Interesting to look back at these comments from January

[BigD]

I am extremely busy at work and don’t have a lot of time to follow recruiting. The top national recruit that chose Iowa over Alabama, is he still committed to IOWA?

 

[MelroseHawkins]

As of right now the team is average 14.7 points per game, the exact amount of that 1999 team.

But this defense is way better then that 1999 team. It makes me sick to think how this defense is being wasted with no offense.

Great find and point.

 

[hawkinn3]

Kirk won’t quit, he’s rebuilt this program 3 times now.

 

[Fryowa]

5 OLinemen returning with a 5-star Fr to plug in at RT immediately,

No chance Proctor stays if this team goes 5-7 which is the most likely scenario. He has no tie or loyalty to the Hawkeyes.

I got $20 that says Nwankpa leaves if that happens, too.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

Between '03 and '17 I had season tickets at Iowa or Northwestern every year and I've done plenty of road games. I've seen every Big Ten star of the past 2 decades with the exception of the past couple seasons. The performance I saw out of our offense on Saturday night was on par with those absolute shit Illinois teams early in Ron Zook's tenure. For shits and giggles I looked at Illinois in that period and even when they went 0-8 in conference with Brasic at QB Brasic threw 11 TDs (granted they had Pierre Thomas and Rashard Mendenhall on the roster). Even in the dismal years before that Beutjer tossed for 8 TDs in 8 games. It will take a lot for Iowa to get to 8 passing TDs on the year.

Just because I am throwing out QB stats doesn't mean I'm pinning this on Spencer because that was a team effort, but that may have been the worst quarterback play I've seen live and in person since those awful Illinois teams back in like 2004 or 2005. When he's out there tossing the kid looks like he has good arm talent, but he's just completely destroyed as a person and doesn't have shit to work with out there except ol' number 84.

Anyway, point is it is gonna take a helluva turnaround to get 7 wins. We can do it, but I think 4-8 or 5-7 is waaaaaay more likely than 7-5. And with the way the world works now with this portal I think we have to rip the band aid off pretty soon because even if we somehow managed to get to 7-5 on the back of the defense and a bunch of 9-6 wins I believe that the offense is absolutely irreparably destroyed. No one good will go to Iowa and guys will flee for the portal if we don't have an immediate turnaround.

I ain't gonna lie that I got a little emotional at the game but I wasn't pissed. I was more sad because it felt like the end of an era to me. If you're at the game and watching the whole field from up high it is honestly a historically awful offense that you're looking at.

I tend to agree that as bad as things are, they could get worse on offense. Despite being a position of need, the Hawks had a grand total of one WR in the 2022 recruiting class, and looking ahead also only have one WR committed in the 2023 class. And the Hawks aren't exactly picky at that position - but they can't get anyone to come. If we thought negative recruiting against this offense was effective in the past, just think how effective it will be after all the national exposure/jokes about it this season.

And then look at the existing roster and the portal. Johnson and Bruce maybe aren't all-world, but how you gonna convince them to come back? Bruce's home state of Kansas might have some intriguing options for him, and maybe Johnson being from Nebraska has him watching to see who they hire. And of course there is always the Purdue pipeline.

Looking at TE, didn't Lachey's dad play at Ohio State? Wasn't he offered by Notre Dame?

If Kirk announces in December or January that it's all systems go for 2023, the same staff is intact, etc., man....it could get really dark (amazing to think there is a level below what we saw on Saturday night). And I think we know help from the portal on offense is a pipe dream.

 

[okeefe4prez]

^^^^^^ THIS FUCKING BIG TIME^^^^^^^

I guess we all can have our moments of hopefulness and see things that aren’t there.

It seems this season has awakened a lot of sleeping bears out of their hibernation mode. (Not talking about you okeef4prez) .

I just can’t get it out of my mind as it was a mind blower what Chuck Long said about nepotism. You just don’t see comments like that out of a former Iowa player, especially a Heisman runner up and such an admired former Iowa player.

I've softened in my old age and am deferential to Ferentz, but his blind allegiance to his kid is bad news. As I get older I try to find a redeeming quality in things, but holy shit there is not a single nice thing I can say about that offense other than LaPorta looks like the real deal. The line is abysmal, but part of that is they are facing loaded boxes every single play and they had no idea who to block and when they did know who to block it was damned near impossible for the line as a unit to actually get a win. The receivers looked like pure shit. The RBs looked bad, but again hard to do much behind that line. The QB play was among the worst I've ever seen. The style gives no schematic advantage. It is an unmitigated tire fire.

 

[okeefe4prez]

I tend to agree that as bad as things are, they could get worse on offense. Despite being a position of need, the Hawks had a grand total of one WR in the 2022 recruiting class, and looking ahead also only have one WR committed in the 2023 class. And the Hawks aren't exactly picky at that position - but they can't get anyone to come. If we thought negative recruiting against this offense was effective in the past, just think how effective it will be after all the national exposure/jokes about it this season.

