I'm proud of our Hawks

H

homerHAWKeye777

Well-Known Member
We as fans are all disappointed about the losses ... however, so are the players.

We as fans have all invested a lot of time, enthusiasm, and money into following our beloved Hawks ... and, in many respects, that kinda breeds an attitude of entitlement among the fans. I can understand that ... however, I do not accept that as a legitimate excuse.

Many fans quickly forget that our players have been playing with a terrific attitude and have been battling as hard as they can. Fans quickly forget that the players and coaches are far more invested than ANY of us truly are.

Anyhow, I'd simply reiterate a wonderful sentiment articulated by Marv Cook and just state that I'm tremendously proud of our Hawkeye squad.

I'm also proud to be a Hawkeye fan.

I know that we all hoped for a better record, however, I still love watching our Hawks. Furthermore, while this season has been rough to watch at times ... I also know that we have plenty of GREAT seasons ahead of us.

That's all ... GO HAWKS!
 


Ya, it's not like the university is in jeopardy of losing my season ticket money. And I am always proud of the players, regardless of records or performance. And normally, the coaches. This year I was very underwhelmed with our coaching staff.

Still, good post Homer.
 


ahhh, how did i know you'd come in with a post like this? don't always agree with you, but i appreciate your point of view. made me smile, thanks. i was still kinda PO'd till i read this.
 


burky247 said:
Ya, it's not like the university is in jeopardy of losing my season ticket money. And I am always proud of the players, regardless of records or performance. And normally, the coaches. This year I was very underwhelmed with our coaching staff.

Still, good post Homer.
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burky -

While I'm proud of the players ... I still think that the losses are more on them. However, I'm not going to "pile on 'em" because I know that they already know that.

The coaches HAVE made their fair share of errors. However, they do every season. It's not like the coaching is worse this year than it was last year. The difference is a play here, an injury there, and whatnot.

As I've said before, Ferentz took the Iowa job with the sentiment that he wanted to do things the "right way." And, when our players have been fully invested in our system ... we've been capable of being competitive with pretty much ANYBODY in the nation. Not many programs can say that.

This year is no different ... it's just that our pre-season expectations have not been met ... so, as a result, we're more ****** off as usual.

Anyhow, the Hawks have still been doing things the "right way" ... the problem is that we haven't made plays when ideally we would have. That is on the players. However, they know that ... and I'm not going to blame them. It's not like they played with crappy attitudes or didn't fight hard to the very end. In the end, nobody is perfect (coaches included), and hopefully, we as fans recognize that.

Aside from having concern about Norm's health ... I'm VERY optimistic about the future of our beloved Hawks. I'm also VERY pleased with our recruiting (even though we still have a long time 'til signing day). Thus, even though we're all disappointed NOW ... we, as fans, still have the benefit of being able to look to the future.
 


Homer, I agree. I wish I could say I was always proud of Hawk fans. I'm as disappointed as anyone(excluding the staff and players) in this season. We can all come on here and vent and question coaching and schemes, However, when people start getting on the board and calling out players and their effort, that is just flat wrong. I wish Jon would implement his old stance on that.
 


Proud of the players. They did their best. Just other teams saw the Hawks' weaknesses and exploited them.

That being said, the coaches have acted like a bunch of fat cats this season. Norm collects a paycheck without coaching a minute. The active staff goes into every game without making any adjustments. Continually get outcoached and get called out for it by players and coaches from other teams.

KF refuses to make the hard call and designate one D-Coordinator.

So, proud of the players, not so much of the coaches.
 


CAARHawk said:
Proud of the players. They did their best. Just other teams saw the Hawks' weaknesses and exploited them.

That being said, the coaches have acted like a bunch of fat cats this season. Norm collects a paycheck without coaching a minute. The active staff goes into every game without making any adjustments. Continually get outcoached and get called out for it by players and coaches from other teams.

KF refuses to make the hard call and designate one D-Coordinator.

So, proud of the players, not so much of the coaches.
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Excuse me? I'm dense and more than a little gullible. Were you joking about the coaches being "fat cats?" I agree that ultimately Ferentz will have to make a call if Norm can't give it a go full time. However, that said, Iowa's defensive coaching is still hamstrung by the personnel that they have in the back seven.

All the same, the Buckeyes had been grinding out A LOT of yardage on almost EVERYBODY and yet they had plenty of difficulties against Iowa's D.

Thus, it's not like Iowa's D was doing a bad job.

