I am officially concerned about the remaining portal signees

Hawkfnntn said:
I was listening to a POD yesterday with that David Eicholt on it and he didn't think Iowa would be going after many if any Olineman... He thinks that the staff is good with who they have and hoping they develop still.....

I think that's the wrong way to go. Most of the Oline we have has 2 yrs of tape on them and almost none of it is good. If there's a chance to bring in a body or 2 preferably upperclassmen that'd be ideal. I can't help but think that a part of what we have an issue with is talent not just lack of experience. This oline the last couple games of this season were no better then they were at the beginning of last yr. They should have improved... Can anyone point to me where that's happened? Especially the right side of the Oline holy crap they were straight up bad.
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Richmon is a legit LT IMHO. At a minimum, he is certainly good enough to move to RT or slide into guard. I am good with him on any starting line up.

Colby was horribly out of place at RT, but once he slid into the LG position, I though he looked good. He started some games as a true freshmen. I think his best days are in front of him. Big kid. Hard worker.

Jones was a struggle in his first year at center, but he got better as the season moved forward. He has a year under his belt, I bet he adds some good weight in the off-season, and he is a freakish athlete. He is no Lindy, but expect him to be snapping the ball next year.

While it is usually foolish to count True frosh as starters, I am doing that. Proctor either starts at RT or they flip Richmon.

If that all works out, well we got plenty of candidates at RG. Stephens, Dunker and recall we get a starter back in Britt.

If a stud presented himself in the portal I would not turn him away, but I think we have the ponies up front to coach up and be dominant. They will be big!
 
NorthKCHawk said:
I don't think the Iowa name is as negative nationally as it is with certain members of this Board. Outside of the elite 5-7 blue bloods, every team has issues.

Any quality defensive player should have no negative views of Iowa. It has been a consistent Top 10 D for a long while now.

As for offense, the unit has sucked, but if you are a portal TE or OL, and you see how many first rounders Iowa has put into the league, you can't scoff at considering Iowa. As for next year, we already have a legit QB, a legit RB, good TEs, and a lot of returners on the OL (and the number one recruit in the nation coming in). We just need to buy some WRs. Just buy them. We don't have any good story to tell a WR. Just write a couple fucking checks and get a couple dudes in here.
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Yup
 
MelroseHawkins said:
You really need a great used car salesman as coaches now. Boy, think about Ron Zook in this landscape now. Maybe he will make a return! lol.
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Strongly disagree. You need coaches with charisma who can sell the program, but that has always been the case.

But you are giving players way too little credit if you think the only thing they will be considering is the quality of the sales pitch. I would argue that moving forward, PROGRAM CULTURE will matter more than it ever has. Players aren't stupid, and they will see which programs truly care about players, and which programs just go chasing after the next shiny object when they get a chance.

NIL and the transfer portal have empowered student-athletes, much like labor unions have done in professional sports. This is going to force programs to do right by these players, along many different dimensions: paying them, giving them an education, supporting their physical and mental health, developing them for a future pro career, being part of a positive culture/environment, WINNING, etc. All of these factors will matter, and all will go into the decisions made by the players.
 
NorthKCHawk said:
Richmon is a legit LT IMHO. At a minimum, he is certainly good enough to move to RT or slide into guard. I am good with him on any starting line up.

Colby was horribly out of place at RT, but once he slid into the LG position, I though he looked good. He started some games as a true freshmen. I think his best days are in front of him. Big kid. Hard worker.

Jones was a struggle in his first year at center, but he got better as the season moved forward. He has a year under his belt, I bet he adds some good weight in the off-season, and he is a freakish athlete. He is no Lindy, but expect him to be snapping the ball next year.

While it is usually foolish to count True frosh as starters, I am doing that. Proctor either starts at RT or they flip Richmon.

If that all works out, well we got plenty of candidates at RG. Stephens, Dunker and recall we get a starter back in Britt.

If a stud presented himself in the portal I would not turn him away, but I think we have the ponies up front to coach up and be dominant. They will be big!
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Richmon was the only one I can say that should be penciled in for his job next yr. The rest should pretty much all have an open competition over their spots.

Jones was way way too inconsistent last yr. He and Petras never did get on same page with just snapping the ball. We had a lot of what I saw should have been false starts all yr long that weren't called. The unit has to be cohesive and it was far from that from the snap. And that's not counting some of the fumbled ones we had too many of those too. So if there's an upperclassmen that can come in to compete for that job we'd be lazy to just keep Jones there. If he improves great. I just don't think he should be handed it.

I could see Proctor at one of the guard spots too. I think he's too good to not play somewhere right away.

