I DON'T Want To Be A Developmental Program Anymore!

MelroseHawkins

MelroseHawkins

Well-Known Member
I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the label as it says you can't get top notch players and have to develop players. It's too cyclical. Wait 3-4 years for a good year. When you have difficulty signing top players, you can't turn them away. 4* RB's or WR's don't come around too often at Iowa.

With the facilities that Iowa has, there is no need for this program to be a developmental program. They should be able to recruit top level talent and have enough for depth which would help with consistency. All the pieces are in place for Iowa to be successful and a top program.

I think it's time this program takes a new direction and needs an influx of new ideas and philosophy. I dislike being stagnant for 3 years then have a decent season. ENOUGH!

I'm done. Carry on.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the label as it says you can't get top notch players and have to develop players. It's too cyclical. Wait 3-4 years for a good year. When you have difficulty signing top players, you can't turn them away. 4* RB's or WR's don't come around too often at Iowa.

With the facilities that Iowa has, there is no need for this program to be a developmental program. They should be able to recruit top level talent and have enough for depth which would help with consistency. All the pieces are in place for Iowa to be successful and a top program.

I think it's time this program takes a new direction and needs an influx of new ideas and philosophy. I dislike being stagnant for 3 years then have a decent season. ENOUGH!

I'm done. Carry on.
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Your premise is wrong. Most every team in the Big Ten excepting OSU and now maybe Michigan is a developmental program. Iowa for a long time was fairly consistent at being the top of the rest in many years. There was a stretch where after many years Iowa was the 2nd program in the Big on wins and that mostly, but not all on HF. Not every years but close. What Iowa isn't now is just behind them. Wisconsin seems to have that spot now. MSU might be, but too early to tell. NW is not far behind Iowa.

The problem is that after that (PSU unknown and 1 game doesn't mean a change) is that the rest of the conference is truly bad. Iowa is somewhere below good 2nd tier and the bad. Couple that with the fact that 2015 might have been smoke and mirrors, the trend is downward and BORING. BORING is OK when winning and you have horses to make Boring nice. Boring and mediocre to trending bad is a terrible combination.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
"Developmental Program" = lazy recruiting
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In some cases I would agree with this and in Iowa's case I think they could recruit more aggressively but I also think its extremely difficult to recruit a kid to Iowa City who isn't from Iowa or the midwest in general.
 
HawkGold said:
Your premise is wrong. Most every team in the Big Ten excepting OSU and now maybe Michigan is a developmental program. Iowa for a long time was fairly consistent at being the top of the rest in many years. There was a stretch where after many years Iowa was the 2nd program in the Big on wins and that mostly, but not all on HF. Not every years but close. What Iowa isn't now is just behind them. Wisconsin seems to have that spot now. MSU might be, but too early to tell. NW is not far behind Iowa.

The problem is that after that (PSU unknown and 1 game doesn't mean a change) is that the rest of the conference is truly bad. Iowa is somewhere below good 2nd tier and the bad. Couple that with the fact that 2015 might have been smoke and mirrors, the trend is downward and BORING. BORING is OK when winning and you have horses to make Boring nice. Boring and mediocre to trending bad is a terrible combination.
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Yea, I get that Iowa will always be somewhat of a developmental program to an extent, secondary to the number of recruits in Iowa and the midwest and inability to get top talent to Iowa, BUT, Iowa doesn't have to be as "developmental" as it is today.

Coaches and admin can't use it as a crutch when explaining their outcomes or difficulties. I think Ferentz and co often use it as a crutch and can become complacent to a degree about recruiting.
 
The idea that we are a developmental program makes sense considering our recruiting practices and policies...the notion that we are a successful developmental program is complete horse$hit. Sure we turn in some good seasons, we have turned some guys into NFL talent, but the bottom line is that we are consistently competing with FCS and MAC recruits with the occasional guy that has other big time offers.

The notion that we are screwed w/o KF is also complete crap as well considering over the past 7 years WI has had 3 head coaches and averaged 10 wins a season...KF over the same 7 years averages 8 wins with 2 outliers in 2010 and 2015 pushing up the average.

Our program's end game performance goes down to the very basic core of how they do everything. It's systemic. It produces acceptable results 1 in every 5 years and no accountability is taken by the AD to do anything about it except send out a survey. There is one constant in the past 16 years. The same constant will be here for several more. Maybe we can expect 1 more magical season. But I would not ever expect regular strength given who and how we recruit and how we play football.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Yea, I get that Iowa will always be somewhat of a developmental program to an extent, secondary to the number of recruits in Iowa and the midwest and inability to get top talent to Iowa, BUT, Iowa doesn't have to be as "developmental" as it is today.