I often appreciate your posts CAARHawk ... however, it really seems like you're posting from a position of ignorance. I'd like to see a detailed breakdown of the coaching errors that the coaches have been making on D. After all, given the great health of our LBs ... I'm sure that we have a huge wealth of personnel packages that allow for us to do everything that we were able to do last year. Sarcasm intended ....
 


homerHAWKeye777 said:
burky -

While I'm proud of the players ... I still think that the losses are more on them. However, I'm not going to "pile on 'em" because I know that they already know that.

The coaches HAVE made their fair share of errors. However, they do every season. It's not like the coaching is worse this year than it was last year. The difference is a play here, an injury there, and whatnot.

As I've said before, Ferentz took the Iowa job with the sentiment that he wanted to do things the "right way." And, when our players have been fully invested in our system ... we've been capable of being competitive with pretty much ANYBODY in the nation. Not many programs can say that.

This year is no different ... it's just that our pre-season expectations have not been met ... so, as a result, we're more ****** off as usual.

Anyhow, the Hawks have still been doing things the "right way" ... the problem is that we haven't made plays when ideally we would have. That is on the players. However, they know that ... and I'm not going to blame them. It's not like they played with crappy attitudes or didn't fight hard to the very end. In the end, nobody is perfect (coaches included), and hopefully, we as fans recognize that.

Aside from having concern about Norm's health ... I'm VERY optimistic about the future of our beloved Hawks. I'm also VERY pleased with our recruiting (even though we still have a long time 'til signing day). Thus, even though we're all disappointed NOW ... we, as fans, still have the benefit of being able to look to the future.
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I can see your point Homer. However, I wasn't someone who had outrageous preseason expectations. My initial prediction was 9-3 but I saw anywhere from 8-4 to 10-2. I just think it's a cop out to say it's up to the players to execute. It is true...don't get me wrong. But I put in the "we need to score more points than the other team" category. Of course the players need to execute, but it's up to the staff to give them the tools(both physical and mental) to accomplish the execution. The staff failed in that aspect this year. The staff got a lot of credit last year for the players making plays. I don't think they are above hearing some constructive criticism for what's happened this year.

I think a big difference between this year and last year is that we had players who made plays, and that helped cover up some of the deficiencies in our coaching staff. When those plays aren't being made, the weaknesses tend to stand out a little more.

Also,the most obvious difference on D was not having that lock down corner who pretty much cut the field in half(along with having a linebacker who could cover WR's in space). And no matter how great of a leader Stanzi may be, Iowa also needs leaders that generate a little fear with the rest of the team. We had that with King and Angerer. This year's team has no leader that's willing to bust some skulls to get this team prepared.

Like I said, I liked your post. And I'm definitely not looking for changes within our staff from a personnel aspect. But there comes a time when you need to assess and adapt or you get left behind. I just think it's time to look at our overall philosophies and see if some of them could get retooled(that was the most respectful way I could phrase it). :)
 


Great post Homer, and I agree 100%. The fans that p!ss me off are the ones who praised this staff last year and the 11-2 season, and predicted a 12-0 season, and a NC. Now they sit here and call them "fat cats" or blame all the losses on them. These are the same posters/fans who would be praising this team this year if they make 2 4th down stops this year. Stop the Badgers on the 4th down fake punt, and stop Ohio St. on 4th & 10. We do those two things, we still have 2 losses, but we are looking at beating Minny for a Rose Bowl birth. Now all the same posters/fans b!tching and moaning, would be talking about how great the coaching staff and players are........
 


Nice bit of persective.. Thanks Homer. Needed that. As much of a disappointment all of the close losses have been, we have a competetive program and 10 years ago, I would have killed to be where we are now - complaining if we only go 8-4. As a basketball fan, I'd be thrilled if the basketball program was having the same amount of success as the football program. So I guess I can't legitemately complain too much.
 


CAARHawk said:
Norm collects a paycheck without coaching a minute.
Click to expand...

Look, I know all who have posted in this thread have MANY more posts than I do, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize BS when I see it.

Just WTF does this line mean? Are you seriously calling out Norm Parker for collecting a paycheck while recovering from having his FOOT AMPUTATED???? I'm not sure, but I doubt that Norm told KF after the ISU game, "Hey coach, I'm gonna be gone for a couple of months cause I want to have my FRICKIN' FOOT CUT OFF."
I don't know if Norm is collecting a paycheck or not, Don't care. Ever hear of disability insurance?
 


homerHAWKeye777 said:
We as fans are all disappointed about the losses ... however, so are the players.

We as fans have all invested a lot of time, enthusiasm, and money into following our beloved Hawks ... and, in many respects, that kinda breeds an attitude of entitlement among the fans. I can understand that ... however, I do not accept that as a legitimate excuse.