I look at this in a similar way I do with how we didn't look at bringing in a QB last yr to compete with Petras. In no way had what Petras done should have entitled him to that starting job this yr. But the coaches all were fine with the status quo with him and we saw the results.. Well for most of the Oline it's not much different. They all underperformed and if an upgrade can be done then do it. I'm so against being lazy and not trying. If we swing and miss on guys then so be it. But swing the damn bat
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Their pass pro, especially with blitzes was/is really a problem. They are going to have to get that straightened out, especially with McNamara coming in who needs to be protected to keep him upright and healthy.

I think their run blocking came around a little better and they will be very veteran next season, so I think the run game should be fine. But, they need to get a complimentary pass game to keep the D honest.
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We did have a couple games where we ran the ball well yes. But that was just a couple games I think even that wasn't all yr long or close to it. They at least showed that they could do that anyway
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Richmon was the only one I can say that should be penciled in for his job next yr. The rest should pretty much all have an open competition over their spots.

Jones was way way too inconsistent last yr. He and Petras never did get on same page with just snapping the ball. We had a lot of what I saw should have been false starts all yr long that weren't called. The unit has to be cohesive and it was far from that from the snap. And that's not counting some of the fumbled ones we had too many of those too. So if there's an upperclassmen that can come in to compete for that job we'd be lazy to just keep Jones there. If he improves great. I just don't think he should be handed it.

I could see Proctor at one of the guard spots too. I think he's too good to not play somewhere right away.

I look at this in a similar way I do with how we didn't look at bringing in a QB last yr to compete with Petras. In no way had what Petras done should have entitled him to that starting job this yr. But the coaches all were fine with the status quo with him and we saw the results.. Well for most of the Oline it's not much different. They all underperformed and if an upgrade can be done then do it. I'm so against being lazy and not trying. If we swing and miss on guys then so be it. But swing the damn bat
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A couple of counter points here. First, I think you downplay the value of experience on the O-Line and how long it takes to master playing those positions. I've read many times that it has one of the steepest learning curves of any position, outside of QB. I really think some of this year's starters will come back stronger next year, especially Jones. Center position has a lot of responsibilities and he had very little time to master those. An off season will benefit him greatly.
Second point, you are assuming that we did not try to recruit anyone from the portal last year. IIRC, we did actually go after some QBs last year and did not meet with success. You have to make sure that who you are bringing in will be better than what you have. The portal is full of people who couldn't break the two-deeps at their former school. I disagree that last year's approach was lazy. I will agree that we have been more aggressive this year, in part because we've had more players exiting the program through the portal as well.
 
haydensly said:
The portal is full of people who couldn't break the two-deeps at their former school. I disagree that last year's approach was lazy. I will agree that we have been more aggressive this year, in part because we've had more players exiting the program through the portal as well.
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This isn't entirely true. There are tons of all-conference players now in the portal.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
We did have a couple games where we ran the ball well yes. But that was just a couple games I think even that wasn't all yr long or close to it. They at least showed that they could do that anyway
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Correct. I am hoping with an upgrade of the passing game that that will provide more holes loosing up the box a bit. It should help to open more holes and Johnson looks formidable. So, I think they will be OK as far as the run for a balanced attack where the D can't load up and stop the run. Hopefully it will just all come together with a better pass threat.
 
haydensly said:
A couple of counter points here. First, I think you downplay the value of experience on the O-Line and how long it takes to master playing those positions. I've read many times that it has one of the steepest learning curves of any position, outside of QB. I really think some of this year's starters will come back stronger next year, especially Jones. Center position has a lot of responsibilities and he had very little time to master those. An off season will benefit him greatly.
Second point, you are assuming that we did not try to recruit anyone from the portal last year. IIRC, we did actually go after some QBs last year and did not meet with success. You have to make sure that who you are bringing in will be better than what you have. The portal is full of people who couldn't break the two-deeps at their former school. I disagree that last year's approach was lazy. I will agree that we have been more aggressive this year, in part because we've had more players exiting the program through the portal as well.
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Definitely agree with this. They are not as plug-n-play as people think, unless you got a good developed player who is leaving for some specific reason who has D1 game experience. I could see that working out but they would have to come from a similar pro-style offensive system, I would think.

