Iowa Has some Talent Issues

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
This is something I wrote back in December of 2011.

The 2008 Iowa recruiting class was ranked 9th in the Big Ten by Scout.com and 13 of the 25 signees are no longer with the program. Those Class of 2008 players would be the seniors on the 2012 team. Guys like James Ferentz and James Vandenberg were a part of that class and more than 50% of their ‘signing classmates’ are gone.

The 2009 Iowa recruiting class ranked 11th in the Big Ten (out of 12, as I am factoring in Nebraska’s national class rankings into the Big Ten now). That class had 18 members on signing day and eight of them are no longer in the program.

Having that level of attrition in back to back classes which would now be your fifth year seniors and fourth year juniors is devastating to a developmental program like Iowa’s.

The 2010 class was ranked 6th in the Big Ten and signed 21 members; 18 of them are still at Iowa. The 25 member 2011 class was ranked 4th in the Big Ten and is down five members from signing day, but many of these players saw action this season.

The 2010 and 2011 classes have a lot of speed and talent but 2013 season is a better target for that talent to show up in big numbers on the field.

***Coker and McCall were still with the team when I wrote this, so they go against 2010 and 2011 class attrition.

Fast forward to now...the fewest number of senior starters for a Kirk Ferentz team at Iowa. 25 of 47 of the opening game two-deep roster were sophomores or younger.

The 2008 & 2009 recruiting classes were just not good classes. Those classes came on the heels of Iowa's 6-7 2006 team and 6-6 2007 team, which may have factored in to getting the attention of the right kids. (Yeah, I know, may not bode well for classes after this year's). DL attrition is also hurting.

Iowa has made changes on the recruiting front that will help, namely Brian Ferentz and LeVar Woods.
 
Poor recruiting and attrition is not an excuse for an established program under Ferentz. In my opinion Ferentz just dropped the ball on these issues. He's the head guy and is responsible to field a quality product inspite of off the field set backs.

Granted some things were out of his control but decisions should have been made to overcome these issues. Just my opinion.
 
There are just so many guys on the team that were a reach at best for offers from a big 10 school. its really sad to see this program in the shape its in.
 
Jon do you have stats on what ISU loses next year? How many seniors they lose? A number of people are trying to say a shift in power in the state. Although ISU is better this year, I remember about the poor recruiting classes Iowa had in 08-09 (like you mention) and the better classes in 10-11.

Just seems like it is to early to say a shift in power. Maybe Iowa can rebound when the 10-11 classes start to develop more and see more action on the field.
 
jameskalina said:
Poor recruiting and attrition is not an excuse for an established program under Ferentz. In my opinion Ferentz just dropped the ball on these issues.
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It's not an excuse to gloss over losses like yesterday. It's factual evidence as to how they are playing so many young players and how 14 years it its the youngest Ferentz tam ever.

I am not saying that the staff is not culpable for the attrition or the recruiting drop off; they are.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
Jon do you have stats on what ISU loses next year? How many seniors they lose? A number of people are trying to say a shift in power in the state. Although ISU is better this year, I remember about the poor recruiting classes Iowa had in 08-09 (like you mention) and the better classes in 10-11.

Just seems like it is to early to say a shift in power. Maybe Iowa can rebound when the 10-11 classes start to develop more and see more action on the field.
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I do not. I think Iowa will be a better team next year but they lose Indiana and PSU from schedule and add Wisconsin and Ohio State. 2014 will be better still and those two teams still on schedule.
 
jameskalina said:
Poor recruiting and attrition is not an excuse for an established program under Ferentz. In my opinion Ferentz just dropped the ball on these issues. He's the head guy and is responsible to field a quality product inspite of off the field set backs. Granted some things were out of his control but decisions should have been made to overcome these issues. Just my opinion.
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Its not an.excuse its reality and no one is saying its not KFs fault.
 
Is it appropriate to blame Jake Christensen for this, too? I mean, if not for his wretched play and the team's under performance in '07, those two classes would likely be much better, right?
 
JonDMiller said:
This is something I wrote back in December of 2011.

The 2008 Iowa recruiting class was ranked 9th in the Big Ten by Scout.com and 13 of the 25 signees are no longer with the program. Those Class of 2008 players would be the seniors on the 2012 team. Guys like James Ferentz and James Vandenberg were a part of that class and more than 50% of their ‘signing classmates’ are gone.

The 2009 Iowa recruiting class ranked 11th in the Big Ten (out of 12, as I am factoring in Nebraska’s national class rankings into the Big Ten now). That class had 18 members on signing day and eight of them are no longer in the program.