Many fans quickly forget that our players have been playing with a terrific attitude and have been battling as hard as they can. Fans quickly forget that the players and coaches are far more invested than ANY of us truly are.

Anyhow, I'd simply reiterate a wonderful sentiment articulated by Marv Cook and just state that I'm tremendously proud of our Hawkeye squad.

I'm also proud to be a Hawkeye fan.

I know that we all hoped for a better record, however, I still love watching our Hawks. Furthermore, while this season has been rough to watch at times ... I also know that we have plenty of GREAT seasons ahead of us.

That's all ... GO HAWKS!
Click to expand...
second that! well said. Go Hawks!!!!!
 




CAARHawk said:
Proud of the players. They did their best. Just other teams saw the Hawks' weaknesses and exploited them.

That being said, the coaches have acted like a bunch of fat cats this season. Norm collects a paycheck without coaching a minute. The active staff goes into every game without making any adjustments. Continually get outcoached and get called out for it by players and coaches from other teams.

KF refuses to make the hard call and designate one D-Coordinator.

So, proud of the players, not so much of the coaches.
Click to expand...
Way outta line about Norm. You are an ***. Period.
 


I agree with not calling out the players. I do my share of questioning the coaching after a loss. For the rest of that day only. Then its time to move on to the next game. Go Hawks.
 


twinhawkfans said:
Way outta line about Norm. You are an ***. Period.
Click to expand...

I think alot of that is true though. especially the stubbornness of the coaches and the fact that other teams' players publicly throw it back in our faces while beating us.

Last years team had a swagger and you can tell how much fun they were having on the field, hyping each other up, showing just the right amount of disrespect to opponents. This years team has lost that.
 


clicheusername3 said:
I think alot of that is true though. especially the stubbornness of the coaches and the fact that other teams' players publicly throw it back in our faces while beating us.

Last years team had a swagger and you can tell how much fun they were having on the field, hyping each other up, showing just the right amount of disrespect to opponents. This years team has lost that.
Click to expand...

Any team that has to play youth at particularly key positions often has to "simplify" in order to allow for the players to still play "fast."

Many teams that play young players end up sacrificing consistency for making things more complicated. As you see with Michigan .... that approach can backfire miserably.

It's not like Iowa's D is playing poorly ... the coaches are just limited in what we can execute.

And it's ridiculous to complain about stubborness on O because our coaches are willing to change-up the pass to run ratio at the drop of the hat when necessary. For example, tOSU has a great run D ... so Iowa was dialing up A LOT of 1st down passes ... and they were places A LOT of trust in our veteran QB and WRs. Unfortunately, our guys failed to make plays when we needed them most.

Fans never cease to amaze me with their lack of knowledge of basic football strategy.

However, as a faculty who teaches math, physics, and engineering ... I see math/science illiteracy all the time ... so I suppose that I shouldn't be so surprised.
 


homerHAWKeye777 said:
Fans never cease to amaze me with their lack of knowledge of basic football strategy.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more, but what never ceases to amaze me is the fact that 75% of the posters on here are already talking January BCS games and next years team before the season even started. Then while the season plays out, it's nothing but talk of disappointment, etc... Fan bases and posters get so caught up in the media crap and the expectations that I even question whether they like football in general or whether they simply like the hype and expectations of the program and could care less about the games themselves.
 


kicker22 said:
Couldn't agree more, but what never ceases to amaze me is the fact that 75% of the posters on here are already talking January BCS games and next years team before the season even started. Then while the season plays out, it's nothing but talk of disappointment, etc... Fan bases and posters get so caught up in the media crap and the expectations that I even question whether they like football in general or whether they simply like the hype and expectations of the program and could care less about the games themselves.
Click to expand...

Very true. And, I must admit that I'm a guilty part there .... I didn't anticipate the injuries that we ended up seeing this year ... so I actually thought that a BCS bowl would be a pretty likely outcome for us (with a 10-2 record). Bad me!

However, I'm also willing to revise my expectations given the altered context.
 


kicker22 said:
Couldn't agree more, but what never ceases to amaze me is the fact that 75% of the posters on here are already talking January BCS games and next years team before the season even started. Then while the season plays out, it's nothing but talk of disappointment, etc... Fan bases and posters get so caught up in the media crap and the expectations that I even question whether they like football in general or whether they simply like the hype and expectations of the program and could care less about the games themselves.
Click to expand...

I think you're right on with this, and I'll admit that I was caught up in the preseason hype as well- it's fun. The difference, at least for me... is there are some fans that can cope with perceived "setbacks" and temper expectations much more appropriately than others.
 


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