Iowa fans need to start being realistic.

[ArvadaHawk]

If you're going to do statistical comparisons, you have to use similar statistics.

Iowa State is 4-9 vs their last 13 .500+ conference opponents. Iowa is 2-3 vs their last 5 top 10 opponents, and it's worth noting that all 5 of Iowa's previous top ten opponents finished the season there, whereas only 2 of ISU's have.

alright, Matt Campbell is in his 4th season at ISU and kirk is in his 21st season at iowa.

 

[MoseSchrute]

I for one am excited about the future with the last couple of recruiting classes as we have had a massive upgrade in coaching with Bell, Foster and Copeland.

Any excitement for future seasons has been drummed out of me by this regime. Life with Ferentz is not a box of chocolates...you do know what you're gonna get...a turd offense and playing with one hand tied behind your back.

 

[westender]

Probably been said, but a maddening part is knowing 100% Taylor is getting the ball and he still goes for lots of yards. And we on the other side can do nothing close to that with our run game.

 

[westender]

ISU is 3-2 in their last 5 games against to 10 rated teams. Iowa is 1-12 against .500+ teams in the B1G over the last three seasons. kirk ferentz has two B1G championships in 21 seasons. the last one was 15 years ago. brian ferenz has had training wheels in the form of kirk's bestie KOK for his entire tenure as OC and our offense has sucked the entire time. i have to admit that when i learned yesterday that iowa is 1-12 with brian as OC against conference teams that finish .500+, it really backed up the perception i had about iowa. we are a bottom feeder in the B1G. we've been passed up by WUs and MSU and jNW and Goofey are working their asses off to also pass us up. I am tired of our best win of the season being ISU, when we do beat them. ISU has become OUR Super Bowl. we simply do not contend for anything in the B1G, anymore. that's bullshit and that's unacceptable.

As Morehouse stated in the Gazette. this loss was not on the offense. The defense could not get the stops even when they knew Taylor was getting the ball.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

As Morehouse stated in the Gazette. this loss was not on the offense. The defense could not get the stops even when they knew Taylor was getting the ball.

and i could say that we still would have won if stanley had not missed wide open rcvrs. saying we lost because of the defense who that gave up only 24 points to a team avg 34.3 points per game (at WUs) and not because our offense scored only 2 td (and has a total of 10 td's in conf all season) is laughable. relatively speaking, we kept WUs' offense in check, on the road.

Edit: i corrected my post. we didn't score 2 td's against Wus, we only scored 1.

 

[westender]

and i could say that we still would have won if stanley had not missed wide open rcvrs. saying we lost because of the defense who that gave up only 24 points to a team avg 34.3 points per game (at WUs) and not because our offense scored only 2 td's (and has a total of 10 td's in conf all season) is laughable. relatively speaking, we kept WUs' offense in check, on the road.

How many rush yards did our D give up???????? He is still running.............................

 

[ArvadaHawk]

How many rush yards did our D give up???????? He is still running.............................

how many points did we score? still not scoring......

 

[ArvadaHawk]

As Morehouse stated in the Gazette. this loss was not on the offense. The defense could not get the stops even when they knew Taylor was getting the ball.

did morehouse explain why it's the defenses fault that we're 2-11 vs .500+ teams in the B1G the last 3 seasons, to date? you see, if you go on the road and you hold a division contending team to 10 points under their season scoring avg, but you can't score more points than your defense gives up, how can that be the defenses fault? it is illogical unless the reason for the comment is to deflect criticism. and our defense didn't play well. but we held WUs to 10 points under their scoring avg AT WUs. no, this loss was not on the defense. the more i think about that statement the more it pisses me off.

 

[hawkeye23]

I need to see some changes on the offensive side of the ball going into next season. That might include players, coaches, recruiting, philosophy, etc. Our illness is localized and fortunately still allows us to be very competitive even against quality opponents. It's easy to see if we had an offense that was even average we likely might be singing a different tune.

Don't see need for a regime change at this point but do see a need for the HC to make some changes on the offensive side besides "we'll work harder going into next year". If we're sitting here next year with similar problems and little change was made to address our illness then I'll bang the drums with some of the others.

P.S. So far the Brian Ferentz promotion looks much closer to a failure than a success.

Do you really think there will be offensive changes going into next yr? I mean we have had a few different OC's over the last 20 yrs. There's only been one consistent in that time period. I do agree that this BF to head coach process is not going well for them at this point.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Everyone has pretty much the same shit now. The TV money has equalized things. Will we draw more fans to watch a 6-6 team than LSU when they are 6-6? Maybe. Big deal. Every big state school that has had even a moderate taste of success in the past 20 years has a good fan base unless there is absolutely no hope. There's really nothing that special about Iowa over most other big state schools unless you're talking about Rutgers or Indiana or some other team where the fans have lost all hope forever.