I think the coaches are banking that they can continue to develop the guys they have and help with increasing the other positions on O.
 
haydensly said:
A couple of counter points here. First, I think you downplay the value of experience on the O-Line and how long it takes to master playing those positions. I've read many times that it has one of the steepest learning curves of any position, outside of QB. I really think some of this year's starters will come back stronger next year, especially Jones. Center position has a lot of responsibilities and he had very little time to master those. An off season will benefit him greatly.
Second point, you are assuming that we did not try to recruit anyone from the portal last year. IIRC, we did actually go after some QBs last year and did not meet with success. You have to make sure that who you are bringing in will be better than what you have. The portal is full of people who couldn't break the two-deeps at their former school. I disagree that last year's approach was lazy. I will agree that we have been more aggressive this year, in part because we've had more players exiting the program through the portal as well.
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Many of these guys have close to 20 plus starts under them now right? Could you tell the last few games if there's been any improvement at all amongst most of them? I sure couldn't. Richman has been serviceable and the best we have. But the rest as far as I'm concerned are replaceable damn near. If you've shown next to no improvement with 20 starts under ya then come on now...

Jones yes this was his first yr and to put him on the same timeline as Lindy would be entirely unfair. I'm not doing that. But dude struggled out there. So like the other 3 pots on the Oline if there's competition to be brought in then we should be looking into it.

Am I wrong about us not attempting to recruit any of the QBs that were in the portal last yr? Who did we go after? I don't remember hearing anything of the sort. I honestly don't think we even tried to get a QB last yr but if you can show me some articles or reporting on us having done so I'll stand corrected.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Many of these guys have close to 20 plus starts under them now right? Could you tell the last few games if there's been any improvement at all amongst most of them? I sure couldn't. Richman has been serviceable and the best we have. But the rest as far as I'm concerned are replaceable damn near. If you've shown next to no improvement with 20 starts under ya then come on now...

Jones yes this was his first yr and to put him on the same timeline as Lindy would be entirely unfair. I'm not doing that. But dude struggled out there. So like the other 3 pots on the Oline if there's competition to be brought in then we should be looking into it.

Am I wrong about us not attempting to recruit any of the QBs that were in the portal last yr? Who did we go after? I don't remember hearing anything of the sort. I honestly don't think we even tried to get a QB last yr but if you can show me some articles or reporting on us having done so I'll stand corrected.
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Again, it's all about a unit gelling in all aspects that make the unit productive. I don't think you can just put it all on one area or part of the unit. Yes, the o-line was the glaring issue. But, we also had QB's missing some wide open WR's over the past two seasons. Also, if our QB's were able to hit a quick read to offset a blitz, that could have loosened up the defense and blitzing a bit, which would have made the line look better in the end. It all works together and everything has to be working at the same time.

Iowa's offense was just off in areas and couldn't put it all together. Part of that was on the o-line, part was on the QB's. Think of a great recipe you like. If you take one ingredient out, the recipe just doesn't quite work or is as good. It's all synergistic.

The opposing D's knew they could load up the box and even send a blitz on most plays, especially known passing downs. The QB has to hurt the D to alleviate that. The coaches have to call plays that aren't predictable. They have to not have predictable audible plays where the D knows exactly what they are changing into. Part of it is on the play calling as well to keep the D off balance.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Again, it's all about a unit gelling in all aspects that make the unit productive. I don't think you can just put it all on one area or part of the unit. Yes, the o-line was the glaring issue. But, we also had QB's missing some wide open WR's over the past two seasons. Also, if our QB's were able to hit a quick read to offset a blitz, that could have loosened up the defense and blitzing a bit, which would have made the line look better in the end. It all works together and everything has to be working at the same time.

Iowa's offense was just off in areas and couldn't put it all together. Part of that was on the o-line, part was on the QB's. Think of a great recipe you like. If you take one ingredient out, the recipe just doesn't quite work or is as good. It's all synergistic.

The opposing D's knew they could load up the box and even send a blitz on most plays, especially known passing downs. The QB has to hurt the D to alleviate that. The coaches have to call plays that aren't predictable. They have to not have predictable audible plays where the D knows exactly what they are changing into. Part of it is on the play calling as well to keep the D off balance.
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Sounds to me like the OC/QB coach hadn't done a very good job the last couple yrs in developing them all to lead them up to this point huh?
 
MelroseHawkins said:
To the bold, as much as KF doesn't like it, they don't really have a choice at this point. They are going to have to hop on that train and learn to manage that, as much as it pains them. KF may not like that train he's on, but he's going to have to take it.
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Your post is 100% correct. That's assuming of course that the powers that be want to remain relevant in the college football world. With what will soon be 100 million dollars payouts annually to the schools in the conference, you would think that they will go along with the system. Then again how many power five schools would keep a coach around after 19 years of not winning a conference title while having that same coach finish in the top four in the country in total salary over the last fifteen years??