Having that level of attrition in back to back classes which would now be your fifth year seniors and fourth year juniors is devastating to a developmental program like Iowa’s.

The 2010 class was ranked 6th in the Big Ten and signed 21 members; 18 of them are still at Iowa. The 25 member 2011 class was ranked 4th in the Big Ten and is down five members from signing day, but many of these players saw action this season.

The 2010 and 2011 classes have a lot of speed and talent but 2013 season is a better target for that talent to show up in big numbers on the field.

***Coker and McCall were still with the team when I wrote this, so they go against 2010 and 2011 class attrition.

Fast forward to now...the fewest number of senior starters for a Kirk Ferentz team at Iowa. 25 of 47 of the opening game two-deep roster were sophomores or younger.

The 2008 & 2009 recruiting classes were just not good classes. Those classes came on the heels of Iowa's 6-7 2006 team and 6-6 2007 team, which may have factored in to getting the attention of the right kids. (Yeah, I know, may not bode well for classes after this year's). DL attrition is also hurting.

Iowa has made changes on the recruiting front that will help, namely Brian Ferentz and LeVar Woods.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, but I don't think the primary problem with this team, the passing game, is largely a product of a lack of talent. Vandenberg isn't a great QB, but he beat out a four star QB, Weinke for the job. He was a significantly better player last year. We have one WR, Keenan Davis, who was a four star with elite offers, and a TE who was a four star, top 100 player. We have some depth issues at WR, but that is pretty typical and what's been stunning is the fact that our receivers and QB don't look to be on the same page. That's probably largely due to the new offensive language, reads, and routes. This may(we hope) it worked out over the next couple of weeks, but it may simply take a year to make an effective transition.

Iowa, almost always, lacks some talent, and usually that's most apparent at the skill positions and depth, but not sure that what we've been witnessing is primarily a dearth of talent but poor adjustments by the coaching staff, and/or the players to the new system.
 
Bottom line: mediocre offensive line, mediocre QB, mediocre to average receivers, and average to below average running backs, Bob Sanders is the exception. In todays Big Ten football and basketball you have to recruit talent and the Hawkeyes football team is young, inexperienced, and very medocre in talent.
 
The OL is improving, so there's at least hope,

The RBs are average, with potential for above average with time.

The DL may be solid, same with the LBs. I don't know why the DBs are never near any of the oppositions' receivers when the ball comes, though. Big disappointment.

The WRs are really struggling, in all phases of the game. Is this talent, or coaching? Surely Davis and KMM have some experience, and Shumpert has been on this team for two full seasons already, so what gives?

The TEs are struggling as well. CJF is average at best right now. Hamilton is a non-factor. Derby is an experienced non-factor.

I think the defense will put it together and be top six B10 defense. If the WRs and TEs can improve, this will be a transformed offense. I really think it will come down to them even more than it will come down to JVB.

So, to my mind, the big question is this one: can our pass-receivers step up and make this a winning team? Or are we in for more of the same from them?
 
We all know what the problem is John. Unless Kirk is stacking all the good players on defense there has been a wide disparity in perfomance rankings between the defense and the offense and the same is true this year. His offense lacks creativity and is very predictable. First and goal from the 3 and runs 2 running plays with no wide outs. If all players execute their blocks that still leaves two players to tackle the tailback. Spread the field out it will open up the running game. On a positive note it was nice to see the tailback utilized in the passing game and the development of a regular screen pass (not bubble) that KOK for the most part never implemented
 
Iowa can't expect to compete with the top programs in the conference with these retention rates. Its bad enough that Iowa doesn't get the quality recruits, but when the recruits take up a slot then leave shortly after arriving it's a double whammy. Teams like Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska have four star recruits sitting on the bench that would be starters at Iowa.

This state has spent a lot of money building a national level program to get sporatic conference spoiler results.
 
What we are missing in all of this is KF's total disregard of the JV ranks for bringing in talent during these down cycles. With all this attrition, Iowa had plenty of scholarships to give away.

This being said, KF's system, which is predicated on execution instead of scheme, is well-suited for down cycles. While other teams play a lot more players, Iowa plays very few, as it takes massive reps to come close to his required perfection. So, these growing pain years cycle around as the better teams graduate and there is no one with experience to step in.
 
JVB was supposed to be the next great thing when he was recruited.... Keenan Davis was this stud tall,fast WR everyone couldn't wait to see grow...CJF has the look of a TE the pros would drool about....
The hawks still have recruited "talent" they just seem to be under performing a bit. Which sucks because the talent pool is thin...
 
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