Not every state school has an AD and President that will give you tons of money for 7 wins. Not every state school has a press corp that is afraid they will lose their credentials if the ask the hard questions.

 

[hawkeye23]

It's a good thing we didn't lose to ISU this year or this forum would be even more lit....

I am pretty worn out with the mantra that this program can't be better than what it is just cause "we are Iowa/a developmental program," etc....As others have posted, there are a ton of positives about Iowa as a program. I realize it's not the most ideal place in the world but that doesn't mean we have to settle either.

The fact that we schedule at least 2 cupcake games to start the year and a couple of in conference games that we should expect to win and we still hang around 6-8 wins per year (with an occasional good year or two) is defeating.

I also don't like these long term extensions and guaranteed money as a general rule of thumb. I know it's for recruiting purposes, etc but I think it encourages complacency.

The next coach has to have unrelenting energy and that will to win where they feel like they just HAVE to win every single game and when they don't, it ruins their world (while doing it legally). Similar to what Hayden did when he took over.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Very solid! Look at the teams who have difficulty finding quality coaches. Nebby has been scrambling for 10+ years now. Illinois has gone thru a bunch.

This argument is terrible. Look at ISU, They had a coach that won a NC after he left. They have a coach now that will have ISU challenging for the Big 12 soon. Minnesota seems to have found a pretty good coach. Shoot, Iowa somehow managed to hire Hayden Fry.

Do due diligence and you can find a good coach.

Now on that note, i do not want Barta hiring the next FB coach. Get rid of Barta first.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

This argument is terrible. Look at ISU, They had a coach that won a NC after he left. They have a coach now that will have ISU challenging for the Big 12 soon. Minnesota seems to have found a pretty good coach. Shoot, Iowa somehow managed to hire Hayden Fry.

Do due diligence and you can find a good coach.

Now on that note, i do not want Barta hiring the next FB coach. Get rid of Barta first.

Yea, good points!

 

[bjohnson1102]

I'm not calling for the firing of Kirk but for the realigning of his coaching staff to realistic assign coaches to the positions they are capable of coaching. Brian is not ready to be the OC. He has no feel for the game and the grooming of our Qb's seems more like neutering. Stanley's fear or reluctance of throwing the ball has cost us 3 games this year. Do I expect to win every game against the top 25 especially on the road? No, I don't. Do I expect to win one of those three? Yes, I do. I can accept being outplayed by better teams but Iowa had the talent to win the West this year, and after seeing what Nate can do if he is allowed to open up the offense it hurts even more. That being said if we win out and go 9-3 that would be a nice accomplishment. Just spare me the "Developmental Program" and low expectation bullshit. Iowa should have won two of the three losses this season but for bad playcalling and bad execution. I'm certainly not ready to cede the West year after year to Minny and Bucky. On a side note, we have been making fun of PJ Fleck for the last couple of years with his pie in the sky expectations for his program, now who's laughing? He can recruit and who out there saw Minnesota as anything but a "developmental program" or coaching stepping stone.

I don't mean to single you out, as really I'm just using your post as a response to a common theme on this board. You state up above, "Stanley's fear or reluctance of throwing the ball...." I disagree 100%, and I've disagreed every time I see someone bag on one of our QB's throughout their time here, for a number of reasons that I'll detail below.
1. Doesn't anyone find it odd that the only players that get singled out for being scared, conservative, etc. are our QB's. Why aren't our other players ever labeled that? It doesn't make sense to me. I've seen our lineman miss blocks, I've seen running backs miss holes, I've seen receivers run bad routes and drop the ball. Why don't we label them as scared, conservative, etc?
2. QB's do/run what they're told. So do other players, for that matter. Did any of you on this board ever play football, or any sport for that matter? How many of your coaches let you override their coaching decisions on a weekly basis and keep your jobs? Nate Stanley runs what the coaches call. If he didn't, he would be replaced by someone who did. It's as simple as that.
3. What I do see are plenty of times where Nate misses open guys, overthrows, etc. There are other times where I perceive that guys are open, Nate sees them, but doesn't throw it. I have to assume as a QB, Nate knows the throws he can and cannot make. Now, call him conservative in some of those cases, and I will agree. But don't call him scared. I doubt Nate Stanley, or any Big Ten QB is scared of too much. They wouldn't be playing football if they were.
4. Iowa proved on Saturday that when they are forced to go away from their conservative, ball control offense, things work just fine. Nate Stanley fired plenty of nice shots during the 4th quarter. He does have an NFL arm. He has consistently made some throws this year that were absolute darts.
5. We will be sitting here next year hearing the same thing about our new QB. Folks, it's not the QB, they are doing what they are taught/practiced to do. It's our offensive approach. Power football, zone blocking work. Take a look around plenty of teams do both. They just don't look like Iowa when they do it. We need to update our looks and formations. How many times do we come out in I formation, and you know where the ball is going? When we run play action there, it almost always works. Problem is, we only run play action from that formation once or twice a game. Needs to be more.

