How does this Nightmare End?

[BigD]

Iowa is not playing a weak schedule. In fact, one of the stronger ones. Check out the Massey and Sagarin rating services.

This "weak schedule" narrative is B.S.

The combined record this year of all teams Iowa has played and will play is 44-44. Iowa has only played one ranked team and as of right now no one on the rest of their schedule is ranked in the top 25.

I shouldn’t have say weak but average would be a better word. Most teams do line their schedule’s with cupcakes to pad their stats. So that is pretty standard even for the Alabama’s of college football.

Also, just because some teams are in a power 5 conference doesn’t mean they belong there. Each division has its bottom dwellers, or bottom half.

This is going to get significantly worse in the future in the Big Ten when Oregon, USC, Washington, and UCLA come on board. If the Big Ten goes to one division as suggested, Iowa will struggled to sniff the top six as long as our offense continues on the way it is going.

Iowa was placed up against Wisconsin for the most part since the West conference was formed . Not the toughest program to have to compete up against. Wisconsin isn’t a weak program, but then again it’s not at the level of Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, USC, Washington, Penn State, (insert Iowa or Wisconsin here).

This expansion did not benefit the Iowa’s and Wisconsins of the conference. At least representing the West division game both of these teams some recognition.

 

[Ben Rumson]

I'm actually surprised that the offense has fell this far in Kirk's tenure. When he first came in we were great at offensive line and pounding the ball. What's changed? I don't know. Pretty bad though is our offensive production stats won't be too much different in this bye week than last weeks game.

 

[BigD]

This is a good point. Programs like Arkansas and South Carolina, both of whom have sucked for awhile, are probably a glimpse into the future of Iowa. You're just there as fodder for the big boys. You can have your day in the sun once every decade or two, but other than that, you will suck.

Yeah, that goes along with some of my comments. We can hope that they will go back to some type of divisions to give fans something more as far as recognition.

 

[InGoodCo]

The combined record this year of all teams Iowa has played is 44-44. Iowa has only played one ranked team and as of right now no one on the rest of their schedule is ranked in the top 25.

For anyone to say Iowa has a tough schedule is delusional and absurd.

Also, just because some teams are in a power 5 conference doesn’t mean they belong there. Each division has its bottom dwellers, or bottom half. This is going to get significantly worse when Oregon, USC, Washington, and UCLA come on board. If the Big Ten goes to one division as suggested, Iowa will struggled to sniff the top six as long as our offense continues on the way it is going.

The combined record this year of all teams Iowa has played and will play is 44-44. Iowa has only played one ranked team and as of right now no one on the rest of their schedule is ranked in the top 25.

I wouldn’t say weak but average would be a better word. Most teams do line their schedule’s with cupcakes to pad their stats. So that is pretty standard even for the Alabama’s of college football.

Also, just because some teams are in a power 5 conference doesn’t mean they belong there. Each division has its bottom dwellers, or bottom half.

This is going to get significantly worse in the future in the Big Ten when Oregon, USC, Washington, and UCLA come on board. If the Big Ten goes to one division as suggested, Iowa will struggled to sniff the top six as long as our offense continues on the way it is going.

Iowa were placed up against Wisconsin for the most part since the West conference was formed . Not the toughest program to have to compete up against. Wisconsin isn’t a weak program, but then again it’s not at the level of Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, USC, Washington, Penn State, (insert Iowa or Wisconsin here).

Massey ranks Iowa's 2023 schedule as the 20th hardest thus far and Sagarin the 25th hardest thus far. That's not my opinion, that's not my view of things, that's not Old Hawk making shit up, it's 2 of the more trusted analytical sites available for ranking college sports.

Are teams playing harder schedules? Absolutely, looks like 20 or 25 teams are this year, but this notion that Iowa is playing an easy schedule is one is the dumbest fucking things that just gets uttered over and over into this echo chamber of bull shit.

Iowa is in the B1G, just by that default, they are going to play one of the harder schedules in the sport every year. Next year will be even harder once they get rid of divisions but that's going to be the case for everyone else in the league too. This is not exclusive to Iowa football moving forward, just like it's not exclusive that Iowa plays cupcakes now.

