he's a great guy, smart guy who may not have game-speed smarts. But I think accuracy is one of the most important attributes a QB can have, and he doesn't have much of it. McGloin surprised me with his accuracy.
 
JonDMiller said:
At some point doesn't that become misdirected?

Through 21 career starts, including seven games of his senior season, he's 12-9. Two wins last year vs winning teams (11-2 Michigan and 7-6 Purdue) and two this year (7-1 Northern Illinois and 4-3 Minnesota). Minnesota will finish with a losing record.

As much as I didn't want to believe last year's 3000yds/25 TD passes were akin to empty calories, it's becoming nigh on impossible not to feel that way. It's not that I can't get myself to admit that, it's just that I don't think I've seen anything like it at Iowa.

James is 100% invested. He's given it all he has. Countless extra hours of his time to get better, to study, to try to improve but it's just not happening. I think he's probably tried too hard. It just doesn't seem like it's going to happen for him with five games to go.

I think the anger being directed at a player who is doin all he can, even if its not adding up to what the team needs, is unfair. James isn't the head coach. He's the guy the coach is calling on to lead the team.

If you have to have a punching bag, it should be the person who makes the decisions, not the players who are asked to take the field.

While we can all be frustrated when results aren't there, when things bubble over to anger and insults directed at players, you need to look in the mirror and figure out what type of personality or character deficiency you have and go about fixing it.

Kirk Ferentz decides who plays and who doesn't. If you want to direct criticisms at someone, that's a far more appropriate target and I guarantee you he'd say the same thing.

To that end, Kirk will have some interesting decisions the rest of the way. I will be shocked if he makes a change. In a way, I think he might see that as giving up on this year and these seniors because if Jake Rudock were anywhere near JVB, he would have probably played already. They are 4-3 and it's not a stretch to think there are two more wins out there, or at least that is probably how he sees it.

Everything I have heard, including in last six hours, confirms what I have heard all fall; the backups are not ready. It makes total sense because if one of them was, he'd be playing some.

There are obvious angles to criticize off of that reality; receuiting at the position is one of them

But I think the barbs, jabs, whatever that are being directed at JVB are off target. If he were quitting or not giving it his all, that's one thing. But he is; change your target.
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Not true at all.
Ferentz has a track record of playing the inferior qb until the bitter end. He will not admit he made a mistake.
I feel bad for JVB. He is right in the middle of this mess, created by Ferentz. Vandy gets the boos, Ferentz continues to cash the monster paychecks.
 
I was high on JVB to start the season. Still think he is a good, intelligent guy who will have a bright future ahead of him. I didn't want to see JR play, I wanted to see Vandy snap out of it.

But something happened and JVB is not the same QB he has been ever since I saw him in HS. Whatever happened, it's permanent. Let's get real. Vandy looks like JC out there this year and its mental thing that is not going to change. No hate for Vandy at all. I just never want to see him under center in the black and gold again.

And if in Kirk's mind there is no viable replacement, then he needs to go as well. Poor judgment makes for poor performance at anything in life, including coaching. In 2012, JVB is the worst starting QB in the Big Ten. And it isn't close. Since there isn't anything worse than worst, without even ever having seen a practice, it's pretty safe to say that the worst thing that could happen is we still have the worst QB in the Big 10.
 
ColoradoHAWKEYE said:
by quick hitters, I refer to something "quick" as in over the middle, or yes, quick play action 10 yards down. What I don't think helps are the "2,3 and 4 yard" passes that are predetermined to the sideline, where the ball is in the air for 20-30 yards and telegraphed to one target.
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And since, as Jon pointed out and has been displayed over 7 games, this is 90% of the passing game arsenal, all teams have quickly figured this out and are now jumping the routes. Evidence: Mauti's interception (wasn't there another near interception on the exact same play?)

So, you have suspicion that JVB's afraid to make a mistake / risk interception over the middle, so he checks down to flats and swings. Now you have interceptions in consecutive games on short flat passes (the screen vs MSU and Mauti last night). Compound that by no rushing game with Weisman out / limited effectiveness for at least 2 more weeks. It's only going to be this bad, or worse (if possible), for the rest of the year. Yeah, Yeah, MSU and PSU were the top defenses Iowa will face but we're talking about elementary defensive reads and plays here that every defense will be able to make from this point of the season forward.

