IowaLaw's Post Game Report: Outback Bowl

[BVHawk95]

Think of what the announced attendance would have been had they not counted some MSU fans for two butts.

Well those two butts likely took up 400 seats.

 

[koralakers]

Good analysis. Awful game planning by BF. God awful punting. We got BAILED OUT by at least 7 or 8 “breaks”. Great to see those go our direction for a change.

 

[revkev73]

Think of what the announced attendance would have been had they not counted some MSU fans for two butts.

It is pretty dismal, and tough for the cameras to avoid.

College playoffs eliminating the viability of many bowls?

Top players skipping the bowl games, why pay to go watch?

Bowls "locked" into certain conferences limits the interest of fans going to same place again and again?

Fans realizing that the bowls mean more to the bonus numbers for the coaching staff and players than to them?

With a glut of bowls, meaning less and less, why spend the $$$?

 

[kameltoez102]

I must admit, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach going into the 4th quarter with a lead against an upper tier SEC opponent. We have been disappointed so many times by last minute losses, and I figured this would continue the pattern. In the end, MSU's mental mistakes and dropped passes gifted the Hawks with a huge 27-22 Bowl win over the #18 ranked team in the country. Our first win over a ranked opponent in 14 months, and our first solid bowl game win in years. This should give the underclassmen momentum going into spring practices and should land the Hawks in the final Top 25 of the year...as well as a spot in the pre-season top 25 next year.

1. Stanley - Hats off to Stanley. Going up against one of the top defenses in the country, he did not wilt like in the past. 21/31 for 214 yards, 3 tds and a bad near-pick 6 are mediocre numbers, but his headsy run for a first down on 3rd and long surely earned him the respect of his teammates. Sure, he goes to bed at night earlier than any of his teammates' grandparents, but he's back next year and he should be one of the top 1/3 QBs in the Big 10.

2. Running Game - Ouch. I can't remember seeing a "pro style" run-first offense look so outmatched. 20 carries for -15 yards would be embarrassing for an air raid offense, let alone a Big Ten old school running team. Much of the blame goes to the manhandled OLine. But as we have seen all year, the RB play is simply not up to par. No one on the current roster puts fear in opponents and no one is a home run threat. Perhaps the recruit out of GA who will enroll next week is the answer?

3. Gervasse - Jake played his last game today, and did so in front of 90 friends and family. He's not the most talented guy on the squad, but his 6 tackles, 3 deflections, and late game interception were a huge part in Iowa's win today. The perfect way to end his career.

4. Punting Ineptitude - Enough is enough! It's one thing to watch your opponent boot 70 yard punts that completely flip the field and change the momentum of the game. It's quite another to see your own punter, a senior who has ranked dead last in the Big 10 in punting for the past 2 years, confidently trot out there after receiving 5 years of coaching, weight training, free meals, free trips, and other football activities that the general student body can only dream of, and watch him randy a 12 yard low line drive punt at a New Year's bowl game. There are literally dozens of female undergrads at the U of Iowa who could have performed better by simply jumping down from the stands and kicking the ball in their flip flops. This falls on Coach Woods' overpaid shoulders and I'm afraid his tenure at Iowa needs to be over.

5. WRs Stepping Up - I have been hard on the WRs all season, and with good reason. But with Easley walking-on and gaining 104 yards against a tough MSU defense, and Smith & Smith Marsette with another 62 yards, the WRs were a strength today, especially when watching MSU's more talented WRs drop pass after pass. It is still unclear who will step in for Easley next year. Unfortunately, the staff didn't go out and recruit the position, so we are going to have to hope that someone solid walks on, or Tracy/Cooper step up.

6. Epenesa - At one point early in the 1st quarter, Epenesa looked like a man among boys, with a strip sack (ruled an incomplete pass) and another sack within two minutes of each other. Unfortunately, that was the end of his productivity, as he finished the game with just 2 tackles total. Even Stanley came away with 1 tackle. If he was out there most of the game, perhaps the coaches were right to limit his snaps due to running out of gas?

7. Brian's Game Planning - We had 5 weeks to prep for Mississippi State. The first 20 plays are normally scripted based on tendencies, etc. So what does Brian draw up to start the game against the top rushing defense in the country? A truck load of runs up the middle for no gain. WHY? Anyone who watched 2 minutes of MSU tape knows that the Hawks wouldn't be able to run on them. Thank goodness for timely 15 yard penalties and a blown coverage because those are the only reason the Hawks could move the ball. Perhaps the most frustrating coaching blunder was when the Hawks had the ball inside their own 18 yardline with 1:50 to go before halftime and the worst punter in college football. Rather than running the clock, the Hawks suddenly decide to start passing the ball for the first time all game, with 3 quick incompletions. Raestatter's junior high punt later and MSU is in immediate scoring position. If it weren't for their drop of a wide open pass in the endzone, that would have completely shifted the momentum of the game going into halftime. Very fortunate!