 

[InGoodCo]

I'm actually surprised that the offense has fell this far in Kirk's tenure. When he first came in we were great at offensive line and pounding the ball. What's changed? I don't know. Pretty bad though is our offensive production stats won't be too much different in this bye week than last weeks game.

IMO, it's changed because our coaching staff identified that the best way to win in the B1G West is with field position, defense and special teams. They put all of their focus there and hope to have a complimentary offense every season, but they put more focus on D and ST by design because, again, I believe they identified that if they are sound in those area's, beating 70% of the teams on their schedule was not only possible, it's probable. Does that mean they are going to win every game? No, but it means they are going to win most of them.

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO HANG OUR STAFF FOR THAT while personally I think it was strategic and smart because a lot of teams don't win that way, a lot of teams are built different. Obviously, I don't think it was the plan for the offense to SUCK this bad. For the Oline to be this bad. No way could it have been, it's trash and needs fixed but the focus not being on that side of things I think is pretty clear and calculated. That's why Kirk will bring up the 2 or 3 big plays the D gives up and just kind of breeze over the offense sucking. He knows if the D does the job he's built them up to do, his offense has to do very little.

 

[BigD]

IMO, it's changed because our coaching staff identified that the best way to win in the B1G West is with field position, defense and special teams. They put all of their focus there and hope to have a complimentary offense every season, but they put more focus on D and ST by design because, again, I believe they identified that if they are sound in those area's, beating 70% of the teams on their schedule was not only possible, it's probable. Does that mean they are going to win every game? No, but it means they are going to win most of them.

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO HANG OUR STAFF FOR THAT while personally I think it was strategic and smart because a lot of teams don't win that way, a lot of teams are built different. Obviously, I don't think it was the plan for the offense to SUCK this bad. For the Oline to be this bad. No way could it have been, it's trash and needs fixed but the focus not being on that side of things I think is pretty clear and calculated. That's why Kirk will bring up the 2 or 3 big plays the D gives up and just kind of breeze over the offense sucking. He knows if the D does the job he's built them up to do, his offense has to do very little.

I don’t think you are being fair on the forum by saying people want the current staff removed. I think most are happy with the defense and the special teams. Where most want changes is on the offensive side of the ball. A year of being down is acceptable as teams rebuild, but we are now into three years of poor offensive. The last two years are unacceptable.

Even so I for one am happy with leaving Brian on staff in another position. I don’t think or ever thought Brian meant for this to happen. I am sure that he made great efforts to improve recruiting and put all his efforts to make the offense better. It just didn’t happen. We still could go 10-2 for the season and I hope we do. Even if we do go 10-2 for the season, that is not justification to keep Brian on as OC UNLESS we see significant improvement in the last few games. If that happens then reconsideration maybe given even if he fails to meet the contractual stipulations.

Having said all of that, no intelligent person would knowingly drive a car around on a flat tire just because the other three tires are in good working order.

 

[Teddy]

Giving BF the qb coach hat was laughable. It's hard to tell what Budmayrs impact is. He sure doesn't want credit for anything that's going on. He's to blame for Hill being on the roster I guess. But it falls on KF for putting him in the games.

I'm sure KF is being bombarded with if a QB change is going to happen during this bye week and I wonder how honest he'll be about it or if he'll even do it. Now that the kid has not only played like crap turned it over and LOST a game they shouldn't maybe he'd consider a change. But nothing will surprise me at this point.

They are being bombarded. The Hill experiment has failed and not giving a guy we recruited, 247 4* recruit (which ain't nothing, is sheer stubborn. Even KF has talked about Joe's "wow" factor. Well, couldn't we use some wow right now?

 

[okeefe4prez]

IMO, it's changed because our coaching staff identified that the best way to win in the B1G West is with field position, defense and special teams. They put all of their focus there and hope to have a complimentary offense every season, but they put more focus on D and ST by design because, again, I believe they identified that if they are sound in those area's, beating 70% of the teams on their schedule was not only possible, it's probable. Does that mean they are going to win every game? No, but it means they are going to win most of them.

