Interesting comments made by father and son Ferentz

[homerHAWKeye777]

(paraphrasing things here - not exact statements)

KF: We gotta get the TEs worked more into the O. They haven't done as much so far largely because the WRs have been playing so well.

Fan Inference Engine: (i.e. the take-home message) Ferentz is pleased with the WRs. He also clearly intends on bringing the TE play along. In other words ... we'll see more and more TE play as the season progresses.


JF: We gotta improve our consistency on the OL. We need to make sure that Marcus has more places to run.

Fan Inference Engine: The OL is taking responsibility for why our production doesn't appear to be up to snuff in the running game. This makes sense, especially when you consider that with Nolan MacMillan out ... we're effectively starting 2 first-year starters on the OL. As a result, we had to still contend with a requisite period it takes for the OL to gel.


Overall Assessment: It appears that we should expect the OL and running game to continue to make strides. Similarly, we should expect the staff to continue to make a conscientious effort to work the TEs more and more into the O. Given that Nolan MacMillan is slated to return ... that gives our OL a nice boost depth-wise. Furthermore, we should also expect either Bullock or Canzeri to emerge more as a guy who helps to spell Coker. As we all saw against ULM ... my money would be on Canzeri when it comes to toting the rock.

The product of all these continued improvements and "emerging storylines" should be an even more dangerous and diversified O. I'm excited!

 

[sergeanthulka]

Are you calling Gettis a first year starter or are you referring to having inexperienced TE's on the OL? Certainly it must be the latter, this is Gettis' 3rd year starting...he's about as seasoned as they come...

Either way, you shouldn't miss a beat w/2 first year starters (out of 6)...though I agree that the OL hasn't played very well yet (at least in the running game) and will play better as the season progresses...

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Are you calling Gettis a first year starter or are you referring to having inexperienced TE's on the OL? Certainly it must be the latter, this is Gettis' 3rd year starting...he's about as seasoned as they come...

Either way, you shouldn't miss a beat w/2 first year starters (out of 6)...though I agree that the OL hasn't played very well yet (at least in the running game) and will play better as the season progresses...

sergeanthulka -

I'm referring to being a full-time regular starter. Gettis has prior starts ... but NOT many. He had but ONE start in '09 and only TWO in '10. That HARDLY qualifies him as being a third year starter as you claim.

Thus, in the truest sense ... Gettis is a FIRST YEAR starter this year. Similarly, Tobin is a first year starter as well. On top of that, ONLY Reiff has more than a single season of starts under his belt! Thus, to claim that the Iowa OL is uber-experienced group would be a gross misstatement.

An immediate implication is that this OL still has the capacity to get A LOT better as the season progresses. And, to the group's credit, they have really be stellar in pass-pro. They're definitely ahead of the curve in that category. If they were more used to going against a 30 front ... they probably wouldn't have given up so many sacks against Pitt too.

 

[DodgerHawki]

My guess is we'll see more involvement by the TE's..

(paraphrasing things here - not exact statements)

KF: We gotta get the TEs worked more into the O. They haven't done as much so far largely because the WRs have been playing so well.

Fan Inference Engine: (i.e. the take-home message) Ferentz is pleased with the WRs. He also clearly intends on bringing the TE play along. In other words ... we'll see more and more TE play as the season progresses.

only when their play warrants it. There's been a huge drop-off so far this year when compared to the last 3 years of Myers, Moeaki and Reisner. The lack of pass-catching is one thing, but the drop-off in the TE blocking has probably been more troubling.

KMM is a better option as a third WR than what Iowa has had in quite some time, so kudos to the coaches for having him on the field for more plays. Derby seems to have grabbed the most playing time for the TE's by making the fewest mistakes. The staff isn't going to try and fit a square peg in round hole by running lots of 2 TE sets if the overall level of play doesn't improve.
Hopefully the bye week does everyone some good and we can see improvement across the board.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Re: My guess is we'll see more involvement by the TE's..

only when their play warrants it. There's been a huge drop-off so far this year when compared to the last 3 years of Myers, Moeaki and Reisner. The lack of pass-catching is one thing, but the drop-off in the TE blocking has probably been more troubling.

KMM is a better option as a third WR than what Iowa has had in quite some time, so kudos to the coaches for having him on the field for more plays. Derby seems to have grabbed the most playing time for the TE's by making the fewest mistakes. The staff isn't going to try and fit a square peg in round hole by running lots of 2 TE sets if the overall level of play doesn't improve.
Hopefully the bye week does everyone some good and we can see improvement across the board.

Absolutely. However, the coaches also know that our TE plays allows us to force opposing Ds to be more predictable. But, as you rightly pointed out, we can only leverage our opposition IF the TE-play becomes more consistent (both in blocking and the receiving game).

The Big 10 has some secondaries that are pretty decent. Iowa's trio of WRs won't win the day against every opponent ... that's why we'll need to also be able to "weaponize" our TEs and running game. If we don't ... then we could just end up seeing a lot of 3-and-outs ... and none of us want to see that.