Iowa program similar to Tenn??

K

keepat

Active Member
I am not saying that the style of play is the same, but their identity as a program. I was listening to ESPN radio a couple of weeks back and they were discussing the decline of the Tennessee football program.

Phillip Fullmer, who had more success than Ferentz, was run out of town because Tennessee fans all complained because they weren't winning as much as they use to and the program seemed stale. Sounds kind of like Ferentz and the Iowa fan base.

Since getting rid of Fullmer in 2008, they are on their 4th head coach and the program is at the bottom of the conference.

The point they were making was that Tennessee fans need to realize that this is who they are now. I am sure many people will get defensive, but maybe 5-7, 6-6, 7-5, and maybe if we are lucky, 8-4 is who we are now??
 
I think it takes a special coach to resurect a football program. Not just a good coach that is respected by peers and his staff and the fans.

It takes an even more special coach to do it 2X at the same program because what got you here isn't what's gonna keep you there or help you get it done again. New time new methods.
 
I'm afraid that we'll be even worse off, so let's not take a chance and just stick with Kirk. <--- winner's mentality right there.

Btw, I'm not responding directly to you OP. Just to the people with that type of mentality, in general. I totally understand that making the wrong hire can kill your program (Lane Kiffin anybody?), but not having the balls to even take a chance is nothing something I want to be associated with. Because that is definitely not a winner's mentality.
 
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I would hope that Iowa could pluck a good coach off the Hayden Fry coaching tree. I even wonder if his son couldn't do a better job, he has experience coaching under one of the best coaches in the NFL.
 
It's a pipe dream, but if and when Kirk would decide to hang it up, if I could choose...it would be Mark Richt(sp) from Georgia....seems like a great fit and an awesome coach.

Quite the step down from Georgia....which is why it's prolly a pipe dream.

In the meantime, I hope for a turnaround back to 7-8 wins.
 
It's a pipe dream, but if and when Kirk would decide to hang it up, if I could choose...it would be Mark Richt(sp) from Georgia....seems like a great fit and an awesome coach.

Quite the step down from Georgia....which is why it's prolly a pipe dream.

In the meantime, I hope for a turnaround back to 7-8 wins.
 
You don't get an SEC coach to go to a Bigten program not named OSU. And even in his case, he wasn't currently coaching. I doubt that Iowa could get any successful major college coach to come here. I would have to be a mid major type coach I think.
 
not a good idea to get a HC to come to Iowa. If he were good he'd be where he is. Better to get a sharp young up and comer to step in. KF WAS a great hire at the time. that's the kind of guy you need. And I hope they are starting to look for candidates.

I fear that when KF is done, he'll call a presser after the last game in the year and say, thanks you've been great, I'm retiring. NO Transition plan, just scramble.

FSU and Wisconsin did it right following Bowden and Barry A.
 
I understand the hand wringing behind the whole Fulmer/Tennessee mindset, but that is a miserable way to exist as a program. To never take a risk?? In my mind, I'd rather go through a couple seasons of misery than more "safe" 5-7, 4-8 years. I mean, in my mind, is 2-10 really that much worse than 4-8? I'd rather have a 2-10 with some hope than a 4-8 with nothing to look forward to but more mediocrity. Is Iowa destined to always be a 6-6 team? Maybe, but maybe they could be a 8-4, 9-3 team with the right coach.
 
NCHawker said:
not a good idea to get a HC to come to Iowa. If he were good he'd be where he is. Better to get a sharp young up and comer to step in. KF WAS a great hire at the time. that's the kind of guy you need. And I hope they are starting to look for candidates.

I fear that when KF is done, he'll call a presser after the last game in the year and say, thanks you've been great, I'm retiring. NO Transition plan, just scramble.

FSU and Wisconsin did it right following Bowden and Barry A.
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Hiring a guy away from another program isn't the same as picking up someone else's trash. Bielema, as much as I can't stand him, would be a very good fit here. And even if he were eventually canned from Arkansas, he did very well at Wisconsin. So it's not like he's a bad coach.
 
Jonrn said:
I understand the hand wringing behind the whole Fulmer/Tennessee mindset, but that is a miserable way to exist as a program. To never take a risk?? In my mind, I'd rather go through a couple seasons of misery than more "safe" 5-7, 4-8 years. I mean, in my mind, is 2-10 really that much worse than 4-8? I'd rather have a 2-10 with some hope than a 4-8 with nothing to look forward to but more mediocrity. Is Iowa destined to always be a 6-6 team? Maybe, but maybe they could be a 8-4, 9-3 team with the right coach.
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0-12, 5-7, and everything in between are all equal as far as I'm concerned.
 