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO HANG OUR STAFF FOR THAT while personally I think it was strategic and smart because a lot of teams don't win that way, a lot of teams are built different. Obviously, I don't think it was the plan for the offense to SUCK this bad. For the Oline to be this bad. No way could it have been, it's trash and needs fixed but the focus not being on that side of things I think is pretty clear and calculated. That's why Kirk will bring up the 2 or 3 big plays the D gives up and just kind of breeze over the offense sucking. He knows if the D does the job he's built them up to do, his offense has to do very little.

I wish we still had the old scout board forums as well. I've been saying this for almost 20 years. Nothing has changed, I don't know what you are talking about. Go look at tape from 2003, we are doing the same thing today as we did then, except in 2003 we had O'Keefe calling the offense and he could muster a few first downs before turning it back to the defense and people got pissed when I pointed this out. We have run the same style for decades. I'm fine with it. It maximizes our potential to win the most games. Problem is we have somehow slid to the worst offense in the country. There is no philosophical change that caused that, what caused it is Brian Ferentz has no fvcking idea what he's doing in terms of hiring a line coach and recruiting and developing guys on the line. The line is a shell of what it was in 2003. You give this team the 2003 line and they're undefeated right now even with the injuries to the QB and TEs. And while I will shit on Brian and blame him, it's clearly a widespread issue in all of football that has been created by a lot of things outside the control of the coaches, so maybe it isn't even Brian's fault.

 

[oldhawk12]

Iowa is not playing a weak schedule. In fact, one of the stronger ones. Check out the Massey and Sagarin rating services.

This "weak schedule" narrative is B.S.

Have your own opinion. Others have theirs. The “rating” has been explained numerous times

 

[justwinbaby]

IMO, it's changed because our coaching staff identified that the best way to win in the B1G West is with field position, defense and special teams. They put all of their focus there and hope to have a complimentary offense every season, but they put more focus on D and ST by design because, again, I believe they identified that if they are sound in those area's, beating 70% of the teams on their schedule was not only possible, it's probable. Does that mean they are going to win every game? No, but it means they are going to win most of them.

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO HANG OUR STAFF FOR THAT while personally I think it was strategic and smart because a lot of teams don't win that way, a lot of teams are built different. Obviously, I don't think it was the plan for the offense to SUCK this bad. For the Oline to be this bad. No way could it have been, it's trash and needs fixed but the focus not being on that side of things I think is pretty clear and calculated. That's why Kirk will bring up the 2 or 3 big plays the D gives up and just kind of breeze over the offense sucking. He knows if the D does the job he's built them up to do, his offense has to do very little.

IMO, it's changed because our coaching staff identified that the best way to win in the B1G West is with field position, defense and special teams. They put all of their focus there and hope to have a complimentary offense every season, but they put more focus on D and ST by design because, again, I believe they identified that if they are sound in those area's, beating 70% of the teams on their schedule was not only possible, it's probable. Does that mean they are going to win every game? No, but it means they are going to win most of them.

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO HANG OUR STAFF FOR THAT while personally I think it was strategic and smart because a lot of teams don't win that way, a lot of teams are built different. Obviously, I don't think it was the plan for the offense to SUCK this bad. For the Oline to be this bad. No way could it have been, it's trash and needs fixed but the focus not being on that side of things I think is pretty clear and calculated. That's why Kirk will bring up the 2 or 3 big plays the D gives up and just kind of breeze over the offense sucking. He knows if the D does the job he's built them up to do, his offense has to do very lit

You can’t honestly really sincerely believe that Kirk is a genius that has come up with a magic formula to win games can you? It’s definitely very simple. Be better than the other team. Guess what. He’s not the reason the defense is great. Phil Parker is. He’s not the reason special teams are great. Levar Woods is. Sure you can give Kirk some credit for hiring them. That’s his job. It’s also his job to hire coaches to put a competitive offense on the field. He’s failing in that area.

 

[BigD]

You can’t honestly really sincerely believe that Kirk is a genius that has come up with a magic formula to win games can you? It’s definitely very simple. Be better than the other team. Guess what. He’s not the reason the defense is great. Phil Parker is. He’s not the reason special teams are great. Levar Woods is. Sure you can give Kirk some credit for hiring them. That’s his job. It’s also his job to hire coaches to put a competitive offense on the field. He’s failing in that area.