And then look at the existing roster and the portal. Johnson and Bruce maybe aren't all-world, but how you gonna convince them to come back? Bruce's home state of Kansas might have some intriguing options for him, and maybe Johnson being from Nebraska has him watching to see who they hire. And of course there is always the Purdue pipeline.

Looking at TE, didn't Lachey's dad play at Ohio State? Wasn't he offered by Notre Dame?

If Kirk announces in December or January that it's all systems go for 2023, the same staff is intact, etc., man....it could get really dark (amazing to think there is a level below what we saw on Saturday night). And I think we know help from the portal on offense is a pipe dream.

I can tell the line is abysmal, but I have no idea how good or bad everyone else is. Hell, even Petras might look solid if he was throwing to stars and had half a second in the pocket. I think there might actually be some decent talent with the skill players and all those guys who are decent could be gone within 5 days of the season ending. A guy like Johnson could easily waltz into some place like Ol Miss and put up close to 1000 yards if he gets healthy.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I can tell the line is abysmal, but I have no idea how good or bad everyone else is. Hell, even Petras might look solid if he was throwing to stars and had half a second in the pocket. I think there might actually be some decent talent with the skill players and all those guys who are decent could be gone within 5 days of the season ending. A guy like Johnson could easily waltz into some place like Ol Miss and put up close to 1000 yards if he gets healthy.

I just don't get the line. People keep saying how young the line is. They may be young, but I think they are all pretty much experienced from last season. They have a number of games under their belts. Much of it really goes back to the line. The time Petras has to throw, the timing of everything including routes is just all messed up. When they can create separation Petras is on his back. When he might have a little time he's so focused on the rush he throws a bad pass that should be pretty routine. Everything's a dumpster fire and much of it goes back to the line play.

 

[okeefe4prez]

I just don't get the line. People keep saying how young the line is. They may be young, but I think they are all pretty much experienced from last season. They have a number of games under their belts. Much of it really goes back to the line. The time Petras has to throw, the timing of everything including routes is just all messed up. When they can create separation Petras is on his back. When he might have a little time he's so focused on the rush he throws a bad pass that should be pretty routine. Everything's a dumpster fire and much of it goes back to the line play.

Guys get beat 1 on 1 more often than usual, but ever since that Wisconsin game in 2017 every team that can keep the rush game in check and disguises where the fourth rusher is coming from has been able to put Iowa's offense in park. Hell, there was one play where the Illinois guy looked like he knew the snap count better than our line. We could still win out after the Ohio game, but we could run through that stretch 1-4 as well.

I try not to get too worked up. Line is hard as hell to play but I don't think our staff has the slightest clue of how to deal with these looks the defenses give up front. The first game where this became an abundant problem was Wisconsin 2017 and that was a team anchored by a 2nd round pick at center. I don't know how the hell you fix it because it has been a pervasive issue for 5 years now and we just forgot about it because we had a decent run of luck to start 2021.

 

[HuckFinn]

VERY unlikely Kirk steps down after this year, regardless of results. That's not how he thinks. In his mind, he's only 1 year removed from a Division title, so he maintains confidence in his coaching ability. He looks at his roster and sees all 5 OLinemen returning with a 5-star Fr to plug in at RT immediately, all 3 RBs returning, all WRs other than Ragaini returning, and 1 proven TE returning. On defense he has probably 7 of 8 top DLinemen returning, an NFL prospect Jacobs anchoring the LBs, and in the secondary he loses Moss but returns everyone else that started at Illinois, plus starting CB Harris returns from injury.
There's no way that Ferentz retires and leaves a team with that much experience on the field.
In his mind, a few tweaks here and there, a couple more made FGs vs Iowa St and Illinois, and the Hawks were 2-3 plays from being 5-1 right now. I'm not justifying that way of thinking, but his thought process is fairly transparent.
A more likely scenario is that after seeing his offense struggle for two consecutive years, he gives Brian the go-ahead to completely re-tool the offense -- whatever it takes -- similar to the review he did after the 2014 (?) defensive meltdown vs Nebraska.
His biggest challenge will be keeping the WRs with experience from transferring, especially when they see the success that Jones and Tracy have had at Purdue thus far.

I think you are right. KF has been under the gun a couple of times and managed to rebuild. Actually, your comments suggest to me that he may do so again. You are also correct that he faces some major challenges.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I do not believe the cupboard is in as poor condition as it was by '98 and '99, but with the portal it could be by the time we kick the opening ball of 2023. Maybe the Captain can pull a miracle with this bye week. I know we only lost that game 9-6, but if the QB doesn't go down for Illinois we lose by 2 scores for sure.

Funny thing is we had high end talent on the 99 and 2000 teams. Anthony Herron, Matt Bowen, Ladelll Betts and Aaron Kampmann all had respectable NFL careers.

But boy the the talent level bottom out quickly after that. There probably weren't more than six or eight other players in the roster who belonged in the two deep of a B1G caliber team.