Good luck with that building confidence tactic.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
Agree with general direction of thoughts ... either JR and CS are really, really horrible to still be subordinating the repetitive horribleness of JVB, or KF is a really, really horrible coach on these levels:

-- Lack of JR and CS development and preparation;
-- Obvious favoritism to the familiar;
-- Claiming to play for this season and that JVB is the "best option" but allowing your "best option" to continuously take big shots for a full quarter of football when the game is well out of hand. Did Curt not learn anything from exposing Adam Robinson to the same fate? Perhaps the Corporal was trying to get JVB hurt to eliminate having to make such a difficult decision.
-- If JR and CS are so inferior in talent and execution, and, although difficult to fathom, would actually perform worse than JVB has proven, not only is Churk flushing this season, he's willing to flush next season by refusing to offer game experience to backups on the chance that it might improve them from horribler to horrible.
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Excellent post. JVB is no doubt a good leader and senior and works hard. He is giving his all. He is still not effective.

Kirk, successful coaches each and every Saturday replace players if they are not effective. If you took JVB out for a few series, it doesn't mean you don't like him or he will never play again. He can play again the next game....really Kirk, coaches do it all the time and guess what? Sometimes they win by doing that!!
 
JonDMiller said:
JR and Sokol have been in THIS new scheme the same amount of time, same for JVB

As for players getting better year to year, Stanzi was no where near ready in 2007 so he didn't play. I see this year as similar to 2007 in that way. As poor as the offense was under JC that year there wasn't a viable backup in Kirk's mind.

Stanzi made strides in the spring of 2008 tha caused Ken to really start looking his way. That progress continued into August 2008 and led to them splitting tim early in 2008. I think Kirk held on too long to hope that things would click for a fourth ur player in Jake, then eventually went to Stanzi full time.

Stanzi wasn't without struggles in 2008; 17/15 TD to INT ratio. But he showed promise, Iowa had a very good D and second best OL of KF era and more talent on that roster than any in KF or maybe Iowa history pursuant to NFL draft results.

There will be a wide open three man race for QB starting no later than January and possibly as early as Thanksgiving weekend. Competition is a good thing and players can absolutely break through from year to year.

There will be struggles next year regardless of who wins the job. But the defense will be better, the OL will be solid, the RB corps will be deep with a hammer leading the way, lot of receivers getting time this year who will return, every TE in current rotation returns, PK and P returns.

Things actually set up about as good as can reasonably be expected for a young QB to take over the reigns in 2013.
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If you mean by the can't possibly be any worse, then yes things are set up about as good as you can reasonably expect. Kirk has struggled throughout his career on giving his back ups experience. Coker wasn't ready to get carries so A-Rob stayed in against MSU until he was knocked out then suddenly it was all on Coker. If you're saying Kirk doesn't want to play Ruddock because he feels it would be giving up on the season, well that's ********. Playing JVB when we're down 38-0 and he's missing two of his starting linemen is putting JVB at unnecessary risk of getting hurt and being forced to play a completely inexperienced backup for the rest of the season.

Ruddock may not be ready to run this offense, but JVB sure as hell isn't ready either. It only makes sense to build for the future, but like Nate Kaeding said about KF, Kurt doesn't worry about the big picture and it shows in where the program is heading.
 
JonDMiller said:
Please name them. Lets just stick in the Big Ten.
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Depends how you define "ready", right? In the context of the Hawks, the baseline for "ready" would be better than Vandy. A quick glance at season stats shows that OSU, Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue, and Wisky have a back up QB that has come in and done better than the Vandy standard. We don't know about Nebby, PSU, etc. but I'd bet they got someone on the bench that could step into the starting line up and be the second-worst QB in the B10.
 
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next year, if the starting qb struggles in this system, it will be said, in a condescending tone, that the other QB isn't close to being ready...that we just don't get it.
 
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