8. Where's the Mackey Award Winner - What do you do when you have a first team all-Amerian TE, can't run the ball, have little talent at WR, and your top TE is sitting out the game? Apparently if you're Iowa's OC and QB, you lose track of him and continue running the ball into a brick wall. Hock had zero targets in the first 3 1/2 quarters of the game. Had MSU scored 5 more points, people would be calling for Brian's head for not game planning around Hock. This was eerily similar to when Fant was stuck riding the pine in close games and the Hawks were throwing passes to Max Cooper.

9. Hankins & Hooker - These are the next in a long line of top notch NFL caliber DBs who played for the Hawks. They combined for 15 tackles and were all over the field, making up for slower than avg LBs. With these guys back next year to go along with Moss, Stone, and the other young talent back there, the Hawks are in good shape on defense for years to come.

The thing I don't get is BF spent all of this time with the patriots and while I don't think they are gods gift to football I give a huge amount of respect to Belichik and his game planning. It doesn't matter that they have Tom Brady or whatever. They plan towards strengths and weaknesses of both their team and the opponent. I am not sure if it is laziness, stubbornness, machismo, or ignorance but the lack of diversity and imagination is just really weird. Maybe KF really handcuffs the situation, who knows but the offensive game plan at the start of the game made no sense and was disappointing with the prep time

 

[skinnykilmer17]

[QUOTE="Fryowa, post: 1795692, member: 81088"]While we’re googling, you should google “Bruce Rastetter.”[/QUOTE]

Jesus, some of you are finally catching on.
And he will do his best to make sure Brian gets his next promotion.
This guy likes to throw his money and influence around and is not the most ethical guy in the world.

So all you Ferentz lovers, what does it say about a coach who will put "personal" goals ahead of the team?

From a pure coaching perspective no excuse for the punting we have seen the past two years. Embarrassingly bad and not putting the team first.

 

[PCHawk]

Good analysis. Awful game planning by BF. God awful punting. We got BAILED OUT by at least 7 or 8 “breaks”. Great to see those go our direction for a change.

Dont forget that they got bailed out by some big mistakes from us too. We didn't get bailed out by a strip sack. A player made a play. We didn't get bailed out by a holding call at the end of the half. A player made a play. We kinda got bailed out by a blown coverage for a big td. What other bail outs were there? An off sides on the second half kickoff can be counted. What else. Stanley throwing the ball right to the other team was a huge bail out. ISM fumbling without a defender touching him was a huge bailout. Those 2 bailouts were way more lucky than anything they gave us.

 

[PCHawk]

It is pretty dismal, and tough for the cameras to avoid.

College playoffs eliminating the viability of many bowls?

Top players skipping the bowl games, why pay to go watch?

Bowls "locked" into certain conferences limits the interest of fans going to same place again and again?

Fans realizing that the bowls mean more to the bonus numbers for the coaching staff and players than to them?

With a glut of bowls, meaning less and less, why spend the $$$?

A lot of fans here dont even realize that any game means more to the players and coaches.

 

[MoseSchrute]

It is pretty dismal, and tough for the cameras to avoid.

College playoffs eliminating the viability of many bowls?

Top players skipping the bowl games, why pay to go watch?

Bowls "locked" into certain conferences limits the interest of fans going to same place again and again?

Fans realizing that the bowls mean more to the bonus numbers for the coaching staff and players than to them?

With a glut of bowls, meaning less and less, why spend the $$$?

Or to the "I won the lottery" millionaire bowl CEO's who somehow make big bucks for "directing" poorly attended exhibition games.

 

[deanvogs]

Dont forget that they got bailed out by some big mistakes from us too. We didn't get bailed out by a strip sack. A player made a play. We didn't get bailed out by a holding call at the end of the half. A player made a play. We kinda got bailed out by a blown coverage for a big td. What other bail outs were there? An off sides on the second half kickoff can be counted. What else. Stanley throwing the ball right to the other team was a huge bail out. ISM fumbling without a defender touching him was a huge bailout. Those 2 bailouts were way more lucky than anything they gave us.