Again, I wasn't singling you out, It just gets old hearing people blame Nate Stanley for our woes. Sure, all the players contribute to it, but mainly it comes down to our conservative offensive scheme, and as time has proven as coordinators have come and gone, our head coach is responsible for our conservative offense.

 

[clownkilla]

You know what STILL has me pissed off???...I watched Young have one of his best games, averaged almost 5 yards per carry! Our center and qb fumble the ball on the snap of one of our greatest drives of the year! ...and then we sit Young on the bench for the remainder of the game!

THAT is not on our players. We could have won that game had we stuck with Young, managed the clock, kept our defense off the field.

I want to know WHY we pulled him!! That, in my opinion, is what cost us last Saturday's game, and the west.

 

[hawkeye23]

You know what STILL has me pissed off???...I watched Young have one of his best games, averaged almost 5 yards per carry! Our center and qb fumble the ball on the snap of one of our greatest drives of the year! ...and then we sit Young on the bench for the remainder of the game!

THAT is not on our players. We could have won that game had we stuck with Young, managed the clock, kept our defense off the field.

I want to know WHY we pulled him!! That, in my opinion, is what cost us last Saturday's game, and the west.

I agree....no idea why Young was pulled. He was running with purpose against his hometown team. A player with motivation many times plays well and he was so not sure why he got replaced (and I'm a huge Goodson fan).

 

[ohhawk]

Do you really think there will be offensive changes going into next yr? I mean we have had a few different OC's over the last 20 yrs. There's only been one consistent in that time period. I do agree that this BF to head coach process is not going well for them at this point.

What do you suggest be done?

 

[KCTrainer]

ISU is 3-2 in their last 5 games against to 10 rated teams. Iowa is 1-12 against .500+ teams in the B1G over the last three seasons. kirk ferentz has two B1G championships in 21 seasons. the last one was 15 years ago. brian ferenz has had training wheels in the form of kirk's bestie KOK for his entire tenure as OC and our offense has sucked the entire time. i have to admit that when i learned yesterday that iowa is 1-12 with brian as OC against conference teams that finish .500+, it really backed up the perception i had about iowa. we are a bottom feeder in the B1G. we've been passed up by WUs and MSU and jNW and Goofey are working their asses off to also pass us up. I am tired of our best win of the season being ISU, when we do beat them. ISU has become OUR Super Bowl. we simply do not contend for anything in the B1G, anymore. that's bullshit and that's unacceptable.

I agree that Brian needs some help and I think 1 more year is all he deserves to get this thin turned around on that side of the ball. Being the HC son I’m not exactly sure how it’s going to play out if he doesn’t get his crap together. However people suggesting getting rid of Ferentz and hiring a guy like Cambell is just dumb. If Ferentz retires then that is a completely different story and Cambell would be a great hire, but you don’t fire a coach to hire a guy who in 4 years has never beaten the guy you fired.

 

[BigD]

Clemson had a title in '81, also. Even before they got really dominant of late, they were better than Iowa, but they had some tough competition. Clemson just got really lucky because FSU, Georgia Tech, Miami and Virginia Tech all fell off the face of the earth at the same time and they stayed right where they were. Now, they get a handful of really good recruits and have gone up a level, but their success is in large part of a function of the utter collapse of the ACC. I just don't see the entire Big Ten having that level of collapse.

Oh come on now. When Hayden was around he had to recruit against highly successful Nebraska, Noter Dame, and Michigan. All three of those programs have been down over the last 15 years. Yes two of them weren’t in the Big Ten but you still have to recruit against them.

Kirk has mastered the art of nothingness. His winning formula is to beat the non-conference cupcakes, the bottom one third conference teams, and one mid dweller like ourselves and whalah eight wins. nine if he catches one of the better teams down or overlooking us. 77 was right about Clemson. Someone mention Clemson having a title in 1981. Do people know what year this is??? That was nearly forty years ago. The right coach is a hard thing to come by but at least some schools tried and landed the right coach. As much as I can’t stand Urban like many others he could come into Iowa City and build Iowa into a power house. What would have changed? Nothing but coaching and recruiting.

 

[BigD]

I will tell you why Clemson has moved up to be at the top of the ACC and it has less to do with Clemson and more to do with Bobby Bowden being forced out of Tallahassee and the downfall of Miami. Someone was going to rise up and take the torch.

Who do we need to force out???