No, I don't. It's an offense at least partially predicated on ball control. But you can't do ball control with the running game we saw last year.
Well, just in terms of ppg (a very flawed stat), they were 3rd in the B1G last year (behind OSU and Mich, 44th in the nation) at 31.2 ppg. That was tops in the B1G West, of course.
http://www.cfbstats.com/2018/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category09/sort01.html
But a more representative stat of offensive quality involves looking at points per drive, or some calculated measure of offensive efficiency.
Iowa was 48th by Footballoustiders measure, (6th in the B1G, behind OSU, Mich, Purdue, Wisc, Neb, PSU;
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/feioff)
Iowa was 38th by ESPNs Offensive Eff measure, 5th in the B1G (essentially tied with PSU for 4th/5th, behind OSU, Mich, Purdue, Wisc;
http://www.espn.com/college-footbal..._/year/2018/sort/offEfficiency/tab/efficiency); this measure does not take into account quality of the opposing defenses
So they definitely need to improve. The good news is they have improved since GDGD's last year, so hopefully that trend will continue as the staff gains continuity.
You could argue that the offense will get worse because they are losing their 3 most productive receivers, but there are always guys in the wings.
In 2017, they were replacing NFL talent at QB and TE, a 1000 yd rusher (Daniels), their top 2 WR (McCarron and J. Smith) and after the first couple of games their starting OTs to injury. They were better than the year before (45th vs. 58th in football outsider's OffEff).
In 2018, they were replacing Wadley and their 2 best OL (Welsh and Daniels), and the offense either stayed about the same (football outsiders have them going from 45th to 48th) or improved (ESPN has them improving from 54th to 38th, but remember that measure does not account for quality of opposing defenses). But being a homer, I would argue anecdotally that Iowa left way more points on the field in 2018. That is, in many cases the scheme put them in position to make plays, but for whatever reason, they couldn't put everything together. I feel that was different than in 2017 (think Wisc game) when at certain points they just couldn't move the ball at all and seemed miles away against quality defenses.
No surprises here, but I think the biggest gains are going to come from the running game. They need to say out of 3rd and long (although Stanely was actually pretty good in that situation), and they need explosive plays from the running game. The offseason talk has been about OL attitude, simplifying schemes from a coaching standpoint, and emphasis on filmwork from the RBs. Excited to see if things trend in the right direction in the early games.