0-12, 2-10 Disaster, someone has to pay

3-9, 5-7 Miserable Someone has to pay

6-6 Can be OK, if you are heading up...

7-5, 8-4 Fair season and also OK if you are heading up

9-3, 12-0 Good seasons.
 
If we had followed the Tennessee pattern, we would have dumped Kirk awhile ago, even as early as 2010. We would have replaced him with an arrogant ****sucker to ravage the Iowa program and then leave after one year. Then we would have replaced that guy with the most incompetent coach we could find, and we would be sitting here in year two of his contact, taking every loss as a given and just trying not to embarrass ourselves.

Really the lesson to be learned from the Tennessee debacle is not that we should keep our successful coach despite his lack of recent success, but rather it is that when Iowa ends the Ferentz era and has to replace the head coach, we should not make the worst hires ever.
 
Similar to Tennessee? That's laughable. They're pretty low right now (much lower than us, even if I believed that Ferentz has us headed into the ditch), but they also fell from a much higher place. They are a program with 6 national titles (as recently as 1998) and 16 SEC championships. They had just four losing seasons from the time Johnny Majors arrived to Fulmer's firing. Fulmer was averaging almost 9.5 wins a season when he was canned.

Tennessee's "decline" is due to being a victim of their own success. I don't think we're in as bad of shape as they are, but their historical benchmark for success is much, much higher than ours.
 
Well with me being from TN I can tell you one thing that's going to get us going back in the right direction is recruting. And it never hurts to have a national name to recruit for. If Butch can keep the recruiting on the high level TN will be alright in the next couple of yrs. As for Iowa we need to get us a couple of real good recruiters it doesn't really matter if they can coach as long as they can pull some top recruits into the program. I think Ferentz is one hell of a coach but if he can't get us some top knotch players we will be a average team. I'm a big VOLS fan and a huge Iowa fan I hope both of them can turn it around. GO HAWKS!
 
bigjim said:
Well with me being from TN I can tell you one thing that's going to get us going back in the right direction is recruting. And it never hurts to have a national name to recruit for. If Butch can keep the recruiting on the high level TN will be alright in the next couple of yrs. As for Iowa we need to get us a couple of real good recruiters it doesn't really matter if they can coach as long as they can pull some top recruits into the program. I think Ferentz is one hell of a coach but if he can't get us some top knotch players we will be a average team. I'm a big VOLS fan and a huge Iowa fan I hope both of them can turn it around. GO HAWKS!
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Being in the SEC and somewhere warm helps, too. All of us Big Ten teams would have been well-served by adding some teams in the south like Virginia or UNC instead of friggin' Rutgers so we could get a toe-hold into some of those southern markets.
 
I'm not make excuses but you can see below, just from a few samples, that all schools go through hills and valleys. I don't like it any more than any of you do, but it is what it is. We're similar to all college football programs, not just Tennessee. But I will say...since 2005 if you take out 2008 and 2009, we've been really bad. In my opinion KF needs to be on a short leash.

Alabama was horrible between 1997 and 2007
USC only had a few winning seasons between 1985 and 2001
Texas was mediocre from 1984 to 1997
Notre Dame has had many average seasons in the last 20 years
 
cockyhawkfan said:
I'm not make excuses but you can see below, just from a few samples, that all schools go through hills and valleys. I don't like it any more than any of you do, but it is what it is. We're similar to all college football programs, not just Tennessee. But I will say...since 2005 if you take out 2008 and 2009, we've been really bad. In my opinion KF needs to be on a short leash.

Alabama was horrible between 1997 and 2007
USC only had a few winning seasons between 1985 and 2001
Texas was mediocre from 1984 to 1997
Notre Dame has had many average seasons in the last 20 years
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Right and they all went through coaching changes until it got turned around. I remember USC got rid of John Robinson after 2 mediocre seasons even though he led them to 4 Rose Bowl victories. Mack Brown is the 2nd most successful coach in the history of Texas with a NC under his belt and I doubt he makes it to next season.

I get your point, but those are 4 bad examples to use to make it.
 
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