MSU got a huge break on the first punt that hit the MSU player and he fell on it. Also that low punt the MSU player caught was a lucky break for them as I’d bet he drops that ball 8 out of 10 times trying to catch the low lined punt.

Iowa made a ton of mistakes as well. I mean the same people that complained we lost 4 games cause we couldn’t make plays, now complain that Iowa only won because they made a few big plays.

 

[PCHawk]

MSU got a huge break on the first punt that hit the MSU player and he fell on it. Also that low punt the MSU player caught was a lucky break for them as I’d bet he drops that ball 8 out of 10 times trying to catch the low lined punt.

Iowa made a ton of mistakes as well. I mean the same people that complained we lost 4 games cause we couldn’t make plays, now complain that Iowa only won because they made a few big plays.

It's truly amazing. What kind of person are you if point out all the breaks the team you root for got, yet don't point out all the breaks the other team got? I couldn't imagine being that negative.

 

[Stanzi]

The amount of negativity on here after we beat a top 20 SEC team in our bowl game is amazing to me. We will likely (unless completely screwed over) finish ranked for the first time since the 2015 season. Just enjoy that the season finished on a high note.

 

[koralakers]

Dont forget that they got bailed out by some big mistakes from us too. We didn't get bailed out by a strip sack. A player made a play. We didn't get bailed out by a holding call at the end of the half. A player made a play. We kinda got bailed out by a blown coverage for a big td. What other bail outs were there? An off sides on the second half kickoff can be counted. What else. Stanley throwing the ball right to the other team was a huge bail out. ISM fumbling without a defender touching him was a huge bailout. Those 2 bailouts were way more lucky than anything they gave us.

I guess you “make your own luck” as they say. We seemingly benefited from penalties and turnovers at the right time, but none were phantom penalties. The turnovers we forced ourselves. We did, however, benefit from a few key drops by their receivers, and their coaching. Down by 5 and kicking fg inside 4 yd line late in game, and them punting on fourth and inches w 4:00 left we’re baffling.

 

[4thngoal]

Someone posts this and yall are still arguing?
Would you look at her. Just look at her.
I'm just happy we won, and would you just look at her!!!

 

[IowaLawWasRight]

Hawkfnn - actually, I believe it was our Mackey Award winner running an up route as a decoy that set up Easley's 75 yarder. I would have to watch the game again, but I think it was a busted coverage where the guy bit to cover Hockenson. The game plan to ram our heads against the wall over and over and over against an NFL D-line with low level running backs was nonsensical no matter how we try to justify it.

BV - I hadn't thought about the injury angle with Gersonde. It's possible that he's been hurt the past two years, but you would think there would be some injury notes on that to the press when we get injury reports on everyone else. The fact that players can still play 4 games each year and still redshirt makes Gersonde's complete absence from every game this season when he is the #2 punter and the #1 punter isn't performing. Hell, Ferentz even sat his golden boy Stanley at the end of blowouts. No such luck with Raestetter.

Northside - you are right about Stanley being polarizing. His stats can't be denied...he throws a lot of touchdown passes. More than many QBs before him who were perceived as significantly better. Of course, it's extremely rare at Iowa for a QB to be a 3 year starter, so that helps, and Stanley seems to like to pass from the 1 yard line instead of the usual run up the middle for a touchdown. It will be interesting to see what his legacy is should he play another season like this one, where he breaks touchdown records, plays great against lesser opponents and has mental breakdowns that cost the Hawks a few close games. Will he rank higher than a Drew Tate or Rick Stanzi or CJ Beathard in the eyes of fans? Not to me. Remember, all bowl wins are not equal. Winning the Pinstripe bowl is not exactly on par with losing the Rose Bowl.

I felt the same way at the time it was happening too. HOWEVER. All of those runs set up Easleys long 75 yarder. Strait up. So yeah we 'wasted' a couple of possessions but there was a yang to the yin of it regardless of the runs working or not.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Hawkfnn - actually, I believe it was our Mackey Award winner running an up route as a decoy that set up Easley's 75 yarder. I would have to watch the game again, but I think it was a busted coverage where the guy bit to cover Hockenson. The game plan to ram our heads against the wall over and over and over against an NFL D-line with low level running backs was nonsensical no matter how we try to justify it.

BV - I hadn't thought about the injury angle with Gersonde. It's possible that he's been hurt the past two years, but you would think there would be some injury notes on that to the press when we get injury reports on everyone else. The fact that players can still play 4 games each year and still redshirt makes Gersonde's complete absence from every game this season when he is the #2 punter and the #1 punter isn't performing. Hell, Ferentz even sat his golden boy Stanley at the end of blowouts. No such luck with Raestetter.