Coaches and admin can't use it as a crutch when explaining their outcomes or difficulties. I think Ferentz and co often use it as a crutch and can become complacent to a degree about recruiting.
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I agree, but It's not just a recruiting issue.

Other factors that contribute to being a "developmental program":

1) the tendency to put "talent-challenged" players in the line-up means it takes many games before they're close to capable

2) failure to get the backups regular, meaningful snaps means injuries and graduation leave new starters who have no experience at all

3) seemingly poor position coaches - receiver and qb are obvious examples of positions where we don't see noticeable improvement
 
I don't get the excuse that Iowa is a Developmental Program for explaining away mediocre seasons. Ferentz has been here for 18 years. 18. If Iowa is a a superior Developmental Program, then shouldn't Iowa always be "developing" players, so when the current batch of "developed" players graduate, there is a fresh batch of "developed" players to take over? Why, after 18 years, is there a gap of years before the next set of decently developed players come along? There shouldn't be in an established program. There should be a new group every year. That argument would work in a coach's first few years at a school, but not after 18 years. There should be a line of players coming along every year to fill in the missing pieces.

The argument really stands on the notion that other programs are static in the development of their players, which is ridiculous and naive. Maybe the truth is that Iowa is no better at developing players as any other program, and when you start with inferior talent, while you may develop them into better players, the better talent at other schools has gotten better as well. Hence, the gap remains.

The "We're A Development Program" is just one big rationalization. Don't know, I'm just frustrated at this point, but it never lasts with me.
 
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Xerxes said:
In some cases I would agree with this and in Iowa's case I think they could recruit more aggressively but I also think its extremely difficult to recruit a kid to Iowa City who isn't from Iowa or the midwest in general.
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It is when you are boring and unimaginative.
 
Xerxes said:
In some cases I would agree with this and in Iowa's case I think they could recruit more aggressively but I also think its extremely difficult to recruit a kid to Iowa City who isn't from Iowa or the midwest in general.
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No offense, but that is absolute bull$hit.
 
I'm ok with being a developmental program. I don't like it as an excuse all the time.

What I would like is our program to develop schemes that fits the talent or lack of that we have in each given year.

Look at WI for no better example. Consistently 8-10 wins no matter who they have. Yes they have a 5-6 win year sprinkled in.....but they have a system, but they aren't against adjusting it to fit their players better.

We do not. We run the same plays over and over. So when we do try a trick play, it looks so freaking bad it's laughable. I truly believe it's because we don't deviate from a subset of plays, with the idea being keep practicing them and we'll eventually out execute.

It's madness
 
And now it's sounding like the coaching staff just chased off a 4* TX recruit for taking other visits... Yeah, we're a developmental program alright.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the label as it says you can't get top notch players and have to develop players. It's too cyclical. Wait 3-4 years for a good year. When you have difficulty signing top players, you can't turn them away. 4* RB's or WR's don't come around too often at Iowa.

With the facilities that Iowa has, there is no need for this program to be a developmental program. They should be able to recruit top level talent and have enough for depth which would help with consistency. All the pieces are in place for Iowa to be successful and a top program.

I think it's time this program takes a new direction and needs an influx of new ideas and philosophy. I dislike being stagnant for 3 years then have a decent season. ENOUGH!

I'm done. Carry on.
Click to expand...

I saw it as developmentally disabled until this year. New Kirk arrived in 2015 along with awesome new facilities and the stars had finally aligned for Iowa to turn recruiting to our advantage. And I ran at the football like Charlie Brown only to have Lucy remind me it was all a mirage.
 
You have to develop when your coach is stubborn, dumb, and outdated. What 4* player would wanna come sit on the bench while an unathletic walk on starts in front of them?!
 
I don't have a problem being a developmental program. I have a problem paying $4.5M a year for a head coach of a developmental program who doesn't seem to like recruiting very much.
 
phdsvp said:
I don't have a problem being a developmental program. I have a problem paying $4.5M a year for a head coach of a developmental program who doesn't seem to like recruiting very much.
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Ya have to look at it like this. You only have so much energy to accomplish life goals. If you focus too much energy on recruiting you won't have much left over to focus on contract negotiation.
 
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