CHECK MATE

 

[ChosenChildren]

Have your own opinion. Others have theirs. The “rating” has been explained numerous times

We are gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. The rating services know a heck of a lot more about this than we do. Your explanation of a rating service means zero to me.

I never said that Iowa plays the strongest schedule in the Big Ten. But right now it is ranked in the top 30% of 130 schools.

It is all a moot point anyway. Brian will be gone and I'm guessing Kirk is done at the end of the year.

Be careful what you wish for......if Iowa makes the wrong hire they will be toast. There is no guarantee Phil Parker will hang around if Kirk hangs it up.

 

[ChosenChildren]

CHECK MATE

Uh, no. If you blame the head coach for the offense, you gotta give him credit for the defense and special teams.

Be consistent and logical about it.

 

[Hawkboys]

Depth Chart out - Hill is QB1

 

[SCHawkeye2]

Depth Chart out - Hill is QB1

Did that come out before or after the BF announcement?

 

[justwinbaby]

Uh, no. If you blame the head coach for the offense, you gotta give him credit for the defense and special teams.

Be consistent and logical about it.

I did say that you can give Kirk some credit for hiring Phil and Levar. That being said he also gets credit for hiring Brian and Barnett. More importantly he gets credit for putting up with the complete ineptitude of the offense for two plus years. I’m not sure that the terrible offense is mostly the fault of Brian. The biggest problem is the offensive line. With Deacon at quarterback the quarterback position is a close second. In my opinion Kirks continued turning a blind eye to the offensive ineptitude is a glaring problem. His lack of desire to improve the offense is crazy. Part of us fans anger at the situation is that we know that we have championship caliber defense and special teams. If we had an average offense we would be competing for national championships not just big ten west championships. Kirks lack of drive to fight for that especially considering how much he gets paid is pretty much criminal. I’m not a Kirk hater but I can’t comprehend his mentality. Again he gets paid a ton of money to strive for better. Pay me ten percent of what he gets and I would fight so much harder for that check than he does. Yes I would be less successful but you wouldn’t hear me saying “that’s football “.

 

[hawkinstl]

We are gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. The rating services know a heck of a lot more about this than we do. Your explanation of a rating service means zero to me.

I never said that Iowa plays the strongest schedule in the Big Ten. But right now it is ranked in the top 30% of 130 schools.

It is all a moot point anyway. Brian will be gone and I'm guessing Kirk is done at the end of the year.

Be careful what you wish for......if Iowa makes the wrong hire they will be toast. There is no guarantee Phil Parker will hang around if Kirk hangs it up.

KF has his hands all over the offense and lets Phil Parker run the defense much more than he lets the OC run the offense. That's been clear for years with him.

 

[BigD]

Well after reading some post on this thread I don’t feel like I am on deserted island with some of my feelings.

Also want to acknowledge that maybe I assumed some of the posters views wrong. Some of them had similar feelings as mostly all of us but they were trying to focus on the positives of the program. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that approach.

 

[HuckFinn]

I did say that you can give Kirk some credit for hiring Phil and Levar. That being said he also gets credit for hiring Brian and Barnett. More importantly he gets credit for putting up with the complete ineptitude of the offense for two plus years. I’m not sure that the terrible offense is mostly the fault of Brian. The biggest problem is the offensive line. With Deacon at quarterback the quarterback position is a close second. In my opinion Kirks continued turning a blind eye to the offensive ineptitude is a glaring problem. His lack of desire to improve the offense is crazy. Part of us fans anger at the situation is that we know that we have championship caliber defense and special teams. If we had an average offense we would be competing for national championships not just big ten west championships. Kirks lack of drive to fight for that especially considering how much he gets paid is pretty much criminal. I’m not a Kirk hater but I can’t comprehend his mentality. Again he gets paid a ton of money to strive for better. Pay me ten percent of what he gets and I would fight so much harder for that check than he does. Yes I would be less successful but you wouldn’t hear me saying “that’s football “.

I hate to disagree with you, but Thankfully, I don’t. Good post.