I thought Ferentz managed the game well today.

Bigtenchamp

Well-Known Member
I have often been critical about Kirk's game management skills but today I thought he did everything right.

He was aggressive at times and conservative at others (not 95% conservative)

We went for it on 4th down a couple times.

We actually tried to move at the 1:20 mark at the end of the half.

The punt at the 40 being downed also was maybe the game winner.
 
I have often been critical about Kirk's game management skills but today I thought he did everything right.

He was aggressive at times and conservative at others (not 95% conservative)

We went for it on 4th down a couple times.

We actually tried to move at the 1:20 mark at the end of the half.

The punt at the 40 being downed also was maybe the game winner.

And he also went into a full sprint to call a timeout with 1:20 left in the game after he saw the Hawks get into a "knee-down" set when NIU still had 2 timeouts left. They did that after a timeout, so the offensive staff didn't get the word to Kirk that they were going to make that idiotic call. Ferentz got the timeout (barely) and Iowa ran 3 times for the first down, and game over.
 
I will disagree in part:

1) Iowa still does not have a two-minute drill for late in halves/games that I can see. I was long a critic of Ferentz and O'Keefe for that failure and based on the end of the first half today it's not clear to me that Davis has been able to install one ... to this point. If the game was on the line and Iowa had to score in under two minutes, I'm not sure that would be likely. You do not feel that threat the same way you would a Northwestern or Wisconsin or Michigan. There just seems to be no two-minute playbook.

2) This staff still squanders timeouts: plays not coming in on time; uncertainty in the huddle from what was being called; wrong personnel packages. There was absolutely no excuse for the team to not be aware of the play clock coming out of the timeout on the last or second to the last drive today. When I saw the linemen standing near the LOS and the rest of the offense over towards the sideline, sauntering onto the field, and the play clock approaching 20 seconds, I told my wife they were either going to get a delay of game call or have to burn a timeout as they weren't going to get the play off in time. As it turns out, it was necessary to call a TO.

Hopefully, this is part of the learning curve with a new staff. KF and the coordinators need to review their own parts of the game and make necessary changes/improvements.
 
Re:I thought Ferentz managed the game well today.pppp

I noticed ferentz was a lot more interactive on the sidelines with the players during timeouts
 

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