What my point is, is that Iowa is anomaly in the world of college football. We don't know for sure where this could head. Will they want to pay and play with the big boys or just say the hell with it. We will take our 6-6 or 7-5 seasons with our same way of doing things and just be an example to everyone else.

In choosing to pay and play Iowa is conceding that our athletic department is now becoming a part of a semi-pro system. I wouldn't just say Iowa will do it. They can still get that 100 million dollars from the Big Ten Channel every year. However the schools in the conference that decide to pay to play will bypass Iowa in recruiting and superiority. Those who don't want to pay to play may find themselves at the level of Ivy league even within their own conference.

My guess? Iowa will concede and pay to play.

That may lead to a complete different coaching philosophy as the old captain is EXTREMELY hard headed to wanting to change his system. Thus, maybe a coaching change will have to happen. My feelings on the matter is that as long as Parker and his defense stayed put in Iowa City how could the program digress considering how poor the offense has been the last three years? Practically near the bottom of all college football offenses.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Many of these guys have close to 20 plus starts under them now right? Could you tell the last few games if there's been any improvement at all amongst most of them? I sure couldn't. Richman has been serviceable and the best we have. But the rest as far as I'm concerned are replaceable damn near. If you've shown next to no improvement with 20 starts under ya then come on now...

Jones yes this was his first yr and to put him on the same timeline as Lindy would be entirely unfair. I'm not doing that. But dude struggled out there. So like the other 3 pots on the Oline if there's competition to be brought in then we should be looking into it.

Am I wrong about us not attempting to recruit any of the QBs that were in the portal last yr? Who did we go after? I don't remember hearing anything of the sort. I honestly don't think we even tried to get a QB last yr but if you can show me some articles or reporting on us having done so I'll stand corrected.
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The only returning O Lineman with 20 starts is Richmond. (Connor Colby would be next and he's probably very close). We'll have to agree to disagree on this. I think the fact that we have elected to NOT recruit O Linemen from the portal speaks for itself. Nobody wants to win more than the coaches and if they are going with what they have, they must feel that they can win with that. For the record, I'll predict that Jones will be first or second team all-conference in the next two years.
As for QBs last year, IIRC I read that in one of Leistekow's columns. No names were ever given and to be honest, we probably weren't real close in landing any of the targets. We're not a destination for a lot of skill players. I do give the staff credit for getting in on McNamara early and landing him this year.
 
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BigD said:
Your post is 100% correct. That's assuming of course that the powers that be want to remain relevant in the college football world. With what will soon be 100 million dollars payouts annually to the schools in the conference, you would think that they will go along with the system. Then again how many power five schools would keep a coach around after 19 years of not winning a conference title while having that same coach finish in the top four in the country in total salary over the last fifteen years??

What my point is, is that Iowa is anomaly in the world of college football. We don't know for sure where this could head. Will they want to pay and play with the big boys or just say the hell with it. We will take our 6-6 or 7-5 seasons with our same way of doing things and just be an example to everyone else.

In choosing to pay and play Iowa is conceding that our athletic department is now becoming a part of a semi-pro system. I wouldn't just say Iowa will do it. They can still get that 100 million dollars from the Big Ten Channel every year. However the schools in the conference that decide to pay to play will bypass Iowa in recruiting and superiority. Those who don't want to pay to play may find themselves at the level of Ivy league even within their own conference.

My guess? Iowa will concede and pay to play.

That may lead to a complete different coaching philosophy as the old captain is EXTREMELY hard headed to wanting to change his system. Thus, maybe a coaching change will have to happen. My feelings on the matter is that as long as Parker and his defense stayed put in Iowa City how could the program digress considering how poor the offense has been the last three years? Practically near the bottom of all college football offenses.
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I haven't looked for years because all college football coaches salaries have absolutely skyrocked over the past 10 years. Is KF seriously still among the top 5. I didn't even think he was in the top 10 anymore. But again, I hadn't checked. The salaries have just become a moot point, IMO.
 
haydensly said:
The only returning O Lineman with 20 starts is Richmond. (Connor Colby would be next and he's probably very close). We'll have to agreer to disagree on this. I think the fact that we have elected to NOT recruit O Linemen from the portal speak for itself. Nobody want to win more than the coaches and if they are going with what they have, they must feel that they can win with that. For the record, I'll predict that Jones will be first or second team all-conference in the next two years.
As for QBs last year, IIRC I read that in one of Leistekow's columns. No names were ever given and to be honest, we probably weren't real close in landing any of the targets. We're not a destination for a lot of skill players. I do give the staff credit for getting in on McNamara early and landing him this year.
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As they did last year.....
 
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