Northside - you are right about Stanley being polarizing. His stats can't be denied...he throws a lot of touchdown passes. More than many QBs before him who were perceived as significantly better. Of course, it's extremely rare at Iowa for a QB to be a 3 year starter, so that helps, and Stanley seems to like to pass from the 1 yard line instead of the usual run up the middle for a touchdown. It will be interesting to see what his legacy is should he play another season like this one, where he breaks touchdown records, plays great against lesser opponents and has mental breakdowns that cost the Hawks a few close games. Will he rank higher than a Drew Tate or Rick Stanzi or CJ Beathard in the eyes of fans? Not to me. Remember, all bowl wins are not equal. Winning the Pinstripe bowl is not exactly on par with losing the Rose Bowl.

Oh I was cussing at the TV the whole game as we were losing 2 yards a carry or whatever it was too. I didn't like that one bit either. But if you watch that play again TJH was kinda off the line to right side of the LOS. I saw that there were 2 defenders accounting for TJ the LB and safety they had him kinda bracketed high and low as he went across the field right to left. He didn't run a slant or hard in cut it was a rounded off route the TEs run a lot. Easley was in the slot on the right. The slot corner on Easley bit on the play fake hard and heavy and either he shouldn't have done that knowing the safety would have been over on TJ or not is what we don't know for sure. But that's why Easley was open by 10 plus yards. I feel all those runs we did is why on 1st down even though we were in a 3 WR formation that nickel corner bit on that...

 

[IowaLawWasRight]

You could be right. Perhaps with better RBs, we could get the best of both worlds and have a running game that also opens up a passing game. We will see what happens next year.

Oh I was cussing at the TV the whole game as we were losing 2 yards a carry or whatever it was too. I didn't like that one bit either. But if you watch that play again TJH was kinda off the line to right side of the LOS. I saw that there were 2 defenders accounting for TJ the LB and safety they had him kinda bracketed high and low as he went across the field right to left. He didn't run a slant or hard in cut it was a rounded off route the TEs run a lot. Easley was in the slot on the right. The slot corner on Easley bit on the play fake hard and heavy and either he shouldn't have done that knowing the safety would have been over on TJ or not is what we don't know for sure. But that's why Easley was open by 10 plus yards. I feel all those runs we did is why on 1st down even though we were in a 3 WR formation that nickel corner bit on that...

 

[Hawkfnntn]

You could be right. Perhaps with better RBs, we could get the best of both worlds and have a running game that also opens up a passing game. We will see what happens next year.

I'm pretty sure the corner just fell for the fake too much when he shouldn't have. Because he wasn't blitzing. As soon as he saw Stanley still had the ball he turned and chased after Easley and made up a ton of ground. That kid can fly. I don't think Easley would have made it to the endzone if he needed 10 more yards to go. So begrudgingly BF gets some kudos for setting that play up and calling it...

Oline being both the Ferentz boys cup of tea sure needs to step up next yr along with the RBs to improve on the running game for sure. I feel we are just too predictable with our situational play calling when it comes to running it. We rely too much on our Oline blowing them off the line but that's just asking too much. The schemes and when and how you call what matters too

 

[Caddy]

Don't forget Brents, who could be the heir apparent to Hooker if Amani leaves.

Stanley, who could go down as the most polarizing firgure in the history of Iowa sports, is now 2-0 as a bowl game starter. He added to his career TD total and now has 52. He will blow by Chuck Long's school record of 74 and do it in three years where Chuck needed 3 3/4.

Brents plays cornerback not safety/linebacker.

 

[Caddy]

While we’re googling, you should google “Bruce Rastetter.”

Exactly, and everyone will see why KF continues to trot the worst punter in the nation out there every single time we punt. Now people should explain how KF doesn't play favorites, or always plays the players that give us the best chance to win. Bullshit.

 

[SteveGarvey1]

Exactly, and everyone will see why KF continues to trot the worst punter in the nation out there every single time we punt. Now people should explain how KF doesn't play favorites, or always plays the players that give us the best chance to win. Bullshit.

Maybe it's just a case that Gersonde isn't any better than Rastetter. All these conspiracy theories about Kirk are really funny:

He plays Rastetter only because his uncle is a big donor, instead of playing a punter who's better.
He only cares about getting to 7-5 so it can be considered a successful season.
He only cares about the money and not winning or the state of the program.
He didn't play Fant all the time only because he was trying to hold him down and not because of some other shortcoming Fant might have had.

I mean just stop already.